If you're at all familiar with the TimeSplitters fandom, you've probably come across TimeSplitters Rewind at one stage or another.
The ambitious (multiplayer-only) PC remake of the original games has been in development since 2013, gradually evolving from a CryEngine project to a title that is being built using Epic's Unreal Engine. In the past, its team kept fans updated on the progress of the project by posting the occasional videos on YouTube, but it has been relatively quiet over the past year or so. Recently, however, it finally broke this silence, publishing its first new video since December 2022 (as spotted by Eurogamer!).
In this video, the game's lead writer and voice actor Jake 'The Voice' Parr gave a rather candid account of where the project is currently at. The video starts by showing some of the remarkable progress that has been made on the project over the last decade, before going on to claim that the state of the industry — including potential layoffs and an increasingly difficult job market — has left its developers in "an incredibly challenging space" where the game "cannot be at the forefront for people". As a result, the team is urgently searching for others to come forward and join the volunteer project, to help push it towards the finish line and provide a "refined focus".
In the video, Parr said the following about the positions they are hoping to fill:
“We need character artists. People who are capable and willing to adapt the original style — mostly akin to Future Perfect — to the goals of Rewind’s art direction. We need environment artists. People who can help bring our environments from their first pass status up to a second or third pass. We need a technical designer who is willing to own map maker and bring that to ship, alongside someone who’s able to fix bugs and implement final features. We also need character animators. We are really behind in character-select animations and need more of these assets to be produced. Lastly, we need a weapons animator who is able to bring our final weapons assets to a playable state.”
He also gave an update on the work that still needs to be done, revealing that the team has some of the environments pretty much finished, but there are some like TimeSplitters' "Spaceways" that still require a lot of work and have fallen behind on First Pass status. Ideally, the team would like to get these stages beyond First Pass status, so that the artists can introduce more things that they can take more ownership over. This includes things like "posters, signs, tunnels, and more"
Elsewhere, Parr also implied that the team composition is holding the team back from introducing more assets than are already included in its current plan and revealed that "representation from TimeSplitters 2 and Future Perfect may be quite limited" as a result. He, however, suggested that with enough help, this might potentially change in the future.
There's no release date set for TimeSplitters Rewind yet, but we'll keep you posted once we hear more.