Retrograde

Inspired by Tenet, The Entropy Centre, and The Talos Principle, Retrograde is a mind-bending puzzle platformer where you turn back time and collaborate with your past selves to solve puzzles.

Controls

Arrows/WASD - Move
C/Space - Jump
X/E - Interact with objects
R - Restart level (hold)
Enter/Escape - Pause

Inversion Mechanic

• When you use the Inverter, you the player begin travelling backward in time, while the world around you appears to run in reverse.
• While your entropy is inverted, you watch your past self do all the steps you just did in backwards order.
• When you use the Inverter for the second time, you are once again traveling forward through time. You see another version of yourself perform your most recent actions in backwards order, while the clone that was already created switches direction and begins performing them in the order you originally did.
• The Inverter can only be used twice per level; to switch to reverse entropy and then forward again.

Making Of

This game was created for the GMTK Game Jam 2025. The theme was "Loop". In Retrograde, as you travel backward and forward through time, your timeline loops back on itself.

I hadn't planned on entering the jam until I saw the theme announcement video, so I had a bit of a late start and almost no planning. The second I saw the Loop theme, I brainstormed a bunch of ideas, including this one!

I'd like to continue development on this in the future, so expect to see updates with more levels, difficulty curve balancing, new mechanics, and more!

Credits

• Made by ooooggll for the GMTK Game Jam 2025
• Made in Picotron Workstation by Lexaloffle
  
• Instrument Packs: Abledbody, Packbat (CC-0)

Note: Linux and Mac versions not yet tested. The files labeled `windows.zip`, `mac.zip`, and `linux.zip` are the oldest build.

Changelog:

v1.2:
- Fixed some rock bugs (specifically stealing them from yourself)
- Disabled devmode and added an obvious indicator if devmode is on
- WASD and controller input methods
v1.1:
- One new level
- Backwards jump sound effects
- Sound effects for picking up/setting down rocks