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Timelie

A few frustrating puzzles aren’t enough to drag down a fantastic puzzler buoyed by lovely graphics and near flawless gameplay.
Timelie Game Cover
86%Game Brain Score
gameplay, story
grinding, optimization
92% User Score Based on 989 reviews
Critic Score 79%Based on 9 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchPCTabletAndroidMac OSPhoneiPadSteam DeckMobile PlatformiPhoneWindows
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Timelie Game Cover

About

Timelie is a single player tactical platformer game with anime and science fiction themes. It was developed by Urnique Studio and was released on May 20, 2020. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and very positive reviews from players.

Timelie is a stealth puzzle adventure, where you control time like a media player. Perceive future events to plan your escape strategy from the past, sneak an enemy, and manipulate time through this companionship journey of a mysterious cat and a little girl with a precognitive power. Timelie: Game of the Year Edition includes: - a copy of the base game - a copy of the Hell Loop DLC

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Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
Timelie screenshot
+8
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92%
Audience ScoreBased on 989 reviews
gameplay141 positive mentions
grinding14 negative mentions
  • Innovative and well-executed time manipulation gameplay mechanic allowing players to rewind and fast-forward time to plan puzzle solutions.
  • Engaging and creative puzzle design with escalating difficulty and satisfying 'a-ha' moments, including unique dual-character control with a cat companion.
  • Atmospheric presentation with charming visuals, minimalist art style, and a fitting, well-composed soundtrack.
  • Smooth and forgiving gameplay with instant rewind feature eliminating frustration from trial-and-error.
  • Free DLC adding challenging extra levels for completionists and puzzle enthusiasts.
  • Strong emotional impact and subtle storytelling conveyed without dialogue, fostering player interpretation.
  • Good pacing and reasonable length for a puzzle game, making it suitable for casual and dedicated gamers alike.
  • Storyline is very vague and minimalistic, leaving many players confused or disconnected due to lack of explicit narrative.
  • Some puzzles require near perfect timing or frame-perfect precision, causing frustration to some players.
  • User interface and controls can be clunky or awkward, including imprecise camera control, slow menu animations, and unskippable cutscenes.
  • Level select interface is slow and lacks clear indication of uncollected optional objectives or relics.
  • Repetitive animations and mandatory replays of level solutions at slow speed can be tedious and disrupt game flow.
  • Limited enemy variety and mechanics can lead to gameplay feeling repetitive for some players.
  • Some endgame puzzles and DLC may rely heavily on trial-and-error and frustrating precision.
  • The ending, including secret endings, are polarizing and have been criticized for being unsatisfying or emotionally manipulative.
  • gameplay
    352 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Timelie offers a polished, unique stealth-puzzle experience centered on intuitive time-manipulation mechanics that allow players to rewind, fast-forward, and plan moves strategically. The gameplay is accessible yet challenging, gradually introducing new mechanics to keep puzzles engaging and rewarding creative problem-solving. While some find the game short and occasionally slow-paced, its clever design, smooth execution, and charm make it a highly recommended title for fans of thoughtful, trial-and-error puzzle gameplay.

    • “The key mechanic of allowing you to plan every step bit by bit, and rewind if it doesn't work out, is brilliant and perfect for this kind of stealth puzzles.”
    • “Timelie starts out simple, and gradually introduces a myriad of time manipulation and stealth related puzzle mechanics. As these mechanics combined in ways that required me to start thinking more creatively to solve each level, Timelie turned into one of my all-time favourite puzzle games.”
    • “The usage of time as a mechanic is done extremely well; it forced me to think ahead, observe patterns, and plan in a way I had not done before.”
    • “Very few mechanics, around 9 I believe; just things like walk, use time powers for 2 things, step on door switches or use numpads for doors.”
    • “Gameplay can feel slow as well, particularly before I got better with the controls.”
    • “The puzzle mechanics are original and well thought-out, but the controls are clumsy, and you often cannot zoom out enough to see the whole puzzle board.”
  • story
    309 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story in this game is minimalistic, abstract, and often ambiguous, relying heavily on visual cues, symbolic imagery, and player interpretation rather than dialogue or explicit narrative. While some players found it touching and emotionally engaging, others found it vague or lacking depth, with the main appeal lying more in the gameplay and puzzles than in a coherent plot. Overall, the storytelling complements the game's atmosphere but does not serve as its primary focus.

    • “Timelie (rhymes with lime pie)'s selling points are its polished, beautiful artstyle; simple-yet-moving story with everything shown, not told; and a gimmick of controlling two characters simultaneously, dragging a playhead around on a timeline (timelie?) to synchronise their movements.”
    • “One of the best puzzle games I have ever experienced, thanks to symbolic story elements which gave meaning to all challenges that Timelie offers during gameplay and awakened some of the deeply hidden and forgotten emotions.”
    • “It reminded me of games like Limbo or Little Nightmares where you have little to no information about the story, and you need to find out the story.”
    • “The story is told using simple cutscenes and some vague symbols.”
    • “The story is conveyed only through icons that show on a long hallway Timelie runs across before reaching the last level of the chapter, and some icons are hard to make out, so I will probably be watching a video piecing out what the story is.”
    • “There is little to no story and the ending is extremely cliche and unsatisfying.”
  • graphics
    170 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game features a charming, minimalist art style that is both visually appealing and well-optimized, effectively complementing its story and gameplay. Its graphics are consistently described as beautiful, cute, and polished, contributing significantly to the relaxing and immersive atmosphere alongside a haunting, fitting soundtrack. While not overly complex or AAA-level, the visuals are praised for their clarity, expressiveness, and timeless aesthetic that enhances the puzzle experience.

    • “Timelie’s selling points are its polished, beautiful artstyle; simple-yet-moving story with everything shown, not told; and a gimmick of controlling two characters simultaneously, dragging a playhead around on a timeline to synchronize their movements.”
    • “Visually, everything in the game is clearly discernible, with a nice contrast between the dull colored environment and the bright colors of the characters and interactable objects, resulting in appealing visuals that highlight important aspects like the protagonist, enemies, and mechanisms.”
    • “Great visuals and sound design make this an absolutely beautiful game.”
    • “And it also lacks options to fine-tune graphics.”
    • “Graphically it is minimalist almost to a fault.”
    • “I had a few problems with getting the graphics to run properly on my system, but after exploring a combination of windowed mode and some experiments with the resolution and quality, I was able to find a combination of settings that had the hotspots in the right places and didn't have this weird oil film-like distortion over part of the screen.”
  • music
    170 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is widely praised for its atmospheric, soothing, and well-composed soundtrack that perfectly complements the puzzle gameplay and art style. Reviewers highlight its ability to enhance immersion and emotional depth, with particular acclaim for the ending song and overall sound design, despite occasional repetitiveness during prolonged puzzle sections. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout feature that greatly enriches the gaming experience.

    • “The game is a small package filled with well-designed puzzles, fantastic atmosphere and topped with a melancholic soundtrack.”
    • “Timelie also has a lot of beautiful soundtrack to build up theme and emotional drive, well-crafted by two Thai composers. It fills with mysterious dark ambient, beautiful piano melody, and soundtrack of hopeful memories.”
    • “The soundtrack is very fitting - it's atmospheric, immersive, and easy on the ears.”
    • “Found it boring, and hated the music.”
    • “It doesn't help that the game reeks of mobile, has bland music, no enemy variety, and dull environments.”
    • “Repetitive music, no story, clunky animations, re-enacting scenes make no sense, boring puzzles that are not about logic but about trying to match the perfect timing for hours, there is nothing overwhelmingly positive here guys.”
  • atmosphere
    30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is widely praised for its immersive and atmospheric experience, featuring a unique blend of dark sci-fi visuals, calming and melancholic music, and effective audio design that enhances its mood. Though the story is minimal or subtle, the atmosphere strongly complements the puzzle mechanics, creating a relaxing yet emotionally engaging environment. Overall, players appreciate the game's charm, visual style, and soundtrack as key elements that make the atmosphere memorable and captivating.

    • “The atmosphere the game has is really good; it is just dark enough, has a unique sci-fi feel, and feels strong emotionally.”
    • “The game is a small package filled with well-designed puzzles, fantastic atmosphere, and topped with a melancholic soundtrack.”
    • “There is no dialogue, but there is never any need; the audio design is wonderful and there is a quiet and mysterious atmosphere.”
  • emotional
    29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Timelie delivers a uniquely emotional experience through its silent, visually driven narrative and atmospheric sci-fi setting, evoking feelings ranging from sadness to heartfelt warmth. Despite some criticism of emotional manipulation and vague storytelling, many players found the game's ending and soundtrack deeply touching and impactful, making it a memorable and satisfying puzzle game with surprising emotional depth.

    • “Timelie conveys a touching narrative, relying on visual cues and gameplay to unfold its story.”
    • “It's an experience that stands out for its clever design and emotional impact, making it a top recommendation for puzzle enthusiasts.”
    • “A 3-6 hour puzzle game with a surprising amount of depth and a touching story that surprises you at the end.”
  • grinding
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is generally minimal and non-intrusive, with some players noting backtracking and tedious menu navigation as minor drawbacks. The unique timeline mechanic adds depth but can occasionally feel cumbersome or tedious to manage. Overall, while certain collectibles and secret endings may require extra effort, the relatively short playtime helps prevent the experience from becoming overly grindy.

    • “Overall, while it can be a little grindy for those who want the secret ending, it was a well-designed game that was very pretty.”
    • “As it currently stands, it's unnecessarily tedious.”
    • “Fairly short though (4-ish hours for a playthrough), and while there are collectibles scattered throughout the levels it's unclear how to collect them (you have to finish the level with a specific optional, unlisted objective) which makes it a bit tedious to do.”
  • optimization
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game features beautiful graphics and is generally well optimized, delivering solid performance on both Mac and PC. However, players with lower-spec computers may experience occasional stuttering at medium settings.

    • “And the graphics are beautiful and well optimized.”
    • “Performance-wise, the game performs well on both Mac and PC.”
    • “The quality is polished and provides solid performance in my playthrough.”
    • “Performance: Needs to be played on medium settings because the computer specs are not very high, but it still lags.”
    • “Technical issues and performance.”
    • “- optimization -”
  • character development
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is appreciated primarily for its charming and simplistic yet polished character design, with users highlighting the cute art style and overall visual appeal as standout features.

    • “The visuals and character design are simplistic in a good way.”
    • “Character design is cute, I like the art style too.”
    • “Great character design, nice polish, songs are great.”
  • replayability
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers some replayability through relic challenges and unique mechanics involving using past levels to influence new ones, encouraging meta puzzle thinking. However, its relatively short completion time and lack of additional content limit long-term replay value. Players may revisit the game after time has passed, but overall replayability is modest.

    • “A decent timeline-based puzzle game with a unique mechanic of using previously completed levels to set up a new level, creating some replayability and meta puzzle thinking required for later levels.”
    • “Some replayability to collect all relic challenges.”
    • “Since it is a puzzle game, there might not be too much replayability, but once I forget the puzzles, I'm definitely replaying it.”
    • “It's a fun game with unique mechanics, but 7 hours to get 100% completion feels a bit short, and there is not much in terms of replayability.”
    • “Could have, were it not for one major flaw (other than the total lack of replayability): the ending is excruciatingly disappointing.”
    • “Since it is a puzzle game there might not be too much replayability, but once I forget the puzzles I'm definitely replaying it.”
  • stability
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Stability is generally solid, with most users not experiencing bugs, crashes, or freezes; however, some report occasional second screen glitches that prevent visibility.

    • “2nd screen glitches without the ability to see anything.”
  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is subtly amusing, contributing to a relaxing and comforting experience that players find unexpectedly enjoyable for a stealth strategy title.

    • “It sounds kind of funny to say that a stealth strategy game is relaxing and a comfort game for me, but I think that’s why it’s great.”
    • “It makes my brain feel funny though.”
  • monetization
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization is considered fair, with DLC offering substantial additional content without feeling like a rushed or cash-grab effort. Users appreciate the thoughtful approach to pricing and value.

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79%Critics’ scoreBased on 9 critic reviews
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8h Median play time
8h Average play time
8-10h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Timelie is a tactical platformer game with anime and science fiction themes.

Timelie is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac OS, Phone and others.

On average players spend around 8 hours playing Timelie.

Timelie was released on May 20, 2020.

Timelie was developed by Urnique Studio.

Timelie has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Timelie for its gameplay but disliked it for its grinding.

Timelie is a single player game.

Similar games include Hue, The Sexy Brutale, The Bridge, FRAMED Collection, COCOON and others.