Unpacking News

Ah, June, that time when the weather’s been cooling down, the shortest day of the year has just passed us by—wait a minute, what’s this about a Summer Sale? Well look, we’re Australians, you can’t blame us!

Regardless of the season you’re in, we’re excited to announce that Unpacking is 20% off for the Steam Summer Sale!

Have a happy… well, whatever season you might be experiencing now! And most importantly: enjoy the game :)

Cheers,

Emily & the Witch Beam team

top row and bottom left: Karoliina Korhonen / bottom right: María Ambrosoni

We are loving these Sims 4 builds that have recreated some of the apartments from Unpacking! If you are so inspired, please share with us on our Discord or on Twitter!

[h2]Game maker’s notebook[/h2]
ICYMI, we’ve had two different sessions with the Game Maker’s Notebook, one with Jeff about sound and music, and one with Tim and Wren about narrative, how the game came about, and more. Check ‘em out!

[h2]Some great reads[/h2]
There have been some great articles recently about Unpacking, and we wanted to share them:

• How a video game about unpacking gets the bisexual experience spot on | i-D magazine dives into streamers’ reactions to the final levels of the game and how important that representation feels to experience in a game.
  
• How Unpacking's art combines beauty with clarity | Eurogamer talked with our artist, Angus Doolan about creating isometric designs that can be readable, tell a story, and fit within the mechanics of the game
  
• The creators of Unpacking on developing a "weird", queer, BAFTA-winning game | Wren and Tim sat down with Eurogamer to discuss mechanics, level design combined with storytelling, showing the many facets of the protagonist, the surprise reach of the game, and more.
  
• Objects tell stories in Unpacking | Tim wrote a piece for the PlayStation blog about the real-life inspiration for items in the game
  
• Meet the Brisbane couple who claimed two major prizes at the BAFTA Game Awards | It’s been very surreal to have our local news come and interview us!
  

[h2]The G.A.N.G. Awards[/h2]
Making room on our shelf for two more awards—this time from the Game Audio Network Guild! We won Best Sound Design for an Indie Game and Best Audio for an Indie Game, and we’re really proud to be recognized among an incredible slate. You can see the full list of winners here.

[h2]A little easter egg to find…[/h2]
A pixel art rendition of the key art for our next game exists somewhere inside Unpacking, and no one has found it yet! Let us know if you find it!

Cheers,

Emily & the Witch Beam team

We're so excited to wish our publisher, Humble Games, a very happy birthday, and because of that, ✨ Unpacking is 20% off this week ✨ - from now through Friday, May 20th at 10AM PDT!

PlayStation users who have been itching to get their hands on Unpacking will only have to wait until next week.

That's because the game about the experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home will be released for PS4 and PS5 on May 10.

If you are unfamiliar with the title, it's a game about taking someone’s items out of boxes and learning about that person’s life in the process.

Read more

Hello all and happy April! It’s been a very busy month for us, and it’s not over yet! First up, we’re nominated for FOUR Webby Awards, and would greatly appreciate if you could send a few votes our way. We’re right on the cusp of winning for two in particular, so click here to vote: Family & Kids, and Best User Experience. Voting closes TOMORROW, so don't delay!

[h3]Still time to pre-order[/h3]
Also you still have time to get your pre-orders in for Physical Editions of Unpacking as well as the soundtrack on vinyl! Pre-orders end May 1st, so don’t hesitate!



[h3]Have you played Dark Star Mode yet? [/h3]
Our favorite part of this month, though, was announcing our favorite secret about the game: Dark Star Mode. We announced it on April 1st, and somehow people thought we were joking! Imagine that… 😉 Dark Star Mode is real, and the only tips we’ll give you are these: make sure to start a new album, and remember that everything has to be in the wrong place: including things you haven’t unpacked! If you can move it, it must be moved!



[h3]GDC talks online[/h3]
GDC has passed behind us, and you can now watch and read our talks! Jeff’s full talk on all things foley is here—and available for everyone!—and you can also read a summary on Game Developer. For a look at Wren and Tim’s talk about narrative, you can also check it out on Game Developer.

[h3]We’re on cloud nine… [/h3]
In the space of a few weeks, we won two GDCA Awards, Best Audio and the Innovation Award, and then at the BAFTA Game Awards, we won Best Narrative and EE Game of the Year (thank you to everyone who voted to help make that happen!) At the BAFTAs, you might have seen that we were so surprised, we didn’t have a speech planned 😬 but we realized after it was a great chance to thank everyone involved once we’d caught our breath a little.



That’s all for now, and as always, follow us on Twitter for even more news, join our Discord to chat with other fans, and follow us on TikTok for fun videos.

Cheers,

Emily & the Witch Beam team