Timecrest

Category

Description of App

*** Best iOS Game & Developer of the Year, AppleVis Golden Apples 2016 ***

*** Apple Watch Best of 2015 ***

“An interesting story... Simple fun.” - The New York Times

“Worth a look–even if you’re not a fan of interactive fiction–as this is the best one so far.” - RNIB Connect Radio

“The meteors will obliterate everything, and all I can do is watch.

You don't know how glad I am you can see my messages.

It means, in this moment, I don't have to die alone.”

In Timecrest, where epic fantasy meets interactive fiction, author Lisa J. Skye introduces you to Ash Elden, where together you both must scramble to solve the puzzle of who unfroze the meteors to destroy Ash’s world of Alyncia. You discover that you have access to a forbidden magic–the ability to turn back time.

Every choice you make matters, and will change the outcome of this massive 225,000-word interactive story, leading to one of multiple endings. Immersive yourself within the emotional soundtrack and explore the non-linear maps.

With your new incredible powers, who will you choose to live and let die?

- EXPERIENCE AN EPIC STORY with over 225,000 words and multiple endings.

- DECIDE who lives and who dies. Your decisions change the story, so choose wisely.

- EXPLORE ALYNCIA at your own pace with our new non-linear maps.

- IMMERSE YOURSELF in a world of fantasy and magic, with 24 musical tracks to set the scene.

- BUILD A TEAM and make friends. Unlock secret storylines by building your relationship with other characters.

Timecrest is a nonlinear story based game with multiple endings where every choice you make matters. The story progresses in realtime. Ash will be notifying you on what is happening in Alyncia and awaits your guidance throughout the day.

What would you do with the power to turn back time?

Praise for Timecrest:

“Timecrest stands out from many of the other interactive fiction games I've played.” - AFB, AccessWorld Magazine

“The characters really do draw you in.” - Jamie Pauls

“It's not just a survival, yes/no–binary choice thing. It's like you're watching actual characters, actual people, living actual lives.” - Alex Hall

“With its developer actively engaging with the AppleVis community to learn how to improve the accessibility of the app and then acting on this feedback, it is no surprise that Timecrest has become a firm favorite with many blind gamers.” - AppleVis

Version

3.5.0

Free or Paid

Free With In-App Purchase

Apple Watch Support

Yes

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

16.4

Accessibility Comments

This app is very accessible.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Other Comments

I find this app to be quite awesome. It will keep me busy for a while. Hope you will enjoy it too.

Developer's Twitter Username

@Timecrest

Recommendations

44 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Jen 1 month 2 weeks ago

Options

Comments

By alex wallis on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - 16:29

How do I turn off the music? this sounds an interesting game, but the music is very annoying and drowns out VoiceOver. I have had a look at settings but can't see anything relating to music.

By Christel john on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - 16:29

The map is not accessible when ash give you the map but i think its ok

By Christel john on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - 16:29

Its in the settings icon.
You can also save your game

By tunmi13 on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - 16:29

The Volume setting in your Rotor adjusts how loud or quiet VO is. Go to settings > general > accessibility > voiceover > rotor. Tap the Volume option to put it as one of the options in your rotor. You can easily change the order in which this setting is placed by simply double tapping and holding on the reorder button. Also, put audio ducking as one of the options. Audio ducking ducks the loudest amount or other amount audio to let you hear the other amount, then brings it right back.
Also, stay up to date with the demo I will do on this game.
I will post a dropbox link in the comments section once it's done.
It will take time though.

By DMNagel on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - 16:29

Double tap the less-than button, then double tap the settings icon button. Now swipe right until you find music. The switch button will be on, so just double tap the switch button to toggle the music off.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

The game is OK but do not care having to wait to long when he is doing something such as walking or something else. I attempted to skype seconds but does not work. It takes to long

By falcon wings on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

Ahoy there
Doesn't voiceover automatically decrease the volume of the music when it speaks? it does that for most other things so Music volume and such shouldn't really be a issue. but sinse you can turn the music off and on its all good anyway.

By Rashad on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

Even when ducked, the music is pretty loud. I'd still like to have the music hence why is prefer a volume slider.

By tunmi13 on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

Hi Holger,
In order to skip time, time crystals are needed. This is the first number displayed after the less-than button. These ar
the time crystals, and you start out with 20 of them. You can get more by going to the relationships tab, and tweeting about the characters or following the characters will earn you time crystals.
However, you may only tweet characters once a week, and you will need to wait 7 days before tweeting again. Once you follow all the characters on Twitter, you can not earn time crystals by following anymore, cuz you already did it. Hope this helps.
And my demo, not so great this far. I still need to do some editing and to be honest, I haven't even started.

By Ornella on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

Please put the demo here so we could listen. I'm learning to play.

By tunmi13 on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

Ok, will do.

Sorry but I do not tweet. I am not planning to twee or interested in tweeting. What about those of us who do not care for tweet and still want to play the game?

By Ornella on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

you don't have to if you don't want to. Its just an option in the game. Its there for people who would want to use those forms. I have twitter for dice world and I don't use it I use the facebook method to win my gold. so all those things are just other methods of earning what ever the games have to offer.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

In reply to by Ornella

This mean that I will not be able to use the crystal points because I do not use any of facebook or any like that. I will consider whether I will keep playing is to long without not been able to skip. It would had been better if we could gain points without using anything like twee, facebook, or similar.

By Ornella on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

There are in app purchases you could make. So if you don't use facebook or twitter you could buy them and choose which ever price you want to pay for how much. Or you could ask the developer to automatically add it in the game so if you launch the app at least once a week you could get get them.

By cowbunny on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

We designed the whole game to be fun and balanced without needing any Time Crystals. You will just have to wait for timers, but those are there to increase immersion, allowing the game to play out in real time. We feel that you actually get a better experience this way because you feel Ash is actually busy doing things in the other world and sympathize with the journey.

We added the social media features as an additional way to earn Time Crystals, because we wanted an optional way for to earn them that didn't require any real money. But these features were added very recently and definitely not required to enjoy the game. It goes with our principle that we don't want any user to feel forced to spend real world money.

In our testing, we played through the game many times not using a single Time Crystal to ensure the completely free experience is fun and realistic.

By Roxann Pollard on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

I personally don't mind waiting for the timer to elapse. It gives the game longer to play itself out and I can spend my cash elsewhere. Having said that, however, it's nice to see the ability to spend and purchase more of them, should I suddenly really want to speed up a portion of the game.

By DMNagel on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

Just go to settings, general, date and time and move the timer up. That's it. No crystals.

By cowbunny on Saturday, August 6, 2016 - 16:29

We don't recommend users change the date and time settings to avoid timers in Timecrest.

In general, we don't care how you play the game or what you do with your phone. We give this warning because our game engine can get confused when time moves back and forth, and users have reported several bugs as a result of changing the date and time forward and backward.

Everything in the game relies on precise timings, from when messages appear, how data syncs with the Apple Watch and when to present the next scene, and changing the time can disrupt these timings.

For example, some have reported a "Time has desynced" error message adding 12 hour waits to the beginning of scenes that weren't written into the game. Another user has reported missing items they collected and gold.

Again, please feel free to play the game how you wish, but changing the system clock is unsupported and our support staff may not be able to help you if you encounter bugs with this hack, so please be warned and use caution.

By John Cury on Tuesday, September 6, 2016 - 16:29

I really enjoyed this game but I really do not like the very long hours you have to wait. Some of them are 7hours or more. Also once if I finished the game the next play through still makes you wait unlike most similar games. I spent over 15$s on this game. better to offer you a buy once option for those who do not wish to wait. Let the timers still be there but if you buy it then let it give you option to skip.

By vulcansummer on Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 16:29

I'm really enjoying this game. I love Ash's character, and I like having to wait intervals to play the game. It gives the game a more realistic feeling. I also like how I feel as though I'm apart of the game, like I'm almost having a conversation with a real person.

Thank you, developers, for making this game so accessible for the blind. I like the description of the blue dust moving around the screen.

Also, the music is fabulous! I haven't gotten very far in the game, but already the music I have heard is great.

As I play the game, will I eventually be able to earn enough gold to purchase all of the songs?

Once again, thank you, devs, for allowing us to be a part of this game. Your hard work and thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

I'm on chapter two, and in Ion,. we're trying to open a door. I had Ash use levitoss, but now it's stuck. It keeps saying Ash is waiting for a response, but I've already given the Levitoss response, and now that button is dimmed. Does anyone have any ideas on how I might continue on? I've already tried removing the app from the app switcher, but no luck. Any help would be much appreciated.

By cowbunny on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Vulcansummer, thanks so much for your kind words. We'll work hard to keep improving this game to the standard your words have set.

You may have to play through the game several times in order to earn enough gold to unlock the music, but the game has been designed to be played many times through since the story will change depending on the choices you make.

I'm so sorry to hear that you're stuck. Please go to the Settings menu (there is a button on the top right of the messages tab) and then select the "Contact Support" button at the bottom of the dialog. There you can compose an email to our support team and it has account information attached. We'll take a look and get you unstuck!

Please tell me if you have any troubles with contacting support, and thanks for playing Timecrest.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Since I was unable to get unstuck, I made the other choice and it allowed me to keep playing the game. I just couldn't wait to see what happened next, that's how engrossing it is. I can't praise this game enough!

By cowbunny on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Vulcansummer, I think I misunderstood! At that point in the game, you can only open the door if you have the Levitas spell. There should be some text about how Levitas is a requirement spell. You will be unable to access it if you have instead learned the Gravitas spell, but Gravitas can unlock other things later on. Is there any chance you learned Gravitas?

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

I can't remember the name of the spell I had Ash learn, but it was the one that makes him heavier.

By cowbunny on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Yes, that is Gravitas. You can check what spells you have in the "Pouch" tab. Maybe in a future playthrough of the game, you can learn Levitas and open the door.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Thank you so much for the explanation. I apologize for getting the two spells mixed up. It was my own fault I thought I was stuck.And thanks for the advice about looking in the pouch.

By cowbunny on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

No need to apologize. It's our fault if it was confusing. Don't hesitate to tell us if you have any feedback or if you get stuck in the future.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

I think I might have to start the game over, since I've already used my transport orb, and now Ash is required to use one again. But is there a way to restart the game and still keep my gold and time crystals?

By Kelly Sapergia on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

You shouldn't have to start over again. You can always buy more teleportation orbs as long as you have enough gold.
By the way, I'm really enjoying this game, and am currently on Chapter 7.

By That Blind Canuck on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you ever purchase Time Crystals, be sure to manually save your game. When iOS 10.0.2 came out, I formatted my phone to start from scratch and never saved my game. I thought that Game Centre was saving my progress but no such luck. After some wonderful assistance from the game developpers (who are awesome by the way! Great Game!) I was able to restore my previously purchased Time Crystals.

Although late last week, I made a visit to my local Apple Store to exchange my phone before my AppleCare ran out, but thinking it might take a while to reset the phone at the store and didn't wish to make the Apple rep wait, I reset the phone but stupidly forgot to save the game again, so those Time Crystals that the developer was so kind to restore to me, I lost them again. What makes this even more frustrating, it turned out that Apple cannot exchange the phone unless there is a problem with the battery, so I didn't need to reset my phone. I could have written to the developer again, but seeing as this second fumble was my fault and I had no excuse, I chose to accept the consequences of my actions. So I thought I would post this to others in the hopes that they could learn from my mistake. Thanks again to the developpers for their initial help, they were fantastic, just like their game, and I do plan on continueing the game from the beginning, but this time, I plan on saving my game, I learned my lesson now.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

How do you save the game? I have time crystals, but none that I have purchased. Do you have to purchase time crystals first before you can save the game?

Also, I would purchase another transport orb, but don't have enough gold. So I think I'll have know choice but to start over again.

By Mitchell on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

You just need to wait a few days and collect the gold Morty gives you each day.

By That Blind Canuck on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

To collect gold, like Mitchell said, just collect the gold brought to you by Mortie. As for saving, you don't need to buy time crystals in order to save. When you launch the game, at the top left corner, there is a button called "Top Menu Back", click on this and again, at the top left corner, select settings. scroll down to the bottom of the options and there should be options to load, save games and a list of currently saved games. You just have to select the Save option and that is it.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

thank you all for helping me. I didn't realize you could get gold from Morty everyday.
And thanks for the instructions on how to save a game. I'll take a look at it.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

I couldn't find the saved games, or load game, or anything like that in the settings section. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

By cowbunny on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

@vulcansummer, in order to save and load the game, you must first be logged in to Game Center, iCloud, and have iCloud Drive enabled. This is because the games are saved to Game Center, there the game will be available to any devices you have logged in to Game Center. Once you are logged in, the Save and Load buttons will appear in settings.

@Blinken223, I sincerely hope you contact our support again so we can restore your Time Crystals. Your fault or not, we want you to have an excellent experience with the game, and would be more than happy to help you out again.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

Thanks for the help, but I don't see the game center on my phone. I think updating to IOS ten made it so we no longer have the game center anymore. Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong.

By cowbunny on Sunday, November 6, 2016 - 16:29

@vulcansummer, in iOS 10, they removed the Game Center app. To log in to Game Center, you have to go to the Settings App, and scroll down to Game Center. You will be able to log in there. Please tell us if you have any other issues!

By Kerry Fielding on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

Hi folks. Just downloaded and started playing this game today having seen it as a contender for one of the Golden Apple Awards for 2016. So far, on chapter 1 and I'm impressed. I've read through everyone's comments on here about waiting versus not waiting and buying versus not buying. I have to say, it never ceases to amaze me that people grumble about having to spend money. I think we're pretty fortunate here. You do have the choice not to spend money and simply play the game in real time. You also have the choice to spend money and play the game through quickly. These people spend a lot of time on these games and given that spending money is not obligatory it is your choice whether to buy or not but please don't grumble about it when you do have the choice to play how you want.

I can think of other apps which I would consider to be essential where we have to pay yearly subscriptions of £50 plus and these are apps which I would consider helpful to daily life so please, these guys are putting a lot of time and effort into it and you don't have to pay them if you don't want to. We pay a heck of a lot more for certain apps and certain screen readers so really this is a pittence.

By Leela on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

My friend and I can discuss this game for hours. Now that we have played it through a lot, our discussions are shorter and usually center on things we discovered,or theories we formed. When we first started playing, we even had some debates based on ideas in this game. We are both philosophical, and have slightly different views, his just a little bit more nialistic than mine, so it makes this quite fun Can't wait for the third one. I'm already on the edge of my seat.

By KE7ZUM on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

Is there a way to find out ashe's rank? If I go to the mordy tab I just get the description that the dog is holding a tiny pouch of gold in his paws, or is it in mouth? I can't remember. The help says hat in the middle os a way to see ash's rank but I can't get that to work. I'm on chapter 5 of the first novel.

By Kerry Fielding on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

In reply to by KE7ZUM

Hi. I'm on chapter 3 an I just keep seeming to get Ash killd and having to turn back time. Is this right?

By cowbunny on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

Dear Kerry,

One of the ways we designed Timecrest is that there are no incorrect choices, just different stories to explore. Often, using Turn Back Time is necessary to move forward–this is the power of your magic. Ash is only a copper ranked mage and knows very few spells, so your powerful time magic can help protect and advance Ash when there are extremely dangerous people are in the world.

By Toonhead on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

It's kind of a brain buster isn't it? Turning back time to move forward, but somehow, it works! I'm on chapter 6 now! I love this game.

By KE7ZUM on Friday, January 6, 2017 - 16:29

It's right. Keep going. I won't spoil it for those who are new.