Tempus Locus is a game where you solve puzzles using the past. This is a quick retrospective reflecting on what went well and what didn't.

What went well

• I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect concept and almost wasted the first day.
• I knew I wanted something about replaying the past, but wasn't sure how. So I prototyped the minimal controls for spawning a playback region (which would be useful for any of the ideas I had).
• Just iterating on that first prototype was enough to allow cool puzzle ideas to emerge. Once I had 5 cool puzzles, I knew I can commit to that idea.
• I didn't waste time on polish early in the process.
• With the mechanic of controlling time, I knew I needed either a sci-fi or a fantasy setting, so I chose fantasy because my last GMTK2020 game was sci-fi.
• I'm not an artist, but I used a lot of reference for this game, which made it one of my best looking ones. Just using color theory and complementary colors was enough to make a huge improvement in my style.

Example of colors used in the game: Example of reference used:

What didn't go well

• The performance/FPS was not great on web for some people, which made the puzzling and the platforming almost impossible.
• In puzzle games, I like it when the game is completely hands off and lets you discover the mechanic for yourself, which is what I did. Some people liked that, but some didn't find the mechanic easy to discover.
• Puzzle + narrative is my comfort zone. It felt like I was cheating when I resorted to that.
• The story felt flat to some people, especially because I invested too much into one ending, and not the other. (Yes, the game has two endings!)
• The bg music gets jittery if you play long enough, and I have no clue why.

Go play! All you is a browser, a keyboard, and 5 mins!