Taking a deep dive into Unpacking’s sound & design
Above: @beezelbee_ is building the 1997 room in miniature, and we’re loving following the process
Hello Unpacking fans! It’s been a busy month, but at this point, maybe there’s no such thing as a slow month!
ABC Australia Mini Doco
We’re very excited that this mini-doco has come out—ABC Australia came to Wren and Tim’s apartment on the day of the game launch, and it’s crazy to think about how far we’ve come since this day in November.
We also got reminded that we made our Twitter account four years ago, and it’s resulted in some nostalgia as we think about where we were at that time—at Stugan, in Sweden, building out ovens and taking the first pass at the 1997 level! Wild to see all that progress.
Listen & Learn
Jeff & Ange have been giving some great behind-the-scenes looks at the sound design behind Unpacking. First up, they were on Level with Emily Reese to talk about sound, music and the complications of recording foley for the game, and then followed that up with a video as part of Save & Sound, which dives into the environmental ambiance of the levels (listen for a school letting out at around 3PM in the first level!), how they tracked the sounds of objects across different surfaces. And keep in mind there’s variations on each sound as well!
On the other end of things (narrative and game design, that is!) Wren & Tim have had a few chances to take some deep dives as well. The PlayStation podcast had them on to talk about different playstyles, hidden details (if you shake the PS5 controller, it shakes the item!), and telling narratives in unique ways. Then, on an episode of Noclip, they talked about all the systems behind the game, and the video is a great look at the game being built in Unity as well as the grids on each level for item placement!
We’re headed to BitSummit!
So excited to announce that we’re headed to BitSummit X-Roads this year! We showed Unpacking at BitSummit in 2019, and we’re so glad to be headed back. If you’ll be there—let us know!
Easter Egg found!
We’re delighted to say that the easter egg from last month’s newsletter has been found! It’s found by interacting with the game console in the 2015 level—and is Witch Beam’s next game, TemPoPo!
That’s all for this month! Next month brings BitSummit and Wren’s keynote at NZGDC, and we can’t wait to share both with you!
Cheers,
Emily & the Witch Beam Team
Save & Sound - A celebration of music in games!
Get ready!
The Unpacking audio crew are part of this year’s Save & Sound on Steam! Angela & Jeff Van Dyck have produced a video that goes into some of the gory details of how they created Unpacking’s award winning soundscape.
Join us on July 14th at 1PM PDT to watch on Save & Sound's site: saveandsound.io
Save & Sound runs from July 14 - 18 right here on Steam, and is one of the largest digital expos about audio and music in games. Featuring concerts, deep-dives, and mashups from 70+ developers from around the world, prepare your eyes & ears for a unique event!
Starting at 10am PDT / 7pm CEST, a 4-day live show from July 14 to 17 will stream showcasing all the wonderful content made just for Save & Sound. Check out all the games part of the event on saveandsound.io
Unpacking is 20% off for the Steam Summer Sale!
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
Five great reads, two deep dive videos, and one easter egg
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!
Game maker’s notebook
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!
Some great reads
There have been some great articles recently about Unpacking, and we wanted to share them:
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
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.
A little easter egg to find…
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
Humble Games Birthday Sale
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!
Vote for us in the Webbys & check out our GDC talks!
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!
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!
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
DARK STAR MODE: A new way to play!
That's it, we're done with organization! Today, we're letting you in on a little secret: a mode where you can put things wherever you want—but the trick is, nothing can go where it is supposed to go.
It's called... Dark Star Mode.
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20% off Unpacking for the Women's Day Steam Event!
Hello Unpackers!
Wings Interactive has put together the Women's Day Steam Event, a great showcase of games from women-led studios, and we're happy to be a part of it. You can check out the full list of games here, and as a part of it, ✨Unpacking is on sale for 20% off! ✨
This event & discount will only last until 10AM PT Friday, so don't wait!
Happy Unpacking!
Vote for Unpacking for BAFTA Games EE Game of the Year!
We're honored to announce that we've been nominated for the BAFTA Games ✨ EE Game of the Year ✨ alongside some pretty great games. What's exciting about this category is it's the only one up for public vote, so if you'd like to vote for us, we'd greatly appreciate it!
Voting ends on April 1st, and you can head here to cast your vote. Thank you all for your support!
Cheers,
Emily & the Witch Beam Team
Additional language support
This update adds five additional languages, and addresses some bugs and small issues we've had reported.
Language support for Italian, Turkish, Indonesian, Filipino and Malay languages - where possible the game will use the language specified in your Steam client, but it's always been possible to set your preferred language in game from the Settings menu on the Title Screen
Fixed a disappearing text issue that was affecting some MacOS and Linux users
Fixed various small issues
Made some adjustments to item validation based on player feedback
We've also had reports that some Mac users are receiving warnings that Unpacking has been blocked because it may reduce privacy and lower security. As this did not coincide with a game update we're not sure what caused this change.
Unpacking does not track or transmit user data (beyond anything required for Steam to function) but we do not recommend anyone disregard the safety messages of their operating system. If this update doesn't improve the situation we will continue to investigate.
