I have an idea about how I can link time to both the internal game clock and real life time.

The premise is that seconds, minutes, hours and days are linked the game world. Every minute would be a second IRL, every hour a minute, and every day would be 24 minutes (or whatever, I'd tweak until I found the sweet spot). The months, however, are variable, and are tied to the day IRL. Every time the player comes back to the game the next day, the game world has advanced a month. In practicality, there would have to be a few game rules to make this work:

1. Returning to the game anytime after the next day will only advance the game's calendar by one month. Leaving the game for 12 days and coming back will still only make the game time advance by one month.

2. If the player played past midnight IRL, he would have to reload the game to advance to the next month. The game won't advance a month while loaded.

With this concept, the game rewards players for coming back to it each day, all the while still allowing the player to skip time. For example, if they have a quest where they must meet someone at midnight, instead of having to wait until midnight IRL, or using a wait system like the Elder Scrolls' games, the player would just have to wait a maximum of 11 minutes. That being said, since the months are linked to IRL time, the game could still recognize and reward the player for returning the next day.This idea works very well for the puzzle/action game I am designing. The basic story sees the player enlisting the aid followers in a Dragon Age: Origins kind of way to defeat an evil threat. The game world is largely a sandbox environment, and NPC/player interaction is a big thing. I consider time a very important factor for both the puzzles and the interaction with the environment/NPCs.

Essentially, each month would have a maximum of 60 days, but could be as short as 1 day. The variable size of each month could be explained by a unique way of calendar keeping. Perhaps months could mark the end of a significant event in history.

I feel that this time concept neatly merges the time keeping system in Day Z with the time keeping system in Majora's Mask to create a comparatively unobtrusive solution.

The other reason why I really like this idea is because it makes it much easier to implement a fixed interval reward schedule. Shops could bring in new stock every month, the seasons would change more regularly (every three consecutive days), special events tied to holiday occasions would be more regular, etc. Also, there would be some days where playing the game is a bit harder, such as on the Queen's birthday, where road tolls are doubled. I think this wouldn't discourage the player from playing on that day if it didn't happen very regularly. Perhaps shops could close on Sundays, or certain quests could be exclusive to certain times of the year, such as during the winter solstice? If the game world changes based on how often the player comes back to play, I feel that it's going to encourage them to keep coming back and playing, if they wish to 100% all the content - which tends to be a driving factor for many players.

Anyway, that's it. I'd be interested to hear what you think about it. Specifically, I'm wondering as to the practical feasibility of this design, and whether it's going to be too confusing to the player to be of any good.

I think one difficultly with this approach at the moment is that the same terms are being used to refer to "In-game" time periods (minutes, seconds, etc.) as well as "Real Life" time periods so it is confusing trying to figure out which is being referred to in different parts of the post. I would suggest coming up with some different terms for the in-game time periods to make it clear which is being referred to, both for this post and also for explaining to players.

When a game includes the passage of time as a game play element tying this, scaled, to real world time makes it easier for the player to understand how much time will pass. However in this case I think your tying the in-game time to much to real world time and ending up just making progressing through the game more difficult than it needs to be.

For example, if they have a quest where they must meet someone at midnight, instead of having to wait until midnight IRL, or using a wait system like the Elder Scrolls' games, the player would just have to wait a maximum of 11 minutes

I'm not sure how you arrive at the player having to wait 11 minutes here when earlier you've mentioned that a day would be 24 minutes. Wouldn't the make time the player has to wait be 24 minutes to get to the next mid night in game time (minus whatever window around mid night the player could arrive and still have the person there)?

Though if i'm playing the game why do I need to sit around and do nothing for x minutes when all I want to do is go and complete the quest, Skyrim avoids this by letting me advance the in-game time so I can just get on with doing what I want. Sure I could go and do other things for that period of time, but I run the risk of taking too long and missing the opportunity and having to wait again.

Shops could bring in new stock every month, the seasons would change more regularly (every three consecutive days)

For me, this month advancing every real day you play would be annoying. For example, if a store had 5 potions available and I wanted 12 why do I need to wait a real life day for them to get more? I can understanding that creating a "living" world that limited stock would be part of the gameplay but I think the player should have some sort of control of things happen. My main concern is would would I be missing out as play times change, for example some days i'll play the game for 30 minutes and only get through one thing I want to do that month and then the next day come back when I have 4 hours to play, but can't do the remainder of the things from the month as the game has moved on. So I end up having to go into the game for the next few days just so I could get to what I wanted to do. For me this sort of thing would make me move on to a different game.

Okay, I can see how it's confusing. Allow me to explain in other terms.

The game has an in-game clock that moves 60x faster than time in real life. E.g. for every minute the player sits in front of his screen, his character experiences an hour. On top of this, every new day in the player's real life is a new month in the character's.

I'm not sure how you arrive at the player having to wait 11 minutes here when earlier you've mentioned that a day would be 24 minutes.

Haha, you're right. I was getting confused with my own description. He would have to wait an entire day, which is 24 minutes. Perhaps I should implement a way of skipping ahead 12 minutes at a time, similar to the Song of Double Time in Majora's Mask.

if a store had 5 potions available and I wanted 12 why do I need to wait a real life day for them to get more? I

Not quite what I meant. For more stock on a specific item, the player character would be required to wait until the next day (in the game) for that shop to receive the new stock. That being said, it would be pretty rare to find a shop that doesn't stock more than 5 potions - the only reason the player character might need to wait for the next day for new stock, is if they are trying to buy up huuge amounts of potions for say, a really hard boss. Obviously, this applies to other small, common items, and would be featured in the shop in a separate window. Perhaps the shop's special exclusive-month items could be displayed in the window.

In talking to the shop owner, the player character can find out about the shop's next shipments of goods. These items will be wholly unique, quite rare, and will generally be mutually exclusive to that month. This should encourage the player to keep coming back to their favourite shops in the game world in order to get the best stuff.

My main concern is would would I be missing out as play times change, for example some days i'll play the game for 30 minutes and only get through one thing I want to do that month and then the next day come back when I have 4 hours to play, but can't do the remainder of the things from the month as the game has moved on. So I end up having to go into the game for the next few days just so I could get to what I wanted to do.

I see what you mean, and I agree. It doesn't appeal to casual gamers very well. What could be a way of avoiding this? Would it be too complicated to allow the player to decide if the next time they log off, the game time will advance a month or not? E.g. if the player sleeps in a bed, the next time he comes back, game time has advanced a month (and a calendar nearby on the wall will highlight this change); but if he just logs out without sleeping, it resumes as normal. The game could educate the player about this feature with an inn NPC who introduces the bed system?

I see what you mean, and I agree. It doesn't appeal to casual gamers very well. What could be a way of avoiding this? Would it be too complicated to allow the player to decide if the next time they log off, the game time will advance a month or not? E.g. if the player sleeps in a bed, the next time he comes back, game time has advanced a month (and a calendar nearby on the wall will highlight this change); but if he just logs out without sleeping, it resumes as normal. The game could educate the player about this feature with an inn NPC who introduces the bed system?

I think the system you've describe could work, though I still think that you'll also need a way for the player to advance the game a month without having to leave the game and come back. For me the key points are:

1. Give me a reasonable ability to be able to get to the season/month I need to be able to complete the parts of the game I want without having to mess about.
2. Make sure it is clear what I can do when so that as a player I can know what I'll miss if I do/don't advance.

You could also consider having the time link system as your currently thinking of as an option at the start of the game so the player can choose being linked time and skip-able time.