Edith and her family
I have to protect my children no matter what.
They are my entire life.
They are my entire life.
7 Minutes is a short RPG Maker horror game made for rpgmaker.net's Kill The Cutie event. Edith, a single mother living in North Carolina, has four children- Penny, Megan, Ronnie, and Sophia- that she cares for every night after work. One night, they all decide to play hide-and-seek, with Edith as the seeker.
But an earthquake happens, and a humanoid monster invades the home, intent on killing everyone there. Now, Edith must protect the children she loves.
Can be downloaded here
.
This game contains examples of:
- Action Commands: In order to use a screwdriver or crowbar, the player has to input a series of button prompts displayed on the screen.
- All Just a Dream: Everything before the ending turns out to be a dream by Edith, driven insane out of grief and given sedatives by nurses at a mental hospital.
- Big Bad: The monster that wants to kill Edith and her children and has invade their home. It turns out to actually be a Mental Monster created by Edith's guilt.
- Death by Irony: Edith's children kept turning all of the electric lights on when she leaves the house in order to prevent a monster from entering. It turns out that, in real life, they died when an electric wire shorted out and caused a housefire.
- Downer Ending: The entire game is revealed to be a Dream created out of Edith’s guilt of being unable to save her children from a house fire, she’s also revealed to be near catatonic in a mental hospital and is implied to never recover.
- Developing Doomed Characters: The first half or so of the short game is spent developing the personalities and relationships of Edith and her children, so that when the monster comes and starts killing them, it is more impactful.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Edith spends the game in her home taking care of her children and trying to protect them from the monster, but when the true nature of the monster is revealed, the whole plot is turned on its head. It was All Just a Dream, and the children were killed by a fire which Edith unintentionally made bigger by opening her front door, allowing oxygen in; the loss of her children broke her mind, and the entire game is her guilt-ridden delusion, as she is really in a mental hospital. The monster is a Mental Monster representing the fire that killed the children.
- Happy Place: The entire setting of the game, with Edith caring for her cute children in her home, turns out to be this. In reality, the children died in a fire, an event that broke Edith so much that she permanently retreated into her mind and created a dream where the kids are still alive. At least, initially.
- Mental Monster: The monster that kills all of Edith's children and then claims to be her represents a fire that killed the children and Edith's guilt for opening the front door, letting in oxygen that made the fire grow and consume everything.
- Psychological Torment Zone: Edith's Happy Place turns into this once the monster based on her guilt invades.
- Title Drop: In the ending narration, it's stated that seven minutes was how long it took for Edith's house to burn down.
