The Basics of Time Travel

It's probably about time we discussed the mechanics of our game in detail. First, a few definitions to make it easier to talk about the gameplay:

• Dan Guymore: Our protagonist, and the character you'll be controlling. A greedy chronological criminal who exploits time travel technology for his own profit.
• Timetanium: Dan Guymore's (and the player's) objective; the goal of every level is to get as much Timetanium as possible. Timetanium is the extremely rare element that makes time travel possible, and as such is worth a lot of money.
• Time clones: What they sound like: past versions of Dan Guymore produced by his time-related escapades. Due to the nature of time travel, they're stuck repeating Dan's previous actions. Because of this, they get in Dan's way as he tries to repeatedly steal the Timetanium.
• Hop: A single pass-through the game area, in which the player gets the item and goes through the exit portal (or fails to do so).
• Time portal: Dan Guymore's entrance to/exit from the lab containing his precious quarry, the Timetanium. This is where the player must bring the Timetanium to successfully advance to the next hop.

With these definitions in mind, here's how an average hop will play out:

Dan Guymore enters the lab through the time portal. On the first hop, there are no time clones. One will be created for each successful subsequent hop. Dan then steals the Timetanium from its container and escapes through the time portal. The player will have to be careful to weave their way around time clones in the lab, but also think ahead to keep from interfering with their own future hops.

But it's not so easy as it sounds. The time clones can also steal the Timetanium, and if they get it to the time portal first, Dan Guymore is left with nothing, and the player is sent back one hop to try again. If, at any time, the player wants to start the level from the beginning, they just need to enter the time portal without the Timetanium.

There will be many levels throughout the game, with varying environments, Timetanium and portal placements, and a few other surprises. A player completes a level when they've accumulated a certain number of successful hops.

That just about covers the basics. Now that we've established this fundamental information, we're ready to delve into the nitty-gritty of the game in future posts.