Time limit rant

[BluDummy]

I played the demo and I fell in love with this game, the pixel art is great, the gameplay was fun, the music is extremely astompheric, and you can have your own dog. I have this game on my radar but I wanted to talk about the time limit. I know that its supposed to incentivize replaying the game for better endings and to have a speed-runner mentality while playing, and while I'm sure its more than generous I feel like it would work against how the game plays.

I assume its plays like a metroidvania, a genre that usually has multiple hidden items and puzzles, the time limit kinda disincentivizes straying off the beaten path since you're racing against the clock. I also saw in the trailers that the clock still goes on even in the tower (which I assume works as a safe haven) so you can't even waste time there to mess around or talk to npc's. I do wish it was optional but I know it would disregard some on the challenges of the game.

[IronFairy]

Well, good news! The time limit is, indeed, optional. We have a mode called "Explorer Mode" which is exactly what it says on the tin, a mode where you can explore the game at your own pace to find all of the secrets in the world. In this mode you can get to know every corner of Arcadia, find where all the shortcuts, items, materials, NPCs are and then, if you want, come back with all of that knowledge to replay the game as fast as possible!

[BluDummy]

Originally posted by IronFairy:

Well, good news! The time limit is, indeed, optional. We have a mode called "Explorer Mode" which is exactly what it says on the tin, a mode where you can explore the game at your own pace to find all of the secrets in the world. In this mode you can get to know every corner of Arcadia, find where all the shortcuts, items, materials, NPCs are and then, if you want, come back with all of that knowledge to replay the game as fast as possible!

Oh wow! I thought that was just a easy mode and nothing else. Thanks so much for clearing that up, I'm 100% sure getting this for steam or switch now.

[Robaho]

I played your Humble Demo until the first checkpoint. The game is a must buy for me, but I hate time limits. However, I also like Hard Modes. Is the only difference in Hard Mode the time limit? Can I play on hard but without time limit?

[Tiani]

The "Robot Apocalypse" difficulty makes the time limit stricter, so it's part of the challenge, it can't be removed. However, when playing in "Action Girl" you can disable it if you want.

But we highly recommend playing with it on, since it's how the game was envisioned, and it's a huge part of the story. The game provides plenty of options for you to deal with it using the in-game mechanics, and the leves were designed with it in mind.

We have the Explorer Mode as an option for those who want to learn the game first in a more relaxed environment, or even have more time to train some speedrun techniques, but the idea is that you'll eventually disable it and do a playthrough with the time limit.

The game will also feature two side modes that does not have time limits, the Boss Rush and Dungeon Raid.

[Diamondragan]

I have started all of my demo plays on Action Girl. What's this about a timer? I don't see a timer, but I see a leaderboard at the end with your time.

What kind of time limit are we talking about? What's the deadline for something like Prologue?

[IronFairy]

Originally posted by Diamondragan:

I have started all of my demo plays on Action Girl. What's this about a timer? I don't see a timer, but I see a leaderboard at the end with your time.

What kind of time limit are we talking about? What's the deadline for something like Prologue?

The time limit will be present in the main game, it's one of the story elements. But don't worry it is pretty lenient there are plenty of opportunities to gain more time by exploring.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

And here I was wondering if I played a different demo, why are people already complaining about an time limit that is absolutely absent, why don't you try it out first before complaining?

However, when playing in "Action Girl" you can disable it if you want.

So basically "action girl" is explorer mode too? Just with the difference you can disable the time limit? This would make it the same as explorer mode. If that's the case, isn't explorer mode redundant anyway, when time limit is the only difference?

I'm not really fond of the idea to turn the time limit off at any point I want, this would kill the tension and I had to surpress that urge, please built in at least an option that this isn't possible once I started the game, you said it yourself, you want people to play it how it's intended to be, but being able to turn it on and off at will would completely torpede the point.
Either it's on or not, but if I'm able to toggle off the time limit it's theoretically absent and only exists in your mind. It's only on because you allow it to be on, this is so artifical and "gamey" it kills the immersion. You already have an "explorer mode" this should suffice.

I'm serious I would probably just exploit it, finding goodies in the overworld without time pressure and activating it again once I go forward to an goal, I assume a lot of people will do that and it's basically the most optimal way to play the game. If you really want to encourage people to live with this controversial game design decision, for having an experience they might not known that they wanted it, stay consequent.

[IronFairy]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

So basically "action girl" is explorer mode too? Just with the difference you can disable the time limit? This would make it the same as explorer mode. If that's the case, isn't explorer mode redundant anyway, when time limit is the only difference?

I believe it wasn't quite clear from our wording. When playing in the Action Girl difficulty you can enable the Explorer mode at any time and gain access to a few custom options such as more forgiving combat, more stamina and disabling the time limit for the player character. This will, however, turn the save file into an Explorer mode save from now on, even if you turn the time limit back on. So there will still be some pressure to finish the game without turning Explorer mode on. I believe some of your concerns are addressed this way, as turning on the Explorer mode comes with this warning. We trust our players to try the recommended challenge whenever they feel ready to face it, be it right away on their first playthrough or after familiarizing themselves with the game on Explorer mode.

[USM-Valor]

Does disabling the game lock you out of the "good" ending, without getting to much into specifics? Assuming not, this game is a definite purchase for me, but I highly dislike timers.

[IronFairy]

Originally posted by USM-Valor:

Does disabling the game lock you out of the "good" ending, without getting to much into specifics? Assuming not, this game is a definite purchase for me, but I highly dislike timers.

No option disables any ending, it all depends on your actions throughout the game!

[BluDummy]

Originally posted by USM-Valor:

Does disabling the game lock you out of the "good" ending, without getting to much into specifics? Assuming not, this game is a definite purchase for me, but I highly dislike timers.

Yeah, do we still have to worry about our friends turning into the unsighted if we were to turn off the timer? I do fully intend on playing the game as intended but I'm not a big fan of the time pressure, at least on the first playthrough.

[USM-Valor]

Originally posted by IronFairy:

No option disables any ending, it all depends on your actions throughout the game!

Sold!

[IronFairy]

Originally posted by Oblue:

Originally posted by USM-Valor:

Does disabling the game lock you out of the "good" ending, without getting to much into specifics? Assuming not, this game is a definite purchase for me, but I highly dislike timers.

Yeah, do we still have to worry about our friends turning into the unsighted if we were to turn off the timer? I do fully intend on playing the game as intended but I'm not a big fan of the time pressure, at least on the first playthrough.

It still technically possible for them to turn unsighted, but the game ticks down a lot slower and time increasing items give them a lot more time, so if you ~really~ want to wait it out it is still possible for them to turn unsighted. We did this so this option doesn't lock you out of any endings, but the time limit shouldn't be a challenge at all.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by IronFairy:

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

So basically "action girl" is explorer mode too? Just with the difference you can disable the time limit? This would make it the same as explorer mode. If that's the case, isn't explorer mode redundant anyway, when time limit is the only difference?

I believe it wasn't quite clear from our wording. When playing in the Action Girl difficulty you can enable the Explorer mode at any time and gain access to a few custom options such as more forgiving combat, more stamina and disabling the time limit for the player character. This will, however, turn the save file into an Explorer mode save from now on, even if you turn the time limit back on. So there will still be some pressure to finish the game without turning Explorer mode on. I believe some of your concerns are addressed this way, as turning on the Explorer mode comes with this warning. We trust our players to try the recommended challenge whenever they feel ready to face it, be it right away on their first playthrough or after familiarizing themselves with the game on Explorer mode.

Ah I see, thank you for the clarification, then everything is ok^^"
I understand that there is a lot of bias towards time limits and such compromises must be made eventually to take the bias out of people.

do fully intend on playing the game as intended but I'm not a big fan of the time pressure, at least on the first playthrough.

Ok I really don't want to make the impression of an douché but if you play it on explorer first and then on Action Girl I'm pretty sure you will NOT play it on the intended experience!

With the knowledge you already have gained from explorer mode, the odds are different, the dev already explained that the whole game was designed around the time limit, if you're accustomed to the game, I assume it wouldn't have any influence on you afterwards.

Since they explained that there is an possibility to change to explorer right on your same safe file, why not considering starting on "Action girl" first, trying out if it REALLY tampers with your enjoyment and if it without doubt poses a problem, you could still change it to explorer and just continue.

It's your choice of course.
See it just as an advice, trust the developers, there is nothing to lose.

[BluDummy]

Originally posted by IronFairy:

Originally posted by Oblue:

Yeah, do we still have to worry about our friends turning into the unsighted if we were to turn off the timer? I do fully intend on playing the game as intended but I'm not a big fan of the time pressure, at least on the first playthrough.

It still technically possible for them to turn unsighted, but the game ticks down a lot slower and time increasing items give them a lot more time, so if you ~really~ want to wait it out it is still possible for them to turn unsighted. We did this so this option doesn't lock you out of any endings, but the time limit shouldn't be a challenge at all.

Ok thats good to know, thank you.