# Time Fracture: Design Ideas This note looks at other games that use time mechanics, what keeps players engaged in them, and level ideas from simple to complex. Each idea says which Time Fracture pieces it uses. For setup steps, see [[TimeFracture-Getting-Started]] and [[TimeFracture-Tutorial-Wiring]]. For the scripts themselves, see [[TimeFracture-Scripts]]. --- ## 1. Games with similar mechanics Time Fracture combines four families of time mechanics. Each has games worth studying. ### Rewinding, freezing and changing the speed of time | Game | What it does with time | Related Time Fracture pieces | |---|---|---| | **Braid** | Each world has its own time rule: rewinding anything, objects that ignore rewinds (shown glowing green), time that moves only when you walk left or right, a shadow of you after a rewind, and a ring that slows time near it. | Channels and groups, `TimeRewindKey`, `TimeMember` | | **Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time** | A limited rewind, mostly used to undo fatal mistakes. | `TimeRewindKey`, `TimeRecorder` (Rewind With Clock) | | **Superhot** | Time moves only when you move. | World scale driven by player speed | | **Quantum Break** | Freezes, plus "stutters" where the world skips and repeats. | `Freeze`, `LoopSegment`, `Skip` | | **Life is Strange** | Rewind as a story tool: you relive a conversation knowing what you now know. | Flags plus branching Time Event markers | ### Loops where you change what happens | Game | What it does with time | Related Time Fracture pieces | |---|---|---| | **The Sexy Brutale** | A party that repeats every day. You watch scripted guests and step in to save them. | Timelines, flags, branching markers, lenses | | **Outer Wilds** | A 22-minute loop where the only thing that carries over is what you've learned. | A looping clock channel | | **The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask** | A 3-day loop of town schedules. | A clock channel plus segments | | **Minit** | A 60-second life, so every route is a race. | A short looping clock | | **Deathloop / 12 Minutes** | You learn the loop, then break it. | Flags that survive the loop | ### Cooperating with recordings of yourself | Game | What it does with time | Related Time Fracture pieces | |---|---|---| | **Chronotron** | Record a run, then solve puzzles alongside your past selves. | `TimeRecorder`, `TimeEcho` | | **The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom** | Record clones that repeat your actions. | `TimeRecorder`, `RecordAction` | | **Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time** | Clone pads: record a run, then cooperate with it. | Echoes plus pressure plates | | **Super Time Force** | Rewind, and your last attempt keeps fighting beside you. | Echoes plus `TimeShooter` replay | ### Scrubbing a timeline and switching between eras | Game | What it does with time | Related Time Fracture pieces | |---|---|---| | **Timelie** | You scrub a visible timeline to plan moves around patrolling guards. It's almost literally Timeline as a game. | `TimeChannel.JumpTo`, the scrub slider | | **Titanfall 2: "Effect and Cause"** | You switch between a past and present version of the same level. | `TimeLensController` | | **Dishonored 2: "A Crack in the Slab"** | A device lets you peek into another era of the same mansion. | Lenses with Ghost visibility | --- ## 2. What keeps players playing | Motivation | What it feels like | Games that lean on it | |---|---|---| | **The "aha" of mastery** | "I finally understand how this system works, and I used it cleverly." | Braid, Timelie | | **Forgiveness and experimenting** | Failing costs little, so players try bolder things. | Prince of Persia, Braid | | **Knowledge as progress** | The player levels up, not the character. Finding something out is the reward. | Outer Wilds, Majora's Mask | | **Watching, then stepping in** | "I know their schedule. I see the one moment to change it." | The Sexy Brutale | | **Rescue and changing fate** | "This tragedy happens every loop, and I can stop it." | The Sexy Brutale, Majora's Mask | | **Working with yourself** | Co-op with a partner who does exactly what you planned. | Chronotron, Super Time Force | | **Feeling powerful** | Freezing bullets, slowing a fight, rewinding a disaster. | Superhot, Quantum Break | | **Regret and consequences** | Asking whether you *should* change the past, not just whether you can. | Life is Strange | > [!tip] Design takeaway > Choose one or two of these motivations for your game and build every level around them. A puzzle game lives on mastery and the "aha" moment. A loop game lives on knowledge and rescue. A clone game lives on working with yourself. --- ## 3. Ideas from simple to complex > [!note] The Braid rule > Give each world **one new time rule**. Teach it on its own, then combine it with a rule the player already knows. Time Fracture's components are split the same way: interaction, lenses, groups, playlists and echoes. ### Simple: one mechanic, one room > [!example] 1. Freeze the hazard > **Goal:** a swinging saw blocks a corridor. Shoot it with Freeze and slip past. > **Teaches:** that shots affect time. > **Wiring:** > - Saw on its own timeline, End Behaviour PingPong > - `TimeInteractable`: Shot `Freeze` → `FreezeFor` 2 > - `TimeShooter` on the player > [!example] 2. Ride it back > **Goal:** a moving platform travels away from you and doesn't come back. Shoot it with Rewind to bring it back. > **Teaches:** that time on an object can run backwards. > **Wiring:** > - Platform timeline with End Behaviour Hold > - Shot `Rewind` → `Reverse` > [!example] 3. Stand still, world still > **Goal:** like Superhot, the world moves only as fast as the player. > **Teaches:** that the player's own movement controls time. > **Wiring:** a small script sets the World group's scale from the player's speed: > ```csharp > TimeWorld.World.SetScale(Mathf.Clamp01(rb.linearVelocity.magnitude / maxSpeed) + 0.05f); > ``` > [!example] 4. Block the crusher > **Goal:** a crusher closes a gap. Standing in its path freezes it, but then you're the one in the way. > **Teaches:** that your body can stop time. > **Wiring:** > - `TimeBlockSensor` on the crusher > - BlockStart → `Freeze`, BlockEnd → `Unfreeze` ### Medium: two systems together > [!example] 5. Hidden path > **Goal:** a bridge exists only in the Past. With Past Sight on you can cross it, but Present hazards fade to ghosts, so you're half-blind. > **Teaches:** lenses, and the trade-off between seeing one era and the other. > **Wiring:** > - Bridge uses the `Past` theme > - Base rule: Past = Hidden > - Past Sight lens: Past = Normal, Present = Ghost > - Optional: World Scale While Lens On = 0.5 > [!example] 6. Timed lock > **Goal:** a door opens only while two plates are pressed. Hold one, and your echo from the last loop holds the other. > **Teaches:** working with your echo. > **Wiring:** > - Two plate zones, each a `TimeCommandTrigger` with Count Occupants on and tags `Player,Echo` > - Each plate sets a flag; the door opens only if both flags are set (use `onlyIfFlag`) > [!example] 7. Out-of-sync clocks > **Goal:** three platforms run on separate timelines. Slow one group to line them up into stairs. > **Teaches:** groups, and changing speed instead of stopping. > **Wiring:** > - Platforms in groups `GearA`, `GearB`, `GearC` > - Shot `Slow` → `EaseRate` on that group > [!example] 8. Reorder the story > **Goal:** a disaster plays out in three segments: Fire, Flood and Escape. Rearrange them so the flood puts out the fire before the escape. > **Teaches:** remixing, where order matters. > **Wiring:** > - `TimeSegmentMarker`s for each beat > - The player picks the order, which builds the playlist: `PlaySegments("Flood", "Fire", "Escape")` > - A Time Event at the end checks flags for success > [!example] 9. Freeze and walk through > **Goal:** a wall moves in the Future layer. Freeze it, switch to Future Sight, and walk through the spot it used to cover. > **Teaches:** combining interaction and lenses. > **Wiring:** > - Wall with the `Future` theme and Ghost Is Tangible off > - Shot `Freeze` → `FreezeFor` 4 ### Complex: systems carry a whole level or story > [!example] 10. A mansion of schedules (in the style of The Sexy Brutale) > **Goal:** guests act out their timelines on a 2-minute loop. Watch with lenses, learn the schedule, then use one interaction per loop to change a single event. > **Player motivation:** watching, then stepping in, and rescuing someone. > **Wiring:** > - Each guest is a rig with its own timeline, segmented by room > - A looping `Loop` clock runs the 2 minutes > - Flags persist across loops > - Time Event markers branch to "Saved" segments when a flag is set > [!example] 11. Echo heist > **Goal:** plan a robbery across four loops. > - Echo 1 distracts a guard by shooting a target. > - Echo 2 holds a door. > - Echo 3 rides a frozen elevator. > - You take the loot. > > Changing an early run breaks the later ones, and that's the core challenge. > **Wiring:** > - `TimeRecorder` with Max Echoes 4 > - `TimeShooter` replay > - `TimeBlockSensor` and plates that accept `Echo` > - `CommitTake()` at a "split" pad instead of on loop > [!example] 12. Paradox rules > **Goal:** if you touch your own echo, a "collapse" segment starts and the level begins to fall apart. You have to move around your past selves. > **Wiring:** > - A trigger on the echo prefab runs `SetFlag Paradox` > - The level timeline has a Time Event: if `Paradox` is set, jump to segment `Collapse` > [!example] 13. Two eras, one space > **Goal:** the same level exists in a Past and a Present timeline. Something you change in the Past, like toppling a tree, adds a bridge to the Present. > **Wiring:** > - Past and Present lens layers > - The Past tree's Shot reaction runs `SetFlag TreeFell` > - The Present timeline's marker branches to segment `BridgeExists` when `TreeFell` is set > [!example] 14. Time as a currency > **Goal:** you have a limited amount of rewind, freezing costs energy, and each echo costs points. Levels become routing puzzles that suit speedrunners. > **Wiring:** > - A meter script that disables `TimeRewindKey` and `TimeShooter` when it runs out > - Refill from Time Events or pickups > [!example] 15. Branching story > **Goal:** the climax is a timeline whose segment order depends on flags set earlier. Players can rewind to see alternatives, but can commit to only one. > **Player motivation:** regret and consequences. > **Wiring:** > - Playlists named per ending > - A Time Event at the decision point checks flags and runs `PlayPlaylist` > - A `TimeCommandTrigger` set to OnFlagChanged (`Committed` becomes true) disables `TimeRewindKey` through its On Fired event, which locks the choice in --- ## 4. Turning an idea into a level: checklist - [ ] **Which time rule is new here?** Name exactly one. - [ ] **Which player motivation does it serve?** Pick from section 2. - [ ] **Teach it safely.** The first room uses the rule with no danger. - [ ] **Make it clear.** Give the rule its own theme colour or lens layer so players can read it at a glance. - [ ] **Combine it.** The second room mixes the new rule with one the player already knows. - [ ] **Twist it.** The third room flips the expected use, for example freezing yourself in place instead of the enemy. - [ ] **Check that rewind can't break it.** Make sure rewinding or looping can't soft-lock the puzzle. Use flags for anything permanent. - [ ] **Watch someone play it.** Note the "aha" moment. If it never happens, the rule isn't readable yet.