Indie developer Erupting Avocado released their narrative horror title The Repairing Mantis back in 2021. The developer is back with another surreal treat in The Hungry Fly, which is out now on Steam, and will be featured later today during DreadXP’s Indie Horror Showcase 2024.
In The Hungry Fly, you are (obviously) a fly. A hungry fly. Problem is, you’re stuck navigating a marsh where creatures cannot die, existing in a grotesque limbo. Driven by insatiable hunger, you embark on a strange journey to devour a decaying monster, uncovering dark secrets along the way.
Combining exploration with puzzle-solving and symbolic storytelling, The Hungry Fly has players guide the fly through increasingly nightmarish encounters, where each return to the cursed marsh intensifies its hunger and deepens the mystery. Frankly, it’s pretty weird. The dark fairy tale aesthetic frames the game’s haunting atmosphere, combining bizarre actions with chaotic and surprising narrative moments. Players will scrub the fly clean, soar through decaying landscapes, and perform “reality-warping actions” as they uncover the mysteries of this cursed world. Every choice they make leads to one of three possible endings, encouraging them to explore different narrative paths.
“We wanted to create a grotesque and nostalgic experience, exploring the dark relationship between insects, drawing inspiration from fables like [Jean de La Fontaine’s] Fables de La Fontaine and the chaotic nature of fairy tales,” explains François Mathieu, co-creator of The Hungry Fly. “As a fly, you eat forgotten moments, then everything turns to chaos. Many narrative elements are inspired by memories from my childhood—old tapes, strange drawings, and forgotten toys. Some of these relics, like my favorite childhood book L’ourson qui voulait une Juliette, were even scanned or modelled directly into the game.”