10 seconds in the span of 10 minutes

October 6, 2013 11:57 AM

TimeFRAME (Unity plugin/plays in-browser) is a lovely meditative game created as part of Ludum Dare 27 by Tyler Owen, Clark Aboud, Alex Senechal.
Downloadable versions: Windows, Linux, Mac, Windows with Occulus Rift support.
posted by juv3nal (13 comments total)

Is there an interesting part?
posted by windowbr8r at 12:35 PM on October 6, 2013

At what point does the "game" begin?
posted by Thorzdad at 12:37 PM on October 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Okay, I kinda saw it. I like a spacey slow game-as-art as much as the next geek, but seemed more like a B+ thesis project than an actual thing.
posted by windowbr8r at 12:40 PM on October 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

I played this yesterday with the thought that something would happen in the game world that would normally be instant but you'd see it in slow motion.

Well something DOES happen but I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.
posted by hellojed at 12:40 PM on October 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

I really like these sort of game-poems. It's quite pretty too, the texture design and lighting is neat. I played it a couple of times, but I think I might try once more and see how far into the mountains you can go.
posted by lucidium at 12:57 PM on October 6, 2013

Whoa, it gets too steep to climb any more eventually, but there's cool stuff to the North West (assuming the Sun is setting).
posted by lucidium at 1:13 PM on October 6, 2013

Chilling, I wonder if this was based on a historical event.
posted by coolxcool=rad at 1:16 PM on October 6, 2013

That was pretty cool. As in the comments on the LD page, he mentions that he was planning on having more stuff to show the relative time distortion (like birds flying slowly across the sky) but that he ran out of time. That would've been pretty cool since the thing that actually gives you a relative frame of reference that you're moving 10 time faster than everything else doesn't happen until the end of the game.

I also wish moving around was a bit more fun. The controls have that generic, floaty "unity" feeling that I tend to associate with its graphics engine.
posted by codacorolla at 1:34 PM on October 6, 2013

the thing that actually gives you a relative frame of reference that you're moving 10 time faster than everything else doesn't happen until the end of the game.


There are some particle effects things (a fountain, some torches, and a big tree shedding leaves) which do show this a bit, but it's easy to not find those things if you strike out in a different direction.
posted by juv3nal at 1:52 PM on October 6, 2013

> The controls have that generic, floaty "unity" feeling that I tend to associate with its graphics engine.

Unity comes with an example first person script set up which has the camera, movement and physics all ready to go, so that'll probably be what you're seeing in most short games. I find it fairly unpleasant to actually play with in game too, but the fact that it does just work turns improving it into one of those "would be nice" todo points.
posted by lucidium at 1:58 PM on October 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Reading the premise led me to assume that the sun goes nova at the end, or something.

This is why I ALWAYS read spoilers.
posted by LogicalDash at 2:51 PM on October 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

Once I saw what the game was about, I found it hard to choose to either continue exploring, or just watch as the inevitable took place. Is it worth it to keep exploring and creating if you know death is going to happen no matter what you do?

Loved it.



SPOILERS:

It was hard to not feel like it was coming straight for me (and not just going to hit the ground somewhere random) even after strafing a few times. I wonder if that was that purposefully part of the perspective?
posted by hgswell at 11:49 AM on October 7, 2013

It was hard to not feel like it was coming straight for me

Well for me, it went from right to left in front of my field of vision, but was never going to hit me. I actually wonder if it always hits the same spot, or if it always spawns to be near you at the end of the game time.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:54 AM on October 8, 2013