A fly’s life is a short one. And Time Flies, a forthcoming game from Michael Frei (Plug & Play, Kids) and Raphaël Munoz, turns that idea into a whimsical game. A new announcement trailer for the game was shared at Summer Game Fest 2022’s Day of the Devs segment.
In Time Flies, you play as a fly, zooming through a small open world, in order to complete a bucket list of whimsical tasks before your inevitable death. You can “learn an instrument,” “become rich,” “get drunk,” or “find yourself.” These tasks are all tongue-in-cheek, as the trailer shows off the player-controlled fly whizzing by guitar strings, or perishing in a glass of wine. Go figure.
But you can also ignore these goals altogether — you are a fly, after all. Zoom around to your heart’s content, or at least, for as long as you can. And then start it all over. And how is the length of the fly’s life determined? Well, when you select your location at the start of the game, from a drop down menu, the life expectancy in that country translates to the number of seconds the fly gets to live. Bleak!
The game’s illustrative style is a great pairing for its unique concept, and the flight simulator aspect of the game feels like a nod to late-’90s paper airplane computer games. I cannot wait to operate this lil’ fly.
Time Flies is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation platforms, and Windows PC in 2023.