Time to make a game

After talking about the use of time travel in fiction and games I figured it was time to put up or shut up.  So here's how I would make a game with time travel as a narrative and gameplay tool.

First off, the method of time travel I'm thinking of involves having time pass universally no matter what point in time you are.  So if you're in time period A, travel to time B and spend the day there, you return to time A one day after you left.  Think of the Langoliers...except less goofy.

Regardless of what style of game this is, FPS or RPG or...OMG I guess?  Let's say the game has five different time periods that you have to travel to, A through E.  Each period has a primary goal that has a direct impact on the others but that impact changes depending on what order you complete the goals.  For example, the primary goal of time A results in you killing a criminal.  But unless you go to time C first to collect proof that he's a genocidal monster you end up as a wanted felon in time D.  However, going to time C first then killing him in time A makes you a hero in time D.

I think that would be more interesting then most other uses of time travel I've seen.  Each time you play through the game you have complete freedom over what order you go to each time period and when you accomplish each goal.  But since time passes equally in each time period you can't backtrack to undo something.  No looping timelines here.  But because you have the freedom the game could have as many different combinations of play as there are time periods.  Order them A to E or the other way around.

Obviously this could use some more story, characters...plot and etc.  But there's the basic idea at least.

Are we set on repeat?

After I posted the other day I remembered a PS2 game I played a few years ago, Grim Grimore.  It's a Real-Time Strategy game which isn't most suited for console play, but that isn't why I'm bringing it up.

The story of the game has you playing a young witch named Lillet Blan joining a magic school, we'll skip the Harry Potter jokes.  Each chapter of the story progresses through cut-scenes interspersed with RTS fights.  After the first five chapters taking place over her first five days at school.  Our heroine is attacked by what essentially amounts to the Devil, and does not survive.  Yep, she dies.

Then she's back at the first day and only she remembers what happened.  For extra fun from a gameplay perspective she also keeps all the power and skill she gained over the past five days.  So Lillet spends five days trying to prevent the deaths of everyone in the building, but fails and is reset again.  This happens a total of five times with Lillet getting stronger each time until she is finally able to save the day.

I was thinking about this game again after beating Back to the Future and remembering other uses of time travel.  Back to the Future goes with the idea of how changes impact the future (we'll ignore the plotholes of that series, and believe me the game is full of them too.) which is excellent from a story point of view.  But story is only half of what makes a good game, gameplay is the other piece.  The time travel in Grim Grimore works for the story but also serves to boost the gameplay.

Trying to change the events of each five day loop leads Lillet to different RTS encounters, but as she is constantly resetting and getting stronger the gameplay ties directly into the story.  While I don't want every aspect of the story to connect to the gameplay or vice-versa, in cases like this it makes the story substantially more engaging.  At least for me.

Time to Travel

I dunno, I thought the title was clever...Shut up.

Anyways, I just beat the Back to the Future game.  Between that, and some other news items I'll get to in a moment, has me thinking about time travel and how it's used in fiction.

Time travel is a funny thing.  I'm not going to get into the details here, that is (as I've said before) a topic for another day.  But as a story tool it can be pretty interesting.  Note that I say tool rather than plot device.  If the time travel is used as a framing device for the story, by which I mean it's one of the pieces of the setting it tends to work.  Back to the Future of course being an example of that, and I can't bring up this subject without mentioning Chrono Trigger.  If you've played that one you know what I mean, and if you haven't played it then you need to correct that mistake.

Sticking with Back to the Future for the moment, the game takes place after the third movie, and Great Scott did they stay true to form.  It feels exactly like the movies, from pop culture jokes to characters accidentally altering the time stream and changing Doc Brown's personal history so he doesn't become an inventor.

Oh, Spoiler Warning by the way.

So yeah, about half way through the game you change Doc Brown's life when correcting one time travel mistake, and then have to go back in time again to correct that mistake.  But here's the interesting thing, the new version of Doc Brown goes back with you to help, but then changes his mind.  There is actually a very powerful scene where he argues with Marty, first to not change him back, then to try to find a compromise.  That's what really got me thinking about the right way to use time travel in a story.

Releasing later this month is the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, unsurprisingly titled Final Fantasy XIII-2.  I know, creative isn't it.  Anyway, the game will apparently feature 'time paradox puzzles' which will apparently lead to 'multiple endings'.  To be honest, FFXIII did not impress me.  (Subject for another post)  And I'm worried that time travel in this is going to be a shoehorned in plot device.  Made only to either pad out the game or alternate endings that don't actually need to be there...so yeah more padding basically.  But then Square is the same studio that made Chrono Trigger (Right?  Correct me if I screwed that up.)  A game where you had to hunt for those alternate endings dammit!  So I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The point I'm slowly rambling towards here is that, like any other literary tool, story device or set piece, time travel can be very a interesting thing.  If done well.  That's all I have to say for now, but knowing me I'll think of more later on.