You’re on your lunch break, or maybe you’re just bored and need something to do for 20 minutes. That’s where short games come in. They’re little experiences you can completely finish in a single sitting. Sometimes there are puzzles to solve or challenges to face, and sometimes there aren’t. These games can be anything, really.
7 great games you can finish in one sitting
And most of them don’t have a price tag
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Image: Talia bob Mair, Angad Matharoo/ItsTheTalia
Tyler Colp is a games writer at Polygon specializing in criticism and reporting about extraordinary players and communities.
Anyone who likes games will appreciate all of the things you can cram into an experience that won’t take ages to see through. There’s nothing wrong with spending hundreds of hours in a big RPG, but there are plenty of smaller games that can be just as meaningful in a fraction of the time. And the best part is that a lot of them cost nothing to play.
This list couldn’t cover every great short game. There are buckets of them on Steam and Itch.io, so if you like what you see, you should go on a short-game binge. But I picked some of the best ones under 30 minutes that will leave an impression on you.
Thirty Flights of Loving
$2$560% off
$2
Where to play: Windows PC
It only takes 15 minutes to experience this first-person thriller that stars block-headed criminals. Each scene crashes right into the next as a story about a heist gone wrong plays out. It’s intense, it’s heartfelt, and it’s bold for a game that can be played on your lunch break.
0
Where to play: Windows PC
You’ve got a hammer and an office building full of stuff to smash in this 15-minute narrative game. As you do your job, there are interstitial scenes with a newscaster that may seem confusing at first, but eventually make it clear what it is you’re actually doing. Warning: The answer is pretty grim.
0
Where to play: Windows PC
This short point-and-click adventure game is even weirder than it sounds. There’s a puzzle to solve and a mysterious owl host. Your job is to talk to everyone you can find and figure out how to escape the creepy mansion you’re trapped in.
$4
Where to play: Android, iOS, Windows PC
This bizarre puzzle game is about people with electrical plugs as heads. It’s based on a 2012 short film by Michael Frei, and only takes a little bit longer to play. Despite how goofy it looks, it’s actually a pretty charming little game about love.
0
Where to play: Windows PC
OK, the premise of this game is a bummer, but it’s still kind of cute. You’re a ghost and your cats need your help. You have to click around your home to lead them around and take care of them. It’s a short little point-and-click adventure game that doesn’t take more than 20 minutes to finish.
0
Where to play: Windows PC
This tiny game is full of fuzzy, PlayStation 1-style graphics and surrealist horror. You’re a sardine trapped in a big machine and you’re on your way to your doom. Other fish show up and have a lot of weird things to say. This entire experience can be wrapped up in 20 minutes and will have you thinking about things much larger than being a fish, things that will particularly resonate with anyone who has played the developers’ other game, Mouthwashing.
0
Where to play: Windows PC
One hundred cats drop into Paris and it’s your job to find them. This is a mini hidden object game where you find a bunch of cats. Each scene has our little furry friends hidden in plain sight. It’s not meant to be hard, and should only take you 20 minutes or so to finish. And when you’re done, you can go play one of the other hidden-cat games by the developer.
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