12 Minutes, The Artful Escape, and Last Stop pushed into 2021
some news: you may have seen a very broad 2020 release window for The Artful Escape, 12 Minutes, and Last Stop in trailers or on store pages in the pastso it's almost December and the end of the yearwe're looking at 2021 now as they all get closer to getting ready! :)November 18, 2020
It had to happen: Annapurna Interactive has officially delayed its three remaining new games for 2020. Timeloop thriller 12 Minutes, musical platformer The Artful Escape, and narrative third-person adventure Last Stop will all release sometime in 2021. The only Annapurna game currently still slated for release is the Steam version of Wattam, Funomena's colourful puzzler, which released on the Epic Store last year.
12 Minutes was revealed at E3 last year, and is a point-and-click adventure that takes place in a single room. In it, a man has to relive the moments that lead up to the intrusion of a police officer in their home. I'm still really excited for 12 Minutes: Its characters are voiced by none other than Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy, and Willem Dafoe, and I'm always here for a good timeloop mystery.
The Artful Escape has been in limbo for quite a while—it was announced all the way back in 2017 before it resurfaced two years later. In it, you use the power of music to platform through a colourful world to defeat protagonist Francis Vendetti's stage fright, and what a world it is. What music it is. What a name Francis Vendetti is.
Finally, Last Stop is probably the most interesting for the modern story it tells. Made by Variable State, the developers behind Virginia, this is a story of three completely different Londoners—a high school student, a single dad, and a young professional—who all happen onto something unexpected, and by unexpected I mean old curses, crime, ghosts, that kind of unexpected.
Among all the games that will release sometime in 2021, these are, as usual for publisher Annapurna, ones to keep your eyes on. At least, the official Twitter account states that all three "have come together throughout the year and it's pretty much polishing at this point."