Trivia / TimeShift

• Development Gag: The Alpha Suit is based on the model of the time suit from the previous version of the game (see What Could Have Been below).
• Executive Meddling: The game started out development under Atari and was based more on the idea of using your time travelling powers to solve puzzles, but in early 2006 a demo was released to the internet, and its reception was... bad, to say the least. Atari apparently panicked and sold the game's rights to Sierra, who in turn told the development team to trash virtually everything they had done and remake it along the lines of the then-recent megahit Gears of War.
• Follow the Leader: Thanks to the Executive Meddling mentioned above, the developers were forced to turn the game into "Gears of War with a time travel suit" — though in fairness, the 2006 demo received a lot of accusations that it was "Half-Life 2 with a time travel suit," so this trope would likely have applied either way.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At one point the game was going to feature a steampunk setting and much weirder weapons, but the released demo of this version was so horrible that it led to Sierra completely retooling the game into a Gears of War esque game.
  • Earlier versions of the game also featured a fully voiced protagonist named Michael Swift. Allegedly, the voice actor was so infuriating behind the scenes, the Player Character was turned into a faceless Heroic Mime.