Hi there everybody!
I was wondering, are there any time manipulation games or demos developed with Unity 3D? I mean games like Braid, Prince of Persia, Timeshift and some others. I’ve already seen “Time Donkey” and “Rose and Time”, but I am looking for actual time manipulation, and not recreation of your past actions.
Does anyone know any game like that?
Thanks a lot in advance. 
You do realise the any game that does Time Manipulation is just recording and replaying previous actions under the hood.
I’ve only heard of ‘Time Donkey’ as a Unity game.
Arowx,
Yes, I do realize how the time manipulation system works, as I am developing one myself. I was just wondering if it has been done on Unity before.
It’s kind of like saying, I do know how to write prose with a pencil, I was just wondering if it has been done with a pen before.
Is there some particular challenge that you think would make it hard with Unity? If not, you should just assume it’s as easy or hard as it would be with any engine.
Well, I haven’t had any challenge I couldn’t overcome in developing my system for now, and I intend to post a video soon.
I was seriously just wondering. If it has been done, I would like to see it working and how it looks. That’s all.
It’s not kind of like saying, I do know how to write prose with a pencil, I was just wondering if it has been done with a pen before. It is more like saying: “Hey, I have done a beatiful bird drawing, I wonder how other bird drawings done with the same material I used look like.”.
So again, if anyone know any Braid-like time manipulation game done with Unity 3D, please, post it here. 
Thanks again in advance.
I once did a crude time shifting demo/test thingy. I made a class that contained all info needed (like position, health…) and then each step I just saved this data in an array. Like say I save twice a second for 60 seconds, I have an array of 120 objects. Then when I need to go back in time I just loop through the array in reverse setting the data twice a second. This causes jerkyness because there’s only two steps in one second but nothing a lerp can’t fix.
I don’t know how memory efficient it is, it could be optimized to not save new data if it hasn’t changed, but it did work well and looked nice.
Morning,
I created a class which I call Moment and another class which works as an array of moments (called Past). I record about 12 parameters at a rate of 24 times a second with no recording limit, and it has been working just fine. No processing or memory issues for now.
If you do know any concluded games or demos which I can see, please, let me know.
As has already been mentioned, Time Donkey from Flashbang studios used this concept extensively.
aNTeNNa trEE,
Although it had been mentioned I had not seen the post on Blurst’s blog called: “Five Awesome Games About Time Manipulation”. None of them is made with Unity, but they are still good immersion material.
Thank you.
Anyone else want to contribute?
Hi once again everybody!
Had a busy weekend playing the games on the Indie Buskers Bundle (www.indiebuskers.net) and the already mentioned game “Rose and Time” turned out to be exactly what I was looking for/talking about.
It is a stealth time manipulation puzzle game. The rules are simple, every level has many cristals, you have to collect them one at a time. Everytime you collect a cristal you go back in time. The thing is, you can’t be seen by your past selves or you will create a paradox.
Basically the game combines the two most commom aproaches of time manipulation seen in games: the actual manipulation where you go back in time and undo your actions, and the creation of copies of yourself in the past that can help you achieve the goal of the level.
Pretty interesting game, awesome level design, beautiful models.
My own time manipulation system is a lot like the one in the game, with the following differences:
- Camera position is also affected by time travel
- First Person Mode (it is also possible to shoot)
- Recording of life, ammo and gold included
- Glow Effect and Motion Blur active during time travel
Well, that’s basically it. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
If you wanna check out “Rose and Time” or any of the other five amazing games included in the Indie Buskers Bundle, go to www.indiebuskers.net. For more about “Rose and Time” check » Rose and Time Sophie's Blog
I have a full physics-friendly time manipulation platformer prototype sitting right here on the hard drive. All we did was record anything “active” or moving into a list. It’s not hard to do, and when you want to go back in time, you just hard-set the transform and velocities etc. Works perfectly fine, but is a memory hog if you want to store too many seconds!
Worked 60fps on mobile on ipad1 too - so it’s not really much of a problem (or a mystery to do!)
hippocoder,
Yeah I know, it is simpler than most people think.
I am having a bit of a drop on the framerate when there are too many bullets on the scene, but that shall be fixed in a week or less. I’ll post a video soon.
“Time Ducks” was made with Unity.
I am developing a game with a rewind mechanic and a replay mechanic.
When we first started prototyping we recorded keyframes but it was a bad idea since if you stop the rewind between two keys there occured a snap to one of them it seems. We now store values in a list ( to be sure I have to check back with my programmer since I am a graphic and game designer) and so far we can record and play quite an amount of data.
But we are not on mobile devices and we haven’t tested too deep up to now.
I am having problems with collisions of recorded objects at the moment. Do you guys have knowledge how to treat collision problems of two or several moving objects?
Assuming you use Unity’s physics engine in normal time, it will work out the collisions for you and you record the data.
Then rewinding it you will have to turn off the physics system in Unity when you rewind, this would mean turning off colliders and setting rigidbodies to kinetic. Then when resumed reset their recorded velocities and re-enable colliders, remove iskinetic.
But if you mean your doing your own physics then I don’t know.
rab236,
Thanks man, didn’t know Time Ducks, hopefully I gonna get myself an Iphone soon so I will sure check it out.
ceen,
Arowx said it all, you have to turn off physics when rewinding. For now I only turn off my Character Motor. When rewinding you are not applying backwards physics you are returning everything through recorded infromation. So if there is a physics effect you need to play backwards you are gonna have to “simulate” that effect instead of actually making it happen backwards. At least that’s how I do it.
Example: you have a Rigidbody you move using AddForce. When rewinding, isKinematic = true and you are not gonna use AddForce with inverted values, you are gonna guide it through transform.position.
Just an update: recently finished my system and amde a thread to discuss it. Here:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/142842-Bitz-in-Time-Time-shifting-demo?p=976905#post976905
Try this for time reversal also reverse the physics.
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