You can also vote for it to win the Audience Award here!
More news coming soon... For now, be sure to check out the new Stealth Demo if you haven't yet. You can download it from Time Bandit's Steam store page.
Time Bandit: Part 1 - Appendages of the Machine
Time Bandit nominated for the IGF Nuovo Award!
You can also vote for it to win the Audience Award here!
More news coming soon... For now, be sure to check out the new Stealth Demo if you haven't yet. You can download it from Time Bandit's Steam store page.
Time Bandit – Stealth Prologue released!
Yes, Time Bandit is receiving a second prologue chapter!
Why?
Truthfully it’s because the game needs a big marketing push. This is a big, experimental game with a lot of different parts, and for a long time I found it very hard to explain exactly what you *do* in the game or convey how it is, in fact, fun to play. The first prologue was more or less an intro to the story, and that was it. I really like how, in the real-time spirit of things, even the main mechanics are introduced slowly in a tutorial that's spread out over a couple of real-life days. I was happy with it artistically; it begins at the beginning, and I had no problem releasing something like that early on as a teaser to the game.
Unfortunately, it was terrible for marketing. These first moments of the game aren't at all representative of the game as a whole. The first prologue has different goals entirely than the game that follows, namely, to introduce a story and set up the idea that this game will give you an unusual experience of time. And certainly, these things can make up part of its appeal. But at the same time, it's leading with the parts that are the most complicated to explain, and it’s just not possible for me to convince people with something like that that there's also a rather traditional game loop to come. And as with most things that stare you right in the face, it took me much longer than you might expect to figure out how to explain exactly what you *do* in the game in the most basic terms.
But this is it: Time Bandit is a resource management game in which you try to sneak out time crystals in order to sell them for money, which you need to buy more fuel in order to solve more puzzles to collect more time crystals. See, a loop. It's simple! And it's definitely circular, as a loop should be! And this is a significant part of what people want to hear, I think, when learning about the game, alongside whatever makes it unique (and for that I've developed a line about how this is a "wholesome"-seeming idle adventure game where everything you do takes an unusual amount of time because the company you work for is hiding a dark secret).
Around the same time that I finally discovered how to describe Time Bandit, I was also able to do some playtesting, and I quickly realized that I should use a save file to jump people past the whole story intro and into that game loop. Then it wasn't long before I also realized that giving players the opportunity to experience this game loop should have been part of the marketing all along. So, this second prologue does just that: it jumps you ahead to after all the main mechanics are introduced and throws you right into the stealth so you can get a feel for how the game works.
This prologue also features a high score. How many crystals can you steal within 3 real-time days? You'll receive your high score if you manage to get to the end of the 3 days without getting caught and thrown in jail!
The new stealth prologue is available by clicking on the big green button to download the demo from Time Bandit's store page. If you already had the demo downloaded, it should auto-update to the new stealth prologue. For the moment, due to certain compatibility issues, the second prologue chapter is only available on Windows. If you download the demo on Mac, it will download the original prologue chapter. The full release of Time Bandit will be available for both Windows and Mac.
Good luck and have fun!
Prologue of Time Bandit, a real-time game with a dark secret, at Steam Next Fest
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
⏰A life sim with a dark secret⏰
Watch the stream!
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
A life sim with a dark secret
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
⏰A life sim with a dark secret⏰
Watch the stream!
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
Free prologue chapter of Time Bandit, a real-time game with a dark secret
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
Free prologue chapter of Time Bandit, a real-time game with a dark secret
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
Free prologue chapter of Time Bandit, a real-time game with a dark secret
In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail.
The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue?
You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!
Big update to the free Time Bandit prologue chapter
Check out new art, music, real-time weather tied to your location, and more for a limited time.
There's a new high score ranking too. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the demo?
You can download the demo now from the Time Bandit store page.