Time Limits in Games: Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] In the opening hours of Cyberpunk 2077, things go really badly for the main character, V. After the heist thereon falls apart, V is forced to implant a biochip in their head that now functions

[00:13] and starts eroding their neural network, replacing it with the data on the chip. V is given a prognosis of just a few weeks to live, and the main quest is all about their desperate search for some sort of cure,

[00:25] forcing them to take on countless jobs no matter how risky or seemingly hopeless. Signs of V's neural degradation regularly pop up throughout, and not just in the main story, but also in tons of side missions both big and small.

[00:38] At times, it occurs in places you'd never really expect it to, blurring the line between main content and side content in an effective way, and most importantly further selling the idea that V is dying, that time is running out.

[00:53] Of course, it's not. For most players, the amount of in-game days that will pass from just doing the main story will exceed V's original prognosis by a fair bit. The data that is overwriting V's brain is an engram of Night City legend Johnny Silverhand,

[01:10] and when the chip is first implanted, Johnny is openly hostile towards V, so it could be argued that as the initial estimate came during a time where Johnny was actively trying to accelerate the process, it isn't representative of how long V actually has to live.

[01:23] And as the two start working together after this point, that extends how long V has. While this may be good and true, it ultimately ends up being a weak justification, as V has an infinite amount of time to live in Night City.

[01:36] All they need to do is ignore the problem. And unlike all the times I've tried to do this in real life, there is no consequence. Their spleen won't rupture. My spleen's never ruptured, but it could. V can live forever.

[01:49] While the weight of being in the process of dying may be felt as a story, it isn't felt within the gameplay itself. While I do appreciate their attempts of having V's terminology be addressed in some ways as to not let the player entirely forget what is going on with them,

[02:03] it doesn't solve the disconnect that occurs when engaging with any activity that isn't actively helping V find a cure. Aside from an early mainline quest that requires earning a certain amount of money, there isn't really a good narrative reason for V to engage in boxing matches,

[02:17] races, and all of the other types of gigs out there. Screw it, I'm saying it, it creates ludonarrative dissonance. Please don't leave. What's kind of a shame is that there's a really good and fairly easy solution for this that CD Projekt Red could have implemented,

[02:31] and it would have led to the gameplay and story actually complementing each other instead of conflicting with each other, and that's a time limit. I know that may seem counterintuitive for an open-world game where you're meant to get lost within a massive city

[02:43] and follow whatever thread interests you the most, but I think it would have added much-needed stakes to everything you do. Also, there are ways to integrate a time limit that actually incentivize exploration and engaging with side activities.

[02:55] Take Unsighted. Every character in the game, not just the protagonist, has a set amount of in-game hours before they become mindless husks of themselves. However, there is a resource called Meteor Dust that can extend the life of any character.

[03:07] This not only allows you to save other people, but it also helps keep your character from expiring. While there certainly is still a push to be efficient in various ways, exploring the world and engaging in side activities is the best way to get more time to complete the game.

[03:23] 2077 could have had something similar, maybe a resource that you'd get from doing side missions or an item you can buy if you have enough eddies. Even could have been partly tied to Johnny's disposition towards V, so taking on missions he wants V to do or even just doing missions in ways he might align with could buy even more time.

[03:41] This could create some interesting conflict, as Johnny's way of doing things sometimes can be really not good, so players would be tempted to make choices they normally wouldn't make in order to help V live longer.

[03:53] Regardless of the specifics, the primary way to get it would be by doing things other than the main quest. Not only would the mechanical pressure of the time limit align with the story, but it'd also make it so every activity is in some way contributing toward the primary goal of keeping V alive.

[04:08] This would make it so doing some amount of side content would be mandatory, but it'd be on the player to decide what those things are. All in all, it would push players to engage with the game as an open world and not just as a linear story in a big space.

[04:22] The main missions would still be more important than the side ones, as they'd be focused on finding a permanent fix instead of a temporary one, but this would create a more compelling and realistic reason for V to do random jobs despite only having weeks to live.

[04:34] Like, the setting props V up as someone who needs to take on as many gigs as possible to get by, but it isn't all that hard to beat the game by just doing the main path. Between quest rewards and drops from enemies you kill,

[04:47] you can get more than enough money to keep V properly stocked and upgraded. If the reward for side jobs had a mechanical effect that literally kept V alive, the pull to do them would be so much stronger and better fit with the game's theme.

[05:00] When used in the right way, time limits can apply just the right amount of pressure to to get players to actually feel the themes a game is trying to explore, and push them to engage with the full scope of abilities, items, and mechanics at their disposal in order to be efficient.

[05:14] It is a very powerful tool that can incentivize player behavior in all sorts of interesting ways, and like with Cyberpunk, I often find myself wishing more games turned to them. Like Baldur's Gate 3, which similarly to Cyberpunk,

[05:27] kicks off with a bio-tab pole being implanted in the main character's head, with the threat that it will turn them into a mind flayer after a certain amount of time has passed. Pretty early on, there is an in-game reason provided as to why you can spend as much time doing whatever you want without turning into one,

[05:42] but it felt like a huge missed opportunity to not have some sort of larger timer. There's a whole short and long rest system that largely doesn't matter. There are a few quests where if you take a long rest doing them, there may be some consequences,

[05:56] but for the most part, the system isn't really utilized. An actual ticking clock probably wouldn't make sense here, but some sort of day limit would have made the rest system so much more engaging. And they also could have done the unsighted thing of adding some resource that gives more time.

[06:10] It could have even been tied to the various tadpoles you find. Like, there could have been two ways to consume them, one that extends your timer and one that lets you access the powers. So it would be on you to decide what would be more valuable, to have more days or have more abilities to be more efficient.

[06:26] This would create all sorts of interesting choices that entice you to make decisions you might not normally make. I also felt that dredge could have been improved with a timer. While the Ding Night Facle does provide some pressure to get stuff done efficiently,

[06:38] the lack of any sort of overarching limits makes it a bit superfluous. Sure, it creates a reason to go back to town and sell your stuff, but the inventory limit already will get players to do that, making the time mechanic a bit redundant.

[06:50] Due to the player having as many days to beat the game as they want, there is never much of a reason for them to push their luck and go out on the water at night. Having a limit on the amount of days that could pass in order to achieve a certain ending could

[07:02] have given a really compelling reason to risk going out and facing the Elder Tours In general a timer would have made all of them way more scary Honestly as the game currently stands encounters with them are pretty underwhelming It only fun when you get away

[07:17] If the player does get caught by one, it'll either end with their ship being sunk, forcing them to reload from the last checkpoint, or do damage that then needs to be repaired. The thing about taking damage and surviving, though, is that in most cases,

[07:29] you're better off just scuttling the ship, as then you don't have to pay for repairs or take the slow and tedious trip back to a port after losing your motor, which you almost always will, which should be the game's most tense moments,

[07:41] are undercut by having no real consequence, except for having to replay a couple minutes. If there was a day limit, instead of getting a game over when getting shipwrecked, it could have cost the player a few days and a decent bit of money to get a new ship,

[07:53] turning those boring and tedious trips back to a port after taking damage into ones of the utmost importance and intensity, because not getting back safely would actually matter. All of this would have made the Eldritch Horror themes in Dredge be felt instead of just being a flavor.

[08:08] Ghost of Tsushima seemed like it would have benefited from a timer as well. After Act 1, a prompt pops up that says Mongols have taken back locations on the island and that Jin must liberate them. And for a moment, I felt really excited about the prospect of having to strategically push back the enemy invasion.

[08:26] But that's not what it is at all. You don't need to save these farmsteads. In fact, doing so really doesn't do anything aside from giving you a bit of experience and a few supplies. Implementing some sort of time mechanic could have gone a long way in making this feel like it actually mattered.

[08:42] For instance, mongrel forces could keep overtaking the countryside if you don't liberate locations within a certain amount of time. Not only would this have gotten me to explore more as I'd actually have gone to the locations they took over in order to fight off the enemies,

[08:54] but it's also making invasions feel like an actual invasion. An ever-present threat that needs to be addressed by any means necessary. Calling more and more for Jin to take the path of the ghost instead of the one of the samurai,

[09:07] which is what the game is trying to do the whole time. That pressure would be felt not just within the narrative, but also through the gameplay. And failing to take things back in time wouldn't need to end in a fail state. It could just create consequences for future main missions that modify their difficulty

[09:20] or block them off until the spreading threat has been reduced. Now, a pretty fair response to all of these suggestions is if a time limit would have fixed pacing and gameplay and narrative issues within all of these games, then why didn't the developers add one?

[09:36] And that's because all of you hate time limits. And like, maybe not you, and maybe not all kinds of time limits, but honestly, probably you, and probably all kinds of time limits. I am positive a bunch of you paused the video at least once already to leave a comment giving your take on why a timer in Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate 3 or Dredge or Ghost of Tsushima would have been a terrible idea.

[10:00] It is one of the most hated mechanics in gaming. The only thing I see listed as a dealbreaker more often are predatory microtransactions. By and large, they are not popular.

[10:12] People don't like the idea of missing out or failing at something due to not being quick enough. They already deal with a life full of deadlines and aging, and only have an hour a day if they're lucky to actually play something.

[10:24] So also having to deal with a time limit within the thing they are using to escape from time limits in their own life feels bad. And this sentiment is reflected in how often they're used in games, and also the ways in which they're used in games.

[10:37] Within single player titles, they lean on the side of being as unobtrusive as possible, Typically in the form of short timers where you need to kill a certain amount of enemies or get to a specific location in a set amount of time.

[10:49] And while there are certainly instances of them being used in mandatory content, these often end up being tied to optional stuff. Either way, failing to complete whatever the task is almost always just means trying it again. And as these time limits are so bite-sized, that never feels like a huge ask.

[11:04] More often than not, they're at least tolerated. Another fairly common implementation is through the use of some sort of day-night system, which sometimes is tied to the schedules of NPCs or enemies becoming more present and dangerous,

[11:16] but for the most part it doesn't really matter what time of day it is, and even when it does, there are still an unlimited amount of days. If you do miss something that is time-dependent, most likely you can use a wait feature that will get you right back to the time you need it to be.

[11:29] There are more limiting variations of this, like the aforementioned dredge and maybe most popularly Stardew Valley, where there is a definitive end to each day, directing the player's focus towards getting as much done as possible within that time frame.

[11:42] In Stardew, there are also a set amount of days in each month which impacts the types of crops you can grow and activities you can do, so there is some pressure there in planning things out to best utilize each season, but even within that, it is still pretty low stakes, as there aren't really consequences for not getting things done.

[11:58] You can't die of dehydration or default on a bank loan causing you to lose the farm. Both of these examples fall into what I'd call cycle timers, where the time limit acts as a way to establish a clear gameplay loop.

[12:10] While titles centered around timers like this are less common, I wouldn't exactly call them rare. Recently, they've popped up a fair bit in the roguelite space. Raiden's Watch, Hell Clock, and depending on how far you want to stretch the genre, Elven Ring Night Rain all have timers like this, and it feels like a natural fit.

[12:27] Roguelikes are all about doing countless runs, and as failure is kind of the point, the threat of a ticking clock isn't as overwhelming. I certainly have still seen pushback from those averse to timers, but it's definitely a lot less than you'd find from games in other genres that do a similar thing.

[12:42] For instance, stuff like the Monster Hunter series, Majora's Mask, Rain World, The Sexy Brewtail, that one game I talk about too much. All of them use cycle timers to incentivize players in various ways, whether it be to push them towards less conservative playstyles, keep them up to date with upgrades, create a clockwork world to base puzzles around, or add in a bit of pressure to raise the stakes.

[13:06] These cycles typically aren't all that long, so while the pressure of a ticking clock is an ever-present part of the gameplay, it is contained in a way where failure generally won't waste much time. Not to mention, with the way these games tend to be designed, it is unlikely to walk away from a cycle without gaining anything.

[13:22] And when one ends, the near act of the timer being reset leads to a bit of a release, which always feels nice. With that said, even with games that I'd say are on the lighter side of things in terms of limitations,

[13:34] this kind of time limit does still overwhelm a lot of players. Even though the time limit is core to how the gameplay loop works, the thought of missing out on something or not being able to take one's time to just goof around acts as a significant barrier.

[13:47] Where the tension of needing to always be moving is somewhat easy to digest in a roguelite, it is just harder to accept when it's in a genre that usually allows players to take their time. Now, what is becoming more and more rare are titles with game-wide timers,

[14:01] ones that hang over the experience on a macro level, requiring some amount of management and consideration of it with every choice the player makes. the kind of timers I suggested for all the games I talked about earlier,

[14:13] these largely can be split into two categories, action timers and real timers the first being the more common of the two What is probably the most popular set of fairly recent games with a time mechanic like this is the Persona series as well

[14:29] as many other RPGs developed by Atlus, Metaphor Refantazio being the latest. It uses a calendar system where each day is segmented into different parts, and you're given the choice of how you want to spend that time. Generally, you'll have a certain amount of days to complete a dungeon,

[14:43] and a longer amount of time to complete the game. Like other timers, this creates a bit of tension, pushing players to decide what they value the most, and to approach things strategically in order to work through the game efficiently. However, as it isn't in real time, there is no pressure on how long it takes to make

[14:59] the decisions. Players have the time to stand around and appreciate the space they're in, to experiment with different abilities, to properly consider any choice. It ends up seeming a bit more like managing a resource than fighting against time.

[15:12] So while it does have a similar effect in getting players to make impactful decisions regularly, it doesn't feel nearly as punishing as games with real time timers. Now, even though Persona's systems and others like it aren't as hated, there are always regular calls by fans of

[15:26] Atlus games to get rid of them, and in some ways it seems like Atlus has taken these calls into consideration, as with something like Metaphor, the time limits are so lenient that they might as well not even be there. It feels more like they wanted to stick with the formula than find

[15:40] an interesting way to push the mechanics forward. Despite it being the more popular of the two kinds of game-wide timers, there certainly has not been a mass adoption of it. It is still fairly uncommon, and generally only shows up in turn-based RPGs and strategy games. Honestly, outside

[15:56] of XCOM 2 and Fire Emblem Three Houses, there aren't tons of other examples, at least in the AAA space. When it comes to time limits set in real-time, though, offerings are even slimmer. For instance, when I was researching recent examples of major titles that used

[16:12] strict real-time, game-wide time limits, one of the most notable ones was Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Returns, which is the third entry of the Final Fantasy XIII series. Not only is it over a decade old, but also it is tied to one of the least popular mainline Final Fantasy entries.

[16:29] The point is, it was never meant to be a heavy hitter. It's an experimental title outside of the mainstream. To find more examples in the AAA space, you really have to go even further back and look to stuff like Pikmin and Dead Rising 1 and 2, all of which are 20 plus years old.

[16:45] Within the AAA space, game-wide time limits, especially ones that involve real-time, are avoided like the plague. The franchises that were famous for using them like Pikmin and Dead Rising have pretty much completely phased them out of more recent entries.

[16:58] To be fair, obviously the gaming landscape is much wider than the AAA space. As indies can find success by appealing to niche audiences, many are willing to take certain risks, like having a timer. I'm sure there are some that I have never heard of that hopefully I will hear of because of this video,

[17:13] but when it comes to ones that are more in the public consciousness, there really aren't that many, and the ones that have them tend to be pretty brutal. The most notable ones being the Pathologic games, and depending on what you count as a real-time timer,

[17:26] the Fear and Hunger games, which essentially have one in the form of the Hunger status, which is tied to real-time. I really can't think of many indie games with time limits that aren't super unforgiving, aside from A Highland Song and Unsighted, which frankly that one still isn't exactly a walk in the park.

[17:42] The point is, even in a sea of indie titles, options for the average player are pretty sparse. Now, I know I've listed a bunch of games that center around time limits, so it might be easy to assume that there are a lot more of them out there.

[17:56] And of course this video is not exhaustive, but honestly the games I've talked about here make up a pretty significant portion of titles that use them, or at least titles that have garnered enough attention to be somewhat known.

[18:08] Ultimately, these kinds of game-wide time limits are a wildly underrepresented mechanic in comparison to the amount of discourse they generate. The threat of their inclusion weighs heavy on many players whenever something new is announced that has seeming related to time in the slightest,

[18:22] despite the fact that virtually none of them ever include it. While they haven't been completely done away with, they are uncommon enough where I'd imagine that most people haven't played a game with one any time recently. And you know what? Maybe that's the way it should be.

[18:36] Maybe timers should only show up as small little segments, or in the form of short loops to help players not feel too threatened, or in titles made for niche audiences. Maybe it being largely phased out and implemented only in very specific genres

[18:50] is the appropriate response to the player pushback it's received. Maybe all of you are right to hate them. What's hard is despite knowing how much people dislike them and being able to clearly see the gaming landscape reflect that,

[19:05] I still think, on paper at least, time limits, especially game-wide ones, do solve a lot of game design problems. They create a wrinkle that raises the stakes, incentivizes engaging with a character's full scope of abilities,

[19:19] and provides countless impactful decisions for players to consider. They just make games more mechanically interesting. The thing is, it doesn't really matter how mechanically interesting a game is if most people don't want to play it.

[19:33] A part of me wonders if people really hate them, or they just think they hate them, and that the limited way they are utilized across the gaming landscape has only reinforced people's preconceived notions about them. Like, while I love me a quick escape section as it raises attention

[19:47] and can act as a new sort of challenge to spice things up, it can be pretty jarring when the rest of the game doesn't call for that skill set in the slightest, or even pretty much always incentivizes the opposite approach. approach. For a lot of players, moments like this become a roadblock that feels separate from the

[20:01] rest of the game, and they see it as a thing they need to get through to get back to enjoying what they actually like. The takeaway they have is that timers are bad, when the actual issue was that it didn't match their expectations for the kind of challenge they thought a game would present.

[20:15] A similar thing can be said when a strict day-night cycle is used in a game that signals as being cozy, making it so any sort of time pressure clashes with the expected experience. Also, the fact that game why timers in particular have largely been cordoned off to games for sickos like me,

[20:31] it makes it so even if someone who isn't a fan of time mechanics is willing to give one a shot, their options will be some of the least forgiving games out there. For instance, the time limit in something like Pathologic 2 is certainly a stressor, but there are so many other aspects

[20:44] about the game that make it tense and unsettling. Honestly, getting rid of the time limit really wouldn't make it that much more approachable for those who fall outside of its target demographic. So as people's exposure to the mechanic is often tied to some of the most extreme uses of it,

[20:57] or in a game that they've played in the hopes of getting away from real responsibility, or as a short inclusion in a title that otherwise isn't about time pressure, it's no wonder people struggle to connect to it. Maybe the problem is that there's not a modern introductory title to this kind of mechanic.

[21:13] And I don't know. I get that everyone has different tastes and interests, that we all live different lives, and that shapes what we find to be fulfilling ways to spend our free time. But also, I think there are a lot of people, maybe even you, who could write game-wide time limits,

[21:29] who could benefit from the pressure they create However the writer industry doesn have much of a reason to pursue titles for that potential audience as it is so unproven More casual games aimed at writer audiences are just less likely to take the risk of alienating players in that way

[21:45] even though it could be the type of experience that gets them to change their mind on the mechanic. Of course, I am almost certainly being overly idealistic, as if more people would like game-wide time limits if only more titles used them,

[21:58] If only there was one in your favorite genre. The reality is, that's not the case. I can hold out hope that it is just a misunderstood mechanic, but there are plenty of valid reasons to have issues with them.

[22:11] It's not just that they are stressful, they have other downsides. Like, if everything is not perfectly balanced, and there is one playstyle that is more effective than the others, players will always default to that for the sake of being able to get through the game quicker,

[22:24] regardless of whether or not it is actually more fun. Timers also disincentivize engaging with stuff that may not have any practical benefit, but does help establish the tone and detail of a world. Sure, the conversations NPCs have with each other in Cyberpunk 2077 is not a core part of the game,

[22:40] but it does provide texture to the world that no doubt plays a role in it feeling so special and alive. And it would be much harder to appreciate that texture if you were always running by it. Also, as much as I might like to, I can't dismiss the fact that they are stressful.

[22:54] I do believe that's the point, and a good thing, but I get that most people won't be compelled by that, because stress is a hard feeling to hold onto for that long. Even if you had more modern games that were balanced similarly to Pikmin or Dead Rising where the use of a timer is not there to create a brutal experience but instead to give structure and stakes, most people still wouldn't want to have to hold onto that tension for the duration of a playthrough regardless of the mechanical motivation it provides.

[23:23] And part of that is not every player needs mechanical motivation in the way I do. They don't need the pressure of time to engage with other mechanics. They don't need to feel the themes of the game through gameplay and instead are able to connect with them just as much by simply seeing them.

[23:38] They don't have the same problems with games that I do. And with those who do, if the stress is felt too heavily, which it often seems to be, that might only serve to make it harder to connect to it. To make it harder to turn the game on at all.

[23:51] It is a solution to many game design issues that by and large people don't want, and I suspect they never will, no matter how many stellar games come out that incorporate them. And I get it,

[24:03] there are already too many games to play, and making time for one that has a mechanic that is intentionally designed to make you stressed is a hard sell. It doesn't matter whether or not it is more interesting if it makes whatever gaming time you're able to carve out for yourself less

[24:19] enjoyable. Unfortunately, games that are more fun to talk about in video essays are not always more fun for the average person to play. Ghost of Tsushima, Dredge, Baldur's Gate 3, and post-Phantom

[24:31] Liberty Cyberpunk 2077 are all wildly beloved and well-reviewed games. That doesn't mean they're perfect or couldn't have been better with different systems, but it isn't as if the problems with them

[24:43] that I think could have been fixed with game-wide time limits are massive glaring flaws that ruin the experience. Most people were able to look past them. A game-wide timer may have brought the gameplay and narratives of these titles closer together and incentivized diving into

[24:58] these worlds with more purpose, but having one probably would have also led to far fewer people playing them. I'm glad some developers still find the mechanic to be worthy of exploring. There is a lot that can be done with it, and I really don't think games have even come close to scratching

[25:12] the surface. Maybe my idealistic side is right, and if enough great games come out that prove how effective timelines can be at crafting incredible experiences, people will come around on them. I know they won't, but one should be allowed a few futile hopes. Ultimately,

[25:28] time is weird, and being reminded that we only have so much of it, especially when trying to kick back and relax, when trying to get lost in the vibes of the moment, when trying to be okay with staying still for a bit, will never appeal to most.

[25:43] When I started making this video, I hoped to prove that the reason people don't like time limits is because they haven't given them a proper chance. I do think there is truth there, but given the current offerings, I don't know if giving

[25:56] them a chance would even matter. Furthermore, it is hard to envision a world in which there is a big shift in opinion on them, as it would require a lot of studios to take a massive risk and a lot of players

[26:08] to step outside of their comfort zone. All I can do is hold on to the belief that time limits are good actually, and be okay with the idea that there might not be enough time in the world for me to convince you of that.

[26:24] Whether it be in regards to games with time limits or just weird games in general, it is reassuring to know that there are creatives out there who just want to see their vision for what a game can be come to life, regardless of how weird it is.

[26:37] who aren't afraid to take big risks, even in an industry that often disincentivizes it. A handful of studios like this have been the subject of books created by Lawson Cult, this video's sponsor, that dive into the making of their respective games.

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[28:12] For all of you still here, I appreciate you. Big shout out to my patrons who help make this all possible. I hope you have a great day and or night, and I'll see you in the next one. I said you very strongly there.

[28:26] Alright, bye.