Whirlight: No Time To Trip Dev Interview and Impressions [PAX East 2025 Coverage]

At PAX East I was able to get hands on with the demo for point and click adventure game Whirlight: No Time to Trip. The game tells the story of eccentric inventor Hector whose is suffering from a creative block. He finds himself in a gorgeous surreal dream where he’s led to try to catch a butterfly, believing it’ll solve his woes. Through the demo I solved various puzzles which included opening a Salvador Dali inspired can of beans and putting glasses on a short-sighted frog. Afterwards, I had a chance to do an interview with imaginarylab, who were kind enough to answer my most pressing questions. Read more about Whirlight below. Then add it to your Steam Wishlist and check out the demo for yourself. - Janette

 Answered by Ciro Camera, co-founder of imaginarylab and 3d environment artist

1.) Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to game dev?

We’re a small indie team from Italy, and we all have full-time jobs, so developing games is truly a labor of love. Our core team includes a 3D artist and 2 programmers. Then we have some external collaborators that help us. We grew up on ‘90s graphic adventures and, after years of passion, we decided to finally create the kind of games we’ve always loved playing. Our first title, Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town, started almost as an experiment, but it taught us so much about development, organization, and what players really want. With Whirlight, we wanted to take everything we learned and push ourselves further.

2.) Where did the idea for Whirlight come from? What about the character of Hector?

The idea was born during a brainstorming call among the three of us. Massimo pitched the concept of a brilliant but chronically unlucky inventor, Davide started throwing in wild and surreal elements, and Ciro really wanted to do something with time travel. The mix of those elements shaped the core of Whirlight. As for Hector, he’s partly inspired by Ettore Majorana, a genius Italian physicist known for his mysterious personality. We wanted to explore the contrast between brilliance and awkwardness, and how someone so intelligent can still feel stuck or misunderstood.

3.) What are some of the story beats and themes of Whirlight? I particularly connected with Hector's struggles with burnout that were seen in the demo?

That’s great to hear, because Hector’s creative block is a central emotional thread. The game opens with him in a grey, empty room, a visual metaphor for burnout and mental stagnation. His dream jump-starts the adventure, but also symbolizes the need to escape routine to find new ideas. The themes evolve into friendship, curiosity, time traveling, and the idea that even the most bizarre or broken people can create something incredible when they connect.

 4.) How do you come up with the ideas for the puzzles? I really liked the one where Hector put the glasses on the frog!

We always start with paper and pen, thinking about how a puzzle can reflect the character’s mindset or the story context. Logic is key for us: if a puzzle is difficult but makes sense, it feels satisfying. We try to avoid random combinations or frustration. Also, we love including a touch of surreal humor in puzzles, so if something makes us laugh during design, it often stays in. The frog-glasses puzzle is a good example: it’s strange, a bit poetic, and still totally logical once you think about it. That’s one of our favorite puzzles too.

 5.) The world of Whirlight is gorgeous! Where did you get your inspiration for the artistic direction?

The art style is a mix of influences. Visually, we were inspired by Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, and even classic animated films from Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks. Technically, we use 3D modeling in Maya, then pre-render everything as 2D sprites to create this detailed, illustrated look. Some locations are directly inspired by real places: we took reference photos in Venice and Burano, which became the backbone of Verice Bay. In the dream sequences, we allowed ourselves to go wilder, drawing from surrealism, pop art, and things like Dalí or Warhol.

 6.) When will Whirlight be out? What platforms are you targeting?

The idea is to launch in 2025, but we want take care of all the details of the game and there's still a lot to do.. So we will be more clear later on. Definitely on PC via Steam. After that, we’re planning ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Xbox. It will support multiple languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, and hopefully more post-launch. We’re a small team, but we’re working hard to make sure the final release is polished, fun, and something we’re proud to share.