Tempus Bound

I have no idea what I just played. I'm not even sure I can call it a game; I just wandered in random directions and watched the fever dream unfold. It was pretty and interesting and novel, but at no point did I feel like I was playing a game. This felt more like an interesting technical demo or an art experiment. Unfortunately, art experiments aren't my thing. I want to play a game and have fun.

Unique and beautiful. Be open minded and just let it happen and unfold.

weird little vibes based platformer. i wouldn't say it's [i]much[/i] of a test of skill, but the visuals and audio design are striking and incredibly atmospheric, which helped make the game gripping even during segments that amounted to just walking right for a while the narrative is wordless and largely up for interpretation, giving tempus bound this psychedelic, dreamlike quality that complements the unique aesthetic well. i do kinda wish there were some (more?) hints on how to [spoiler]open the locked door at the end[/spoiler], but it doesn't ruin the experience to only get one ending

This is not a game, this is an artwork someone made out of pixel art and animated it to life in game engine, fantastic artstyle and visuals, but there is not much of a game in it. It's a very primitive "move towards right side of the screen " type of game with at least 2 platformer sections, some of the platforming melted into background so you can't tell where to go. Buy only when on deep discount. I'd probably refund it, but unfortunetelly i completed story mode, and would feel very silly for refunding a completed game.

I really want to give this a positive rating, It has beautiful pixel art graphics and physics, (a couple) cute characters, and is the first steam release from a solo dev, but there's just not enough here, and what is here isn't very good. The first area is so dark you would barely be able to tell where you were going if it wasn't so linear, and there's holes that can send you back to the start for seemingly no reason other than to annoy you and pad out the minuscule run time. The second area goes by so fast you barely notice it (though I did fall through the map multiple times), and the third area is probably the best, but has these jumping pads that disappear (again, for no reason other than to annoy and slightly pad the time spent) and are just very janky; then its over, credits roll. Very light platforming through 3 very short linear areas. No save system, barely any options, no replayability other than the "speedrun" mode or to get achievements. If you love the aesthetic and want to support a solo indie dev, yes, pick it up; but if you want an actual fun gaming experience to go along with that, I wouldn't recommend this game.

Nice and short tech demo, not really a game. It should be distributed for free on itch.io: definitely not worth the price.