During the preproduction of Legacy of Time, the Journeyman creative team of writers and designers sought a way for players to interact closely with the exotic citizens of the past. In the previous Journeyman games, the laws of time travel prevented agents from interacting with anyone for fear of changing history. With this in mind, the team improved on their old designs to create the top secret Chameleon JumpSuit.

The original time-displacement JumpSuit from The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time

"The Chameleon device allows you to copy any person's appearance and then assume a perfect virtual image of that person," says Phil Saunders, one of the lead designers of the Legacy of Time. "The design of the Chameleon suit needed to reflect the new technologies we were adding to the time travel JumpSuit. We wanted to streamline our previous JumpSuit design and create a sleek new look."

The Chameleon Prototype improved on the previous JumpSuit aesthetically and technologically.

The Chameleon JumpSuit received its name because of its ability to assume holographic disguises. Elements of the Suit were designed to resemble a chameleon, like the scales of the appendages and the wide bug eyes on the sides of the helmet. The Chameleon-like eyes explained the new 360-degree panning interface that was implemented for Legacy of Time.

For Legacy of Time, Presto Studios sought out professional industrial designers to create the JumpSuit from the designs of Phil Saunders.

"We approached Don Pennington, an Emmy award winning special effects artist, one of the most recognizable names in the industry," said Saunders. "Fortunately, Don was finishing work on the movie Titanic when we asked him to build our suit, so he was able to begin work right away."

Various stages of construction with actor Jerry Rector in the completed suit.
The suit had to be painted green to avoid problems during the bluescreen shoot.

To ensure that the suit fit properly, Don had Jerry Rector, the actor portraying Gage Blackwood, come into his effects studio to create a plaster cast mold of his body. Once the suit was complete, Jerry Rector would wear the suit for two weeks during the blue screen filming sessions.

A full-body cast of Jerry Rector was made to ensure a matching fit.

The result of the design and construction period was a life-sized JumpSuit that would become one of the most recognizable and important elements of Legacy of Time. Not only was the suit important for the cinematic sequences of the game, the technology of adopting different guises was a driving force in the game.

"The Chameleon JumpSuit was critical to Legacy of Time," remarks lead writer Eric Dallaire. "We incorporated the necessity of swapping guises into many puzzles. There are times when you need to be wearing the correct guise in order to get information out of someone. It really added a unique depth to the whole game."