Five Seconds Too Late — A One-Minute Real-Time Cinematic Experience

Five Seconds Too Late — One-Minute Cinematic

🎬 About the Experience

Five Seconds Too Late is a downloadable cinematic experience for Windows, built entirely as a real-time rendered cutscene in Unity. Designed to last approximately one minute, it focuses on a single fragile moment—when timing fails and consequences become permanent.

Five seconds can change everything.

The experience follows a man racing through a city at night toward a stairway, only to arrive moments after everyone he needed is already gone. There are no interiors, no dialogue, and no explicit events shown. The story unfolds through camera framing, pacing, sound, and silence.

The stairway serves as a visual metaphor for transition and loss. Once someone descends, they cannot be followed. The moment the character reaches the stairs—five seconds too late—is where everything ends.

🎥 Camera & Interaction (Jam Rule Compliance)

This project is a cutscene-first cinematic, with extremely limited interaction implemented solely to comply with GoedWare Game Jam – Cutscene Edition 2 rules while preserving directorial intent.

🎮 WASD allows minimal camera panning and rotation
📌 Camera movement is optional and restricted
🎬 Core framing, timing, and storytelling remain director-controlled
🚫 No gameplay mechanics, objectives, or branching paths

Camera input is briefly enabled during the walking sequence to allow subtle perspective adjustment, while maintaining the feel of a composed cinematic shot rather than interactive gameplay.

🎞️ Key Features

🎥 Real-time rendered cutscene (≈ 60 seconds)
🌃 Exterior-only city environment
⏱️ Time-slowed “five seconds” moment
🎧 Sound-driven storytelling (footsteps, ambience, silence)
🎬 Minimal camera control (WASD)
🖤 No dialogue, no exposition

🧠 Theme Interpretation

Five Seconds Too Late explores the idea of timing as fate.

It represents:

Arrival after departure
Realization after the point of no return
A moment where action no longer matters

This is not a story about what happens—but about what happens after it’s already too late. The experience lingers in the silence that follows urgency, capturing the emotional aftermath of a decision delayed by only a heartbeat.

🛠️ Technical Details

Engine: Unity
Rendering: Real-time
Camera: Cinemachine
Interaction: Minimal WASD camera movement
Duration: ~60 seconds

🎮 Controls

WASD – Slight camera movement (optional)
No other input required

🏷️ Credits

Created for GoedWare Game Jam – Cutscene Edition 2

⚠️ Content Notice

This experience contains themes of loss and emotional impact.
No violence or explicit scenes are shown.

📥 Download & Play

Platform: Windows
Pricing: Name your own price

Play or download here:
https://krishnamohan-yagneswaran.itch.io/five-seconds-too-late-a-one-minute-cinematic

💖 Support Indie Work

If you have got even 1 dollar to support, please do
https://www.krishnamohanproductions.com/donate

Your support helps sustain independent cinematic experiments and creative projects.

File name: five-seconds-too-late-one-minute-cinematic.md