'12 Minutes' on Xbox Is a Terrifying New Time Loop "Interactive Thriller" 

What would happen if you were caught in a time loop? Movies like Doctor Strange and Edge of Tomorrow have explored this concept in fantastical settings, but what if it happened in the mundane lives of normal people? A new video game that debuted at E3, 12 Minutes, aims to do exactly that.

At E3 2019, during the jam-packed presentation for Xbox by Microsoft, the trailer for the indie game 12 Minutes debuted onstage. Published by Annapurna Interactive, the game takes place over the span of the same 12 minutes, over and over again, where players have to alter the ending and break the loop.

Here’s everything we know so far about 12 Minutes.

When Is the 12 Minutes Release Date? What Consoles?

12 Minutes will be released on PC and Xbox One in 2020. An exact release date was not revealed at E3 2019.

What Is 12 Minutes About?

Set in a modern day apartment shared by a husband and wife, players take control of the unnamed husband.

Together, their lives unravel when a police detective interrupts their quiet and accuses the wife of a murder, beating her to death. This prompts the husband to somehow “reset” back 12 minutes, where players must undo the outcome.

Where Can I Watch the Trailer?

You can view the trailer for 12 Minutes in the embed below.

Who Made 12 Minutes?

The creator of the game is Luis Antonio, who previously provided art for the 2016 game The Witness. On his blog, Antonio said he began working on 12 Minutes by himself after the release of The Witness.

“While working on The Witness, surrounded by so much talent and inspiration, I took the leap to start working on an idea I had in my head for a few years,” Antonio wrote. “I learned how to program, created a prototype and shared it with the world, and it was covered very positively by Rock Paper Shotgun! I then took it to festivals, getting even more positive coverage, making me realize that after The Witness, I should maybe take the plunge and create the game.”

Since 2016, Antonio provided updates on the game’s progress, which you can read here. The blog is a fascinating insight into the complexity of a narrative game, even one that looks as “small” as 12 Minutes. The visualization for the character behavior, for example, is simply daunting to look at.

In another post, Antonio went into the game’s deep motion capture production. “Even though I’ve been in the industry for over 10 years, and I’m aware of the difficulties of recording and implementing motion-capture, actually being responsible for the whole process is kinda scary,” Antonio wrote. “Doing this on an indie developer scale has always been practically impossible.”

With the help of a friend at Seattle studio MocapNow, Antonio completed his game’s motion capture in three hours. For aspiring creators, the whole thing is a compelling read that goes deep into things we as gamers take for granted.

12 Minutes will be released on Xbox One and PC in 2020.