This idea was part of the 2025 game jam ideas project.
Detective
You're a detective hunting a Time Looper bomber.
Single environment, think of a subway station, or busy market. Using the same environment should make level design and asset creation easier. You linearly going through the map from one side to the other. The maps should have a lot going on in them but are small.
It would normally take you 60 seconds to walk. But you have 5 minutes to investigate before the time Looper bomb goes off.
Your goal is to find what the time bomber has changed in this iteration and get to the exit.
If you find the bomb and get to the exit. You close the gap that the time Looper bomber is ahead of you.
If you keep finding the bomber, you close the gap so you are in the same loop at the same time. You can physically catch the bomber.
If you ever fail to catch the bomber. Time explodes and everything gets really weird. Insert a very strange mini game as a second chance for recovery. If you fail the mini game. Game over.
Game loops
You always start at one end of the map. A 5min timer starts. You can walk through and interact with the environment and the people. You are looking for an object that the time bomber has hidden in the environment.
You can interact with people, or objects to help find what is new or different.
Once you find a thing that you think has changed you pick it up and take it to the exit.
The only way you know if you are correct is when you exit, either time explodes or you reset to the start a little closer to the time bomber.
Part memory, hunt and seek, detective story.