So I made a list of quests and organised them through a few filters. Why would I be shearing someone's sheep for them after knocking down vampyres and trolls? There's also a few attempts in threads, but I found these to be quite jarring in one of the most popular ones, it has you doing Troll Stronghold (with an enemy just under 100 combat level) as the sixth quest. It has the player going here there and everywhere inefficiently, and quests frequently have a pre requisite quest that takes place later on or even in an entirely different future era, making the timeline impossible to follow. There's the 'timeline' order of quests in game, but aside from putting lots of quests into certain eras, it doesn't really make sense. Time Flies will be out in 2023 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC.I've been trying to find a chronological quest order list, but haven't yet found anything that sits right with me. The beauty of the game is that it’s guided by the simplest, most life-affirming and universal of principles: “Make the best of the time you have.” With the ticking clock in the top left-hand corner, it’s as much about strategy – the best order to complete the bucket list within the allotted time – as big existential questions. There’s a good chance youngsters and grownups alike will find themselves similarly taken by Time Flies. “Of course I immediately regretted breaking the floppy disk” Nothing else in life gave me any joy,” he says. “I became frustrated that I was so committed. As a 10-year-old, Frei snapped the floppy disk to that game in half, not because he hated it but because he loved it too much. While the protagonist is little more than a single black pixel in Time Flies, it’s still a treat to control, evoking the paper aeroplanes of Frei’s beloved 1994 Macintosh classic Glider. 2019’s Kids filled the screen with hundreds of beautifully animated on-screen characters, whom the player directed in wobbling unison. Looking great has you guiding the fly behind a pair of reading glasses and strutting like a catwalk model.įrei’s previous work, which straddles both traditional video games and animation, is imbued with similar visual inventiveness. Each of these tasks take the form of a delightfully interactive visual gag: going on tour involves landing on a record player, hitting the on switch, and riding dizzyingly on the vinyl as old-timey music wafts from the speakers. The bucket list is filled with tasks such as “learn an instrument”, “get rich”, “look great”, and “go on tour”.

After all, you’re a housefly intent on experiencing joy. The game isn’t a heavy meditation on the fleetingness of existence.

Selecting United Kingdom, for example, gives players 81.4 seconds, because the WHO estimates the average life expectancy (of humans) there at 81.4 years. At the start of each game, the player must select their location, which then determines how much time they have to complete the bucket list. The feeling of “being stuck in a house” certainly fed into the game, says Frei – as did a preoccupation with death. Development began in July 2021, when Covid-19 lockdowns still loomed large.

Quest player lost in the storm