What if your memories weren't really yours?
An interactive thriller where what you think you remember… could be the biggest lie ever devised.
Timeline is a third-person interactive narrative experience that combines science fiction, thrills, and psychological exploration. The player controls Chris, an elite soldier who returns to a forgotten European village in search of answers after the mysterious disappearance of his sister.
What begins as a personal investigation transforms into a disturbing descent into fragmented memories, hidden truths, and conspiracies buried for decades. As Chris explores the decaying landscapes of the place—industrial complexes, abandoned facilities, encrypted archives—he pieces together a family history marked by a multinational corporation that disappeared after a supposed accident that killed his parents.
In this town filled with technological secrets and altered visions of reality, the player must make moral choices, solve puzzles, survive threats, and discover who Chris really is—and why he was groomed for something bigger than he ever imagined.
With mechanics that combine light combat, environmental exploration, and branching narrative, Timeline It offers a brief but intense experience, capable of resonating emotionally and leaving a deep mark.
Index FAQs
History and universe
Explore the background of Timeline, its narrative setting, the secrets of the European village, and the hidden layers of Chris's story.
Explore the world of TimelineGameplay and mechanics
Discover how Timeline plays: exploration, puzzles, combat, decisions, and how they fit into the narrative.
See how Timeline is playedPlatform and requirements
Find out which systems Timeline will be playable on, along with its technical requirements and recommended configurations.
Check requirements and platformsDecisions and replayability
Do your decisions affect the world? Here's how the story changes based on your choices and how many possibilities there are.
How your decisions change historyDuration and pace of play
Learn how long Timeline is, its narrative structure, and how it balances action with emotional discovery.
How long does the experience last?Artistic direction and setting
An overview of Timeline's visual, sonic, and aesthetic style. Influences, color palette, music, and emotional tone.
Discover the visual and sound stylePlayer profile
Is it for you? This section answers who might connect most with Timeline: fans of thrillers, interactive narratives, emotional sci-fi...
Is Timeline made for you?Current and future status of the project
Learn about the current stage of development, what has been done so far, and what steps are planned for its evolution.
See development phase and roadmapFAQ - History and Universe
Here is everything you need to know before subscribing or purchasing any product in our academy.
Timeline takes place in a forgotten European village, marked by decay, abandonment, and a strange technological presence. This setting, halfway between rural and post-industrial, hides secret facilities, scientific ruins, and the remains of a corporation that once operated there.
Every corner of the map is designed to tell a part of the story, whether through scenery, hidden documents, or the protagonist's fragmented memories.
Chris He is a soldier who returns to the town where he grew up after the disappearance of his sister, who was investigating the secrets of a former multinational company linked to the death of her parents.
The official version was always an accident with no survivors… but the clues she left behind point to something bigger. Chris's journey is as physical as it is emotional: an attempt to understand what really happened and why her family was silenced.
Timeline is a psychological thriller with a strong emotional charge. It combines science fiction, family drama, and a disturbing atmosphere where the player must constantly question what is real and what is not.
This isn't a traditional action story. Here, the tension comes from the protagonist's exploration, revelation, and internal struggle with his own distorted memories.
No. Although the main story follows a common thread, Certain layers of the narrative universe are only revealed based on the player's decisions and the objects they discover.Some key memories, documents, or conversations may be overlooked if the player does not explore thoroughly.
This allows each playthrough to offer a unique experience, and the story to be understood more deeply on subsequent plays.
FAQ - Gameplay and Mechanics
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Timeline combines third-person exploration, environmental puzzle-solving, small sections of light combat, and narratively impactful decision-making.
It's not a frenetic action game, but rather a slow, tense experience, where every mechanic is designed to serve the protagonist's emotional and psychological development.
The game includes moments of tactical and limited combat, but it's not the main focus. These situations are integrated into the narrative to generate tension, represent Chris's military training, and underscore certain emotional conflicts.
The real weight of the gameplay is in exploring, interpreting the environment, unlocking memories and making meaningful decisions.
The puzzles in Timeline are organically integrated into the world: unlocking locked doors, solving codes hidden in memories, manipulating ancient devices, reconstructing past scenes…
These aren't abstract challenges, but rather fragments of the past that the player must piece together to move forward. Some are directly linked to repressed emotions or memories, making their resolution also narratively significant.
Yes. Throughout the game, the player will make key decisions—some obvious, others subtle—that will affect character behavior, the revelation of memories, and even Chris's perception of himself.
These choices don't always have immediate consequences, but they do affect the psychological development of the story and its possible outcomes.
Timeline is designed to combine guided moments with free exploration sections. Some key areas are unlocked by progressing through the narrative, but within each area, the player can move at their own pace, search for optional clues, and uncover hidden story fragments.
There are no intrusive markers or forced routes: the pace is set by the player.
FAQ - Platform and Requirements
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Timeline is initially being developed for Windows PC, with the intention of later expanding to next-generation consoles if the appropriate technical and publication conditions are met.
The base version will be optimized to run properly on mid-range computers, and will be published on standard digital platforms (such as Steam or the Epic Games Store).
While final requirements will depend on the release version, the goal is for Timeline to work correctly on computers with:
Processor: Intel i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 (or higher)
RAM: 8 GB (minimum) / 16 GB (recommended)
Graphics Card: GTX 1060 / RX 580 or higher
Storage: SSD recommended, with at least 10 GB free
Operating system: Windows 10/11
Several graphic options will be offered to suit different devices.
Yeah, Timeline will offer full gamepad support from the very beginning. Although it can be played with a keyboard and mouse, the control scheme is designed to be comfortable and fluid on both controller and PC, following current narrative gaming standards.
The interface, mechanics, and menus will be adapted to both control styles.
FAQ - Decisions and Replayability
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Yes. Timeline is designed with a decision system that It modifies both the narrative development and the player's perception of Chris and the world around him..
Some decisions alter dialogue, unlocked memories, or relationships with certain characters, while others directly influence the outcome or final interpretation of events.
Yes. The game has several endings which depend on the decisions accumulated throughout the story, the player's level of exploration, and how they have faced certain moral or psychological dilemmas.
Not all endings are explicitly good or bad; some are more ambiguous and depend on the player's interpretation.
Absolutely. Timeline is designed so that each game reveals new layers of the narrative universeOn a second or third playthrough, the player may make different decisions, access alternate memories, or even discover information that they completely ignored in their first playthrough.
This significantly increases the depth of the game without artificially lengthening its length.
Yes, the system can detect if you have played before, and some lines of dialogue or environmental details may be tailored to suggest that “something has already been experienced” or that the protagonist is trapped in a cyclical narrative.
This doesn't alter the core mechanics, but it does add a meta-narrative twist for those looking for a deeper or more disturbing experience.
FAQ - Length and pace of play
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Timeline is designed as a short but intense experience, with a estimated duration between 3 and 5 hours in a first game, depending on the player's pace and interest in exploring in depth.
Being a condensed and emotional story, we aim to avoid filler or unnecessary moments, maintaining narrative tension from beginning to end.
The narrative is presented in a form continuous and fluid, without formal chapter breaks. However, the game is internally structured into clear acts and transitions that reflect the protagonist's emotional development and the twists and turns of the story.
This structure allows for maintaining rhythm and also facilitates possible natural save points.
The game will implement autosave system and key points, but will also allow manual saving in safe zones. This seeks to respect the narrative experience without frustrating the player due to a lack of control over their progress.
The design prioritizes immersion, but without compromising accessibility.
FAQ - Art Direction and Setting
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Timeline presents a realistic visual style with stylized overtones, focused on creating a melancholic, decadent and slightly distorted atmosphere.
The environments are carefully designed to evoke emotion: empty streets, abandoned interiors, dusty installations, and forgotten technology. The art direction seeks to reflect the fragility of memory and the unsettling nature of the distorted familiar.
The project takes references from works such as Silent Hill 2, Control, Alan Wake o Observer, as well as psychological science fiction films Annihilation, Arrival o Black Mirror.
Aesthetically, it blends architectural brutalism, cool palettes with warm light accents, and subtle glitch effects or visual alterations to represent mental states.
Sound plays an essential role in Timeline. The soundtrack combines dark atmospheres, minimalist melodies and distorted musical fragments, which accompany Chris's emotional state.
In addition, we work with reactive sound design, where certain sounds or whispers change depending on the protagonist's state of mind or the location they're exploring. The intention is for the audio not only to accompany, but also to tell part of the story.
FAQ - Player Profile
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Timeline is aimed at players who value the deep narrative, the emotional exploration and stories with layers of interpretation. It's ideal for those who enjoy games like Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Oxenfree o Life is Strange.
It doesn't require reflexes or extreme skill, but rather attention, sensitivity, and curiosity to discover the hidden.
No. Timeline is designed to be accessible even for inexperienced players, as long as they have an interest in psychologically charged stories and thoughtful science fiction.
The mechanics are easy to learn, and the focus of the game is on emotional connection and narrative interpretation, not technical difficulty.
It's not a horror game in the classic sense, but it does have moments of psychological tension, disturbing atmosphere and emotionally intense scenes.
The overall feeling is one of disorientation, vulnerability, and constant doubt. Those who enjoy emotional suspense rather than outright scares will find it especially compelling.
FAQ - Current and future status of the project
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Timeline is currently at active phase of development of the vertical slice, a limited playable version that represents the final experience of the game in terms of narrative, setting, mechanics and artistic direction.
This vertical slice seeks to capture the emotional and interactive essence of the project, and serve as a foundation upon which to build the rest of the title. In parallel, work is underway on a second technical version aimed at showing how the project was built from scratch, as part of the teaching material at the PlátanoGames academy.
Yes. They have already been implemented. prototype scenarios and key sequences from the vertical slice, focused on validating narrative, rhythm, aesthetics and flow of decisions.
In addition, specific versions for educational use are being developed, which break down the systems, architecture, and design elements used, with the aim of showing academy students how a real project is built from the ground up.
There's no official release date yet. Since the project is focused both as a standalone narrative product and as a teaching tool, development is moving along two complementary lines: narrative gameplay and educational utility.
The current focus is on consolidating the vertical slice, gathering feedback, and moving toward an extended version that combines emotional intensity with technical robustness.
Yes. Although the first experience will be self-contained, the Timeline universe has been designed with a modular and expandable approachThere are ideas for additional chapters, spin-offs, or prequels that explore other characters, alternate timelines, or even different gameplay styles within the same narrative universe.
This scalability will also allow it to continue to be used as a reference for future advanced development classes and frameworks in Unreal Engine.
⚠️ Notice regarding the material displayed
All visual content shown below is part of the initial exploration and prototyping process of the project.
Timeline began development on a previous version of Unreal Engine, and is currently being fully ported and rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, which represents a significant technical and aesthetic leap.
The images, scenes, or elements shown here do not represent the final product, but rather technical and conceptual tests used to study the mechanics, setting, and functionality of the engine.
Screenshots and final footage will be shown later in accordance with the final style of the project.
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