4Players: As you said before, Timeshift was almost finished when Sierra gave you one more year to enhance it. How close have you really been to finishing it?

Kyle Peschel: Well, on the Xbox 360 we only had seven bugs left. To give you a perspective: An average game of this size - because we have that reversal feature, which is like a bug-generating machine - we had about 14.000 bugs in the database. And only seven were left to be fixed. So I probably could have been done the next day.

4Players: Literally?

Peschel: Yeah, literally the next day. Maybe the day after that.

4Players: Timeshift is pretty much THE game focusing on time shifting features. But turning back time or slowing down time has been done in many games before. Aren't you afraid that this sort of feature has already worn out?

Peschel: Absolutely not. Because I'm not doing it like anybody else. Let's say that you're thinking Max Payne or F.E.A.R. or Viewtiful Joe or any of these games: In their games you slow time. Everything was slow: you and the world. It was like a John Woo moment. I expected, like, pigeons to leave in the background and fly off in slow motion. In our game, when you slow time you, as the user, are immune. So, that means that if I was to come in

Kyle Peschel (right) answered our questions under very sunny and even more windy conditions.here and I was to hit Time Slow and say "Stand up!", I stood up fine, would do a little dance around, went and got some groceries, came back and you guys would still trying to stand up. Time Stop is different. It's not that you guys are slow and I can move fucking fast, so that you perceive me like Dash from the Incredibles like I'm fucking zipping around and I perceive you like being really slow.

In Time Stop you can't move. I can. I can shoot my gun. I can fucking do anything that I want to do. So, I could actually hit Time Stop right now, pull out a gun, point it at each one of you, but it back away, bring time back online and act as if I had done nothing and you would not react, because you had no idea what happened. Time Reverse is the same way. Time Reverse is not like what you have seen in Prince of Persia. In Prince of Persia everything goes in reverse. It's essentially like a replay. In our game the flow of time goes reverse while you go forward. So, let's say you shot me - you shot me and I kill you: When I reverse time you come back up to life, the bullet will come out of my body and back in your gun and it will be like you never shot me - but I am still bleeding! Because I am immune (to time shifts, ed.). So, it is not like anything what you've seen in other games.

4Players: When you reverse time and play the same scene again - will it play out exactly as before or will characters act differently?

Peschel: Depends on what you're doing now. If you're in the exact same place as you where in before and do the same things as before, they're likely to do the same thing, because they are making the most intelligent choice at the time. But if the first time you guys are running straight at me and then I reverse time and then I stop over there instead of keep running here then you go: "Whow, fuck, he came over here" and you will turn and go that way. So, some scenes you will see continue, because that's what was happening, that was the most contextual thing. And other scenes you won't. In most cases the same thing won't happen again unless it was the most logical.         

4Players: Can you go into more detail concerning the three Timshift powers, especially in regard to Stop and Reverse?

Peschel: Time Stop lasts for five seconds and is easier to use. It comes online before. Powers come online in a specific order: Slow, then Stop, then Reverse. It (Time Stop, ed.) only lasts for five seconds and it comes online earlier, so you can use it more often. Reverse is far more powerful: It takes longer to come online, but it lasts longer.

[...]

Let's break down some gameplay situations. Let's say you're fighting. The most logical thing to use while fighting is Time Slow. Because it lasts the longest. That's what you are going to see most of the time. But if you were within two feet of a guy and you have no ammo and no gun, the most logical thing would be to give you Time Stop, so you can take that gun. And let's say there's a threat coming at you: The most logical thing would be to reverse Time.

4Players: So, Timeshift features, when you activate

Naturally, huge explosions are essential for a field trip into an action game.

Peschel: No, you can. But the potential to be on (differs).

4Players: Since S.A.M. now suggests which power you should use: Aren't you afraid players are going to feel restricted? Because they can't use all three features at any given time?

Peschel: Well, you could use all three features.

4Players: In which way?

Peschel: You saw me using that conduit, right? (During the presentation Peschel was trying to use a physically correct swinging pipe as a plank, ed.) You could have slowed and it had worked, you could have stopped and it had worked and you could have reversed and it had worked. All three of them would have worked. Now, one was suggested to you. And likely you are going to take the best suggestion, because it's the best suggestion.

4Players: So, it is just a suggestion but you could have used another feature?

Peschel: You can't just choose something else, right? Say, you have three guns, right? And another game might suggest you use this gun. Well, the reason why it's suggesting it is: It's the one that has bullets. The other two have no bullets. So, in theory you could use one of the other ones, but since there's no bullets it would be very foolish to use. Now, if, while you're using this one, this one gets bullets put on it, then you could use that one if you wanted to. But you'd have to wait for that to actually transpire.

As far as the frustration goes: I'm not taking away Gameplay. In fact: I'm actually giving you more. What I'm taking away is the panic of not knowing what to do. And I'm introducing: This is what you do, now what will you do WITH it? So, I'm essentially trying to give you tools and you figure out how to do something with them. Whereas before, I didn't give you tools and I didn't tell you what the fuck to do.

And one of the things that came back from an overwhelming amount of people who previewed the game: They loved the game until they got to something where they didn't know what to do. And then they where done. Or they called me up and go: "My god, I fucking suck on the fourth level, I can't figure out how to do this." Whereas now I'm like: "Use Time Stop." How? That's up to you. "Use Time Stop" - and you know it's possible right here to fucking do something. And all I have to do is figure out what the fuck I am supposed to do with Time Stop.     

4Players: If you want to use a certain power do you have to work hard to get into a situation where you can use that feature?

Peschel: It doesn't really work like that. Let's use my gun reference that I just gave you. If I give you a gun and that gun kills a guy, are you really upset that you didn't use another gun? Because the objective was to kill the guy - and you killed him. So would you really go like: "Fuck, I really wish I could have used the pistol!"?

4Players: Sometimes, yes.

Peschel: Well, then you reverse time and shoot him with the fucking pistol! *laughs* But I think that& how many times do you replay a game?

4Players: Rarely.

Peschel: So, how many times do you think you'd replay a situation you were just in? Once you go beyond that situation all you do is go beyond it. You don't stop and think: "I want to go back and do that again."

4Players: That's right, but maybe I wish I could have done it differently. Or I wish I would have had more choices. Because the more

This is where the presentation of TimeShift began.

Peschel: And I'm giving you as the player the decision. All that I am supplying is a tool. You still get to decide what to do with that or not use it. Like, you could have actually gotten off that pipe without doing anything. You know, maybe you could have found another way around. I'm not forcing you into a bottle neck. What I'm saying is: Here is a fucking obstacle - what are you going to do? Red pill, blue pill. What are you going to do? And ultimately it is about that decision what you make with it. You are getting a choice; your behavior is a choice.

4Players: Let's talk a little about story. Do you weave an intelligent story around the game?

Peschel: Absolutely. The overarching story is that Aidan Krone, the villain& the only thing we changed about him is his first name& he used to be Ivan Krone and now he's Aidan Krone. I thought that if Aidan was your first name you probably got beat up a lot and so makes you a little more madder, secretive or introverted. So, Aidan Krone is tapped by your government to investigate time control. And he makes the first suit, the Alpha suit, the old suit from the game. And it's only functional in design. He's only building it to see if it works and guess what: it works. And so, since it works, he becomes more and more reclusive about it and the government is saying: "Hey, what about government funding and do what we're saying-kind-of-thing?" So, you're sent in to find out what he's up to. And you start to work on the military suit, the Beta suit that you as the main character eventually wear.

And through the opening sequence of the game Aidan decides to make his last jump. He's set up the fucking alternate future and he's ready to go occupy and dominate the landscape. And so, you charge in after him to try and stop him. And dude, I got no idea what it is to warp through time, but I got a pretty good idea. I imagine it's disorienting as fuck. You don't know where you're going, you don't know who's good, you don't know who's bad, you don't know what's up, what's down, what fucking month it is, what day it is, what's the weather conditions, you got no fucking clue. So, I imagine when you lay there you're probably unconscious for a while, right? I mean if fly to fast in a jet there's g-forces that knock me out - I can imagine what it's like to fly through time, right.     

So, as you get there these rebels find you and drag you into their place and they are like: "I got no fucking clue who you are. But we are fighting back this fucking bastard, Krone, who occupies this space. He's fighting back, he's pushing us out." And you realize: "Oh, Krone, right. I don't like Krone, I'm here to stop him." So they take you to kill him. And then shit goes really wrong, the suit malfunctions, the story malfunctions, the gameplay malfunctions. *laughs*

I wrote the game for more of an MTV generation. Before it was more like Ridley Scott generation. You remember Alien? Go back and watch it when you get home. You'll be like: "Well, this movie is kind of boring. Brilliant. Brilliant fucking horror movie. But damn - did I really need to see a panning shot pass this fucking wall for the last few seconds?" And then you go and watch Aliens. James Cameron

All enemies have various vulnerable zones.

4Players: Are we ever going to see the main character?

Peschel: You'll see him in his suit. As far as not in the suit: Fuck, no. Because you are the main character.

4Players: So, you are, in a way, the Gordon Freeman character.

Peschel: No way. Gordon Freeman is a scientist who kicks ass. You don't know who you are. You just know you were sent in to work on the military suit...

4Players: OK. But you're using the same means to tell the story.

Peschel: No, because Gordon Freeman gets talked at and never responds.

4Players: So, here you DO respond.

Peschel: No.

4Players: You don't get talked at.

Peschel: You do. But you have a co-character in your suit. You have S.A.M. So, I can bridge that gap with Sam. I dont need some Dude going: "Dude, you're the fucking biggest man around town. They need you! Move over there!" Instead what can happen is *makes a sort of beeping sound* S.A.M. comes on and says: "Listen. We need to go here. I've analyzed what's going on here. I've read all computer systems. I know what's going on. I am going to update your radar of what's ahead." Although, S.A.M. would never say it like that. S.A.M. doesn't explicitly talk. S.A.M. says things but S.A.M. doesn't talk. Talking is like: "Hi, how are you?" "I'm fine, how are you doing?" SAYING things is more like: "Threat detected." That's more like the responses you get.

4Players: Thank you very much for taking the time!