Recurrence (Indie Game Maker Contest 2014 submission)

Recurrence is a free game I created in ~30 days for the Indie Game Maker Contest!  You can view the contest page if you’d like, but don’t download it there (that’s the old version).

I received my scores from the contest, and it placed in the top 20 for one judge, and top 30 for the other — out of 800 entries! It also came in second place in the NeoGAF RPG Maker contest!

This game will be expanded and enhanced!  While this version is a “full game” in that it has a main storyline and an ending, it was always my intention to fill out the rest of the city with people and quests, upgrade the graphics, and release it as a FULL game. Please comment and share if you like it!

I made a HUGE update to the game, mostly focusing on adding music and background sound, which was the main thing I ran out of time for. Please get the newest version below!

OS: Windows only. May work in WINE, etc.
CRG server: Recurrence v1.02 (includes RTP) – 242MB (most users should download this version)
CRG server: Recurrence v1.02 (RTP required!) – 60MB, RTP required (If you don’t know what this means, get the other version of the game)

On the day of your brother’s kidnapping, a malfunctioning wrist teleporter sends you into a time loop, forcing you to repeat the same day over and over again (in the vein of “Groundhog Day” or “Source Code”). Master skills, gather information, and socially engineer your way to his location. Can you break the cycle and save your brother’s life?

Note: Despite being set in the future and using a time loop, this has absolutely nothing to do with the new movie “Edge of Tomorrow” (as far as I know; I haven’t seen it).

I have been working on this game full-time this whole month (June) just for this contest, and I can prove it! I have been recording vlogs every few days to show my progress, which I will compile into a “making of” video at some point.

• Open World – explore at your own pace, and see things in the order you choose.
• Time Mechanic – rewind (restart) the whole day at any point. People will forget your mistakes!
• Social Engineering – experiment with different dialogue choices and socially engineer your way through!
• Single Open City – most of the game takes place in a single large city map. Enter a building and the roof disappears with no loading!
• Integrated Hint System – call or talk to your uncle for help at any time.
• Memories – when you rewind time, the only thing you keep are your memories. As you gather information, these will open up new dialogue choices.
• Learn Skills – what do you do when you have all the time in the world? Become an expert.

Note: some of these reviews are based on the contest submission (v1.0), while others played slightly updated versions. The full game will address all of the minor annoyances (it will add fast-travel, quicker ways to do things, more quests, etc.).

From the NeoGAF RPG Maker contest (I won second place):

someguyinahat
Best story: Recurrence. Smartly written, doesn’t rip off too terribly much from other works with the same concept, and really makes you want to see the main character succeed.
Best tone: Recurrence. A lot of these games went for comedy value, and I don’t blame them. A lot of the games went for a dark “stop the approaching danger” and didn’t let up. That’s good too. But Recurrence had a good mix. The protagonist is in a strange situation, has some fun with it, but never takes his eyes off the very serious prize, and in the end you can see just how much it affects him.
Best overall: Recurrence. Should come as no shock that the game which won two categories was the best overall.

From the RPG Maker Web forum:

Indrah has been livestreaming all of the games posted on RMW, and finally got to mine! She’s a bit caustic in a funny way, so you shouldn’t take her too seriously because she rushes through all the games and her videos are more entertaining than informative/critical. Also, I sent her the newest version, but she played 1.0, so it’s missing music and stuff. Her video also seems to get way out of sync with the audio, so keep that in mind. You can watch her play Recurrence here, and you can read my response on the forum.

Jesse – PVGames | Score: 3.9/5 | Read my response to this review

Click here to read review

I really enjoyed this game. It has a unique premise which involves continuously shifting back in time and using the knowledge you gained from the future to achieve your goals. There is a strong mixture of Back to the Future and Groundhog’s Day here – the uncle has Doc Brown written all over him.

This is one of the few games that had me playing past the one-hour mark (I think, I lost track of time) and I made sure to play it to completion. You can’t really ‘lose’ in this game, because every time you do something ‘wrong’ like get your brother killed, you just go back in time and do a little bit better the next time around. I found the game to have a lot of clever witticisms and the dialogue was very enjoyable. I really liked the whole memories system, which is how you find out new information that will help you achieve your various goals. I wish some of the tasks you have to do over and over were a bit quicker – like robbing the bar and getting the ID badge, because after doing these for like the third or fourth time it sort of lost its charm. I feel like I missed some things in the game, or possibly alternative routes to achieve objectives. I feel that there was more to the Boundary than I had initially explored since I learned the names of the thugs, but was never able to do anything with that information.

Graphically, I enjoyed the main character art. I found the mapping in some places to be well-done, like the bar, but the town itself was very bland and expansive with nothing in it and three-quarters of the buildings you can’t enter or do anything with. This made the constant running back and forth time and again a bit more tedious than it ought to be.

Conclusion: I would most likely give an even higher score if this game was further developed, more alternative ways to achieve various goals, and more, longer, expansive gameplay (I understand the 1-hour limit, I just could foresee myself playing even more). Overall, this game is certainly worth checking out!

Alkorri | Score: 4/5 | Read my response to this review

Click here to read review

Stayed up to play this when I should be in bed, and oh man, was it worth it.

I love the concept of having to restart each day armed with new memories and secrets to get you past to the next stage. This must have required a ton of switches and stuff!

I like how you started the main character pretty much in the action, although I wish you could have established some kind of relationship between the main and the brother so that we, the player, could see how close they are. Perhaps brief flashbacks at key moments when the player learns a new secret or some such? Just my two cents. Judging by how the main character must have restarted the day for A YEAR to learn martial arts, you managed to at least communicate the love the two brothers have.

At first, as you probably expected, there was some blundering around because I didn’t know what to do or the steps I was supposed to do them first. It didn’t help that:

• the map takes a while to walk from one end to the other
• even running, I felt the character was s l o w
• I wish the connecting bridge could have been in the middle part of the map, and not the far right

Luckily, you provided a map and an immersive hint option through your uncle (I ended up calling him a LOT, let me tell you, when I was stuck).

A few minutes of frustration in the beginning melted away when I realised that the key to progressing was to get to the waitress before she left the bar, and that’s when the game opened up for me. I love the little things happening as I became aware of events, like the thug dropping off the ransom note and my being unable to get to him because that navy(?) dude kept getting in the way (ARGH ;) .

I’m amused that you have to be evil or, okay, a bit immoral to progress in the game (necessity rules!)

I like how you streamlined the Distracting Sheila process, but why can’t we have the same for the beer part too? I’m only saying this because I’ve had to buy three rounds of beer so many times it became a little tedious ;D Would have helped if the bartender allowed you to buy three drinks at a time. (Come on, what bartender doesn’t let you buy more? ;D )

Sheila’s assistant doesn’t seem to mind me rummaging in his desk right in front of him. For a moment I thought you were meant to and I was supposed to pick up some secret.

If I know martial arts, why couldn’t I take out that lone thug and get his weapon? After all, you hinted that you could get a weapon from “police or thugs”. I didn’t come across that police officer who sold guns until later, so naturally I thought I had to get it from that lone thug (since he was there). Nope. Back I had to go to the beginning >_<

I really like the bust art for the main character! But what about the Uncle? Just wondering :)

Cool endgame scene of the main kicking ass and rescuing his brother. I just wish I saw something of the thugs getting punched up, for all the frustration they gave me.

I found no game-breaking bugs, so congratulations!

Number of Days Restarted: 418

Time taken to play: 1 hr 30 minutes

Three words: “I know kungfu.”

From the IGMC comments section:

cyberlink64

I just finished the game. It was amazing! It took me more than an hour but I loved every second of it figuring out what to do next
I just voted this game. If you come up with sequels for this game or expansions for it with more puzzles. I would love to play it.

Great job!

Mazequest
Amazing game! I gave your game a shout out on my game page. I hope you win! way better than my game although it is also good