Assignment 3 - Time Travel

Today, I'm working on time travelling, and how it could be use for some new gameplay as well as puzzle solving. I continue to work with the general idea that without interaction from the player, events will play out on their own in a set sequence... and thus, events can be subtly changed by the player's actions. I have been over this point before in a previous post.

The way I'm looking at the game now is how I can make time a vital aspect of the game. Exploration in environments and interactions with npcs will fill a journal that will list key times and events in the game world, which can be used by the player to learn their objectives. This will also apply to the time clones that the player will be able to use in the game, recording their playthrough and letting it replay in their next time loop, and which will show up on a map to let the player know where their time clone is at all times, enabling them to fulfill different objectives before reuniting for a puzzle that requires the use of a time clone to complete.

One example I might have already listed. That of there being an item that the player needs to get, but an npc is blocking their access to said item. The player can talk to the npc and gain information in their present playthrough, and then when they restart the time loop, this recorded action can be used so that the npc is distracted enough for the player to sneak around and steal the item. Something like this can be used for also distracting npcs and enemies to draw them away from a route the player needs to progress down.

Another example is one where the player may need to get information from an npc, whom flees over an obstacle that the player cannot move over. Going back in time and using a time clone from that last playthrough, if the player can get around to the other side of the obstacle before the botched meeting, he can corner the npc as it is fleeing his time clone, and thus gain the information needed to progress.

I'm also considering whether to include an ability for the player to jump between themselves and their clone's timeline for some further puzzles. For example, if there is a route that can't be accessed unless permission is radioed in from a position the player cannot possibly reach normally, and a time clone waits nearby whilst the player travels to the new location to hijack communications and grant permission for himself to be let through the barrier, he can then jump into the recorded playthrough, and thus get through the barrier and onwards.


Should there be a punishment for the player being spotted whilst near their time clone? Something like that could provide further incentive to play smartly, especially when it becomes necessary to operate in the same areas as the player's timeclones without being seen too close to one another. 

The more I've thought about this game, the more I'm considering whether the world should be large, or to break up the game into seperate and distinct sections, from village to countryside to city. As a player gets further into the game, they will have less days left to play with to solve the puzzles. For now, I'm going to bed.