Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture No Longer Features One Hour Time Limit

Lead designer Dan Pinchbeck talks about the initial idea.

Posted By | On 11th, Dec. 2013

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Though introduced as a novel concept, Thechineseroom lead designer Dan Pinchbeck has told Eurogamer that the studio will be removing the one-hour time limit feature from their upcoming PS4 indie title, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. It means exactly what you think – you would play and explore for an hour before the game was reset, back to the beginning.

“It’s an artificial conceit that doesn’t necessarily produce a good player experience. [The idea is] probably more suited to an arcade-style game, but not really good for a non-linear story-driven drama.”

Pinchbeck does mention that it still plays an important role in the game, and that it was more exploring other means of story-telling in video games. “How far can you get? How much can you explore? Imagine reading a novel and you’re really into it, and 30 pages before the end someone comes up and takes it out of your hand and goes, ‘I’m afraid that’s it. Your time’s up,’” he said of his original design.

“One of the things we really, really wanted to explore with Rapture was the uniqueness of storytelling in games. So there are things you can do in terms of how the narrative is structured and how the player relates to the structure of that narrative and how time relates to all of that, that you can’t do in another medium. That’s something that’s pure games. We really wanted to explore: what is it we can do with this that no other medium would be able to touch? How do we make this a real ‘game drama’ rather than a drama that just happens to be a on a game machine?”

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is currently slated to arrive in 2014. It will be exclusive to the PS4.


Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out!

Share Your Thoughts Below  (Always follow our comments policy!)



Keep On Reading!

The Game Awards 2024 Nominees to be Revealed on November 18

The Game Awards 2024 Nominees to be Revealed on November 18

The full list of nominees for this year's show, which is set for December 12, will be unveiled on Monday at 9 ...

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake Peaks at Over 14,000 Concurrent Steam Players on Launch Day

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake Peaks at Over 14,000 Concurrent Steam Players on Launch Day

In comparison, the last HD-2D release – Octopath Traveler 2 – saw a peak of over 17,000 players on Steam u...

LEGO Horizon Adventures Sees Worst Ever Steam Launch for Sony with Just 602 Peak Concurrent Players

LEGO Horizon Adventures Sees Worst Ever Steam Launch for Sony with Just 602 Peak Concurrent Players

Another PlayStation-published title gets off to a less-than-stellar start on PC, with LEGO Horizon Adventures ...

Avowed Accessibility Features Detailed

Avowed Accessibility Features Detailed

Obsidian Entertainment's RPG will feature accessibility options for controls, camera, UI, text, and more, alon...

Avowed – Minimum PC Requirements Revealed

Avowed – Minimum PC Requirements Revealed

PC players will require an SSD and around 75 GB of free storage space, Microsoft and Obsidian Entertainment ha...

Avowed Will Also be Available on Battle.net at Launch, Premium Edition Unveiled

Avowed Will Also be Available on Battle.net at Launch, Premium Edition Unveiled

Obsidian Entertainment also confirms pre-orders are now open, and reveals a Premium Edition, which will includ...