3 Minute Walk

About

3 Minute Walk is a short simulation game that puts you in the shoes of someone navigating a simple outdoor trip during the pandemic. The goal is to reach your car from your apartment door, a task that becomes tense due to health worries. You manage small decisions like mask-wearing, social distancing, and exposure risks while dealing with a growing sense of unease. The gameplay is minimal but deliberate, using sound and environmental cues to build pressure. The game’s raw emotional focus sets it apart. Since its 2021 release, it has sparked conversations in indie and mental health communities for its candid portrayal of anxiety. Many players noted how the brief experience captured a shared yet overlooked struggle, with forums highlighting its impact as a rare digital expression of pandemic-era stress. Short but resonant, it lingers longer than its three-minute runtime suggests.

Storyline

What was a 3 minute walk from the apartment door to the car like for a person with health anxiety during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic? How does the transition from one safe space to another feel when that transition takes place through a highly unsafe one? This project was an attempt to put into a game the feelings that likely many people experienced in this time. It is a work of compassion, and empathy, and hopefully will allow others to feel seen or to understand what some of us went through.