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The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Time Flies review – existential flight game with a bittersweet buzz
The death of a housefly is usually an unceremonious event. Within minutes of the insect's appearance in our periphery, a tide of annoyance rises, and with the quick thwap of a swatter or rolled-up magazine, the bug is gone. Time Flies, a perception-warping bug puzzler, reimagines this inevitably short lifespan as an absurd tragedy – by providing the soon-to-perish pest with a bucket list. Over the course of roughly a minute, players freely buzz around minimalist 2D environments in an effort to make those last wishes come true. The fly's dreams arrive as vague, far-ranging clues such as 'make someone laugh', 'find God', 'start a revolution' and 'get rich', and it's your job to ricochet around the space until you land, often literally, on a clarifying and usually funny realisation. Similar to Coal Supper's satirical side-scroller, Thank Goodness You're Here!, Time Flies relies wholly on experimentation and intuition to understand the world around you, rather than explicit quest markers or info dumps. There are four levels in total, including an art-stuffed museum, a flowing sewer and two busy bric-a-brac filled homes. The game's scratchy monochromatic visual style frames each space, with the seemingly quaint locations hiding a host of philosophical quandaries and innocuous jokes. Buzzing about, you set off all manner of environmental set-pieces, the details of which are delightfully silly: you can make the Mona Lisa smile by landing on her nose, get drunk on spilled wine, or even grow a flower from a waterlogged corpse. Notably, though, not every action leads to a checked box on the bucket list, and for every Rube Goldberg machine or Jenga tower you discover in the game's open levels, there are plenty of sharp or gooey life-ending hazards to find as well. The central point of friction here is that there are only so many seconds in a day, and you'll need to not only discover all the bucket list activities in a level, but also chain them together to unlock the next one. Putting together a perfect route is a straightforward but thoroughly engaging challenge, further complicated by the existence of time-shifting clocks that can be tinkered with to add precious seconds to your painfully short lifespan. Perhaps what makes Time Flies' conceit so convincing is how infuriating it can be to control the fly, and how annoying it is to listen to its incessant buzzing as you endeavour to meet the criteria. Tapping and holding the arrow keys allows you to direct the fly, but during particularly dexterous activities – such as collecting coins while avoiding an incinerating lightbulb or flying through a statue's intestines to make it fart – the controls feel appropriately unwieldy. Over time, the repetitious process of reincarnation becomes an uncanny mirror, reflecting our own futile desire for order in a world plagued with unpredictable obstacles. Even with our comparatively epic lifespans, many of us will struggle to achieve some of the fly's loftier ambitions, unless we reorient what those ambitions mean to us – something that Time Flies insists we contemplate. Mocked by the clock and the whizzing sounds in your ears, Time Flies gets under your skin not only because it's a clever puzzle game, but because it manages to break down its profound ideas into easily digestible nuggets of gameplay. By blending its thinky thesis with such playful mechanics, Time Flies supplies a lighthearted canvas for players to engage with existentialism for an hour or two. As you seek a sense of meaning for the fly by ticking off their ambitions, there's plenty of room left for you to muse about your own. Time Flies is out now, £11.49
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Time Flies review – existential flight game with a bittersweet buzz
The death of a housefly is usually an unceremonious event. Within minutes of the insect's appearance in our periphery, a tide of annoyance rises, and with the quick thwap of a swatter or rolled-up magazine, the bug is gone. Time Flies, a perception-warping bug puzzler, reimagines this inevitably short lifespan as an absurd tragedy – by providing the soon-to-perish pest with a bucket list. Over the course of roughly a minute, players freely buzz around minimalist 2D environments in an effort to make those last wishes come true. The fly's dreams arrive as vague, far-ranging clues such as 'make someone laugh', 'find God', 'start a revolution' and 'get rich', and it's your job to ricochet around the space until you land, often literally, on a clarifying and usually funny realisation. Similar to Coal Supper's satirical side-scroller, Thank Goodness You're Here!, Time Flies relies wholly on experimentation and intuition to understand the world around you, rather than explicit quest markers or info dumps. There are four levels in total, including an art-stuffed museum, a flowing sewer and two busy bric-a-brac filled homes. The game's scratchy monochromatic visual style frames each space, with the seemingly quaint locations hiding a host of philosophical quandaries and innocuous jokes. Buzzing about, you set off all manner of environmental set-pieces, the details of which are delightfully silly: you can make the Mona Lisa smile by landing on her nose, get drunk on spilled wine, or even grow a flower from a waterlogged corpse. Notably, though, not every action leads to a checked box on the bucket list, and for every Rube Goldberg machine or Jenga tower you discover in the game's open levels, there are plenty of sharp or gooey life-ending hazards to find as well. The central point of friction here is that there are only so many seconds in a day, and you'll need to not only discover all the bucket list activities in a level, but also chain them together to unlock the next one. Putting together a perfect route is a straightforward but thoroughly engaging challenge, further complicated by the existence of time-shifting clocks that can be tinkered with to add precious seconds to your painfully short lifespan. Perhaps what makes Time Flies' conceit so convincing is how infuriating it can be to control the fly, and how annoying it is to listen to its incessant buzzing as you endeavour to meet the criteria. Tapping and holding the arrow keys allows you to direct the fly, but during particularly dexterous activities – such as collecting coins while avoiding an incinerating lightbulb or flying through a statue's intestines to make it fart – the controls feel appropriately unwieldy. Over time, the repetitious process of reincarnation becomes an uncanny mirror, reflecting our own futile desire for order in a world plagued with unpredictable obstacles. Even with our comparatively epic lifespans, many of us will struggle to achieve some of the fly's loftier ambitions, unless we reorient what those ambitions mean to us – something that Time Flies insists we contemplate. Mocked by the clock and the whizzing sounds in your ears, Time Flies gets under your skin not only because it's a clever puzzle game, but because it manages to break down its profound ideas into easily digestible nuggets of gameplay. By blending its thinky thesis with such playful mechanics, Time Flies supplies a lighthearted canvas for players to engage with existentialism for an hour or two. As you seek a sense of meaning for the fly by ticking off their ambitions, there's plenty of room left for you to muse about your own. Time Flies is out now, £11.49
BBC News
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'More than a barman': Meet the Bafta-nominated pub landlord
The next time you hear someone shouting "last orders" at your local pub, listen many people in Sneinton, Nottingham, John Blyth is the friendly face at The King Billy who has been pouring them pints for more than a it's his voice that got him a Bafta Goodness You're Here!, which features his voice, also won the best British game at a ceremony in London earlier this month. Mr Blyth provided the voice of Big Ron, a loud and loveable pie salesman in the adventure video game. His portrayal saw him nominated for the best performer in the supporting role cartoon-esque title was released in August and created by Will Todd and James Carbutt, founders of developer Coal Supper. Before taking over The King Billy in 2014, Mr Blyth had a background in gaming journalism and podcasting. But running a busy pub meant putting that world to one side until it came calling again in a very unexpected voice on the Regular Features podcast caught the ears of games developers at Coal Supper Studios, who reached out for Mr Blyth's vocals."It was the most pleasant surprise, especially when I saw the games they were making," he recalls."As soon as I saw the demo for Thank Goodness You're Here!, I thought this was the most charming thing in the world and I want to be part of it."In the game, players control a tiny, silent character through the streets of Barnsworth and tackle a series of surreal odd-jobs given to them by local Blyth provides the deep tones of Big Ron - a loud, eccentric pie salesman who runs the fictional shop Big Ron's Big Pies."The conversation was basically them asking me and me snapping their hand off," the 51-year-old said. "I thought I'd left games behind me when I stopped with gaming journalism but to be part of this side of it was an absolute pleasure." Mr Blyth is mainly used to talking about video games from a journalistic and critic standpoint and says it was surreal being part of the creative process for a game. "I sent them a few different reads of the lines they gave me. They chose the way they wanted it to sound and so I ran with that," he added."I'm not a trained voice actor and I kept veering off a lot, so I had a reactivation phrase to get me back on track, which was shouting 'Big Ron's Big Pies'."So I was just shouting that in-between takes." 'More than a barman' Back at The King Billy, Mr Blyth says behind every beer poured and glass collected, there is a member of staff who has a whole spectrum of different talents."In any pub you go into, you scratch the surface of the staff and you'll find a lot of hidden talent with people who can do things you don't expect them to do". While Mr Blyth has no plans to pursue a full-time career in voice acting, he says he is open to other projects while keeping the drinks flowing at the pub."It's always nice to have more than one thing going on in your life," he added."A pub can inflate to fill every aspect of your life, and if you let it, it can become your everything."And to have that little thing on the side to keep the creativity ticking over is nice and makes you feel a bit more rounded as a person rather than just the jovial barman."While he did not bring the title for the best performer home, Mr Blyth says the experience is something he now casually drops in conversations."I'm glad I didn't win because it stops it going to my head," he added."[It was] great to get my hopes up and have them dashed to keep my feet on the ground, although I can't not tell people that I was nominated for a Bafta. That's all I was saying for a week."
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Astro Bot sweeps Bafta Game Awards with five wins
PlayStation game Astro Bot was the big winner at the 21st Bafta Game Awards, picking up five awards, including best game. The platform game, which was released to mark PlayStation's 30th anniversary, also picked up the awards for animation, audio achievement, family and game design. British game Still Wakes the Deep, a horror game set on a Scottish drilling platform, won three awards – new intellectual property, performer in a leading role for Alec Newman and performer in a supporting role for Karen Dunbar. The winner of the 2025 BAFTA for British Game is…Thank Goodness You're Here! 🎮 #BAFTAGamesAwards — BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 8, 2025 Elsewhere, independent Yorkshire studio Coal Supper's Thank Goodness You're Here! won the award for British Game and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, which had led the field with 11 nominations, won the technical achievement award. Poker-themed Balatro won the award for debut game. There were also two wins for Helldivers 2, while Metaphor: Refantazio won the prize for narrative and Tales of Kenzera: Zau won the game beyond entertainment award. Meanwhile, the Bafta Fellowship was awarded to composer Yoko Shimomura, in recognition of her contribution to music in video games, which has included her work on the Kingdom Hearts series.
Forbes
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
2025 BAFTA Games Awards Winners: ‘Astro Bot' Wins Deserved GOTY
'Astro Bot' took home five BAFTA Games Awards, including Best Game. Astro Bot dominated the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards, claiming Game of The Year along with four more gongs for Audio Achievement, Family, Animation, and Game Design. Anyone who's played Astro Bot will be in no way surprised, despite strong competition, in another typically BAFTA affair with surprises along the way. Last year, Baldur's Gate 3 unsurprisingly led both the nominations (11) and awards won (4); in 2025, the top nominee was a bit more of a shock, as local favorite Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was the frontrunner (also with 11), albeit missing out on the all-important Game of the Year shortlisting. In the end, Hellblade II took home just one BAFTA for Technical Achievement. Still Wakes the Deep came second with three BAFTAs — New Intellectual Property, and both Performers in Supporting and Leading Roles — a particular high point being Karen Dunbar, the actor behind Finlay who was, delightfully, the most Scottish person on the internet tonight, saying 'I'm not even an actor, I'm a gynecologist!' Even with six nominations, Black Myth: Wukong got nothing. Thank Goodness You're Here!, the hometown fave, grabbed just one award from seven, even though it felt like a contender in every one of its categories. It's worth noting just how much that sole trophy meant to its developers at Coal Supper; they're an incredible bunch, and they deserve every success in the future. Will Todd and James Carbutt rightfully received a BAFTA for 'Thank Goodness You're Here!'. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Sadly, Balatro didn't get its dues; if it was going to win Game of the Year anywhere, it was the BAFTAs. Just look at Vampire Survivors, which beat God of War Ragnarök to the top gong in 2023, but also fairly picked up tonight's award for Evolving Game. After the first award Balatro was nominated for — New Intellectual Property — went to Still Wakes the Deep, winning dev The Chinese Room admitted they thought Balatro had it in the bag. Despite all this, Balatro had the biggest laugh of the night when the poker-based roguelike (and my own GOTY) collected its sole award for Debut Game. Ben Starr, who's played the part of Jimbo the Joker on behalf of the famously public-averse solo dev LocalThunk, read the funniest speech of the night, saying how 'he has shoes made of gold and he thanks you for making him that way.' Most importantly, he ended the speech saying: 'Oh, and play more independent games like Animal Well, they are the lifeblood of this industry and they deserve your respect.' The BAFTA Games Awards was hosted for the second year in a row by comedian Phil Wang, who compared himself to the Nintendo Switch 2 — 'not noticeably better, but I did charge a lot more this time' — but only after the ceremony opened with the year's industry highlights powered by the (literally) golden guitar skills of Pendulum star Peredur ap Gwynedd, who played a selection of the band's hits that featured in video games. Other highlights included Tales of Kenzera: Zau winning Game Beyond Entertainment, even though Surgent Studios faced major and heartbreaking circumstances after the title's launch; nerd-turned-hunk Matthew Lewis, A.K.A. Neville Longbottom, rocking up to present the BAFTA for Game Design; and deserving BAFTA Fellowship Award-winning Yoko Shimomura's translator, who I hope was being paid by the hour. Plenty of other smaller titles deservedly got their moments in the sun: Tiny Glade, The Plucky Squire, Little Kitty, Big City, Botany Manor, Paper Trail, A Highland Song, and Pacific Drive. Even triple-As were rightly lauded; the clip packages for both Astro Bot and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 only reminded everyone of how varied and brilliant both games were. There were a couple of other nice surprises, namely Metaphor: ReFantazio claiming the Narrative award in the face of big local competition, and Neva's much-deserved win for Artistic Achievement. Five awards: Astro BotThree: Still Wakes the DeepTwo: Helldivers 2One: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Thank Goodness You're Here!, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Vampire Survivors, Neva, Balatro Read the full list of 2025 BAFTA Games Awards nominees on the organization's website.
