7 Minutes

7 Minutes is a short horror game developed by Muffle, with some help from fellow RMNers. Yeah, a short game. Its scope is very tight and you’re probably gonna see the credits rolling in front of you pretty soon. Won’t take you more than half an hour to finish the game. That could be seen as a con, but it’s actually one of the game’s major strengths.

With a much more condensed scope, the developer and those who helped have put all of their thoughts and efforts into polishing the experience in a way that would make what little you got satisfying and easily playable. It’s basically like the appetizer of a fancy restaurant. It might go down fast, but you’re very likely to enjoy every bite.





7 Minutes follows the story of the single mother Edith and her four children: Penny, Sophia, Ronnie and Megan. This small family is shown to live pretty much peacefully and quietly. The days go by with them enjoying their time together, until one night when a mysterious earthquake hits the place they live in and a mysterious presence appears and starts to roam around the house.

Could it be that the monster the children kept talking about, and are scared of, is real?

The story itself is pretty simple and to the point, although there’s a hidden meaning behind it, and it works wonders for the scope the game has, without going overboard and without delivering “filler” sections. All of the game’s set pieces are perfectly delivered and help in making you understand the family and its situation without wasting too much time with redundant exposition or overly long dialogues.





It’s clear that the game knew what it wanted to be and worked on that. The result is an experience that simply works and works well.

The whole of 7 Minutes is set in Edith’s house. It’s not a huge mansion full of puzzles or things to uncover, but more of a familiar place. As the game progresses and you complete the small, and not extremely difficult, minigames and puzzles that define the whole experience, the house grows more and more on you and you start to remember its layout, which is pretty important in later sections of the game when you need to use that layout to your advantage.

The game is all about exploration and completing small minigames and QTE you stumble upon as you progress through it. It’s clear that it wants to focus on the narrative aspect and the gameplay itself is there to act as backup for it.

The dark atmosphere is competently delivered, with a clever use of lights, dark sections and tight rooms that require you to watch your step everytime a “dangerous” situation arises.

The minigames featured in the game are not difficult, as said before, but some can be tricky and will require you to explore thoroughly or retrace your steps to find that one thing you missed.





The graphics of the game unfortunately rely way too much on RTPs and the “chibi” style, which give the game a generic look. It has to be said though that despite this, the resources at hand have been cleverly used.

The house’s mapping, for instance, is very good. You’re gonna visit those rooms very often, but it never gets old, because both the atmosphere and the mapping did a great job at creating a comfortable looking, familiar place where such a large family would live in.

The mapping is also well delivered on a level design perspective, as the layout of some of the maps are structured in a way that enhances the “run and hide” chase sequences the game is gonna feature from time to time.

The game also features custom artworks which give the game a unique style when they pop up. It’s a shame they’re not featured prominently inside the game. Considering its length, I would’ve appreciated more custom artworks popping up here and there. But that’s a minor gripe.
The art’s “child looking” style fits very well with the kind of narrative as well.




7 Minutes is the kind of short game everyone should make when thinking about going the “game jam” route. It has a tight scope, but that allowed the developer to focus on enhancing what’s there and polishing it up the best way possible.

The result is a short but satisfying and competently crafted game. I’d recommend people give it a go. It won’t take away too much of your time but it will provide you with a pleasant experience that might also serve as inspiration for your own game jam/short game projects.

Muffle did a good job with this game and I hope we’ll see plenty more stuff coming from her!