Gameful Experiences, Higher Education & Scholarship, Playable Stories Archive

Unpacking

https://www.unpackinggame.com

Entry by Kevin Ghouchandra

A. BASIC INFORMATION

Creator: Witch Beam (https://witchbeam.com.au/)

  • Wren Brier (Creative Director)
  • Tim Dawson (Technical Director)
  • Jeff van Dyck (Audio Director)
  • Angus Doolan (Pixel Artist)
  • Michelle Whitehead (Pixel Artist)
  • Angela van Dyck (Audio Assistant)

Creation Technology: Unity, Wwise (in-game audio), Aseprite (pixel art)

Publisher: Humble Bundle

Date (of original release): 2 November 2021 (Windows, Switch, Xbox), 10 May 2022 (Play Station 4/5), 24 August 2023 (iOS, Android)

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Platform(s): Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Play Station 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Peripherals required: Keyboard/mouse (PC); speakers/headphones

Awards/Distinctions:

  • BAFTA Game Awards 2022: EE Game of the Year; Narrative
  • 25th Annual D.I.C.E Awards 2022: Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game
  • GDC Awards 2022: Best Audio; Innovation
  • Australian Game Developer Awards 2021: Game of the Year; Accessibility
  • Indie Live Expo Awards 2022: Game of the Year; Best Short Game
  • NME Awards 2022: Indie Game of the Year
  • SXSW Gaming Awards 2022: Matthew Crump Award for Cultural Innovation
  • Eurogamer 2021: Game of the Year
  • Develop: Star Awards 2022: Best Game Design
  • IndieCade Festival 2022: Jury Prix
  • Webby Awards 2022: Best User Experience; Family & Kids
  • Gayming Awards 2022: Best LGBTQ Indie Game
  • Brazil Indie Games Festival 2022; B.I.G. Diversity
  • Global Industry Game Awards 2022: 2D Environment Art; 2D Animation
  • G.A.N.G. Awards 2022: Best Indie Sound Design; Best Indie Audio
  • Accessibility Awards 2021: Best Cognitive Accessibility

Version used for entry:

B. GAME INFORMATION

Game/eLit Genre(s): visual novel; puzzle

Time to complete: Main Story, 3.5 hours (From https://howlongtobeat.com/game/69666) 

Replay required/useful?: No. A single attentive playthrough will reveal the full story.

Gameplay: Unpacking focuses on one task: unpacking boxes and placing the items inside around the rooms available in that level. The game limits the player by dictating where certain items can go: for example, most things cannot be left on the floor, shelves and cupboards have limited space, and items must go in places that make some sense (such as kitchen stuff in the kitchen and not in a bedroom). When every item is removed from the boxes, the game will flash improperly placed items with a red outline and, in levels with multiple rooms, the room icon on the map will also have a red outline, indicating there is at least one item in that room that needs to be moved. These limitations can be turned off in the settings if desired. 

Items can be rotated and rearranged an endless amount of times to create a version of the space the player finds most organized or aesthetically pleasing. Once all items are properly placed, a star will appear in the corner which, when interacted with, allows the player to finish and continue to the next level, with the room the player finishes in being placed in the photo album, along with a unique caption for each room in each level.

Players can also do what is called a Dark Star run, which involves placing every item in each level in an incorrect place. If this is accomplished, the star that appears will be replaced with a black star, and the caption in the photo album will be more negative, reflecting the state of the home.

C. LITERARY INFORMATION

Related Literary Genre(s): Romance, Entwicklungsroman (“development novel”), LGBTQ+ Fiction, Vignette/Episodic Fiction

Story/Plot Summary:

Note: The game does not provide confirmed names for any of the characters, and other info, such as pronouns and ethnicity/place of origin, is derived from contextual clues provided by the objects we see or by external developer commentary. While these are interpretive, much of the discourse around the game has assumed certain details, and this is reflected below. 

Unpacking follows an unnamed woman (we’ll call her P for protagonist) throughout several years of her life. We first see a snapshot of P’s life in 1997 in Brisbane, Australia (this assertion is based on contextual clues, as well as the developer Witch Beam being located there), where P is moving into her childhood bedroom. Her possessions show that she has a variety of interests, such as art, games, sports, and music, based on the crayons, sketchbooks, console reminiscent of the GameBoy, soccer ball, jump rope, and ukulele in her room. We also see several action figures, plush toys, books, and a figure of a red London bus. We learn that she is Jewish, based on the dreidel among her things, as well the menorah and hamsa that appear later.

The next moment we see P is in 2004, moving into a college dorm. Many of the hobby items she had in her childhood bedroom have followed her here, along with some items that shows later developing or maturing hobbies. Crayons become a set of pens and an art reference book, drawings of animal characters are placed on her corkboard, her video game, board game and now movie collections are expanded, and a figure of the Eiffel tower joins the double decker bus. Unlike her childhood, P must now also unpack her toiletries, kitchen items and clothes. Most of the plush toys and action figures have been left behind, and the pig plush has lost its red bow. 

We next see P in 2007, moving in with two other roommates. Her collection of video and tabletop games has further expanded and joins the others already in the house belonging to the roommates. She also has new physical recreation related items like rock climbing shoes and a chalk bag. Notably, her collection of art supplies, sketchbooks, and drawings of her own original characters continues to grow.

In 2010, P has moved in with a boyfriend. Her colorful art and media related things clash visually with the modern-style black and gray of the boyfriend’s apartment and it is a tight squeeze to get everything in, with P potentially remarking “Barely managed to fit myself in here!” at the end of the level. Unfortunately, not enough space on the walls exists for her diploma, and it must be relegated under the bed or in the closet. 

After breaking up with her boyfriend in 2012, P moves back into her childhood bedroom. P does not want to put up the picture of her and her ex, implying they had a bad breakup. Items related to her physical activities have disappeared except for some weights, and a hot water bottle and ointment have appeared, indicating a possible injury.

One year later, in 2013, P moves back out of her parents’ place and into a place of her own. It is spacious and easily fits all of P’s things, and, because she now lives alone, she no longer has to deal with the constraints of things not belonging to her to unpack around (like with the roommates) or with rearranging already existing collections of stuff (like with the ex-boyfriend). P now uses a cane and back pain patches, possibly the impact of the injury implied earlier or due to a health condition; however she still finds time for her other interests.

In 2015, a girlfriend moves in with P and her stuff is unpacked into P’s home. The girlfriend shares many interests with P, with her own video and board games, and a collection of books. She also brings her own new interests, with several plants and a movie collection, including one she seems to be working in. She has a noticeably more feminine style than P and appears to be of Thai descent, based on some of her items.

Our final look into P’s life is in 2018, when she and her girlfriend move into a new house, and are expecting a baby. P appears to have become a children’s book author, with her ever-present stuffed pig on the cover, now belonging to the nursery to be passed on. Our first and final look at P comes after unpacking the multitude of things belonging to both P and her girlfriend, as well as items for the baby, with a picture of the three of them sitting peacefully in their new backyard.

Suitability for teaching: 

Unpacking explores a timeline from childhood to adulthood to parenthood, and looks at how changes in life can be reflected through the things we acquire and what gets left behind. Over the course of the protagonist’s life we see many continuities and changes, such as her lifelong interest in art and how her collection of supplies and tools grows over each level. Some interests, like games, persist in the protagonist’s life and are reflected in their constant presence throughout the various spaces. As one’s environment changes, one must adapt to the space, and Unpacking gamifies this adaptability, with its joys and its difficulties. 

Unpacking is an excellent example of environmental storytelling. Almost all of the player’s knowledge of the protagonist, the plot, and the other people involved come from looking at the things that are being unpacked, and the places they are being put into. Some of the less obvious parts of the story of Unpacking, such as the protagonist’s injury, are never told to the player directly, but instead told through the decline and eventual disappearance of items related to physical activities like soccer and rock climbing and increase over time of aids like a cane or wrist brace. In order to finish Unpacking, one must mostly pay attention to the size and general theme of items to know where they need to be placed, but by more closely tracking what different items need to be unpacked across levels reveals much more about the protagonist’s life.

Unpacking also features romance and breakups, though to a lesser extent than its other elements. Though we don’t see the progression of the protagonist’s relationship with her boyfriend from 2010 to 2012, signs that the relationship is not necessarily a good match are present throughout 2010. The clashing aesthetic styles of the stuff of the protagonist and of her boyfriend, the lack of space, and the inability to hang the diploma are signs that something is not right, and this space is juxtaposed with the moving of the girlfriend’s things into the protagonist’s space in 2015, where there is ample room and complimentary styles. 

Unpacking also uses its gameplay to create an affective response in the player. Its primary activity is that of unpacking and organizing things into the homes in each level, evoking the feelings that most players would already have about such tasks. The stress, indecision, aversion, joy, fulfillment, and pride about where things can fit or how best to present them are baked into the basic formula of Unpacking. The items that are being unpacked and arranged are also central to exploring the themes of Unpacking. The things that persist across the years, like art supplies/tools or video games, or disappear between levels, like sports equipment, tells us much about the protagonist’s life while leaving a lot of room for interpretation. The game also places limits on where things can be placed and sometimes the limitations, such as a stove not being able to fit all the pans, necessitating the need to pick one to stash in a cupboard, can not only tell us about the space that the player is working with, but forces the player to make choices about what spaces are the most important to them and what goes there. Because there is such a variety of items, many different players can find stuff that they are drawn to, leading to many different outcomes of what stuff is prominently displayed, stowed away, or arranged together.

Unpacking’s protagonist is involved in relationships with both a man and woman and thus can be read as an LGBTQ+ story. Though we never get a confirmation of a specific identity the protagonist identifies with, based on the events of the games and the text used in the album, we know that the protagonist ends the game in a relationship with a woman or femme-presenting person.

D. Walkthrough

Unpacking is fairly straightforward in its progression, so rather than instructions for how to go through the game, this section will list things to watch out for while playing, in order to get the most out of the experience.

Many of the items you unpack persist or change throughout the levels. These often tell their own smaller stories about the protagonist or the people in her life. As you look at the items, consider how long the protagonist has had them, where in each level they are allowed to go, and how they have changed and what that says about the protagonist.  Here are some of the groups of items to keep an eye out for:

  • Plush toys: The pig toy in particular is the most prominently persistent item in the game. Pay close attention to the pig as it goes through changes such as tearing or being repaired through most levels. Some other plush toys disappear and reappear later, while some collect over time, such as the hen with the chicks.
  • Art supplies: Many art supplies are swapped out between levels (such as crayons being traded for professional markers), or are added to (such as the number of notebooks increasing over time). The protagonist keeps some of her art pieces up for display, so consider how they evolve and what importance they take on. 
  • Games: The presence of both board and video games are constant throughout the game. Consider if they fit appropriately into each of the spaces, or feel difficult to sort. These items can be consistently interacted with, if ‘set up’ properly.
  • Souvenirs: The protagonist keeps a growing collection of souvenirs, mostly from European countries. Consider which levels new souvenirs appear in and especially in which levels they don’t.
  • Clothes: The types of clothes the protagonist wears communicates her taste especially compared to her two partners, whose wardrobes differ greatly.
  • Sports Equipment/Medical Equipment: Early in the game, there are many items indicating an active lifestyle. Over time the amount of sports equipment dwindles; however, items like a hot water bottle, a cane, and various medicines suggest why that may be.

Other things to consider:

Things you cannot move: In some levels, you can move things that are already there, and in some, you cannot. Think about why that is, what needs to be moved vs. does not, to make things easier for you to fit the protagonist’s things in, and what it says about the dynamic between the characters and their shared space.

Environment: Think about how well the protagonist’s things fit into each environment. Do they match the style? Is there easily enough furniture in each room for things so the player can arrange with a lot of freedom? If things are restricted, why? 

Also consider how space and progression intersect in this game. How do we see spaces evolve over the course of homes that we see multiple times? Do players arrange things similarly across each iteration of that space? Do arrangements of things persist even across different spaces, such as always most prominently displaying certain times, certain things always going on the living room table or on/under the bed etc. For what reason do players do this?

Interactions: Certain interactions are available in each level, the completion of which will unlock a sticker for photo mode. Some of these are things like setting game systems up in TV stands, flushing a toilet, clicking on items to change their states such as the rubix cube, or interactions such as putting a toaster or microwave where water would go. Consulting any trophy guide for Unpacking will provide details for some of these interactions.

E. Sources and Resources

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