Big things sometimes come in small packages. This was true of Flight School Studio’s 2019 indie hit, Creature in the Well, which re-imagined pinball as a post-apocalyptic hack ‘n’ slash, and it’ll be doubly true of the studio’s next game. During an online hands-off preview event, developers at Flight School showed me Stonefly, their latest project, which is set to release this summer.
Stonefly is a tranquil action-adventure game where players explore a “miniature nature state,” said Bohdon Sayre, Flight School’s game director, who, along with creative director Adam Volker, led the event. The game stars the eponymous Annika Stonefly, or Ann for short, a bookish inventor hoping to find her place in the world. When Ann loses her father’s prized bug-shaped mech, the sentimentality and plot of which Volker compares to Cameron’s dad’s car in the classic 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, she sets off on a journey of self-discovery to mend her damaged relationship.
Throughout the game, players will control a bite-size Ann and her insect-like mech. To progress in Stonefly, Ann must compete with a given location’s bug life to secure resources and build an even greater machine. Combat in Stonefly is mostly non-violent, keeping intact Flight School’s mission to deliver a peaceful and meditative experience. Ann can shoo bugs away from minerals by blowing a hearty gust or tossing out a decoy, but she can’t kill or harm anything. Or, if she’d prefer, Ann can also ignore smaller bugs swarming on resources, though at the cost of a reduced payload. There are about a dozen kinds of bugs, each with its own abilities and weaknesses to exploit. The resources she collects are then brought to camp, where Ann can repair and upgrade her rig. According to Sayre, this is where the meat of the game lies.
Stonefly, however, is at its most contemplative between these bits of gameplay. Somewhere along her journey, Ann meets a ragtag group of outcasts known as the Acorn Corps, with whom she makes camp. Here, Ann can converse with corps members, ruminate on her adventures, and even go to sleep and dream. Highlighting these moments is the game’s art style, which is a 3D take on the minimal realist works of the late Charley Harper. It’s another unique form to add to the myriad other styles Flight School has shown off in games like Creature in the Well and Manifest 99.
Stonefly is slated to release this summer for all major consoles and for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
