Time Flies has a simple and humorous premise. Players control a fly and must complete a long bucket list over a short life span. The game has been buzzing around since its reveal in 2022, but it’s finally landing later this month.
Developed by Playables designers Michael Frei and Raphaël Munoz, creators of similarly sparse abstract games such as Kids and Plug & Play, this hand-drawn black-and-white adventure tasks players with buzzing around a house to complete a checklist. This includes learning an instrument, becoming wealthy, or getting drunk. Goals are both explicit and obscure, and the challenge comes in figuring out how to accomplish them as a tiny fly before its brief life expires.
The fly’s average life expectancy ranges around 60 seconds, though this varies based on your physical location (which you’ll enter at the game’s start). Dying means starting the whole game anew, though your progress hastens as you learn how to complete tasks more quickly. Time Flies’ description succinctly sums up the thematic core of the experience: “Make the best of the time you have left, because we’re all going to die.”
“Flies are pretty annoying, and we’ve been listening to one every day for the past four years of game development,” says Michael Frei in a press release. “Please do your part and Wishlist the game now, I really need therapy.”
We played Time Flies during Summer Game Fest 2022, and were amused and engrossed during our short time with it. You can read our impressions here. Time Flies launches on July 31 for PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC.
