How much of your lifespan is spent expect ? Think about it . wait at the DMV , waiting for a gearing , waiting for an important phone call , hold back for your perpetually late supporter to show up , waiting to maturate up . Life is a recollective endurance test of longanimity .

That ’s the simple thesis ofWhile Waiting , a newpuzzle gamethat ’s deceptively excited . On composition , it sound like a one - eminence gag . It features 100 bite - sized level , each sky instrumentalist into a familiar life experience that requires some cast of waiting . It ’s like the anti - WarioWare , trade five 2d microgames for drawn out I that require virtually no reaction time . Do n’t allow that faint premise take your sentry duty down , though : While Waiting is an cunning bit of video biz storytelling that ’ll adhere with you so long as you ’ve got the patience to see it through .

While Waitingis unassuming at first . I ’m quickly chuck into layer with mundane object . One requires me to look for the bus , milling around for a few minutes until it arrives . Another has me waiting for commercial to give on TV . Each degree can be completed by doing absolutely nothing . It ’s a gamy - concept idea that might go out you wondering just how much a studio apartment can do with that premiss .

A spate , it work out . For one , each level has a dyad of objectives players can complete while waiting . In one mystifier , I ’m a kid wait for Santa Claus to give birth presents on Christmas . I can just lay in seam and dissemble to sleep for a few proceedings if I desire , earning me a badge for simply waiting . I can also get out of bed and mess with the big bozo by turn on my fireplace or switching out my stocking . Others are more inventive . When I ’m waiting for a rainstorm to pass , I can dip into a coffeehouse and look out the windowpane , which becomes a screen on which I can represent an arcade game with the fall raindrop . Each level is a clever surprise that generate me a reason to replay them and find each hide out objective lens .

That ’s not what makesWhile Waitingspecial , though . The deeply it goes , the more its narration ambitions come into view . I soon realize that I ’m not just play through random scenario ; I ’m following a character through his entire life . I start out as a nipper , goofing around at plate with my parent and sitting through school days . I ca n’t wait to grow up , and I do after about 30 levels . Then , I ’m a college scholar hold back for my independence . Soon , I ’m the same age that my parent were when I started . What begins as a gimmick quickly evolves into a full life portrait told through little moments .

I ’m certain you’re able to guess what it all build to .

While Waiting ’s strength lies in how well it balances fatuousness , beauty , and tragedy throughout its 100 degree . It has the comedic bent ofThank Goodness You ’re Here , but the grounded emotions of Florence . Those two ideas are symbiotic . Early on , I ’m express joy at what a devilish piece of game design it is . Each level is a overrefinement trap that act with my restlessness . I ca n’t wait to botch through them and see what ’s next . But at some point , I become aware of the passage of time . My lineament is getting older . His life is more complicated . People in his aliveness are dying . His kid is growing up too tight . As the levels progress , I start praying that they ’ll move slower . Why did I drop so much of my meter here wait for my sweet puerility moments to end ?

That ’s the heart ofWhile Waiting : It ’s a floor about not taking life for granted . It sees no remainder between the bounteous moments and the small ones . Everything , from expect for your wife to give birth to waitress for an lift , is precious . They ’re fleeting second gear that we ’ll never get back . It ’s not nihilistic about that . Rather , it care for every moment it can , no matter how undistinguished it may seem . While Waiting requires a lot of patience to get there , but that ’s the point . The wait is the journey .

While Waitingis useable now on Nintendo Switch and PC .