Three Minutes to Eight could be a treatment for a new Christopher Nolan film, but instead, it’s a fascinating concept forged into a beautiful point and click adventure.
That concept is merely an idea or a series of thoughts many of us get before nodding off to sleep that are sometimes profound, mysterious – even inspirational- but typically, we can’t make sense of them or forget them as we drift off.
At the start of the Three Minutes to Eight demo on the Steam Next Fest, a developer’s note says the story is a culmination of strange nights, ‘…a semi-hypnagogic state right before falling asleep. Forcing myself to stay awake long enough to jot down notes on a piece of paper or on my phone‘. This is relatable – I’ve done the same and come out with some interesting ideas, but usually, that’s all they are – ideas. Making a game out of it? That’s impressive.
You play a protagonist who has zero recollection of who they are or their purpose. Sharing this confusion, you interact with the objects in their apartment, looking for clues, only to find that each time you shift to a new scene, the clock goes forward by one minute. Spark up a cigarette? Shifts one minute.
There’s no real-time clock in Three Minutes to Eight, but after each significant event, or dashing back and forth between scenes, a countdown appears that brutally reveals your death. Here’s another high concept: your character will die at 19:57, and each time will be different. You have to cheat it.
Jeitaro
Upon the first death, before returning to the apartment, you can take one of two items you’ve collected with you. What’s unreal here is you think you’ve cheated death and found a shortcut to where you left off, but the NPCs are in a different location, and the actions unfold as if nothing happened in the previous one.
Three Minutes to Eight is intentionally cryptic – it’s playing out as a dream or on the fringes of consciousness or reality, tinkering with potential outcomes. How Chaosmonger Studio (ENCODYA) has managed to flesh this out is brilliant. With the death cycle element, it’s almost comparable to that of a point and click rogue-lite. Don’t quote me on that.
It’s a gorgeous pixel art adventure with a similar style to Pants Quest. It also has a Lacuna vibe, what with it being a future setting, and coincidentally, published by Assemble Entertainment. My only beef was the voiceovers sounded a bit too echoey. Yeah, you didn’t ask, but if that’s all that’s wrong with it, you obviously need to play it. Right?
