Why there’s no time limit in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’s one-hour time limit is gone, The Chinese Room’s creative director Dan Pinchbeck told Eurogamer.

The original plan for the Dear Esther spiritual successor was to limit each trip through the world. Players could explore the non-linear game differently each time through, though the apocalypse would end their time in the game after an hour.

The Chinese Room decided to remove the mechanic because it didn’t foster a good experience for the player, according to Pinchbeck.

“Originally, when we started the game off it was going to be an hour long for each playthrough,” he said. “It would be almost like kind of a Groundhog Day or 12:01-type thing where you’ve got an hour. How far can you get? How much can you explore? Imagine reading a novel and you’re really into it, and 30 pages before the end someone comes up and takes it out of your hand and goes, ‘I’m afraid that’s it. Your time’s up.’ It’s an artificial conceit that doesn’t necessarily produce a good player experience.”