Unravel

**Unravel** is a physics-based puzzle platformer game where players control a character named Yarny, who is made of yarn. This game was created by Marin Sahlin, who is the Creative Director at Coldwood, a small game studio in the northern part of Sweden. His goal was to create a puzzle game with a lot of heart, and he feels they have accomplished this. The story is told with no audible narrative. The game was released for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on February 9th 2016.

## **Gameplay**

Unraveled is about overcoming obstacles, big or small. As Yarny is played, the yarn he is made of starts to unravel behind him, adding to the challenge. Players will need to figure out ways to use this to their advantage; The yarn can be used to rappel Yarny down a tree or to swing across a gap. If you run out of yarn, you cannot go on. The goal of the game is to make it through the game and have the yarn reach all the way across.

## Story

During the game's introduction, an old woman is seen looking out her window, before she adjusts a picture of a baby and picking up a ball of yarn. Yarny, an anthropomorphic creature made of red yarn, and the game's protagonist, then walks into shot, and is visibly staring around in wonder of his environment. Through various picture frames in the house, Yarny can visit environments that were significant in the house owners' lives, and discover their memories about the places; the initial memories are happy, such as visiting the seashore or hiking in the mountains, but eventually darker memories are revealed: the rural forest area is industrialized, which in turn causes accidents with toxic waste, and people start moving to the city. A memory also reveals that the old woman's husband passed away from a heart attack.

At the end of each level, Yarny finds a red yarn badge it collects on the cover of a photo album in the house, which then fills with photos of the memories encountered along the way. On the final two levels, however, Yarny only finds one half each of a heart-shaped badge. On the final level, played in a cemetery, Yarny struggles its way through a snowstorm to find the final half of the badge, but it slips from its hands, and jumping after it, Yarny unravels completely, with only a red thread of yarn remaining in its place. The badge piece is then picked up by a human hand.

Yarny awakens in a camping backpack, holding the missing piece; it quickly runs home to place it on the photo album. Startled by a kid entering the room, Yarny feigns to be inanimate again, and once the kid leaves, it places the missing piece on to its final place on the photo album cover, which it then opens up to reveal the final passage and the end credits.

## Chapters

* Thistle and Weeds
* The Sea
* Berry Mire
* Mountain Trek
* Off the Rails
* Down in a Hole
* How Much is Enough
* The Letter
* Winter Sun
* Rust
* Last Leaf
* Renewed

## Development

Yarny was created by Marin Sahlin while out on a camping trip with his family. He was asked to explain more about 'the yarn game,' and he figured the best way to do that was to act it out, so he created a little poseable 'yarn doll' out of old metal wire and yarn. He then wandered into the woods putting Yarny in different situations and taking pictures of it. He was inspired by the natural environment around him, so he decided that the Yarny in the game would be placed in a similar environment.

## Reception

**Unravel** received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator *Metacritic*, scoring the game 81/100 for PC, 75/100 for Xbox One, and 78/100 for PS4 versions. Caitlin Cooke from *Destructoid* awarded the game an impressive 10/10, saying that "It’s rare but a special thing when a game manages to impart a story that touches strings deep in the heart, and Unravel manages to meet and exceed this feat",  while the community on *Slant* agreed that beautiful Scandinavian environment and sweet instrumental soundtrack created an amazing atmosphere.

## References

1. ↑ Metacritic: Unravel for PC Reviews
2. ↑ Metacritic: Unravel for Xbox One Reviews
3. ↑ Metacritic: Unravel for PlayStation 4 Reviews
4. ↑ Cooke, Caitlin. Review: Unravel. Destructoid.
5. ↑ Slant: Unravel - What are the best Puzzle games for PS4?

## External links

* Official website: http://www.unravelgame.com/