The game shows a top-down view of the playing area, similar to a SimCity perspective, which allows you to track the progress of your real-estate empire as you build your way into each new neighborhood. The decorations are great, since the whole theme of the game is showing different houses and homebuyers from the 50s until today. Little touches are everywhere, including some sound effects that accompany each buyer when you successfully move them into their new home. The musical accompaniment is appropriate to each period, but not a huge part of the game experience.
Casual games should have a visual style that does the job and then "gets out of the way." Build in Time has a relatively uncluttered dashboard as you are playing, but does a poor job providing visual cues on the appropriate sequence for your actions. Customers slowly lose patience with you, evidenced by their demeanor and a traditional meter. There are some subtle cues as to what you can do to earn extra points, including a summary at the beginning of each level. The pace of Build in Time doesn't allow you to relax and plan your approach. The phone is ringing, houses are being built or painted... you need a way to be clued in quickly when a job is done and it's time to move in a new client. Build in Time puts a lot on the player, which diminishes its value as a casual game. The end result is more challenging, but also places a question mark over this one for gamers that want a slower paced experience.
