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Chronology throws together a man and a snail and tasks them with saving a dead world

Chronology

“Think Day of the Tentacle meets Lost Vikings,” says Chronology developer Osao Games. Well, I think to myself, that’s a bit dangerous. Drunk Scandinavians and time travel sounds like a recipe for disaster. 

But it turns out that Chronology isn’t about drunk Scandinavians at all, but is a time jumping platforming puzzler. It’s been Greenlit and will go live on May 12th.

Upon first taking a look, I thought it seemed a bit more like Braid than Day of the Tentacle or Lost Vikings. The bright colours juxtaposed to the melancholy, depressing subject matter are very reminiscent of Jonathan Blow’s game, along with the obvious: the shifting of time.

Osao Games see the similarities too. “Just to clarify a bit, yes, Chronology has similarities with Braid – both are platform games and have puzzle solving revolving around time modification,” says the developer.

“However, the time travel puzzles in Chronology are typically built around the fact that plants grow big, objects decay and characters grow old over time – with the addition of also being able to stop time. Furthermore, you play as two characters that you must make work together using their individual abilities.”

The two characters in question are the snail and the inventor. The fez-wearing elderly gent can travel between the end of the world and before the catastrophe, while his slimey chum can stop time altogether.

“So, while Braid is not the worst game to get compared to,” the developer continues, “Chronology plays quite differently and has to a larger extent been inspired by games like Day of the Tentacle and The Lost Vikings.”

So! It’s not Braid, but is like other things that are also nothing like Braid. Day of the Tentacle is one of the greatest adventure games of all time (I don’t want to fight you, so don’t disagree), so I’m curious to see if it’s more than just the Lucasarts classic’s extremely clever time travel puzzles that inspires Chronology.

Lost Vikings, which is incidentally free on Battle.net, is another hugely important game, at least in my version of reality. I always worry when devs compare their games to old classics. The use of multiple characters for the solving of puzzles is certainly Lost Vikings’ bag, though, just like Chronology.

You can play Chronology now, but only if you jump 6 days into the future. Absent a time machine, you’ll have to wait until Monday.