How Time Flies explores the magic and meaninglessness of existence

gamedeveloper.com:

This interview has been edited for clarity

Time Flies is a curious and captivating meditation on the brevity of life. We're all going to die, after all, so how do you want to fill your days? Perhaps you'll make some music, seek out fortune, indulge in intoxicants, or tickle an old man's foot.

That's all possible here, but does any of it truly matter? It's perhaps the question that drives our species, and in seeking to offer a glimpse of an answer, Playables co-founder Michael Frei–who previously worked on other experimental titles like KIDS and Plug & Play–chose to thrust perhaps the most insignificant of all creatures into the spotlight.

"I think it's the only animal where, even like, animal rights activists don't care about it," says Frei, chatting to us at Gamescom 2023. Even though the fly is your window into the world Frei has created, most of the time it simply appears as a single dot on-screen. "That choice allows us to highlight the meaninglessness of your own existence," he explains, "and how at the same time you're also just really annoying."

It's a funny quip, but one that encapsulates how we're asked to engage with the game. You see, each playthrough challenges players to complete a whimsical bucket list before a very short timer runs out. The length of that timer is based on the real-world life expectancy for humans in each country (pulled from the World Health Organisation), but translated into seconds instead of years. At the start of each run, you need to decide which slab of land your fly is from, and that choice will dictate how long you've got to live.

In most cases, you'll likely have between 60 to 90 seconds to breeze through your bucket list before your fly expires and falls to the ground with a