Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Time Travel] - Demo Up!

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EJ107
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Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Time Travel] - Demo Up!

#1 Post by EJ107 »

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In Watching Time time travel is more than just a plot device, it is a core gameplay mechanic. Once you pass a certain point in the games opening you can reverse time at will, using your knowledge of the future to alter your previous decisions, or even open up entirely new ones.


Demo


The demo is out! It covers roughly the first third of the game, and there are a lot of scene variations and special interactions you can unlock through particular dialogue options and clever use of the time travel mechanic. let me know what you find!



Story


The protagonist, whose name and gender are chosen by the player, is mourning the death of their older sister when they are given are strange watch. The mysterious device offers them a deal: Great power and a chance to uncover their sisters fate, in exchange for an offering of blood. This new ability may be the only thing that can prevent their closest friends from meeting the same end, but while the true power behind the watch is more than the protagonist had ever imagined, so is the cost.

Characters
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Zak and Charlotte:


Zak has been the protagonists friend since they were children. He was also a good friend of their sister, and her death hit him almost as hard. An aspiring screenplay writer and a fan of countless obscure movies and television shows, Zak puts the protagonists feelings above everything, much to his own detriment.

Charlotte is Zak's half-sister, and an avid gamer and Anime fan. Her degree in philosophy has given her with particularly strong views about the morality of manipulating time for your own interests, however benevolent the intentions may seem.

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Corrie and Michael


Corrie was one of the protagonists sister closest friends. With a passion for basketball and a certain long-running fantasy series, Corrie tends to be either loved or hated by those around her. Along with Michael, she is desperate to uncover the truth behind her friends death.

Michael has known Corrie since they went to school together. A tennis prodigy and neighborhood hero, Michael approaches everything with enthusiasm and a warm smile. He is never seen without the peculiar heart shaped pendant he wears around his neck.

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??? and ???


The woman in the blue dress has been appearing ever since the watch did. She wears her own disembodied eye, which seems to have an awareness of its own. She and her friend must have something to do with the strange events happening in the city recently, but exactly what that goals are remains to be seen.

Romance


As the player progresses through the story they shape their relationship with the other characters. As well as friendships and rivalries, some of the characters can also have romantic interactions with the player. There are two types of romance arcs: Major romance arcs, which have a larger amount of content and are highly integrated into the time travel mechanic, and minor romance arcs, which are much simpler and have little impact on the overall story.

While I recommend discovering these in the game itself, the spoiler tag below provides more information on how these are distributed.

Major romance arcs:

Zak (either gender)
Corrie (male only)
Eleanor (female only)

Minor romance arcs:

Charlotte (male only)
Michael (female only)



Backgrounds


The backgrounds were created by Dao, who has a thread here on the forums: viewtopic.php?f=62&t=37408, and they look amazing! They can be seen as examples on the linked thread.


Music


The game has original music composed by Noyemi K, who can be found here on the forums: viewtopic.php?f=65&t=35975. You should definitely check out her work.

Screenshots

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Feel free to ask me any questions you have. I'd be happy to answer!
Last edited by EJ107 on Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:22 pm, edited 33 times in total.
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Re: Watching Time [GxB|GxG|BxG|BxB][Drama][Time Travel]

#2 Post by audrenes »

Are you interested in the game? Why, or why not?
Yoooooo let me just start out by saying that I love the time travel aspect of this already, in fact, it's what made me open up the topic in the first place. I always found the subject to be interesting, and I haven't seen a lot of games, especially VNs focus on it, with a few exceptions.

Do you have any thoughts on the time-travel mechanic?
I'm super interested to see how it'll work out! I wanna know the parameters of it though, like can the protag control it so that they can use it whenever to whatever time they want or is their usage of it limited.

Do you have any concerns or criticisms about what has been presented thus far?
I see that Theron is one of the characters listed, but isn't mentioned in the spoiler. I was wondering if he's unattainable or a locked route?

Do any of the characters stand out to you? Would you like more information about them prior to the release of the demo?
Eleanor's design looks fantastic and Zak also looks super cool. I would love to know more about their personalities though, maybe even hints on how to get on their routes?

Anyway, this looks super interesting! I look forward it its release!

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Re: Watching Time [GxB|GxG|BxG|BxB][Drama][Time Travel]

#3 Post by ds-sans »

The game looks promising, especially the time-travel mechanic. I'm interested to see how it works. How far back can the player go?
As for the characters, I really like the designs, they all seem to stand out in their own way. More information would be nice though. I'll be looking forward to the demo!

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Re: Watching Time [GxB|GxG|BxG|BxB][Drama][Time Travel]

#4 Post by EJ107 »

audrenes wrote: Do you have any concerns or criticisms about what has been presented thus far?
I see that Theron is one of the characters listed, but isn't mentioned in the spoiler. I was wondering if he's unattainable or a locked route?

Do any of the characters stand out to you? Would you like more information about them prior to the release of the demo?
Eleanor's design looks fantastic and Zak also looks super cool. I would love to know more about their personalities though, maybe even hints on how to get on their routes?
Thank you for your feedback! I've updated the post to show larger, more detailed images of the characters and gave them all a brief synopsis.

There aren't character routes as such... It's a bit complicated due to how the story branches, particularly once you take into account the ability to rewind time. Some romance plots take place along the same story branch, while some story branches may leave you with no romance options. The time travel mechanic also gives some characters two completely different romance arcs.

As for Theron... he's not really a romance option. You can still try flirting with him.
ds-sans wrote:The game looks promising, especially the time-travel mechanic. I'm interested to see how it works. How far back can the player go?
As for the characters, I really like the designs, they all seem to stand out in their own way. More information would be nice though. I'll be looking forward to the demo!
audrenes wrote: Do you have any thoughts on the time-travel mechanic?
I'm super interested to see how it'll work out! I wanna know the parameters of it though, like can the protag control it so that they can use it whenever to whatever time they want or is their usage of it limited.
I've updated the post in the hopes that it explains the time-travel mechanic better, as I may not have explained it particularly well originally. I'll try to go into a bit more detail here:

Basically at some point early in the game you acquire the watch. After this point a new icon appears in the top right of the screen (as seen in the second screenshot), which lets you rewind the game up to the point you acquired the watch. There's no limit to it, you can keep going back and selecting different choices, while also unlocking new choices for previous decisions by following particular branches of the story.

I found it interesting how some VN's would have me constantly reloading saves trying to prevent bad endings, so I tried to tie that idea to the story. Not only are you going back trying to "make things right" but so is the character, and the story doesn't shy away from the emotional implications of repeatedly watching your friends get injured or killed.
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Re: Watching Time [GxB|GxG|BxG|BxB][Drama][Time Travel]

#5 Post by Doodled »

All aboard the hype train!

This looks amazing! The art looks promising, and I'm a sucker for time-travel stories.

I'm curious as to what theory of time you'll be going with here - will it be going with a multiverse-sorta-thing where all timelines are canon, or will it be a single main timeline that is overwritten by all the rollback shenanigans? Will there be any paradoxes?... Or perhaps we never know for sure, and the protagonist feels weird about the whole thing as a result?

Looking forward to it. :)

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Re: Watching Time [GxB|GxG|BxG|BxB][Drama][Time Travel]

#6 Post by EJ107 »

Doodled wrote:All aboard the hype train!

This looks amazing! The art looks promising, and I'm a sucker for time-travel stories.

I'm curious as to what theory of time you'll be going with here - will it be going with a multiverse-sorta-thing where all timelines are canon, or will it be a single main timeline that is overwritten by all the rollback shenanigans? Will there be any paradoxes?... Or perhaps we never know for sure, and the protagonist feels weird about the whole thing as a result?

Looking forward to it. :)
I'm really pleased to hear you are looking forward to the game!

I don't believe paradox's are possible due to how the watch works. It essentially resets you to a previous state, but with your memories intact. I always saw it as a single overwritten timeline, and that's likely how the protagonist sees it, but since it is never specified in-game I suppose it's open for interpretation.
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Re: Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Drama] [Time Travel]

#7 Post by EJ107 »

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Last edited by EJ107 on Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Time Travel] - Demo Up!

#8 Post by EJ107 »

The demo is now up! Give it a play and tell me what you think.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to hear what characters you liked or didn't like, what you think of the story, and your opinions on the Timewatch mechanic. Since the script is fairly complicated and can involve a lot of back-tracking it was difficult to test all of the different combinations of choices, so let me know if you come across anything that looks like a bug.
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Re: Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Time Travel] - Demo Up!

#9 Post by Noyemi K »

Ah, I'm so happy the demo's here~ I'm not sure how I missed it.
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Re: Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Time Travel] - Demo Up!

#10 Post by flaminghippo »

Wandered over here because I love time travel and sci-fi VNs, and this looks promising!

I also find that text box/UI really aesthetically pleasing. It's super simple, but I love it.

I'll give the demo a shot, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of this!

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Re: Watching Time [G/B x G/B] [Time Travel] - Demo Up!

#11 Post by Zelan »

I played the demo and thought it was really cool - the introduction and practice of the time travel mechanic was well executed, and the story drew me in very quickly. The only thing that I would suggest is finding a proofreader - I found a fair few typos. They didn't diminish my enjoyment of the game too much, but there were a few times that I wasn't entirely sure what was being said.

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