This idea was part of the 2025 game jam ideas project.

Regrets

A horror story of forced backwards time travel in a fated universe.

In this story, when the protagonist sleeps he falls backwards in time. Days, weeks, years.

The first time he falls asleep he wakes in a strange world, strange new and old scars on him. He is missing a finger, etc... It's so different than his normal time line he doesn't realize what's happening.

As the story progresses, we find that the world is fated.

The actions that he performs in the past, his current self (current perspective) WILL be affected by the consequences.

They are fated. If he has a scar then there is nothing he can do to prevent it.

He doesn't remember his past that causes these events from happening. It's a different timeline. He is discovering what causes his situation at the same time we do.

At first he is freaking out.

Then he tries to figure out the rules of this situation he is in. But by the time he thinks to look himself up on the internet (social media) its already too late, the internet has much less information about himself. (He has gone backwards in time too far)

He remembers his own timeline but this one is very different than his. They have similar event beats but the changes he makes are different.

A good scene would be him bargaining, demanding, yelling at himself to not cause the harm to himself that he is currently experiencing. (Don't break up with a girl, don't get into a fight, etc)

The through line is his missing finger. He keeps looking at it, it becomes his pinnacle of what he is going through. He became certain that his missing finger is the reason that he is in this situation, but has nothing to base that on, besides it's his oldest wound.

Think Memento but with reverse time travel.

He tries to stay up as long as possible, but eventually he does fall asleep and the next time travel backwards is significantly worse. (Punishment for staying awake too long)

There is no rhyme or rules about how much time he travels backwards. It seems to go as far back as the next traumatic event.

Possible ending

He is a child (~8 year old) he is going through the trash in his dead grandfather's attic. A great, generous, worldly man that loves his family above all. He finds a ring and puts it on. The same finger that was missing. Then he gets called to dinner. He makes a mistake (kids are dumb) and is punished severely for it by his parents. While he is locked in his room to think about his actions. He makes a wish (something about getting another try)... The ring burns and severs his finger. The original event that set everything in motion.