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The Time I Have Left
Six hours is 'The Time I Have Left' in this fresh, eerie adventure RPG - IndieDevDay Interview
Ground Game Atelier's Juan Yite gives us all the deets about this pretty unique approach at the adventure genre involving escape room mechanics, turn-based combat, character progression, and above all a creepy mystery...
Audio transcription
"Alright, I'm at the IndieDevDay 2024 in Barcelona and in The Time I Have Left I will be seeing some more interesting indie games and one of them is called exactly like that, The Time I Have Left.
Thank you so much for joining us, Juan."
"This is a pretty unique game. Please help me describe it.
It's both an escape room, an RPG, an adventure game, just in art style.
Yeah, so you defined it pretty well because it's mostly an adventure game that has RPG elements in it.
So it's like a stepping stone between the two genres."
"You have six hours left to live in this game.
So you have this component of time and you have to explore an underground complex within this time and face some visions of death that you're having in a turn-based combat system with an active twist.
So it's kind of a difficult blend to explain but it's mostly an adventure game that works like an RPG."
"It's like a stepping stone between the two genres.
What's going on in this world? What's going to happen with the character that she's going to die in six hours?
Yeah, so we are saying that she's going to die in six hours.
You will have to play the game to know what happens there."
"But most of the core of the game is to find clues and explore this environment in search of what really happened in this place and what you are experiencing and how other characters of the game went through this kind of experience.
So you will have to explore the world to find out.
Tell me a little bit more about the mechanics."
"There's some combat to it. You said it's turn-based.
I don't know if we're going to find some puzzles to solve and to solve a miss area as well.
Yeah, so it's divided into two separate phases.
When you are exploring, you have to gather different sets of clues."
"Everything that you inspect can be a clue.
Picking up an item or just examining a poster can be a clue.
And as you get these clues, this will serve as unlocking conditions for you to learn more about the world.
You will unlock story fragments, short story fragments about the game with these clues."
"And as you do this, you will also gain new skills for combat.
So the skill obtention is tied to the narrative and to the exploration aspect.
And then you can customize your loadout into battle and then fight these creatures with the skills that you got during exploration.
Also, I said that the combat system has active elements."
"So you are always in control of your character in both turns, despite it being turn-based.
When the enemy attacks you, you have to dodge the enemy attacks with the precise timing.
And then you build up your resources.
And then you use those resources to use the skills you got during exploration."
"So it's pretty tied together.
But you have to engage with both aspects of the game in order to succeed.
And I guess you kind of tell me a bit more about these creatures.
What they are, what they mean, their tentacles, their crazy stuff around."
"So we are not a horror game, that's something to say.
Because we have this eerie aesthetic that is tied to the narrative of the game and the concept of these two worlds that we are playing with.
But it's not designed to be something very scary.
Just to unsettle you a little bit."
"But these creatures are part of what our protagonist is experiencing.
She's going through a process that other characters have gone through.
And you have to, little by little, piece together all the information that you get from both worlds.
In order to get to the solution of all this."
"How do you guys get this sort of visual finish?
This visual touch to it? I think it's interesting.
So how do you guys work on the graphics and the art of the game?
So we are a very small team."
"So right when we started, we decided that we had to push one of our...
Our strengths?
Yeah, our strengths. The skills that we had as a team.
I have a background of graphic design and motion graphics and all that stuff."
"So we decided pretty early that we needed an aesthetic that could be very interesting to look at.
And didn't need to be too expensive to produce.
Is it Unity?
It's Unreal Engine."
"Nice.
But we are not using Unreal Engine 5.
But we are not using any expensive techniques, modern techniques.
We are not using Lumen or anything like that."
"We are pretty conservative in terms of technology.
But we really want this game to be playable on as many systems as possible.
And still look pretty good.
So that was the first idea that we had to make the game look like this."
"And I thought the camera angle is interesting.
It reminded me a little bit of Killer7, which is a favorite of mine.
So I don't know if you can tell me a little bit more about your inspirations, your sources that you've looked into or that you love."
"Yeah, so it's cool that you mentioned Killer7.
Because it's a game from a generation that was more restrained in terms of technology.
So they were very smart in how they approached design.
And a lot of games use this kind of on-rails and camera systems in order to produce games that look as good as Suda Games or as Killer7."
"In hardware, it's much, much lower spec than what we have today.
So that was part of the reasoning.
We have been looking a lot at that era of games in order to build this.
Because a lot of indies make games with fixed camera angles, trying to replicate the PS1 era."
"Survival horror comeback these years.
But that kind of style also evolved and turned into the PS2 era and all that.
It became more organic, more dynamic.
And that's been kind of lost."
"And we really thought that as indie developers we could benefit a lot from using this fixed camera approach to create environments.
Alright, so in the time we have left, can you tell me what's the status of the project and on which platforms do you plan to release it on?
Yeah, so currently we are still searching for a publisher for the game."
"So we are completely self-funded.
We are working as much as we can with a very small team.
But we are aiming to release as soon as possible.
I can't commit yet to a date."
"We announced a date, but we are still searching for a publisher for the project.
But hopefully not too late.
We are still working hard on it.
We are still giving our all for the project."
"So it's not very concise.
But hopefully there's something in the talks.
Hopefully we will have something to announce sometime in the future.
A lot of indie developers here at Indie Dev Day 2024 are having behind-the-scenes, are having B2B conversations with publishers and trying to find a publisher."
"So that's interesting.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
For your time.
The time we had left, I think it was very well used."
"It's the pun of the day.
Thank you so much, Juan.
Thank you very much."
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