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{{trope}}
[[File:In_game_clock_PokemonDP_5292.png|link=Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
{{quote|''"SABRINA DIES AT DAWN!"''|'''One of the first messages''' you receive in the graphic adventure game '''''[[wikipedia:Transylvania (series)|Transylvania]]'''''. [[Nonstandard Game Over|They are NOT kidding.]]}}
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== Tied To System Clock ==
* A more obscure Gameboy title, ''Itsumo [[Cardcaptor Sakura
* In the ''[[
** The games would prefer that you change the clock in-game.
*** The games can go take a flying leap, because changing the clock in-game causes [[Game Breaking Bug|bugs]] that changing the system clock doesn't. (You'll still be [[No Fair Cheating|punished]] for blatant time-traveling regardless of which method you use.)
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* The web game ''[[Farmville]]'' runs in realtime (except that game days are 23 hours, not 24, for convenience). If you leave your farm alone for too long, [[Guilt Based Gaming|all your crops will have withered]]. Thus, the game rewards good planning.
** Just about every Facebook game either has an Energy system (that replenishes in real time) or, like Farmville, have a "do this action, then come back later to reap the rewards" system.
* ''[[
** And yes, they do have stores and such that close at night.
* ''[[Telefang]]'' has an internal clock, although this doesn't serve much purpose other than graphic effects (for daytime and nighttime) and receiving messages from other characters while the game is turned off. The clock was dropped in ''Telefang 2''.
* ''[[
** Each character can also only digest so much food per real time day meaning you can't feed them again until tomorrow. Like with Shutdown PP this can be avoided by tweaking the date on the system clock.
* ''[[
== Internal Game Clock ==
* ''[[
** The DS [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of ''Gold and Silver'' sees the time/day function return to true importance, as all of the date- and time-specific events from the original versions return with gusto.
** ''[[
* ''[[Project Zomboid]]:'' Features one. Night time is harder to see, which makes it easier for zombies to attack. 6 hours of real time equals about a month in game time.
* Activision's ''Robot Tank'', a 1983 title for the Atari 2600, may be the earliest video game to feature a day-night cycle.
* In ''[[Chibi
* In the otherwise gritty and realistic world of the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series, a day passes for every twenty-four minutes of play time. As an extension, some missions can only be started at a certain time of the day.
** In ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' they halved the in-game clock's speed, meaning that one in-game day passes for every forty-eight real-time minutes.
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*** Transporting to the penultimate dungeon automatically changes the time to day, but there is no such shortcut for night. This really bothers players when hunting for Poes, which only appear at night.
**** it does bring you back ''late'' in the day, so it's still a quicker way to bring on nighttime than just waiting it out.
** An interesting note is that ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** The day/night cycle is of highest importance in ''[[Majoras Mask]]''. Basically every single sidequest in the game (as well many parts of the main quest) all depend heavily on the game's internal clock. And if the internal clock counts down to 0, it's game over.
** ''[[Skyward Sword]]'' has day and night, with NPC schedules and monster appearances changing along with it. However, the change is triggered not by the actual passage of time, but by Link going to bed.
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** There ''are'' cheat codes built into the game, interestingly, that allow you to change this ratio. Ever wanted to recreate the scene in ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (or, for you younger players, ''[[Futurama]]'') where the days and nights move so swiftly that everything becomes a blur? Set the radio to ''Decade''-Per-Real-World-Seconds.
** All the main ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games since at least ''Daggerfall'', and especially ''Daggerfall'' where most quests were timed to some extent, have been heavily reliant on in-universe calendars and clocks to determine night/day cycles.
* The ''[[
** In contrast to this, many scripted events in the second game would appear a specific amount of ''real'' playtime after the previous in the sequence. One could cheat the system a little by pausing the game and leaving it alone for an hour, then unpausing it to see if the next event had triggered.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', the [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[
* [[Sierra]]'s ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series would close stores, bar the city gates (whether you were inside or out), and put most civilians to bed past certain hours. This was also the only time thief characters could get in their looting. Furthermore, the series also kept track of the number of days elapsed and would advance the plot accordingly; beating the game was usually not possible until key events occurred several days in. An unnoticed time-keeping bug in Quest for Glory III unintentionally ''forced'' the player to be in a certain city on a certain day to take part in an important plot point; if the player missed the event, it would not reoccur -- and the game would not be able to proceed.
** ''[[Quest for Glory II]]'' is one big time-based mission.
* ''[[King's Quest III]]'' doesn't have a day/night cycle, but it does have a clock that starts at 00:00:00 in the status bar, and some game events are tied to it. For example, figuring out when the evil wizard will and won't be home will let you avoid being killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
** The day/night cycle in ''[[King's Quest IV]]'' is usually triggered by events, but if you wait a veeeeery long time night will eventually fall on its own. Sadly, if you didn't do the event that triggers nightfall you'll end up being [[Everything's Deader
* In the ''Myst'' game ''End of Ages'', the solar system which the world of Laki'ahn belongs to is structured such that there is a solar eclipse every five minutes.
* ''[[
* Capcom [[Zombie Apocalypse]] game ''Dead Rising'' covers 72 in-game hours in 6 real-time hours. The Infinite mode grants the [[Infinity+1 Sword]] if you survive 10 real-time hours without dying (no saves, either), and an additional [[Bragging Rights Reward]] for surviving 14 real-time hours with no saves.
* ''Radiata Stories'' has a 24-hour day/night system where the plot advances by doing certain activities at certain times. This unfortunately leads to a lot of instances of the [[Lost Forever]].
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* The interesting adventure game ''KGB'' had a nearly 1:1 timeflow. Days were quite action-packed (you should be able to finish the game within a weeks worth of game time) but travelling and the "wait" option sped things along.
* ''Agent USA'', an Atari game made in 1984, has a night and day cycle that was quite advanced for its time. Time moved at the speed of real life, but sped up considerably (as in, an hour per second) while riding a train from one location to another. For every two hours in the game, there's a different color for the sky, buildings, and the windows in the buildings may be lit up or not, providing twelve distinct times of day.
* ''[[
** The unreleased ''Star Fox 2'', a combination of a real-time strategy game and 3D space shooter, has time continuously passing throughout the game, whether you're on the map or in battle. However, time runs at a slower speed during battle.
* ''[[The Witcher]]'' has a full day/night cycle and a clock, where half an hour of game time is about five minutes of real time. Not only are some missions only possible during day or night, but for some you have to be in the right place at exactly the right hour of the day.
* ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'' gives the day/night cycle strategic relevance by making lawful units more effective during daytime and vice versa for chaotic units.
* ''[[
** Monsters are tougher at night, but the music is so much cooler. Dilemma...
** Heart pickups are also doubled at night, but the towns are all locked up and full of zombies, which ''don't'' give you hearts. The dilemma continues...
** Later ''[[Castlevania]]'' games like ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'' and ''Castlevania 64'' also have day/night cycles.
* Sierra's edutainment game ''Gold Rush'' has two timed events, both of which completely fail to work on any computer faster than 25mhz. There was also a segment with day cycles (no night cycles, it just transitions to the next day without warning) that tend to get you killed by putting you into a bad situation, because you were standing at the wrong place ''WHEN DAWN CAME WITHOUT WARNING''.
* The ''[[X-COM]]'' game series allows the player to control how fast the game will be - from 5 seconds to one day for each real life second. Any events that happen will automatically freeze the clock. This is very, very important, as sending rookie troopers into a night mission is essentially the same as shooting them in the head, only more involved.
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* ''[[Rogue Squadron]] II'', of all things, uses a day/night system on a few of its levels. The initial training mission changes depending on what (real-world) time of day you play it; a later mission has you attack a base's early-warning sensors head-on in a bomber when played during the day, or sneak in with a speeder when played at night.
* ''[[Far Cry|Far Cry 2]]'' also has a fairly long day/night cycle. One minute of real time is equal to five minutes in-game. It gets odd to think, after blowing up a few convoys, assassinating a bunch of guys, taking over a number of safe houses by force, helping out the underground a couple of times, meeting and helping out a few new friends, all while conducting complex operations for one militant faction only to switch sides and work for their enemies across town, that you've still been in the country less than a ''week''.
* ''[[
** Earlier ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' games had the same cycle, though the inn would always take you to morning. There were also spells and items that would change it from day to night or back.
** The in-universe clock got very ''strange'' in [[
* ''[[Vandal Hearts]] 2'' has time pass as you travel from checkpoint to checkpoint, and some maps will have different enemies and features during night-time. Also, some events can only take place at specific times.
* ''[[Sim City]]''. Even at the slowest speed the game proceeds at a rate of many days every second. At the fastest speed, a ''year'' goes by in only a few seconds. The game goes slower during a disaster like a fire, but the whole incident still goes by in 5-15 minutes.
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* ''[[Hostile Waters]]'' has a day/night cycle that doesn't affect gameplay beyond giving you an excuse to use the night vision button. [[Guide Dang It|If you know one exists at all.]]
* The Phillon Planet in ''[[Air Rivals|Ace Online]]'' experiences a day-night cycle, complete with a moving sun and moon. This only affects the spawning rates of mobs, as some are nocturnal.
* In ''[[
* ''[[My Sims]]'' time is sped up, though you can still [[Take Your Time]] to complete any task. For the most part, whether it's day or night only affects who's awake, though you can wake anybody up without consequence. (If you're like me, though, you feel bad about it. Unless it's a situation where I just gave the Sim a BED.)
** ''[[My Sims]] Kingdom'' is an odd case: each island's day/night cycle is suspended in daytime (yes, it's day in Rocket Reef and Spookane when you arrive) until you complete that island's story. There's another round of improvements you can make on each island, but time passes, anyway.
* ''[[Burnout|Burnout Paradise]]'' uses a clock system that is normally compressed. However, there is a menu option to lock it to day, lock it to night, or sync it to real-world time. This has the added use of giving the player the choice of when he wants to do specific day/night events. The player can also alter the time it takes for 24 in-game hours to pass, ranging from 24 minutes to 2 hours.
* Oddly enough, an [[What Could Have Been|early version]] of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (
** An even better question is why they spent so much time creating that cycle instead of working on the game's ''many'' other problems (such as the terrible controls, the awkwardly implemented physics, the [[Loads and Loads of Loading|never ending loading times]]...)
* In the first two ''[[Way of the Samurai]]'' games, time ''does'' pass whether you're following the plot or not. However, time passes only while traveling, so it's possible to [[Take Your Time]] if you don't leave the current area you're in. In the second game, you have an entire month to spend exploring Amahara, and can ''still'' spend the whole time collecting swords and staying out of the plot. However, the third game appears to follow this trope more traditionally, letting you [[Take Your Time]] a bit more.
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* In Interplay's ''Lord of the Rings'', "you cannot enter the town of Bree at night." That is, unless you have someone use the sneak command and walk real close to a wall near the bottom of the fortress. Also, the blacksmith will not help you with anything while it's dark, even though piecing together your sword and equipping you with armor could save the lives of everyone in Middle Earth.
* ''[[Shantae]]'' has a day-and-night cycle in effect while you're wandering around the field. (It freezes in towns.) Monsters are not only more difficult at night (they have much more HP), but in towns, different NPCs will be out, some shops will close, and a certain town will only ''appear'' on the map if it's nighttime. Oh, and one area has [[Night of the Living Mooks|zombies.]]
* The day/night cycle in ''[[Beyond Good
* Platformer ''[[Vexx]]'' has a day-and-night cycle in the levels, which advances at a slow rate, but can be controlled via magic sundials in some parts of the levels. Monsters change appearance and have more health at night, and certain levels have sub-levels that can only be accessed at specific times of day.
* Leads to awesome [[Fridge Logic]] in [[
** Clearly you've never been to [[Disney Theme Parks|Disney World]].
** Also worth noting is the game's calendar, which starts at March and ends at October, as per a theme park year. This only serves to compound the [[Fridge Logic]], as you realize that between October of one year and March the next, literally nothing happens. R&D completely shuts down, Advertising takes a break, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|those guests are still standing in line]].
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* In ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' (1,2 and 3) every in game hour is a turn and you can control the speed at which time passes (and also pause it completely). Fighting at night comes with hefty penalties to both the attacker and defender and night bombings and air battles are also much less effective. Also certain technologies offer bonuses that improve effectiveness at night (such as night vision gear, aircraft radar and special night training).
* In the first [[Soul Series]] game, ''Soul Edge'', the sky changes from dawn to dusk over the course of about 4 minutes. This has no bearing on the gameplay, and is simply used to show off the game engine (and to [[Rule of Cool|look cool]].)
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Godfather (
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' keeps track of how long your dwarfs have been at the fortress, and things like weather, available crops, and arrival of traders are tied to the season.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Resonance of Fate]]'', time passes at a set rate while on the world map, or skips ahead if you rest... but it stops passing once you enter a location and also stalls for plot-related reasons. The bizarreness of the fact that it can potentially be day for more than 24 hours if you're dawdling, then suddenly turn to night in a few minutes and refuse to change until you finish whatever plot points require it to be night is actually [[Justified Trope]] -- the game is [[After the End]], and the many disasters include some form of alteration to the Earth's axial rotation that makes the day/night cycle unpredictable. [[MST3K Mantra|The physics of how this could work without the speed of rotation changing causing all sorts of problems is best not thought about too deeply, though.]]
* ''Earth 2150''.
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* The ''[[Ultima]]'' series features the Avatar's pocket watch which first appears in ''[[Ultima V]]'' and is subsequently returned to the Avatar every subsequent time he comes to Britannia (having left it after the previous adventure). The watch tells in-game time and is helpful for keeping track of NPC schedules but never serves a plot significant purpose.
* A full day cycle in ''[[Minecraft]]'' lasts 20 minutes (equal to 72:1 time compression). In single player, you can skip the night by sleeping in a bed.
* The ''[[
** In some areas, however, this behaves oddly... For instance, in the third game, sailing around quickly eats up hours, and reaching different destinations can easily take a day or two. However, Sea Quests don't take any in-game time at all -- the guild is simply deposited right at their destination for the [[Boss Fight]], then returns to Armoroad for their rewards without any time elapsing. In fact, the clock even ''reverts'' to whatever time it was when you started the quest even if the battle took a few in-game hours!
* In ''[[Sea World Tycoon]]'', a cycle of day and night is equivalent to the game's month.
* ''[[Hydlide]] III'' (also known as ''Super Hydlide'') featured day/night cycles, along with the need to eat and sleep.
* Some ''[[Might and Magic]]'' games have an internal clock which is used for determining whether shops are open, how long you have been without resting and a few timed missions. It runs a lot faster than realtime.
* ''[[
* ''[[Gaia Online]]'' originally had a 2:1 Day/Night Cycle, though this was sped up so that a full 24 hour cycle takes about two hours. This is fairly important, especially in ''zOMG!''. Certain enemies only appear at night (including one mini boss), you can only talk to the Surfers during their nightly bonfire party. (And even then you only have a portion of the whole night, because even they need to sleep), and certain events are only possible at night. (You can only trick or treat at night, for example.)
* In ''[[Mabinogi]]'', every ingame day lasts 36 real minutes, with more mana regeneration during the night, and Part Time jobs happening at various times in the day. Each real day means an ingame month, which special effects for each of them. Each real week equals an ingame year. And logging in on Saturday after noon (according to the server) ages your character by one year.
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* In [[Half Minute Hero]], one day takes 30 seconds, and the day is generally divided into a "morning" half and a "evening" half, with certain events only showing up at certain portions.
* In the Commodore 64 version of ''Alice in Wonderland'', time passed very quickly, some events only occurred at certain times, the people you talked to could return later if you offended them, and how long you took to finish the game affected your ending. (Fortunately, pausing the menu also paused the clock.)
* ''[[
* [[Chu Lip]]: Time passes at an accelerated rate; different NPCs are active at different times, and certain events only happen at certain hours.
* [[Ryzom]] has a day/night cycle, and a cycle of seasons (4.5 real-time days for a season).
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== Turn/Event/Plot-Induced Time Advancement ==
* In [[Half-Life]], whether it be day or night seems to not depend on anything other than plot. Either that, or Ravenloft is located in a place that doesn't have a normal 24-hour cycle.
* In ''[[Betrayal
* ''[[Crysis (
** [[Rule of Cool]]: The developers wanted a night drop but also wanted to show off Crysis' top-of-the-line breakthrough graphics engine. It worked.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]: 358/2 Days'' is, as the title suggests, constrained to slightly under a year as far as the plot goes. And in story mode, time really does keep on slipping-you can only do one mission per day, and sometimes the game will skip two or three weeks at a time (raising the question of [[Fridge Logic]]: it's mentioned that they get precious few days off, so why don't you get experience and mission rewards for the missions Roxas goes on while you're watching the days counter rise?). But until you've done your mission for the day, time is locked in place-you can faff about in the shop, redo previous missions in the holo-room, or just sit around staring at the wall for hours on end and time will never advance.
** Which adds [[Fridge Logic]] of why the survive for one minute mission takes all day.
* ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4]]'', mostly due to your protagonist's regular schedule of [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save
** Very strange in ''[[Persona 3]]''. Feel free to take the monorail back and forth across the city as many times as you want while doing [[Fetch Quest|Fetch Quests]]; it takes no time. But leave your dorm on Sunday, realize right outside the door that you forgot to do something, and try to go back in? The act of walking through the door will take all day, and it'll be evening by the time you make it inside.
* In the [[Freeware Game]] Survivor: The Living Dead every single gameplay mode is tied to a clock (except one short area in the story mode), when the timer runs out you get rescued. The final unlockable mode has no rescue, and you must survive until sunrise.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* Every turn you take in any ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' game counts as one day in game time.
* ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' has a player-controlled day-night cycle, but only inside [[City of Adventure|Kirkwall]] (all outside levels have a permanent noon going on): Kirkwall-by-day and Kirkwall-by-night are two separate sets of locations with similar architecture. Most quests and merchants are available at daytime, while some ''shady'' quests and lots of [[Level Grinding]] against the local gangs are done in the night. Occasionally, the game will fast-forward the cycle from night to day after you exit a particularly expansive nighttime dungeon, in which case you get to see a [[Scenery Porn|beautiful sunrise]]. However, you can always [[Take Your Time]], even when someone claims "We ''must'' be there tonight!"
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* In ''[[Scratches]]'', there's a grandfather's clock that only advances whenever a puzzle is completed.
* The page quote comes from the old Penguin Software text adventure ''Transylvania''. Starting the game, you're told a clock has struck midnight. After making a given number of actions, it strikes one, then later two, and so on. Once it strikes six, the princess Sabrina you're tasked with saving dies, ending your game.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Sentimental Graffiti]]: Time advances in different amounts based on what you do. Traveling to distant cities take longer than close ones, and some dates last longer than others.
* The game ''Sid Meier's Colonization'' takes place over a period of 300 ''years'', with each year being a turn. One year typically takes only a few minutes. Oddly enough, you, the leader of your homeland and the leaders of the other nations/tribes don't get older or die during this time.
** Ditto, of course, ''Sid Meier's [[Civilization]]'' (4000 BC to usually 2100 AD with increasingly slower increments) and ''[[Sid
*** At least one Civilization game had, at the ending screen, some Roman number after your name (Yourname XI the Great), implying the leaders just pass down power, whether it makes sense or not.
* ''Enduro'', by Activision for the Atari 2600, also had day and night, though Enduro's night was based on how far you were into the course and not on time.
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