› What's Time Guyz?
Time Guyz was conceived as a game designed with constraints and values in mind. The project was not allowed to have any killing or rely on death as a reset mechanic, had to be multiplayer, and was not allowed to be set in the post-apocalypse. As such, it uses peaceful mechanics to solve puzzles, is a three-player game, and takes place right on the verge of the apocalypse.
We sought to embrace cooperative play by limiting each player to one of the three necessary skills. They cannot proceed without each other's help. Though the game does not involve any sort of violence, we sought to make the decisions players make morally complicated. Players will have to make both positive and negative changes in the environment to complete their goals.
› Influences
As our inspiration we took puzzle games and 2D retro platformers such as King's Quest and Lost Vikings. For the time travel mechanic we looked in particular at the segment during Chrono Trigger in which the party must leave Robo tilling a field in 600 AD in order to have a fully-grown forest in that location in 1000 AD. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was another influence, as it is a game that uses some of the same change-over-time mechanic when the actions of Young Link affect the world of Adult Link.