In-Universe Game Clock: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{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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A common trope in video games is the passage of time, including day and night cycles. Depending on the game, this can either be an attempt at realism or a way to introduce other features (including a night-based variant of the [[Underground Monkey]]). The result is one or more of the following:
# Time advances with the system-clock, or X times faster than the in-game
# The time of day/week/month/year/whatever affects character statistics.
# Changes the types of monsters that spawn, or which NPCs [[NPC Scheduling|can be encountered]].
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== Internal Game Clock ==
* ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' started the series' tradition of built-in clocks that segregate the day into three time
** 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.
** ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' expand on this by adding ''seasons''. Every real-life month, the in-game season changes (January, May, and September are spring, February, June, and October are summer, March, July, and November are fall, and April, August, and December are winter). Like with the day-night system, different Pokémon appear during different seasons or appear at different rates (for example, some ice Pokémon only appear during the winter, and others appear more frequently then). Also, just like in real life, the days are shorter during the winter and longer during the summertime.
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** 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 ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'', had two minutes of real time equal one hour of game time.
* [[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
** ''[[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.
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** ''Fallout 3'' even has changing phase of the moon.
** Most but not all shopkeepers are affected by daytime. In ''Fallout 3'', other activities (most notably sleep) are also affected.
*** There are
* ''[[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''.
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** The in-universe clock got very ''strange'' in [[Dragon Quest V]], in which, according to the in-universe day-night cycle, your wife gives birth to your twin children maybe three weeks after the first opportunity for conception.
* ''[[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
** ''[[Sim City]] 4'' has a day-night cycle as well, but of course it doesn't proceed at the same scale as the calendar; each year contains only a few.
* ''[[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.]]
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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 & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' is mostly
* 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 [[Rollercoaster Tycoon]] when you realize that your park guests have been standing in line for ''months'' without eating, sleeping or going to the bathroom.
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* 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]].)
* ''[[Mount & Blade]]'' has one, though it takes only a short time for a day to go by.
* In ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]: The Game'', time passes faster "normally", though I'm not too sure by how much faster, though there are still [[Timed Mission
* ''[[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.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' has an internal clock that makes an entire day last a little over 3 hours. While no specific in-game time is shown, an icon surrounding the mini-map will either show a sun or a moon, indicating whether it's day or night, and the tooltip will display the actual time period (dawn, morning, noon, afternoon etc.). In addition, the sun/moon cycle in the game is portrayed accurately throughout that 3+ hour day.
* 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]]
* ''Earth 2150''.
* ''[[Shenmue]]'' among other innovations was one of the first to have an in game clock and the game ended if it took too long in game time to beat it.
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* 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 ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'' series has a day-night cycle, as well as an in-game calendar (for instance, the guild always starts its adventures on Emperor 1). Time advances as you explore the Labyrinth, and when sleeping at the inn, you can choose to be awakened in the morning or evening. Depending on the time of day, different monsters may appear in the Labyrinth, or FOEs may behave differently.
** 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
* 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.
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** 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 the World]]. The game announces when the "clock" progresses to the next time of day (or the next day).
** 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
* 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.
* ''[[Touhou]] Eiyashou: Imperishable Night'' starts off explicitly at 11:00 PM, and your goal is to reach the end of the game and restore the real moon in time for a festival by 5:00 AM. Depending on how many time icons you collect in a stage, time will advance either by 1 hour or 30 minutes. Using continues also adds 30 minutes.
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