Putt-Putt Travels Through Time is a 1997 video game and the fourth of seven adventure games in the Putt-Putt series of games developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. In 2014 Night Dive Studios re-released the iOS, Linux and Steam versions. In 2022, a port was released on the Nintendo Switch in January, as one of the first Humongous Entertainment games to be released on the system alongside Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell,[4] followed by a PlayStation 4 version in November.[5] This is the last game to feature Jason Ellefson as the voice of Putt-Putt.
Production
Concept art for Merlin the Medieval Sorcerer, a new character in the game. Artists played around with designs and colours until settling on the finished version as he appears in the game (bottom).
The production team brainstormed ideas for the follow-up title in the Putt Putt franchise. Among the alternate titles were: Putt-Putt Goes to the Carnival, Putt-Putt Saves the Universe, and Putt-Putt Learns to Fly. They eventually settled on Putt-Putt Travels Through Time.[6] While the designs of the main characters were already established, the team had to work on designing to look of new characters such as Merlin the Medieval Sorcerer.[7] The scripts was written and storyboards were created to layout how each scene would work as a self-contained piece, as well as part of a larger story.[8] Background artists then interpreted both the script and storyboards to create the look and feel of the game through the backgrounds; part of their job was to leave sufficient space for clickable hotspots. Once the basic design sketch was approved, it was given more detail and finally painted.[9] Next, animators created series of drawings based on the storyboards which when viewed together would simulate movement; each of the 30,000 drawings were then individually scanned into a computer, where they were cleaned up and had imperfections removed.[10] The next stage was for artists to colour frames and animate clickpoints; Humongous noted that while this stage was "tedious", it allowed low-level artists to be creative and use their initiative.[11] The work was handed over to programmers who wrote code to ensure the game responded to player choices, and who added sound effects to synch up to the animations.[12] The music was created by Humongous, while voice actors were auditioned by the company (if new to the franchise), then sent to a studio to record their lines.[13]
Putt Putt game designer Nick Mirkovich commented that there was a design philosophy of creating immersive interactive world for players to explore, and that like other games by Humongus, items needed for game completion were programmed to be in different places for separate playthroughs.[14] Players could go behind the scenes into the game's production via the company website.[14]
Plot
The game begins with Putt-Putt waking up Pep while packing his new school supplies with the intention of showing them to Mr. Firebird (who has turned his fireworks factory into a laboratory since his previous appearance). When Putt-Putt arrives at the lab, Mr. Firebird demonstrates a time machine made to view different time periods. During the demonstration, however, the machine malfunctions and opens a portal that sucks Putt-Putt's items and Pep into four different dimensions (Stone Age, Medieval, Old West, and the Distant Future). Since the portal can't be shut down until everything sucked in is brought back, Putt-Putt is forced enter the portal to search for everything.
After finding every item and Pep in the eras, Putt-Putt makes it out safe from the time machine (which appears to have grown even more out of control) and after he announces his success, Mr. Firebird shuts off the portal and locks it up tight. Due to the entire time portal incident, Putt-Putt realizes that he doesn't have time to show Mr. Firebird his school items, so he promises to show them to him after school. At his classroom, Putt-Putt gives his teacher his history report and tells everyone about what he learned during the events as the credits roll.
Gameplay
The game mechanics are the same as the prequels including the glove box inventory, horn, radio and accelerator. The locations of the items and Pep vary throughout each playthrough; they each have four variations of where they could be, with one variation being in each of the eras and there cannot be more than one item in an era in each playthrough. There are also a number of optional minigames throughout the four eras.
The use of spending coins returns from Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, though Putt-Putt can only carry one at a time, unlike the other game, where you can carry an unlimited number of coins. The first coin can be found in Putt-Putt's garage (which is used to start up Mr. Firebird's time machine), while more can be earned when you oil Toby the Train's wheels in the Old West era.
Computer Shopper felt the game was fun, but ultimately failed to live up to predecessors of the genre.[20]The Cincinnati Post deemed the game "outstanding", and recommended that younger children purchase an earlier title in the Putt-Putt series first to acquaint themselves with computers before attempting this more "challenging" title.[21]The Boston Herald gave the game a rating of 4.5 stars, praising the abundance of clickable hotspots in every scene which would keep kids entertained while completing the adventure.[22] The newspaper also deemed the game one of the "finest kid titles ever".[23]Rocky Mountain News gave it a B, commenting that it lived up to the quality standard of Humongous Entertainment.[24]The Washington Times wrote that the game was "delightful" and "uncomplicated".[25]Macworld rated the game 8.7 out of 10 and inducted it into its 1998 Game Hall of Fame in the Kids category, saying that while the point was "to encourage junior adventurers to master the reasoning and problem-solving skills necessary to complete the task [...] the bottom line is fun, and as in grown-up adventures, the journey itself is the reward."[19]
In the fourth quarter of 1997, the game was the 4th biggest seller in the PC Kids/Edutainment category.[26]
^Rosemary Young (July 1998). "Putt Putt Travels Through Time Review by metzomagic.com". metzomagic.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2016. It's a worthy challenge for pre-schoolers and a particularly good game choice for a young first time adventure game player.
^NeoJ (March 24, 2015). "Putt-Putt Travels Through Time". Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved September 6, 2016. Some puzzle parts in a classic point and click procedure with cute graphics and lots of charismatic characters.
^The 2012/2013 IOS/Android release was published by Atari, while the re-release was published by Tommo. The Steam release was co-published by Tommo and Night Dive Studios. The Nintendo Switch version was published by UFO Interactive Games.
