The Time Killer: The Making Of
The Time Killer: The Making Of
19th May 2025
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Dang, I wrote blogs on this site? Wow. They feel like... ancient history. Nevertheless, I'M BACK FOR ONE POST BEFORE MOST LIKELY NOT WRITING BLOGS AGAIN FOR 2 MORE YEARS!
Cool drawing amirite? Click it to play the game!
This is a game I made with WinTH03 for Thailand Summer Jam 2025. The theme was road trip, and it was a week-long jam. I highly recommend you check out other games from the jam as well. My favorites include 4HB4 the End of the Road, Heatwave Frenzy, Cozy Crazy Trip and Delivery, None Stop Service, and DRIVE TO EXIT.
When we discussed high-level ideas before the limitations were revealed, I pitched my fascination with text adventure games at that time. To be frank, I'm not a huge fan of playing them. (As I was lost and confused the entire time playing Zork.) I simply liked "the idea" of them.
Doing all your inputs by typing is something I'm a fan of. Glyphica inspired me to propose time-sensitive typing minigames, so it's more than just a visual novel. Win agreed it would liven up the gameplay.
I know it makes NO sense, but the main cover was styled like an Atari 2600 game...
(I just like the aesthetic, okay?)
By the way, this blog will mostly be from my perspective, but if Win sends anything in about the experience on his side, I'll make sure to include it.
Writing the nonsensical adventure:
Writing the nonsensical adventure:
I usually write in a doc like this for a game narrative, a pain to have to convert it to code later on, but it's more comfortable this way. I dislike just writing the story from scratch in, say, RenPy or a dialogue system.
We talked again to fit fragments of our discussion into the limitations once they were revealed. With Win focusing on the technical side, I got to work on writing.
Two things were on my mind at the start: Jason X (don't ask, I rewatched it to test my patience), and Radiohead's Jigsaw Falling into Place. The song didn't have any actual meaning connected to the story at first, but I realized afterwards that it can vaguely represent the way the killer kept trying to reach its goal, despite the goal being virtually unobtainable. I love happy accidents like these.
"Before the night owl, Before the animal noises"
I thought it'd be funny for the characters to start off acting like impulsive (and questionably horny) teenagers in slasher movies before it being revealed later that they're actually super smart Harvard graduates, impulsive (but still questionably horny) working adults. ...Well, everyone had a job except Fah, our main character.
Speaking of characters, here are their profiles:
Speaking of characters, here are their profiles:
Fah is based on the Jam's mascot, drawn by Bit Egg's artist. (They host the jam!) There's an inside joke between Win and me that Fah dresses and acts like a "สก๊อย" (Sa-Koi), a part of Thailand's... dubious subculture.
Only she and the killer got the privilege of getting more than 1 color for their design. Her hairstyle was inspired by Ramona Flowers.
Erick doesn't like inflation, the economy is rough as is. It's already tough finding work in his field.
Oh, right. Character design. He's a nice yellow buff guy. His hairstyle was inspired by Alex Turner. (Arctic Monkeys' Lead Vocalist) His necklace is a bottle cap! Just like Sebastian from Alien vs. Predator.
Nicky. Ahh, how fitting it is for the chauffeur to be the third wheel.
His hairstyle was inspired by V from DMC5. His likes reflect my brief obsession with rallying, I couldn't afford a driving sim or anything, but Dirt Rally 2.0 with an XBOX controller was still cool.
My goal for the story wasn't really to send any message. I wanted to explore MECHANICS. What I mean is that I enjoy stories with solid mechanical power systems. Systems such as The Spin and Stands from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, The Niko Style in Kengan, or Ridley Scott's Alien life-cycle
I do have an entire backstory in mind about how the killer got there, what their power is, and where it came from. Looking back, I do wish I had spent more time refining these points and putting more clues into the game. I guess for now, it'll just be sitting in my mind until either I come back to update the game or expound on it in a different story.
One of the toughest challenges I faced while writing was trying to write about smart stuff when I'm not smart. Prometheus and Alien: Covenant inspired me to do so. I tried my best to understand time travel by watching 3 Kurzgesagt videos. I even remember reading through Tusk Act 4 and Soft & Wet: Go Beyond's descriptions for some kind of ass pulls.
The part I loved the most was writing the dialogues, especially the banter. The characters' personalities were DESIGNED to create as much banter as possible, at least for the earlier parts. The antics between close friends are so fun to write, as I'd have an excuse to be immature. (Let's not talk about Fah's "yo mama" joke.)
The Silver Case is a great showcase of this. The characters would just keep talking, complaining, and making fun of each other like real people who are close.
I enjoy slasher films. They're great for turning off your brain in the best way possible. But I do catch myself turning my brain back on and complain when the characters do something stupid, or the killer who was killed gets revived for the 9th time just to continue being cash cows, or the killer inexplicably gains a new ability like teleportation. Especially the ability part, I WANT ANSWERS GOSH DARN IT! HOW DO THEY DO IT? DOES JASON HAVE A HEALING FACTOR? OR IS IT MORE LIKE DEADPOOL'S CANCER CELLS-
TL;DR slashers were a huge influence on the writing and design, and I wanted to combine it with fun, complicated sciency concepts. I do wish I had explained some parts more with better storytelling. But hey, I'm still pretty novice, and I only had one day to get the entire narrative down.
Still, I had a lot of fun geeking during the writing process. I wanted my art to act as love letters to all the art I consumed,
enjoyed, and enriched my life. Some may say excessive referencing is a bad habit.
But hey... I was Born This Way.
Drawing when you can't draw:
Drawing when you can't draw:
The Troublesome Trio
I drew seriously and consistently for around half a year in high school before stopping.
It's a skill that I seldom pull out for music visuals/album covers, but certainly not my forte.
For the majority of this game's art, I traced over stock photos under the CC0 License and the models in PostMy.Art. (For stock photos, Pexels was my best bet.)
All of them were done in Aseprite, with a few receiving minor effects in Photoshop.
This might also be a good time to mention that the killer's mask, aside from clearly ripping off Jason, has two holes between the eyes representing a colon on a digital alarm clock. He was going to have a mouth at first to distinguish himself more from our Hockey mask-wearing powerhouse, but he looks so much more menacing without it. Cracks and blood splatters were added instead to fill the space.
I LOVE the high-resolution, detailed pixel art style. I've found them to be a joy to work on, satisfying to create, have a unique look, and also easier to upscale when needed. The majority of people at the afterparty (BitEgg holds a party after the jams at their office) mentioned the game reminded them of FAITH: The Unholy Trinity and Nikita's Milk, both were certainly influential.
The artist who kickstarted me to try was hcnone. His game,
Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines, is very dear to my heart as well. I highly recommend you play it.
This killer shot, for example, went into Photoshop for background texture and glare.
With my limited experience, faces were the part I had the most practice in. Followed by upper body... then the rest of the body... then the environment... then HANDS!?!?!?!!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
"Hand" by NeatNeet, 2025
With my (ever so slightly) more reasonable time management, I was able to swap working between art and sound, which kept me from getting burned out. (Well, not too much anyway. :D) This also helped me fit the two together as I could make more rapid adjustments and implement ideas when they're fresh.
Keeping a low profile was important to not detract from the game. Still, I made sure to spice things up when appropriate. Such as the B-section of the puzzle song ("Brain"), which is in 5/4 for no reason. And the album opener, "The Time Killer," which played during a minigame that... was so out of left field it would be a sin to spoil. I already didn't want the game to take itself too seriously, and working on that track cemented the game's comedic and style-over-substance aspect.
Music has always been an important part of my life. With sound design being something I'm slowly dipping my toes in as well. When it comes to original creations, I want each song and every single sound effect to be unique. I want people to listen to my track and go, "What genre is that?" or to hear a sound stab in-game and think, "I've never heard anything like it." Not because I want to be special or stroke my ego, but because exploration and rule-breaking are my main goals, and I consider those aspects integral to my style.
At the end of the day, art is stealing. My soundscape is an amalgamation of things I enjoy, music and non-music, just like my writing style. It just happens that this medium is the one I'm best at covering my thieving tracks. ;)
So... when you play The Time Killer, or any of my future game projects...
Bump that sh*t up.
Bump that sh*t up.
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