New Stonefly Trailer Shows Story Behind Its Insect Mech World

Developer Flight School Studio and publisher MWM Interactive released a trailer with new story and world details for its upcoming game, Stonefly.

The "magical adventure game set in a tiny forest" features "a brilliant, optimistic, but naive young inventor" protagonist named Annika Stonefly. On the overall feeling of the game, creative director Adam Volker commented in the trailer, "We're going for something that feels like Rogue One shrunk down to FernGully size, written as a coming-of-age story."

The events of the story kick off when Annika loses her dad's rig--the game's version of mechs--after taking it out for a ride. She joins a trio called the Acorn Corps in order to track down the thieves who stole her dad's rig and in the process of doing so, discovers new things about herself and the world around her.

The Acorn Corps, a ragtag group with a currently unknown modus operandi, is led by "no-nonsense captain" Blair Ravenwood. She has a "chip on her shoulder and something to prove." Her quiet right-hand man (anthropomorphic insect?) is named David Tulip. The final member of the trio is a peppy, mysterious individual who "may or may not be a princess on the lam."

While combat and gameplay wasn't the focus of this new trailer, GameSpot writer Jordan Ramée saw a short demo of Stonefly back in February. He commented, "There wasn't an opportunity to go hands-on with the game, but what I saw of the combat looks almost rhythmic. That's about the only similarity I can spot when it comes to comparing the game to Creature in the Well, another game that encouraged players to fall into a regular rhythm-like flow to overcome its challenges. Stonefly is very different, however, in that its gameplay loop seems geared more towards exploration than combat."

Stonefly will launch on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC in Summer 2021.