What began as a thesis project for a group of students at USC has evolved into a fully funded Xbox Live Arcade game that’s as professional, eye-catching, and downright impressive as anything else on the service. Winterbottom is a puzzle game, joyously drawn in 1920s-style animation, about an umbrella-toting pastry chief who just wants his pie. In fact, he lusts for one tasty treat in particular: chronoberry pie, which he has to chase, naturally, through time.

To collect all of the pies on each stage, you’ll need to record copies of yourself and then build off of them — hold RT to record, then release and the P.B. clone will endlessly loop the recording, freeing your “live” avatar to do something else. You can create an unlimited number of copies, each playing out their recorded task. For instance, you can reach a pie in the far upper corner of the screen by recording yourself standing in place, then jumping on top of the clone, then recording another one, hopping on his head, recording another P.B. who swings his umbrella in a loop, and then making a final jump with your real avatar so he’s whacked across the screen by the umbrella-wielding copy, soaring through the air to collect the previously-out-of-reach pie.

With its open-minded approach to puzzle-solving and its distinct art style, Winterbottom reminds us of a delicious cross between the heady Braid and the recently released thinker Scribblenauts for Nintendo DS. If it can come anywhere near the brilliance of those two, these students will earn an “A” — not to mention a promising career in game development.