There are a number of recent games that share the same theme as Devours. Here is a list of those that I have found and a few comments on them.

Blinx (2002 — Xbox)

The only one of these games published before Devours. It is a third person 3D game with six special time controls. One of these is the 'record' feature lets one interact with a past self. The reviews are not that good, but it looks interesting. I haven't played it, as it is Xbox only.

Knight Time (2005 — Windows)

A platform puzzle game involving many time-travel puzzles. I haven't played it yet as it is Windows only, but you download it for free from the website, or watch some videos of game play.

Shuggy (unreleased — Windows)

An platform puzzle game by the same developer as Knight Time. It looks like a more polished game with a similar feel. There are some videos of game play on the site.

Timebot (2007 — Flash)

A top-down game where you control a time-travelling robot and try to get through a number of levels by cooperating with former selves. I expected to like it a little more than I actually did. I think this was due to a lack of variety in its eight levels, and slightly too much fiddliness. Still, it was well worth exploring, and I'd be interested in seeing additional levels with the same engine, so long as there was a little more variety or challenge.

Rerun (2007 — Flash)

A very simple mouse-based game of collecting coloured moving dots. It gets more complicated as you run through it multiple times, collecting a different colour each time and trying to avoid and cooperate with your past selves.

Time Raider (2007 — Flash)

A side scrolling puzzle game of time travel puzzles. The time travel is quite bizarre and I didn't enjoy it that much. Many others did though, so take a look.

Chronotron (2008 — Flash)

A fantastic platform puzzle game with 40 levels. Very nice and simple time travel mechanic, a good variety of levels and some depth in the puzzles.

Cursor*10 (2008 — Flash)

A neat little mouse-based flash game of frantic clicking and puzzle solving. A good diversion for 5–30 minutes.

Braid (2008 — Xbox, Windows)

A very pretty platform puzzle game featuring the ability to rewind time. At first this just lets you undo mistakes, but as the levels progress, other elements are added, including interaction with past selves. I've not played it yet due to it's Xbox/Windows requirement, but am eager to do so at some point, as it looks like it might be the best of all of these. Have a brief look at some clips from different worlds in the game, but don't spoil yourself too much if you think you will end up playing it.

The misadventures of PB Winterbottom (unreleased — ?)

A visually stunning platform puzzle game with an old Victorian silent movie aesthetic. It doesn't appear to be publically available, but I'm eager to play it when it comes out.


In my searching, I've found many other games that are related to short-term time-travel or other replay mechanics, particularly the 'replay' themed competition at Jay Is Games, which produced the 2007 games above, and may have inspired some of the latter ones. I doubt that Devours inspired any of those listed, and it in turn was not inspired by Blinx, which preceded it.

It is also interesting to note a few different types of time travel mechanic that exist in the above games. Cursor*10 and Rerun both involve a fixed number of fixed length replays, rather than a user-controlled time travel system. Braid and Blinx involve rewind systems which let one rewind the action and branch off from the past. Timebot allows a limited number of time travels which all take you back to the first instant of the level, but leave you where you are. Chronotron allows an unlimited number of travels to the first instant at a fixed location. Devours allows an arbitrary number of trips to arbitrary times, but at a fixed location. I'm not sufficiently sure how Shuggy and Knight Time work, while Time Raider is quite odd and hard to explain.

Finally, note that Chronotron and Devours have to deal with paradoxes and do so in a similar though not identical way. Most of the others allow the copies of the protagonist to go through each other and generally ignore or play down the paradox aspect. I'm not sure what the ones I haven't played do. Hopefully I'll get to play them and other time travel games in the future and find out.