Time Again by Space_man

[raw]
made by Space_man for LD 40 (JAM)

You are trapped in a time loop. Reach the rift to try and escape, but when you do you may be thrust back to the start - and the version of you that escaped is there too! And might just make things a little bit harder... How many loops can you make it through?

Controls:
WASD or arrow keys to move
Space to jump / double jump
X or J to shoot
R to reset the time loop
Esc to exit

Had fun making this one, with the idea that every time you complete the level, your previous runs through the level are there to make things more difficult - their shots don't interact with monsters anymore, but instead they hurt you (as do their mid-air jumps), and after a few times through the level can get quite chaotic.

Update - Fixed a bug that was causing slowdown that got worse the longer you played the game

Ratings

Overall 171th 3.857⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 265th 3.643⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 100th 3.881⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 133th 4.048⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 600th 3.452⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 332th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 861th 2.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 430th 3.476⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

elitegoliath
06. Dec 2017 · 05:42 UTC
First, I have to say WOW about your rewind functionality. Awesome! I also really loved the FX, the phasing and static. Very cool. The game play is simple, but the game is challenging. Most excellent work guys!
beanslasher
06. Dec 2017 · 05:44 UTC
I really like the idea! It is a really fun and exciting game! Great Job!
Kutase
06. Dec 2017 · 20:50 UTC
Good job. I like this idea with time rewind.
Syrapt0r
06. Dec 2017 · 21:04 UTC
Impressive game! The rewinding is really awesome and I really tried to keep the future selves out of the fireline by being really careful about them. Aesthetics are very good as well and the soundtrack is very relaxing.

Very good work, well done :D
sorlok
07. Dec 2017 · 05:44 UTC
Really cool take on the theme, and enjoyed the general level design +rewind effect. Would like to see the game developed more!
EveVal
07. Dec 2017 · 06:02 UTC
Very impressive! It took me a bit to get used to the jump distance, but once I had a few loops going I could really see the theme. I was surprised to see the previous loop bullets don't kill current loop enemies? Would open up some interesting strategy if they did, imo. (But then again you could just follow a previous loop I suppose)
🎤 Space_man
09. Dec 2017 · 20:21 UTC
Thanks for playing and the comments everyone, glad to hear people are enjoying it!
@eveval Bullets from previous loops killing enemies would make things too easy :) Though it could be interesting as a variant where it takes several loops to get to the end...
elemel
09. Dec 2017 · 23:00 UTC
Sounds interesting. Any plans for a Mac version?
MarjorieP
10. Dec 2017 · 00:06 UTC
Interesting idea! It took me a little while to get the hang of how it all works, but it was neat once I got the hang of it. I would've liked to have the shoot button mapped to something else, it was awkward to hit those keys.
Fran Segura
10. Dec 2017 · 10:23 UTC
Nice idea and interesting mechanics, the rewinding functionality is amazing. The game gets so damn hard so I think it fits the theme perfectly. Great job!
RigidBoiz
11. Dec 2017 · 16:32 UTC
At first I didn't understand it at all (didn't read the description bad for me). After a few games I was addicted, what a great idea, loved the rewinding functionality, althought the only thing I'd remove is the shooting feature, the AI makes a great platform puzzle so I'd remove the chance of killing it.
fusionnist
11. Dec 2017 · 18:52 UTC
Interesting idea! I really likes the concept, but the game is really hard, so 3 loops is my maximum... but it's a real good interpretation of the theme, well done!
Goat Toaster Games
14. Dec 2017 · 05:19 UTC
Pretty good submission! I liked it.
The Dankasaur
19. Dec 2017 · 04:03 UTC
Great game! Looks great and is a really cool concept. Pretty difficult, but a challenge is appreciated. My only gripe is that the hitboxes of everything seemed a little ridiculous. I was dying to things I wasn't even close to. Made it pretty frustrating for me. Other than that though, I think it's a great submission!
nekoballs
19. Dec 2017 · 12:42 UTC
Great take on the theme! Really enjoyed the rewind thing. Nice music!

I kinda wish you had an extra life or something, those bats were a bit annoying to handle
Local Minimum
21. Dec 2017 · 17:22 UTC
I got to 3 loops, I think I could have managed 4 if I really stuck with it. And this was really quite the tricky game. It was hard, especially in the beginning and I was about to give up before the first loop basically because I had no indication of how far I needed to go. So that would be my first suggestion, to add a progress-bar for that. The graphics were lovely. Everything about the game was quite lovely.

So now some thoughts:

* Add a score that is basically the distance you've traveled on the current loop, the more you shoot and the number of double jumps. Then let each loop be a multiplier for that base score. So the harder you make it on yourself the better score, but also it might be worth getting low score on first loop and aim for many loops. If you fail the loop, you get to reset the value of the score for the current loop. Alternatively you may also loose a loop if you fail too many times in a row.
* The double jump effect that kills you from previous runs should have a warning phase to allow you to get out of harms way and also explain why you died.
* At the start, the game should not start until you press a key.
* Online high-scores.
* Maybe different levels. Basically make a shorter level as an alternative. Maybe there's a max loop depth per level when you've completed it no matter how good and smart you are?
🎤 Space_man
23. Dec 2017 · 20:05 UTC
@local-minimum Thanks for the detailed feedback! Some of these are things we would have liked to do given more time. I like the idea of having a score that increases with actions that make the later loops harder, letting players have some control over the difficulty level. A progress bar is probably a good idea, though I think the bigger problem is that the initial level is too hard, the original idea was that it should be pretty easy the first few times through.
przekop
27. Dec 2017 · 22:37 UTC
Nice graphics, the rewind thing was really cool. :)