Time Flies, the adorable indie game about the shortness of life, is coming in 2025

In a world in which the AAA gaming sphere has the resources to muscle its way to the top of the conversation pile, we should always strive to give indie studios a look-in. Take Time Flies as an example. This rather twee-looking game from developer Playables feels like it has a certain amount of heart built into it, with lashings of irreverent existentialism.

I remember it being announced a few years ago, with a premise that feels equal parts unique and niche. Time Flies is a hand-drawn indie game in which you take on the role of a fly, and the developer has recently announced that it’ll be dropping sometime in 2025.

The vibe of the game is that, while you get to buzz around as a flying insect, you’ll also come face-to-face with your own mortality. You see, Time Flies is touting itself as more than just a way of taking control of a fly; it’s a note about the shortness of our real lives.

Ticktock, everyone

A recent post on X from Michael Frei shows that, while a release window is now in-mind, they are still “pudding it together,” with a short clip uploaded alongside the post that shows the titular fly planting face-first into some jello.

Actually, the best way for me to describe the game is to let the Steam page do it:

In Time Flies, you’re a fly – your life is short and your bucket list is long! Learn an instrument, read a book, become rich, get drunk, or make someone smile. And if you don’t feel like pursuing your goals, you can just relax, clean your wings, and listen to music. Make the best of the time you have left, because we’re all going to die.

You’ll get to “explore a painstakingly hand-drawn, densely detailed world” that boasts many goals to complete. Additionally – because this is still gunning for an existentialist slant – there are an assortment of “intriguing ways to die,” as well as a “grimly variable life expectancy based on player location.”

It’s hard to know whether it’s going to be something that’s making a lighthearted statement about the obvious fragility of life as a mortal being, or whether it’ll be more of an unexpected gut-punch. I suspect the latter, but we won’t know until sometime next year.

If you are interested in Time Flies, you can wishlist the game now. It’s coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation (presumably PS5). No mention of an Xbox version yet, however.