Developer Ask-Me-Anything!

[cowbunny]

Why do you need a connection to the internet to collect from Morty? Before you need a connection to collect from Morty when I need some money I just play with my time setting to get me out of a dead end .

Requiring an Internet connection is the only way to prevent cheating. But we tried to design most of the game to not require Internet so that you could play in most situations, even in the subway.

[Nyctofrost]

Me too. It didn't work out very well. My phone almost broke from me changing the time.

[cowbunny]

We don't recommend it. We've heard bugs reported from playing around with time/date, so we can't be responsible for corrupted save games if the game engine gets confused.

[JohnnyValdezi]

Honestly? I've done the date/time stuff a LOT and my games haven't seen an issue as far as I know.

[black mage arkhan]

Will there be a next chapter to Roger's memory? I like his memory very much.

[cowbunny]

There is a lot more to tell in Roger's story, but we haven't announced if it will be in the form of Memory Oracles, future Timecrest chapters or both.

[black mage arkhan]

Why don't you make a twiter acount for Ash?

[JohnnyValdezi]

It's ok, we've all thought the same, but if Ash had a twitter account then all the conversations you would have in the game would be meaningless, and not to mention there'd probably be a little too much for the devs to answer, whether it's details or a huge amount of tweets

[black mage arkhan]

Okay thanks

[cowbunny]

JohnnyValdezi basically has it, but think of it this way. We felt you had 10 chapters to get to know Ash, so we wanted to focus on letting you get to know the other characters since you had no way of talking to them without Ash present before this.

[Nyctofrost]

Cowbunny, there seems to be two Administrators on the forums. Who are they, and what are the accounts for? They don't seem to be active.

[cowbunny]

Cowbunny is an administrator, and there's also another account I used to make changes to the site. So they're both me.

[Alicia von Gryphon]

The maps are so cool! (just received them). Did you draw them by hand first or were they drawn entirely on the computer?

[cowbunny]

They're hand drawn using a Wacom tablet attached to a computer.

Really glad you enjoy them, we had a lot of fun making them!

[Nyctofrost]

How many installments of Timecrest are you planning to make?

[Nyctofrost]

Are you planning for Timecrest 3 to be the last part? (Hopefully not)

[cowbunny]

Luthor Timecrest is not the end of the series, no.

[ChristineMoon]

Well we need one explaining the original human connection, one for Luthor's past, and one more showing the future with Ezra... They could have a lifetime out of this.

[ChristineMoon]

Where is Elise's room? I assume in old Valdor, but is it part of a larger house/ other building?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, can you see how many active players the game has? Perhaps with the daily pay?

i added one more- I finally recruited my husband. He usually hates text games, but I guess I've talked about it enough to make it interesting.

[The Crab]

Elise is kept in a small room away from Valdor's main palace and other buildings.

We are not releasing those numbers, but we're aiming to grow quickly so please help us spread the word about Timecrest!

Thank you for getting your husband onboard! Does he have a favorite character yet?

[ChristineMoon]

Okay- I was wondering because it seemed open enough that people could walk past it.

He doesn't have a favorite yet- he just reached chapter 5 (skipped Ezra) on the iPad, and is on Mt Asura (chapter 3) on his phone.

And my daughter started last night.

[ChristineMoon]

Why does one song not have a name to it?

[The Crab]

The "?????" song is a theme for a character who hasn't been revealed yet in the main plot.

[Nyctofrost]

Where did the crab come from? Oh nvm, I didn't read your post.

[ChristineMoon]

ya know, I never click on the music note to see what theme is playing. I finally realized a few days ago that the one with no name plays when the red text is on. I'm a little slow like that sometimes. Lol.

[Nyctofrost]

What do all the characters look like?

[Nyctofrost]

I want to know what they also wear, not just their faces. It helps me imagine them better. I love how on the statue of the pretentious man on the Timecrest map is just a stick figure with violet eyes.

[ChristineMoon]

I have an extremely hard time visualizing people. But I always pictured Elise in goth/ emo wear.

And I hate to say it, but black robes make me think Hogwarts, and I can't picture any of them dressing like that. That, and even though there is 1 reference to someone carrying a wand (other than chronowand), I see them pointing their hands or just shouting. Wands are so Potter.

And yes, I love the pretentious statue as well.

[Nyctofrost]

I just imagine a normal mage with black cloaks with sleeves and the hood down carrying a book. However, I wonder what Timecrest cloaks look like.

[ChristineMoon]

I believe this is my 100th post.

Hey Devs- in future games, will the story be affected by what you did in the saved run, or by what you own?

For examples: I have Riley's letter and locket, and an item from Team 13 (acquired in Chapter 8/ Windsorhowl tunnels). From this point on, do I have to see Riley or search for that item every time in order for them to show up in future chapters, or is just owning them from previous plays enough for them to appear in the story later on?

[The Crab]

Congrats on your 100th post, ChristineMoon!

What will happen in future games will be determined by both your story choices and the items you have. For example, if you have A.C.'s sword, that will affect things, but A.C. doesn't have to necessarily to be dead for you to have the sword.

[black mage arkhan]

Why isn't happy rice cake appearing again ?

[The Crab]

Happy rice cake was an intern who did a great job on the forums, but his internship ended.

[black mage arkhan]

Hey dev are you going to make another game after the timecrest story is finished ?
btw I think you should sticky this thread so people wont forget about this

[The Crab]

Great idea black mage arkhan. The topic has been stuck.

We are currently focused on finishing the story for the Timecrest universe and haven't had a chance to think about what we'll do afterwards.

[The Crab]

What do all the characters look like?

Most of the characters you have met so far look mostly human except for the Timecrest Merchant who is a Bunarf. There are other species that look different from humans in Alynica such as the Crystallis from Icecade and the Tenarans from Tenareign. Crystallis have clear crystal bodies and Tenarans are lizard people.

Out of all the characters you have met, Guildmaster Fulgur is probably the most distinctively different from looking human because of his "hobby."

We have gotten some sneak peaks as to what certain characters look like through Ash's eyes.


The following link of Elise shows what she wears day-to-day. She typically hangs a charm from the chain of that dangles from her dress. Elise isn't wearing a cloak because she doesn't like the look of the Timecrest cloaks. This is quite surprising because we thought she liked black. Maybe she just doesn't like team spirit. Though she has been demoted now so she doesn't get a black cloak anymore.

Elise: http://imgur.com/O6SCw45


Ash takes more after Helena Timecrest, short, friendly and innocent looking with large purple eyes. Luthor takes more after Julius, tall, skinny, stoic and, in Ash's eyes, very pretentious. Though Luthor did also inherit his mother's eyes.

Riley is taller than Ash and has long, wavy, brown hair that goes down to her waist. Her cheeks has a natural, light pink flush and she has sparkling blue eyes. Normally, she's very shy and doesn't speak up much, but when she does, her voice is always very warm. She has a Valdorian tattoo on her wrist.

Valdorian Tattoo: http://imgur.com/H4OqulE


We will eventually be releasing more character images along with their clothing, including official Timecrest cloaks. Though we will release these slowly because we want to spend time to nail down the looks of the characters in our images before we release them.

[Text]

So if the time to write a chapter increases every chapter you write, can't you tie some paths together so 2 paths have the same ending? Or is it true that the decision you choose will be influenced by your earlier choices as well? (I have a hard time believing that for some reason)

[The Crab]

So if the time to write a chapter increases every chapter you write, can't you tie some paths together so 2 paths have the same ending? Or is it true that the decision you choose will be influenced by your earlier choices as well? (I have a hard time believing that for some reason)

We built our own engine for Timecrest which allows us to do things like take decisions that you made at any point in the game and have them affect scenes later on in either small or drastic ways. For example, the story branches many more times after you choose Levitas or Gravitas, but your decision to choose either or will still be reflected in future story scenes. The same goes for if you got First Mage Ezra's training scene.

When we started this, we felt that existing engines like Twine, while a really great resource for interactive fiction writers, won't give us all the tools we need to write the story we want.

Because of our system and the ability to mix-and-match any choice with any path you take, there is no right or wrong path in Timecrest, just different experiences. While we do have converging paths, we try to avoid forcing any path into the same ending just for the sake of easier writing.

You're right that each chapter takes longer and longer to write because of all the scenarios that we can cover. That is one of the biggest downsides to our system, but we are also excited at the prospect of telling a story on this grand of a scale.