Timeline
Timeline is a minimalistic management game simulating a network economy through space and time. It has been developed with Unity for the GMTK game jam 2021. The theme of the jam was "joined together". Its gameplay rely on joining different kind of worker, ressources and locations together in a big economic network to produce more and more advanced techonologies. It proposes to illustrate how any product is the result of the joint labor of a multitude of people.
How to play
- Drag the round anchor at the end of a wire on an empty place in the timeline to build a new location.
- Drag the round anchor at the end of a wire on an existing location to link two locations and create a new ressource.
- The anchor that has been placed can be removed or moved only if no location depends on it.
- The wire has limited size and the number of anchor that can be linked to a location is limited so be careful to not be stucked. If you are stucked, remove the last anchors you placed to unlock the situation.
- Put the mouse cursor over a location to display the ressources the location produce and the ressources it can convert.
Inspiration
This game is inspired by the woolen coat example written by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations :
The woolen-coat, for example… is the produce of the joint labor of a great multitude of workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool-comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others, must all join their different arts in order to complete even this homely production. How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others who often live in a very distant part of the country! How much commerce and navigation in particular, how many ship-builders, sailors, sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been employed in order to bring together the different drugs made use of by the dyer, which often come from the remotest corners of the world! What a variety of labor too is necessary in order to produce the tools of the meanest of those workmen! To say nothing of such complicated machines as the ship of the sailor, the mill of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let us consider only what a variety of labor is requisite in order to form that very simple machine, the shears with which the shepherd clips the wool. The miner, the builder of the furnace for smelting the ore, the feller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made use of in the smeltinghouse, the brick-maker, the brick-layer, the workmen who attend the furnace, the mill-wright, the forger, the smith, must all of them join their different arts in order to produce them.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Post jam updateJul 11, 2021
Comments
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I played this game far longer than I should have. After getting the rocket I had some fun with cows that I hadn't used in my original run then found an optimised way to keep blasting back into space.
This game is so fun, but I also hate it, just a little bit...
I had to restart so many times because the lengths each building could reach are different, and it's infuriating.
FUN AND VERY ADDICTIVE BUT A BIT STRESSFUL TOWARDS THE END
NEAT THAT YOU CAN SEEMINGLY PLAY INFINITELY, BUT SAD THAT DOES NOT GIVE THAT MUCH SATISFACTION ONCE YOU GET TO THE ROCKET
8/10 HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUT WOULD NOT PLAY AGAIN CUZ I GET STRESSED WAY TOO MUCH
LOVE IT. Really addictive and unique management gameplay.
It took me a while to grasp without a tutorial or manual, but I got there. Then I was hooked as I slowly optimised across different playthroughs until managing to get the rocket, which I sadly only did by churning out loads and loads of kids at the start (haha).
I was super excited when it continued after landing on another planet; I did want a bit of a change of gameplay, but it is quite poetic how you have to build up through the same structures again (I suppose infinitely?)
I also like the simple art style and patch-cable interface. Really nice idea. I wonder how or if you could expand on it to build a larger management sim, as it's a really nice, unique take on a city builder.
bob played this, bob likes this game, bob recommends you play it.
yup this is good
Please send help
I softlocked myself by not having enough space for an electricity pole in range of a house, which means I can't make a student, which means I can't make a scientist, which means I can't make a research center. Any solutions that don't include taking back everything I did?
You should always ensure that you have the seed and two kids out in front of whatever youre doing, so you can begin from scratch again without having to take stuff apart. Before attempting the industrial age, send your tree forward at maximum range (take a kid to help actually maximise the range of the tree, otherwise your range is hindered by the fog of time), so send the tree forward like 5 times and when you build things in there, always leave two bits of space free directly to the left of the trees, this gives room to place an electrical pole and route electricity to all your stuff.
Yeah I just didn't do that for the house to the left of the industrial area, and then I built a bunch of stuff right there
idk tbh
The amount of infrastructure to make this possible was insane. Have to beat the game five times, then build up population really quick from the left side of the timeline with only one space module. There was a tragic limitation: there should be room for seven houses in between the trees, which would have allowed for fourteen houses on screen instead of twelve. However, it seems impossible to feed the middle houses. So this is what I could achieve.
I did it boys and girls XD
Please send help
For those who get stuck, remember that you get insane value from the long range of kids/laborers, and that fields are useful storage for your kids/laborers so they're not spread out like crazy and you can keep track of them; so just spam field-house-tree-house-field, field-house-tree-house-field, and carry the kids you generate with you (you can put them down on a field and pick them up as you need them, as either a kid with reduced forward range to carry forward to the next field, or a laborer with full range, depending on how you pick them up). At a certain point, start using only the laborers to collect wood for the houses, and save the kids for producing the fields. Eventually you get to a point where you have 6 full range kids, ten or so laborers/kids with reduced range, and the seed parked right on top of your last field-house-tree-house-field, and the furthest forward house will have two empty slots you can route electricity to for the two students you need to complete the game. After you have that, you're set: just propagate the tree forward 5 times at max range (the range of kids/laborers/students/cows is about 5 trees) (also, in order to truly get maximum range out of the trees, take a kid with you to plant fields/pastures to push forward the fog of time, then remove the fields/pastures). The entire industrial age will fit nicely in those 5 tree spaces, and the kids/laborers from that last f-h-t-h-f are enough to do it. With some finagling/switching around, I even got the entire industrial age to fit inside only four tree spaces. Just remember, when you're starting the industrial age, leave a tiny space just to the left of the trees you're propagating forward, used for the electrical poles you'll eventually use to channel electricity back to that aforementioned house.
What does the f-h-t-h-f actually do though? I'm ending up with 2 kids extra, which is what the game starts with. I don't really see how this works but it's prob just me
Nvm got it I think
yah...the f-h-t-h-f is the most basic way to propogate forward and still increase population (f-h-t-h-f takes 4 kids and 1 seed to produce 6 kids and one seed). There are more space efficient ways, but this one is simple and sufficient.
I played this a while back and loved it, but I couldn't remember the name now I found it again. 10/10 would recommend!
edit: add a save feature to the downloadable! and music toggle
i got softlocked
make it so we can save
Cows are immortal, 10/10.
easy?
not for me
the problem is placing all the buildings as close to each other as possible, it should be easier after the first playthrough
I love this. It took me a while to get to the Rocket but after that, I got my method down.
My tips:
Because the distance of the buildings are very short, and the distance of the persons are almost infinite, so it is better to reserve enough amount of the “kids” before you start the industrialization. In this way, it will hardly be troubled by the distance problem with carefulness.
I remember that I had reserved more than 6 kids, and had not built any pastures.
Hope it helps.
omg I finally finished the rocket
cool game :)
this is a puzzle i would like a mini tutorial
love the game and music
Cool game concept whit a lot of potential, but is executed incorrectly. The art style is great but the thing the you should do whether you will continue updating it or not is a tutorial and save system.
Please let me drag the thingies farther, I keep having to undo everything
why can you turn kids in to laborers that's slavery
That's just how getting a job works.
very cool game, though a little frustrated when you did something wrong and have to destroy several buildings to keep working. Some wires can be dragged far away but some can only drag a little, and the rule is a little confusing which can be dragged more. Sometimes you forgot how to get something and have to move back to see it.. it really takes sometime to scroll back lol.
Here is a full list of rules for the game and hopefully it will be helpful for people who get lost:
build seed get tree
tree produce seed
tree convert kid/laborer/robot to wood
build kid get field
field produce food x 3
field convert kid to laborer, robot to food
build wood get cottage
cottage convert food to kid, electricity to student
build laborer /robot get mine
mine produce stone
mine convert kid to coal, laborer to iron, robot to icon
build food/cow get pasture
pasture produce cow x 3, manure
pasture convert food to cow, kid to laborer
build stone get template
template convert food to food, kid to apprentice
build apprentice get workshop
workshop convert wood to paper, cow to food, iron to pipe
build paper get school
school convert laborer to engineer, student to scholar
build engineer get factory
factory convert coal to electricity,oil to fuel, manure to fertilizer, iron to robot, kit to laborer
build electricity get electricity pole
electricity pole produce electricity x 2
build scholar get institute
institute convert laborer to astronaut,student to scientist
build scientist get research center
research center convert fuel to rocket
electricity to robot
build pipe get pump
pump convert electricity to oil
build rocket to space rocket
space rocket convert astronaut to space man
win!
Interesting game.I would describe it as a puzzle game, rather than 'minimalistic management game simulating a network economy through space and time'.
It is a lot of fun to try and figure out, where to place what in which order. And i feel that is the main premise of the game :)
Stuck on figuring out how to build a factory
sure do love turning kids into coal
minor miner
i really dig those minors
HAHAH you seem to have replace the E in Miner with O on accident....On accident right
Wait What You turn kids to coal i should call the police
(throws a child into the incinerator)
dont call the cops (throws you into incinerator)
tôi đã bị bí khi than và giấy không làm gì được
Love it!
Really makes you think about things differently. Very Cool
I don't think I've ever been so impressed with a browser game! I love that there's not a manual and you just slowly progress and discover how to make new things. I played two rounds and saved it to play again another time. The replay value is 10/10
A fun and confusing game
Hi, i'm stuck with the loading screen at 0%, how do I fix this? Do I need to download or disable anything? I'm playing on chrome. Tried playing on Safari but then it got stuck at 90% instead. I use a mac Monterrey ver 12.0.1
Really cool concept and nice minimalist graphics/sounds. I had to start over several times to figure it out. Well done!
This is a really cool game, though the limited range of all the components makes it way more tedious than it needs to be
great game! thank you for the experience
did anyone get to space then relize you have to start over lmao
this game is really interesting