Time Bandit – Part 1: Appendages of the Machine news & patch notes

After many years of work, Time Bandit — Part 1: Appendages of the Machine is finally available today. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481910/Time_Bandit/ Time Bandit is a real-time adventure game where everything at your new resource management job seems to take longer than it should. Uncover a dark conspiracy behind the company you work for and fight back by sneaking around your workplace and stealing back your time. https://media.giphy.com/media/fccAlM0VhYlEY4NJu6/giphy.gif To celebrate the release, Time Bandit is receiving a 10% launch discount and will be featured in the Steam Stealth Fest and Indie Live Expo. Feel free to join us in Time Bandit’s Discord community to talk about the game. I appreciate your support during the game's launch!

Hi! With Time Bandit now released, I wanted to let you know that I will be available for receiving bug reports in the days after launch. The best place to report bugs is in the #bugs channel on Time Bandit’s Discord server because I can respond to you most quickly on there, but feel free to use the bug report thread on the Steam forums as well. The game was thoroughly tested before launch, but as an adventure game with many complex interlocking systems, there are bound to be things I’ve missed. For the most part, these should be small bugs, and I don’t anticipate many players encountering significant issues, but if you do, I will try my best to fix them as soon as possible. I am working on Time Bandit entirely on my own, so please be patient, but I will give priority to fixing anything that causes softlocks or hinders progress (while keeping in mind that Time Bandit includes certain deliberate design choices where progress may intentionally be slowed). In the meantime, if the game punishes you unfairly for quitting without saving due to a softlock, there’s a tip in the FAQ on the Steam forums for how to skip the punishment. Thank you for your support and your help in finding bugs! -Joel

After many years of work, I'm happy to announce that Time Bandit – Part 1: Appendages of the Machine will finally be available on Monday, July 24. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481910/Time_Bandit/ Time Bandit is a real-time adventure game where everything at your new resource management job seems to take longer than it should. Uncover a dark conspiracy behind the company you work for and fight back by sneaking around your workplace and stealing back the time crystals. https://media.giphy.com/media/fccAlM0VhYlEY4NJu6/giphy.gif To celebrate the release, Time Bandit is receiving a 10% launch discount and will be featured in the Steam Stealth Fest and Indie Live Expo. Feel free to join us in Time Bandit’s Discord community to talk about the game. I appreciate your support as the game moves into launch!

I'm shocked to say that Time Bandit was nominated for the Independent Games Festival (IGF) 2023 Nuovo Award! https://i.imgur.com/DQjEq2b.png You can also vote for it to win the Audience Award here! More news coming soon... For now, be sure to check out the new Stealth Demo if you haven't yet. You can download it from Time Bandit's Steam store page.

https://i.imgur.com/ppfCgsn.gif Yes, Time Bandit is receiving a second prologue chapter! Why? Truthfully it’s because the game needs a big marketing push. This is a big, experimental game with a lot of different parts, and for a long time I found it very hard to explain exactly what you *do* in the game or convey how it is, in fact, fun to play. The first prologue was more or less an intro to the story, and that was it. I really like how, in the real-time spirit of things, even the main mechanics are introduced slowly in a tutorial that's spread out over a couple of real-life days. I was happy with it artistically; it begins at the beginning, and I had no problem releasing something like that early on as a teaser to the game. https://i.imgur.com/t9TkI39.png Unfortunately, it was terrible for marketing. These first moments of the game aren't at all representative of the game as a whole. The first prologue has different goals entirely than the game that follows, namely, to introduce a story and set up the idea that this game will give you an unusual experience of time. And certainly, these things can make up part of its appeal. But at the same time, it's leading with the parts that are the most complicated to explain, and it’s just not possible for me to convince people with something like that that there's also a rather traditional game loop to come. And as with most things that stare you right in the face, it took me much longer than you might expect to figure out how to explain exactly what you *do* in the game in the most basic terms. https://i.imgur.com/Wcdcpc0.png But this is it: Time Bandit is a resource management game in which you try to sneak out time crystals in order to sell them for money, which you need to buy more fuel in order to solve more puzzles to collect more time crystals. See, a loop. It's simple! And it's definitely circular, as a loop should be! And this is a significant part of what people want to hear, I think, when learning about the game, alongside whatever makes it unique (and for that I've developed a line about how this is a "wholesome"-seeming idle adventure game where everything you do takes an unusual amount of time because the company you work for is hiding a dark secret). https://i.imgur.com/K1Vhv7c.png Around the same time that I finally discovered how to describe Time Bandit, I was also able to do some playtesting, and I quickly realized that I should use a save file to jump people past the whole story intro and into that game loop. Then it wasn't long before I also realized that giving players the opportunity to experience this game loop should have been part of the marketing all along. So, this second prologue does just that: it jumps you ahead to after all the main mechanics are introduced and throws you right into the stealth so you can get a feel for how the game works. This prologue also features a high score. How many crystals can you steal within 3 real-time days? You'll receive your high score if you manage to get to the end of the 3 days without getting caught and thrown in jail! The new stealth prologue is available by clicking on the big green button to download the demo from Time Bandit's store page. If you already had the demo downloaded, it should auto-update to the new stealth prologue. For the moment, due to certain compatibility issues, the second prologue chapter is only available on Windows. If you download the demo on Mac, it will download the original prologue chapter. The full release of Time Bandit will be available for both Windows and Mac. Good luck and have fun!

As part of Steam Next Fest, the free prologue chapter of Time Bandit will be available on Steam, June 13–20! During the event, I will also be hosting a stream to show off the unique combination of real-time mechanics, story-driven adventure, resource management, and stealth gameplay. Watch the stream! https://media.giphy.com/media/fccAlM0VhYlEY4NJu6/giphy.gif In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail. The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue? You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!

As part of Steam Next Fest, the free prologue chapter of Time Bandit will be available on Steam, June 13–20! During the event, I will also be hosting a stream to show off the unique combination of real-time mechanics, story-driven adventure, resource management, and stealth gameplay. Watch the stream! https://media.giphy.com/media/fccAlM0VhYlEY4NJu6/giphy.gif In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail. The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue? You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!

As part of the Dreamhack Beyond sale, the free prologue chapter of Time Bandit will be available on Steam, May 31-June 6! https://media.giphy.com/media/fccAlM0VhYlEY4NJu6/giphy.gif In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail. The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue? You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!

As part of the Going Rogue Steam sale, the free prologue chapter of Time Bandit will be available on Steam, May 2–9! https://media.giphy.com/media/fccAlM0VhYlEY4NJu6/giphy.gif In Time Bandit, you work for a company that's trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, so you start to steal from them. Unique real-time gameplay where everything you do takes time is combined with an addictive game loop of managing your money, resources, and energy to collect the time crystals before sneaking them out of your workplace. Don't get caught, or you could lose the time crystal permanently - or even end up in jail. The prologue also features a high score ranking. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the prologue? You can download the prologue now from the Time Bandit store page, and you can wishlist the game to show your support!

As part of the Games from Québec Steam sale, the free prologue chapter for Time Bandit received a big update! Check out new art, music, real-time weather tied to your location, and more for a limited time. There's a new high score ranking too. How many time crystals can you collect before you reach the end of the demo? You can download the demo now from the Time Bandit store page.

Time Bandit received an honorable mention at the PLAY 2021 festival! You can check out all the games in the PLAY 2021 festival's virtual space and vote Time Bandit for the audience award from within!

Time Bandit is up for the Long Feature award at A. MAZE / Berlin Festival 2021 today! But you can also vote for it for the audience award! Today only! Thanks for your support <3

Make your choices carefully, because everything you start in Time Bandit will take time to finish--just like in real life. I'll talk about some of the many unique real-time game mechanics:

• Move boxes, grow trees, build bridges, and compact trash--and wait for them to finish.
• Different guard rotations and different consequences for getting caught during stealth gameplay, depending on the time of day when you play.
• A story that unfolds slowly through conversations that work like real-life phone calls. Characters will only pay you a call periodically to advance the story over the course of days and weeks of playtime.
• Your energy meter goes down while you play, and it takes up to 8 real-time hours of good sleep to fill it up all the way.
• Meet characters at the actual meeting times that you set with them.
• Dynamic music that changes with the hour of the day.

And I'll show off some of the new cutscenes revealing the game's anti-capitalist premise. In Time Bandit, you work as an independent contractor for a mining company, but when you discover they’re trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, you start to steal back. Happy to answer any questions you have in the chat or on Discord: https://discord.gg/vhue5NtN39 :)

Make your choices carefully, because everything you start in Time Bandit will take time to finish--just like in real life. I'll talk about some of the many unique real-time game mechanics:

• Move boxes, grow trees, build bridges, and compact trash--and wait for them to finish.
• Different guard rotations and different consequences for getting caught during stealth gameplay, depending on the time of day when you play.
• A story that unfolds slowly through conversations that work like real-life phone calls. Characters will only pay you a call periodically to advance the story over the course of days and weeks of playtime.
• Your energy meter goes down while you play, and it takes up to 8 real-time hours of good sleep to fill it up all the way.
• Meet characters at the actual meeting times that you set with them.
• Dynamic music that changes with the hour of the day.

And I'll show off some of the new cutscenes revealing the game's anti-capitalist premise. In Time Bandit, you work as an independent contractor for a mining company, but when you discover they’re trying to take control of time in order to make you work for them forever, you start to steal back. Happy to answer any questions you have in the chat! :)