The RTS Scenario. In Real-Time Strategy games, time pressure is real, because, well... it’s in real time! So the whole game is one big time pressure from start to finish. Within an RTS game, there are many tasks to perform and an increasing amount of pressure as enemy armies build up and ultimately begin attacking; you are exploring, mining, building, creating resources, defending against or attacking enemies, and so forth.

Cure the Disease. Someone is going to die of a disease, curse, or poison if you don’t get the antidote or cure. That someone could be you.

The Enemy Buildup. The baddies are building an army or super weapon, and you must strike before they are done.

The Supernatural Ritual. Someone is summoning a terrible supernatural monster or is about to transform into something supernatural, and you must stop them before they can complete the process.

The Time Bomb. A time bomb is ticking somewhere. You have to find it and disarm it.

Shrinking World. Somehow, the place you are in is shrinking. The walls may be caving in, the playfield may be getting smaller over time, or the part of the world that has not turned evil/corrupted may be getting smaller. Or you may be standing on a platform that is slowly falling apart.

Unstable Paths. The path you are on can only hold you for a brief time before it deteriorates, falls, or breaks, at which point you are in big trouble unless you keep moving.

The Sky Is Falling. A comet (or something large) is hurtling toward your world, and you must find a way to prevent it from hitting the planet and destroying all life. This can also work on a more localized scale. For instance, you have to escape an imminent landslide or a volcano that’s about to blow.

Cave-In/Avalanche. You must escape the tunnel that is about to cave in or the area where an avalanche is about to hit. Or, you may be trying to outrun the calamity.

The Burning Building. You are in a building that is going to explode, is on fire, or otherwise endangers you. You have only a few minutes/seconds to escape.

Burning Building Rescue. As in the previous example, you have only a few minutes to rescue someone and escape before the building blows up, the fire traps you, or something really bad happens.

The Storm Is Coming. There’s a killer storm on the way, and you must accomplish one or more tasks before it hits. Or you have to outrun the storm on your boat, plane, horse, skateboard, or jet ski....

Lockdown. The building is going to lock you in unless you can get past its defenses before all the passages can be closed.

Getting There First. You must get somewhere ahead of your adversaries, perhaps to deliver a message, to prevent something unpleasant from happening, or to hide an important person or object. This also applies to any race—foot, car, plane, boat, etc.

Falling. You are falling to Earth and must find a way to survive before impact.

The Attack. You are under attack, and your defenses are gradually being whittled away. You must find a way to win the day before your defenses are all gone. (Sounds like Space Invaders...)

Out of Gas. You are in a vehicle that is running out of fuel, yet you must arrive somewhere on time.

Wagers. You have made a bet and must complete a task in a certain time or before someone else in order to win the bet (Around the World in 80 Days).

The Test. You are being tested and must complete a task within a time limit to pass the test.

Time Trials. In some games, particularly racing games, you must qualify for bigger and better things by matching or exceeding a minimum time in a race, lap, or other aspect of the game. Alternatively, you must qualify by positioning within the top three, five, or whatever. If there are different heats in the qualifying event, then you must have one of the top qualifying times.

Conveyor Belt. You have to accomplish some task, such as performing an action on an assembly line, but the line gets going faster and faster. Meanwhile, you have to complete a quota within a specific time period. This scenario can be used in a variety of situations, not just assembly lines. For instance, in Space Invaders, the speed of the invaders keeps increasing, amplifying the pressure as the game progresses. Other games that use this principle are Diner Dash and Tetris, but the principle can also be applied to different scenarios in more sophisticated games.

The Environment. Something is poisoning or damaging the environment, and you must stop it before it’s too late to restore things or before some significant event occurs—such as the death of a critical character, the destruction of specific location or item, or the complete destruction of the environment itself.

The Arbitrary Timer. There’s no real reason for it, but the game is on a timer, and you have to complete a level or mission before time runs out.

The Coronation. The wrong guy is going to be crowned as king, elected to office, or anointed in some way—or married to the wrong person. You must find a way to prevent it from happening.

Courtroom Deadlines. Someone is about to be found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit, unless you can turn up the proof in time.

The Death Sentence. Somebody is on Death Row or otherwise about to be executed, and you must prevent his execution somehow.

Traditional Melodrama. Any variant on the old tied-to-the-railroad-tracks or strapped-to-the-moving-saw metaphor from the old movies.

Traditional Melodrama 2. Someone (you or someone else) will be evicted and thrown out onto the street if you don’t find a way to pay the rent in time.

Connect the Dots. Something really bad is going to happen, but it will take some time as different aspects of the evil plan or natural disaster are completed. Meanwhile, you are trying to prevent it from happening, and periodically you learn that yet another element of the disaster has been completed. This scenario can be a real time pressure, but often it’s scripted so that the parts fall into place as you complete aspects of the game, and it always comes down to you against the boss to determine success or failure.

Financial Ruin. You race against the clock to prevent something that will trigger a devastating financial loss.

Arrivals and Departures. You must get to the station (train, bus, airport, spaceport, etc.) in time to catch a ride or in time to meet someone who is arriving (or perhaps to prevent his assassination or abduction).

Message in a Bottle. You are stranded on a deserted island. You just finished the last of several bottles of carrot juice that washed ashore with you, and you know you will soon starve to death if you don’t get help. You manage to scribble a message on your PDA and stuff it into the carrot juice bottle, corking it with a stick you managed to carve with your Swiss Army knife. Once you toss the bottle into the ocean, however, you must now guide it from current to current to get it into the hands of someone who can send help before you die.

Exponential Expansion. If you don’t stop or contain it, it will grow exponentially until it is too big to stop. This could refer to a disease, an outbreak of fast-reproducing creatures (tribbles), or even a slime mold that keeps growing at a faster and faster rate. It could also refer to financial systems out of control, to your own body expanding, and so forth.

Find the Weakness. Something is killing and destroying everything in its path and seems to be unstoppable. It has to have a weakness. Can you find it in time?

The Dying Informant. Someone is going to die, and only that person can give you the information you need. Can you get to him in time?

Deadline. The paper comes out in the morning. Can you file the story of a lifetime before the deadline? Or can you find evidence to refute the story that is about to run?

Perishable or Waning Resources. You must obtain or deliver a resource that degrades over time. Eventually it will be useless—such as a living heart for a heart transplant or an unstable chemical needed to power the super weapon that will save the world.

Resource Races. You must collect a necessary and limited resource before the enemy can get it. There’s not enough for both of you, and the one who is most successful at gathering the resource stands the best chance of winning.

Waiting. Your opportunity hasn’t yet appeared, but you know there will be a chance to strike. You must wait until the perfect time, when all your resources and all the conditions favor your victory. Presumably there’s a pressure to succeed, so this scenario has its own time pressure, but instead of an activity designed to accomplish the necessary goal, it’s patience and correct timing that succeed.

Waiting 2. In this situation, you have to wait for something to happen. You know when it will happen, but you can’t do anything about it until that time. Part of the pressure is working around the situation until you can act. The other part of the pressure is the danger that you will miss the opportunity—either by forgetting or by being impeded by something—when the time does arrive. This works best where time is really passing within the game world, as opposed to the false time in which events actually trigger the illusion of time passing.

Meetings in Time. Similar to Waiting 2, some games feature specific quests, activities, or unique encounters that are time sensitive, so you must be at the right place at the right time in order for a particular interaction or encounter to take place.

Holding the Fort. Your NPC teammates are protecting a position, and you have to hurry to complete your mission before they get toasted.

Schedule. You must complete specific actions on a schedule in order to complete a mission or achieve a goal. This could be part of a quest or even a car rally.

Natural Aging. You need to accomplish your goals before your character gets old and dies, as in Pirates!

The Flood. The water level is rising, and you must find a way to stop it, reach high ground, divert it at your enemies, and preferably also protect your own installations.

Hit Man. Either you’re acting as a hit man and you must find your target before he gets away or accomplishes the goal you are supposed to prevent, or a hit man is after you, and you must either kill him first, neutralize him somehow, or get to safety before it’s too late. This applies to any dangerous pursuit, not just hit men.

Help Wanted. You are engaged in an offensive or defensive situation, and you must keep the situation under control until reinforcements arrive.

Before It’s Too Late. You have to acquire an item in a certain amount of time.

Renewable Resources. Sometimes resources used within a game will automatically (or by some player interaction) renew themselves. For instance, in a strategy game, planting a crop is an option for producing food later. Or, after logging or hunting in a game, the trees and/or game might replenish over time, becoming an available resource again. But because in neither case is the resource available immediately, there is a time aspect to these elements of gameplay, especially if you are in dire need of these resources.

Transitory Rewards. A power-up or other item appears during gameplay, but will disappear after a short time if you don’t get to it.

Power-Up Timers. Some power-up items will reappear only after a set amount of time has passed, making it important to use them only when needed or to understand the timing of their regeneration.

Power-Up Timers 2. Some power-up items will disappear after a short time if they are not used. If you need them, you have to use them soon after acquiring them.

Transportation. Often, getting from one place to another requires that you use a means of transportation that is time sensitive. This could be as basic as boarding a train or a boat that arrives and departs on a specific schedule. It might also be more complex, such as entering a magic portal that only activates when the moon is full or that appears and disappears on a regular schedule.

Slow Death. You have an item that will slowly kill you, but you need this item to finish your mission.

The Worm. A virus or worm is eating up the data in your computer systems. Can you stop it before it’s too )(*$)((I)$#( . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . That was close. I think I caught it in time.

Time Travel. Tried and true, sending someone forward or backward in time can provide new experiences and challenges. Imagine being a medieval knight thrust into a modern world with guns, grenades, and rocket launchers. Or, you are a Green Beret sent back into a time where magic is everywhere, and brute force is hopelessly outclassed.

Time Straddle. This is where you are in more than one place at once. Maybe you are trying to get forces from the past, present, and future to meet up.

Flashbacks. A specific kind of time travel, you are sent to a previous time, either as a dream or vision or in reality, such as in Ocarina of Time, where you have to understand the lessons of the past and possibly even change past events to change the future.

Flash Forward. On rare occasions, you may have visions or experiences in your “future,” which is, after all, relative. What is now and what is then? You can have fun with time.

Bullet Time. The Matrix movies popularized the ability to slow time around you (but not your time) and see even speeding bullets as slowly moving projectiles, giving you time to dodge them with an enhanced time relativity. There are various ways to use bullet time, also. In some cases, it can be a condition that is long-lasting, perhaps for the duration of a battle. In other cases, it is a temporary power you can turn on or off judiciously, perhaps with time or energy limits on its use.

Speedster. This is where you are faster than the perception of others. Daphne in the TV show Heroes is a good example. She can be anywhere in the world in a moment, due to her speedster abilities. To most external observers she just appears as a blur. So remember, time effects can be based on the perception of others, meaning she doesn’t change or affect time itself, but it’s very confusing to talk to her on the phone when she’s 3,000 miles away and then have her standing next to you a few seconds later. This opens the concept of playing with the safety that time normally brings. “The storm won’t be here for three hours” assumes that an hour takes an hour.

Rewinding or Fast-Forwarding Time. This is treating time as a recording. As in Prince of Persia or Braid, you can rewind and fast-forward through anything that’s been previously recorded. This is something Time Police usually have access to, but then again, so do security CCTV cameras.

Time Stands Still. The most frequent use of time in games is probably the Pause feature. By hitting Pause, players can stop time all together. In some games, that’s all they can do. Time stops, the game stops, and that’s it. The player can answer the phone, get a snack, have a nap—whatever—and restart the game at any time. In other cases, the player may be able to manipulate inventory, check quest information, or accomplish any number of other tasks while the Pause mode is on. Of course, some games have no Pause feature, or the Pause feature is disabled during certain phases of the game to stop cheating. Stopping time can also be used as part of a story or plot in a game. It could be caused by technology or magic. It might be in the player’s control, or it might have happened by outside means. In any case, if time stands still for everyone except the player, then there are all kinds of opportunities to explore. Or, imagine that time stands still for all ordinary people, but for the player and some of his enemies (or allies) it does not stand still. What are the opportunities and challenges inherent in that scenario? Hiro has this power in the Heroes TV show; he can freeze time, go around the room changing things (such as taking guns out of people’s hands), then unfreeze. This concept was handled well in the game TimeShift (this would be good homework!), when they experiment with all kinds of time-based combinations and tricks—for example, a box explodes, you freeze time, and there are bits of box in midair, so you can climb on them to get somewhere you couldn’t normally reach, or you go to where the box exploded, reverse the explosion, and now you are suddenly hiding inside the box before it ever exploded.

Save and Load. One very simple way to manipulate time—and reality—is to use the Save feature and reload a game at a previous point. Many games provide this opportunity, which can allow players to try different approaches to the same situation—in effect, replaying the events again and again—or, after experiencing a bad outcome, try again for a better one. This is commonly an opportunity to cheat (if you want to call it that), where players just keep reloading when things don’t go the way they want.

Passage of Time. In many games, time passes in a regular cycle. There may be periods of day and night. Days, weeks, months, and even years may pass during the game. Game designers have considerable latitude on how to affect the passage of time. A whole day/night cycle might take one hour in a game, or it might sync to real-world time. A week could pass in five minutes, or a year in 60 seconds. Players might be given the ability to speed up or slow down the passage of time or simply to “rest” for a specified period in order to accomplish certain time-related tasks without waiting.

Synchronizing Time. This is usually where multiple people in different locations or situations need to do the same thing at exactly the same time. It can also allow for dependencies, such as bank robberies (people in different parts of the bank doing different jobs that are coordinated), or maybe a specific sequence of steps to achieve a goal (take down the power plant, then take down the phone company, then open the secure door, all three within seven seconds).

Appointments and Schedules. In some games, specific tasks must be accomplished at exact times.

Looking into the Mirror of Time. Sometimes you meet yourself face to face. You have come from the future/past/another dimension, but it’s you. You might be identical, older, younger, or even...different. But in any case, through some manipulation of time/space, there you are, occupying the same general time/space continuum as...you. Now it’s up to you (the designer) to figure out how that happened and how to make it interesting, challenging, and fun.

History (Time Periods). One of the most basic ways to manipulate time is to place events in a real historical framework, such as during the period of the Roman Empire or in Europe during World War I or II. The manipulation is only that the player is now placed in a specific true period, full of factual realities. History is not fantasy, though there is a lot of latitude for fictional stories within historical contexts, but even then, there are some specific elements of the game that are strongly suggested by history. Fighter pilots in 1942 did not have laser cannons. Roman soldiers did not use assault rifles or walkie-talkies. Obviously, when playing with history, it’s going to really require some homework to make it feel right.

Time-Saving Perspectives. While not true time manipulation, the ability to change perspectives in a game can sometimes seem like it. For instance, having the opportunity to jump out of your character’s immediate environment and scan a real-time area map or see the overview of an ongoing situation may violate realism, but it comes in very handy. I call it time manipulation because imagine the time it would take to gather all that intel in the real world if you didn’t have spy cameras and scouts everywhere. It’s something to think about. How does a more omniscient view affect the game, and how do you use it to your advantage as part of your design?

Cryogenics. This is used in the sleep chambers in the Alien movies, or when Han Solo is preserved in carbonite. Being able to suspend time for an individual(s) and revive them any length of time later creates an interesting form of time travel.

Immortality. This is the classic Highlander immortality, where you can’t die. You can be a thousand years old, and all the knowledge, history, and relationships can be fun story elements. (That said, it’s tough—though not impossible—to design games where people can’t die.) A modification of this concept is to preserve only the parts of you that matter, such as your memories or brain. Then you can become immortal (living through many time periods) as you travel from host body to host body.

Perception. This is simply the idea that everything operates at different speeds, even in a single species. For example, a professional human baseball player or a professional boxer can react faster than a normal human. The perception part is that the professional can react in ways that most of us can’t. It’s like when you try to swat a fly; the fly wonders why that slow-moving newspaper is even bothering to try to hit it. It “perceives” faster than you can move. How can you use differences in perceptive abilities to achieve time manipulation?