LudumData

Time Prison by Tadeas Paule

[raw]
made by Tadeas Paule for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

You were locked in the infamous Time Prison for a crime you did not commit!

Try to escape the Time Prison, and discover why it is considered inescapable; its time loop! Everything within it gets reset to a previous point in time every 27 seconds. Can you make it out in such a short time? Or perhaps you can cheat...

Controls

A and D - movement

E - interact, advance text

Q - exit menus/interactions

Disclaimer

Expect to have to restart the game a couple times.

There is a mechanic which I won't spoil that has to be used precisely to advance through the levels. Looking back, I had a cool idea that didn't turn out very well in practice in such a short jam format. I tried to mitigate its frustratingness a lot, but I'm sorry if it was still annoying for you. On the other hand, if you find the game fun, please let me know, I will be surprised and overjoyed!

I tried my hand at writing a postmortem, which you can check out here: https://github.com/tadeaspaule/ld47-prison-of-time/blob/master/README.md

Youtube https://github.com/tadeaspaule/ld47-prison-of-time
Youtube https://github.com/tadeaspaule/ld47-prison-of-time/raw/master/BuiltExecutables/1.0/TimePrisonExeBuild.zip
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/time-prison

Ratings

Overall 476th 3.083⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 506th 2.778⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 221th 3.5⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 95th 4.056⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 257th 2.694⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 462th 2.806⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 8🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

Michael Parrish
04. Oct 2020 · 21:42 UTC
I liked the circular level design a lot and I actually think the idea of having to learn your way through a level over and over in a short amount of time is super fun. It's like turning speed running into a mechanic.

I did encounter a bug when I reached the room with the message on the wall where it wouldn't go away, but I just restarted it and it was fine.

Good game!
IndieQuest
05. Oct 2020 · 08:44 UTC
Very nice game, I think you did the designing a very smart way because repetition and back tracking can get old really fast but having the timer counting down gives a sense of urgency that allow this mechanic to remain fresh.
Nice game I liked it a lot!
Terabyte
05. Oct 2020 · 08:46 UTC
good game!
Nice design!
It was fun to play.
There was not enough background music, аnything reflecting limited travel time
Frogman
05. Oct 2020 · 08:54 UTC
Nice game! I really liked the concept, and it had an intriguing story. However, I had a bug where after resetting, the key-card in the first room wasn't there, so I had to wait for another reset for it to appear. This was quit annoying, so I only reached the third room, but I'll gladly try it again after you fix it :)
Geegaz
05. Oct 2020 · 09:13 UTC
Wooooooo that's a cool idea ! When I understood what I was supposed to do I just started experimenting and running around like crazy...
Sadly after a restart I got stuck at the start, the door was closed and the dead guard dialogue was stuck in the "already checked" state so I couldn't get the keycard.
But apart from that ? Honestly, it was great.
zimny11
05. Oct 2020 · 16:34 UTC
I like this! It took me a moment to get the machanic, but I had fun trying it out! Good job!
Krg
06. Oct 2020 · 07:16 UTC
ya this game was cool but u can add a gun that will show where r u looking
Krg
06. Oct 2020 · 07:26 UTC
nice game music will make it more cool
caeonosphere
06. Oct 2020 · 10:32 UTC
This had me pretty stumped, I gotta say! I also only made it to the third room. Like ol' Frogman up there, I suspect that your restart doesn't reset the state of everything: I found myself launching the game again and again to get it to work.

I like the circular areas, though, and that guard puzzle is a fun idea!
TheWinrawr
08. Oct 2020 · 02:06 UTC
Pretty cool idea! I liked how you implemented the theme, there's a lot of experimentation going on that I enjoyed. I did run into a bug where the keycard in the first level wouldn't show up again, which prevented me from going further.
KunoNoOni
08. Oct 2020 · 02:18 UTC
I do agree the circular design was really cool. The reset bug slowed me down that I was only able to make it to the third room.
sop the turtle
24. Oct 2020 · 23:51 UTC
Pretty cool game. Level design was neat. Very difficult though. I couldn't get the door to open whenever it reset me after 27 seconds but it definitely kept me engaged and had a well put together world/story. Good job!
melvinng
25. Oct 2020 · 04:45 UTC
Good job! Keep up the good work. Th game has nice visuals and good gameplay.