Twelve Minutes is a thriller with a real-time 12-minute loop

Twelve Minutes is an interactive thriller about a man trapped in a time loop.

In an intriguing teaser trailer shown during the Xbox E3 conference, the top-down video depicts a man and woman sharing a romantic meal as she passes him a gift. But even as the gift sits unopened on the table, the man reveals he already knows what’s inside it. He then tells his partner that someone is coming to accuse her of killing her father.

The curious story is told in real-time and it’s up to the player to “break the twelve-minutes loop”.

“A romantic evening takes a wrong turn when a police detective breaks into your home, accuses your wife of murder, and knocks you unconscious,” the Xbox press release states.

“In a heartbeat, you are immediately returned to the start of the evening before it all happens again and again. A real-time, interactive thriller, where you will need to use the knowledge of what’s about to happen, to change the outcome and break the twelve-minutes loop.”

As yet, there’s no release window for Twelve Minutes, but publisher Annapurna Interactive‘s website states it will “very likely” be out in 2020.