Time Raider

Interesting concept, but as ever with flash games, the mix between mouse and keypad usage gets a little annoying.
I like the replays though!

nice game... but a bit too hard for me -_-

I got up to the 3 statues that you push...

gotta love the "Jay will die" hidden in there, that made me laugh like a loon :D

If Harukio was able to finish it, anyone can. >:)

Awww... That's not nice! Poor Harukio. The game is good, I like the look of it, but it made my brain itch.

am i the only one who is surprised that the "replay" concept was interpreted almost identically by four of the contestants (Timebot, super earth defense, replay 2, and time raider)? Not that I am complaining, I really like the concept of using a replica of yourself to aid in solving a puzzle. Now it's got me thinking . . . how would i have implemented the replay idea if i were designing a game . . .

It is an awesome game!!! Congratulations Rey Gazu!!! You rules!.

how should i get past the blades?

how to jump over the fire in that micro second it goes off??

yeah, magic, i was thinking that myself. the first use of time travel in that manner that i encountered was in the movie Primer. made me wonder if it's the source of inspiration or maybe it's just something in the air. or water.

for the blades:

try 'fooling' them into thinking you're going past them. :)

if the fire is only going out for a split second, then you've done something incorrectly -- or for not long enough. ;)

Best one yet. Incredibly creative.

How can you get past the swinging rope? You have to play as the middle guy more than once, and the time when you get the rope changes.

I must be doing something wrong, because I click only one of them and they all start moving before I touch the keyboard. Or... are they supposed to do that? Haha.

This is awesome! Best game by far.

Hmm, I like the idea, but its way too frustrating having to restart each floor from the begining every time. Shouldn't you be able to automatically replay a floor from where you hit rewind? {Problem in spoilers 'cause it mentions solutions to puzzles)

After finally managing to swing across the pit and flip the switch, I couyln't get the middle guy to lower the rope at the exact same time as before, so the bottom guy dies. So I do the bottom guy again, several times, and get across. But once again, I lower the rope a milisecond off, and its all screwd up!

I really like the game, it is a great concept. The problem is that it is pretty buggy and you do not always get the same results while playing. In other words, after going back in time, sometimes your guys might miss the jump on to the rope or wave at you instead of flipping the switches.

Hm... hint on the statues anyone?

i see that some of the symbols appear elsewhere in the game, but...

What's the statue code? I've tried tons of combos, none turned off any flames. Can it be deduced logically, or is it guesswork?

This is a very pretty game. But I am pretty hopeless at playing it.

The idea is great and I can see the reasoning but for me (I suspect I am one of older players on this site) it's one of those I'd like to see a walkthrough *blush*

Ah well, maybe it will be clearer in the (UK) morning!

Are wou sure this is kid safe?

Ugh, this is far too hard in the timing. And is it just me? Or are the other guys dying where they shouldn't be?

Like I got the blades down perfectly, switch to another guy and he dies on the blades. What happened?

It is absolutely a game about timing, and one that may cause you to make several attempts before getting right.

I can say that if one of the other guys is dying, don't worry about that so much because you will likely be controlling him again before you're through.

That was a difficult concept for me to grasp while familiarizing myself with the game.

I've tried all the combinations for the statue puzzle that could be seen, but none seem to do anything. I suspect they affect the top floor's dilema, but I'm unsure. It's also difficult because the game lags severely after an extended time in the acid. /shrug.

For those of you having trouble timing the bottom floor here's what I've done, and it works very well.

While on the middle man, lower the rope slowly in notches. Three turns will lower it completely. So I suggest lowering it twice, then wait a bit, just a couple seconds, before the last drop. Switch to the bottom man and get near the edge, and hold down. This will make you duck, it's just a signal to yourself. Try to time it right and simply stand up a second or so before you know the rope will fall completely.

Now next time you're the middle man, you can time yourself using the bottom man to lower the rope. Simply wait for your bottom self to stand up and hit the rope for the third time as he does so, and it should work perfectly.

for the statues, here's what I'm thinking (though I haven't gotten it yet)

the top floor has the poison-dart-shooter, which has the symbol that's already on the statues.
the middle floor and the bottom floor have the gateways that have the swirly on the outside, and a skull shape as one of the layers inside.
I'm assuming that if you get the statues right, then you can turn the lever and have the flames not go on, or affect the top floor or something.

I got the statues

the first one represents the top floor
The second one represents the bottem floor
and the third represents the middle floor.

this one rocks! i cant figure it out though, the timing of everything is hard! good work on this game.

Remember, pressing space when there's nothing to do makes Gazu wave. That can be useful to signal yourself for timing. The only part I had some annoying trouble with was the rope. Next time it would be nice if it had raised a little island platform you could jump across.

ProfessorZ89, it is pretty kid safe. There is some "cartoon violence" and some blood but all done by traps and that's about it.

Need help with the statues?
1st

Look at the dart machine

Look at the smashers

Look at the blue walls

You will be able to pull the lever without getting burned

...but be careful...

Ok I reached the end. But can somebody tell me if there is a secret ending. See Below...

When you get all three to the pressure plates at the end and door opens up at the end of the middle level. Can the middle guy walk through that door? Maybe somebody can play through again and find out.

I was going to say that this was my favorite so far, but the bugs are killing me. Does anything the middle and bottom guys do affect the poison-dart trap or the blades on the top level? If not, then yeah, some more beta testing would not have hurt. Still an excellent concept, though.

Brandon - Yes, the actions of the characters all trigger things on different levels. <:)

There were no glaring bugs that I encountered.

I'm really impressed with this one, although I haven't beaten it yet. I can confirm however that everything referred to in the comments as a "bug" is not a bug. It's just a feature of the game being challenging.

OK, what I don't get is

What deactivates the monster on the top level?

i thought this game was pretty sweet but i just didnt like how it took forever to rewind and how it would glitch and mess up one of your other guys. but its a good idea for a game.

I'm stuck on the green bubbly monsters on the top, too. I'm reserving judgment until I can win this thing.

Okay, beat it. I think the statues were a bit unreasonable (I only got them because of the comments here), but otherwise this is an excellent entry, and my favorite so far. Yes, it's in the same vein as several of the other time-based puzzles, but it's by far the most original of the bunch. Really neat aesthetics, too, and some very crafty puzzles.

My beef with the statue is just that this isn't the medium for such a puzzle. Every other element of the game is a binary one, in that it's off or on. As such, it's easy to undo those portions without being frustrated. But cycling through 216 statue combinations, and *then* having to watch yourself do it again while it's rewinding? Not too fun. The fact that the actual solution is only vaguely based on provided information doesn't help much. (Many of the other symbols appear in similar places, too.)

The serpent was, fortunately, easier than I first expected. The top guy is definitely the easiest one to finish with.

Really, this game was fantastically conceived and executed. It's hard, yes, but that's not always a bad thing.

I've found a bug: waving will override any death trigger.

I haven't finished the game, but it I don't see how the statues fit in with the rest of the puzzles in the game.

Can someone explain the statues to me like I'm an idiot? I've read the clues here, put them in, hit the lever and had the flames come up twice in a row. Not to mention the rope glitching out on me a couple times in there, and having to kill the bottom guy so I could check the thing on the smasher.

"Can someone explain the statues to me like I'm an idiot? "

input the symbols in the chronological order that you first see them in the game

leave the first statue as it is, set the second to 3, and the third to G

I'm having some serious problems here. I can't get past the first traps (axes, fire, and giant hole). Am I missing something?

Wait a second...is the whole

sneaking up on the axes

In that case, disregard my last comment.

Wow. I completely do not get this game. At all. I must be incredibly stupid.

I went through each of my guys in order, and they all died. Now, whenever I choose a character the other guys just go back and do what they did when they died, and there's nothing I can do to change it.

This might be a really cool game, but I'm just not into games that are this hard to figure out. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't have the patience.

Okay, I figured out my problem and yeah, this is a great game. Still can't get past the green monster, though.

"I went through each of my guys in order, and they all died. Now, whenever I choose a character the other guys just go back and do what they did when they died, and there's nothing I can do to change it."

You have to play it in a way so the actions of one raider compliments the actions of the others. You'll have to replay each several times before you get them all to synchronise perfectly and finish the game. In the end, it is like you played the game with two other people at the same time. Triggers in one row trigger traps in another.

@Suho1004: this game cannot be beaten without playing each character multiple times -- even if you know exactly what you're doing! Also, you don't need to wait until you die before hitting the time rune to rewind.

For example, the middle guy needs to get past the flames.

There's a switch on the top level that turns the flames off. But after the top dude presses that switch, he's stuck for a while before he can progress. In the meantime, you'll need to rewind and work with the other guys. The top guy will just keep on repeating his successful navigation to that fire-stopping switch.

Just remember when you do eventually replay the top guy that he'll have to do everything with the same timing, or else middle dude might get burned trying to pass the flames!

Here's how I passed the green bubbly monster:

My last two guys were already to the end. Then, the first guy walks just far enough for the bubbles to start. I ducked, though I don't think that's necessary. I went from ducking to jumping forward over the bubbles, and it seemed to be enough. In short, duck, then jump forward.

I don't know why that worked, though. Did anyone else have a more legitimate plan?

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll have to go give it another shot when I have a little more patience. I get the concept, but I'm just a little fuzzy on the execution right now (and by "a little fuzzy," of course, I mean "completely clueless").

Obviously it's possible, because a lot of people have done it, but right now my patience meter is at zero and I'm just not getting it. Like I said, I'll have to give it some time and come back to it later.

"Did anyone else have a more legitimate plan?" (green bubbly monster)

I was able to just walk by the monster while the boulder animation was playing. There are some bugs in this game related to multiple things happening at once, so it may not be the only way.

The game was a great concept and I enjoyed it, but it could use some polishing.

Some people may think that a bug is killing the top Gazu, or that the dart shooter has gone nuts, not true.

The dart shoots when a Gazu walks over a fire pit hole

omg this is hard
and amazingly well done

will play more in the morning!

(its nice to have a character that was nicely drawn and animated too :P )

When timing is so critical like in this one, I'd love to have a "program bar".. where you can view the actions of each layer the guy does, and code it there.

Very much like puzzle 15 in click drag type http://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/09/click_drag_type_3.php

WALKTHROUGH

Choose Top. Wait for just a second, then walk to the first button, which activates the smasher. Wait for another moment. Walk to the block to the left of the blade slot. Position yourself so that your back foot is standing on a crack. Jump straight up, which will make the blade fall. Walk under the blade when it pulls back up. Do the same for the second blade. Stand on the next button for a while; this turns off the middle fire and turns on the bottom fire, only while you're standing on it. At this point, you can't get any further with Top, so rewind by clicking the Time Rune.

Choose Middle. Wait for the smasher, then walk up to the flame and wait. When the flame turns off, walk past it (notice that the dart shooter pops up and shoots Top). For simplicity's sake, jump over the smasher button. Stand at the well and hit the space bar three times to lower the rope until it starts swinging. A door blocks further progress. Rewind.

Choose Bottom. Start walking immediately. When you go past the flame spot, notice that you have again (actually pre-again) activated the dart shooter; it should shoot while Top waits behind it on the smasher button. Wait by the pit until the rope comes down. Jump to grab the rope, swing across a la Pitfall Harry, and jump off at the other side. Go to the door switch and activate it with the space bar. Wait for Middle to potentially be able to go through the door, then pull the door switch again. Rewind.

Choose Middle. Do everything you did before, making sure that the rope comes down at the same time, because Bottom won't make it across the pit if the swinging is out of sync. Go through the door when it opens. Push the statues with the space bar until they display the correct code.

Leave the first statue alone: This is the symbol you saw on the dart shooter.
Push the second statue until it shows a jaggy 3. This is the symbol you saw on the smasher.
Push the third statue until you see a rough spiral like a G. This is the symbol on the doors.

When the code is correct, pull the switch to the left with the three fire spots under it. This will toggle doors, release a rolling boulder on the bottom level, and temporarily deactivate the green monster on the top level. Pull the switch a second time. This will reopen the bottom left door and close the door to your right.

Now hang out for a while. You're basically waiting for Bottom to potentially walk to the end so that you don't have to do this again. If you want to be sure you've waited long enough, do two laps between the doors. Then pull the switch a third time, releasing the boulder again and opening the door to your right. Walk to the right and stand on the end button. Rewind.

Choose Bottom. Do everything you did before. With a running jump, grab the rope again and swing to the left side of the pit, where you will wait for the boulder. When the boulder has dropped and the door is open, swing across again and hurry all the way to the right and stand on the end button. Rewind.

Choose Top. Now you have to get to the flame button as fast or faster than you did the first time. The first dart should fire in front of you while you stop on the smasher button. Get past the blades as before and onto the flame button before Middle walks into the fire. Wait on the button for Middle to walk past the fire spot. Jump over the dart launched at you. Go to the right and wait out of range of the green monster, three blocks to the left of it. When Middle pulls the switch, hurry past the green monster.

There's one more blade. Trigger it as you did the others to get past it. Then stand on the end button, and watch the ending sequence.

Hmm there are some serious problems with the replay.
i managed to pass the axes with the first guy.
when i rewind and try to play with the second guy, the replay for the first guy messes up and he dies by passing the axes. thats not realy fun.

without this bug i realy would like to play this game till the end.

cheers,
cosie

Wow, great implementation. Really hard, but great.

I especially love how once you've played a character through, their action will always stay like that until you change it.

However, in the instructions, I assumed I was able to click and select a character at any time, not just at the beginning.

Also, there are some traps (like that very first dart-thing) that are triggered by invisible switches that would be really nice to see.

I think I would

There's a much easier way to get past the green snake on the top level.

You simply wait for the middle level guy to push the statues and flip the switch. That also deactivates the snake and then you can just walk by.

Anonymous, it isn't buggy, every time you move a character you change the sequence in the chain of realities, one second difference means a lot.
Come on guys, stop complaining, it is hard, but just as hard as quantum physics are meant to be.... I can't take my parallel realities farther than half way but I still am tripping with the idea that everything you touch has repercussions somewhere else... Our lives are maybe like this, just we don't always get the chance to have a look at what we've just done.
Wicked Ray, I usually play point-and-clicks (no rooms but progressive p-n-cl'k) and don't like games with no plot, but this is beyond common theories on what a plot it is. You got me thinking!
Nice one!

I've found out something useful, if I don't go forward when I was meant to, the rest of the guys stay one step behind

My one concern is that firing off the first dart trap does seem arbitrary, inconsistent, and unavoidable... sometimes. I would definitely like an indicator for where the trap is, so that I don't assume the game is freaking out or that my actions are randomly effecting it.

Slade - If you watch the Gazu on the lower level make his way across, I think you will notice there is a logical cause-effect relationship to the dart firing. ;)

(Same with the one on the middle level.)

I play through the top level, and once I'm past the blades, the darts stop. I play on the middle level now because the flame is out, yet my top guy gets shot with a dart when he was perfectly safe when I was playing him. Without darts shooting at the top guy when I'm playing him, its impossible to dodge darts that come when I'm not playing as the top guy. It made me angry so I'm moving on to the next game.

Sam,
The reason the darts go off while you are playing the middle guy is because you have walked over the spots on the ground which trigger the darts. Hope that helps!

okay is it just me or is it that sometimes your doubles are stupid and just stand there and do squat?

No magic, you are not. It seems we have talked about this game the most haven't we? I think he is getting a prize again.... I thought the gameplay was a little slow, you moved slowly, and then the time rune took you back in time a little slowly too, so the ploay just seemed kindof slow, I wonder his reason. Other than that, best game yet.

Anarchy, you might not want to call your doubles stupid. They only do the last thing you told them to.

(So if you click the bottom Gazu and make him wave three times and then click the time rune. When you switch to another character, all the bottom one will do is wave three times and then just stand there until you select it again and give it a new sequence of actions.)

The top guy can avoid the dart by

ducking.

Just have him duck for a a period of time - or even keep him ducking while you click the time icon

It's a great idea, but the time for rewind is too tedious for me. Especially when trial and error is needed for a few bits. I suggest a "restart button" (ie. instant rewind).

I'd also like to switch to other guys at any time... this would avoid the timing issues with the swinging rope... however, I think it would also defeat the concept of the game... so I just don't know about this one!

Maybe there is a simple way to make the timing aways works? One way is to repeat the bottom guy from the beginning again... but that's way tedious, esp with the slow rewind...

I can't get through the first part.

The only things I can trigger are the droping of the stone on the second level from the first level, and the firing of the dart from the thrid level. And that's not helping, not at all.

Great game, for the symbol for the 3rd statue, on the door thing, there is a skull with "jay will die" written under it... Does anything happen when you type a skull in instead?

Also, when the guy waves... I'm sure someone's spotted it...

yey! finished...

yeah I wonder what could happen if you are finishing with the middle one and not with the joe below... could you go through?

mbvm, I totally understand the concept that everything you do with each character can change things for the others and am fine with that. The biggest problem, however, seems to be with the swinging rope. If you are way off on your timing, yes it should not work. It is buggy though when your character jumps through the rope to his death when he obviously should have grabbed the rope and swung across.

It is a great concept, just needed a little more love before it was released.

Great, really wondering how someone can make something like this in such a small amount of time. While the theme is so good implemented I can't imagine the game was already on your harddisk before competition announced. Congrats! Very prince of persia too, I like that :)

im having trouble with the rope swing. i can jump on it fine but mid swing my guy falls down the hole.
help please!

I agree - there needs to be an instant rewind button, since after a bit the rewind becomes slow and tedious. That's the only reason I stopped playing halfway through. Apart from that, the game is quite good.

Great Game! Do we get to vote in the competition? If we do, this gets mine! Up to the boulder at the moment. Mr middle not hitting the statues! Oh well.

I hope this game wins so far, i suck at it but the idea and the design is brilliant.

Great game and all, but I can't stand the rope. Someone said before a platform instead would work better, and I couldn't agree more.

the game takes too long to react to your keyboard and mouse commands.

It would REALLY be nice if you didn't have to reset the WHOLE thing.
Being able to stop the rewind would be better.

This is by far my favourite game of the competition. The replay theme is implemented brilliantly, and it's an excellent cross between a platformer and a puzzle game. There were a few glitches, yes, like for some reason I got the middle guy all the way to the end, but when he went there on his own as I was controlling the top, he got burned by the fire. But it's easy enough to just redo his character and be a bit more careful.

I'm not sure why people are complaining about the timing being that hard - it's trivial just to give signals with your characters (i wave with space) so that you know when to do things with others. Or, as I tried to do the first time I played, you could just go as fast as you possibly can on all of them so that they all sync up.

The first time I played it, it took me about an hour to figure everything out and complete it. For such a simple flash game, that's a huge amount of time to keep someone entertained. And it wouldn't be that hard to make more levels, or even put in a level editor so people could make their own and upload them to a server so others could play them.

Overall, it's a brilliant concept with a great execution. A few small bugs to be fixed, and a couple things to be expanded on, such as more levels being added, and this could be an amazing game, one of the best flash games I've ever played. Hell, if you really wanted to, you could make the graphics and physics a bit better and make it into a full-fledged downloadable, shareware game.

Easily my favourite entry in the competition. I really hope that a sequel is made, as it seems to be set up to be at the end.

I really like this! The timing is all part of the game. OK you have to repeat yourself, but I think that captured the theme very well. The best in the competition IMO, maybe the best from all the competitions.

no one answered my question about the rope swing...i checked all the older comments and i dont see anything that helps me. to repeat my problem:
i swing onto the rope fine but i always fall into the chasm. i cant seem to make it over to the other side. is there a button i should keep pressing?

Bravo :)

I don't think this should be listed as "Kidsafe". It contains blood. Eww. That's not the type of game I think is Kidsafe.

So how did he rotoscope it, did he trace the video, or did he have a program?

You can rotoscope with Adobe After Effects.
(One month free trial on the Adobe website).

Just so you know guys:
I redid the whole thing, ending with the middle guy.
No different ending.. sorry ;)

for the rope swing

you need to keep the space bar depressed while you hold the rope, and don't hit any other buttons till your on the other side (usually just right will work)

didn't realize I needed everyone to stand on the buttons. There was no way I was going to play the whole thing AGAIN, so I figured I was done ;p.

Absolutely superb concept and the graphics are fine for the job.
Unfortunately the overly strict timing soon made it more of a mindless "Wash Rinse Repeat" type game than the excellent puzzler it should be.

awsome
^^...

it`s great