Hideo Kojima rose to fame as a game designer with blockbusters such as Metal Gear Solid, but his earliest fans know him for a variety of lesser-known but equally acclaimed projects such as Policenauts and Snatcher. Thanks to a new game from Annapurna Interactive, Kojima has begun pondering a return to the genre that helped shape a significant portion of his earlier career.
Released this week for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, Twelve Minutes is an interactive thriller developed by LuÃs António that tells a story about a man trapped in a time loop from a top-down perspective. It features the voice talents of James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe, all of whom have apparently impressed Kojima with how they brought Twelve Minutes’ story to life.
Kojima has been showering the game with praise and recommending it to his millions of followers on Twitter, calling it a great game that can easily captivate players for hours. The famed designer admitted that he hasn’t been this impressed with a game since Playdead’s eerily beautiful puzzle platformer, Inside.
Kojima eventually went so far as to say that his experience with Twelve Minutes has “kinda [made him] want to create another adventure game,” which might serve as a clue as to what Kojima Productions might be planning next following 2019’s Death Stranding and the kind of works it might be inspired by. In any case, it will almost certainly involve Hollywood celebrities, as the game designer seems infatuated with them.
"TWELVE MINUTES". It's Great! I lost track of time and just played it for about four hours! I haven't been into a game this much since INSIDE.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 20, 2021
A time loop adventure game and a good sense of style. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/55GMsym5Jm
Kinda make me want to create another adventure game.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 20, 2021
What should be a romantic evening with your wife turns into a nightmare when a police detective breaks into your home, accuses your wife of murder and beats you to death…
Only for you to find yourself immediately returned to the exact moment you opened the front door, stuck in a TWELVE-MINUTE time loop, doomed to relive the same terror again and again…
Source: Hideo Kojima