Unpackers!

It's finally here.




Unpacking is a zen game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home. Part block-fitting puzzle, part home decoration, you are invited to create a satisfying living space while learning clues about the life you’re unpacking. Over the course of eight house moves, you are given a chance to experience a sense of intimacy with a character you never see and a story you’re never told. After 3 years of development, we're so excited to finally share our cozy game with the world! We hope you love it as much as we do.

There are a ton of ways you can help us out other than just buying the game too. Especially for a small indie studio, we also appreciate things like:

• Spreading the word to family, friends, and even your favorite streamer
  
• Leaving a review on Steam
  
• Sharing our news on social media

But no pressure - we're grateful to have you here at all!


A fun new feature of the game is our built-in playback and GIF maker feature. This allows you to easily capture and share your unpacking process with the community.



One of our favorite things is seeing your creativity and organizational skills shine. Please feel free to tag us on Twitter @UnpackingALife if you end up using the feature. You can also tag us if you stream the game - we might even pop in and say hi!


Finally, if you end up having any burning questions about our development process or Unpacking in general, we have two AMAs lined up. You can catch us on either:

• Nov 3, 5pm PST on r/NintendoSwitch
  
• Nov 9, 6pm PST on r/GirlGamers

And of course, you can also join our community over on Discord if you're looking for like-minded unpackers.

Whew, that's all for now. Happy unpacking, and thanks again from all of us at Witch Beam!

Cheers,

Wren, Victoria, and the Witch Beam team

Hi Unpackers,

A quick update to remind you that Unpacking comes out in 1 week on November 2nd! If you haven't wishlisted it yet, now's the time so you don't miss out on when it comes out!




If you can't wait for Unpacking content, you can catch some fun features and interviews from the community here:

• Dev stream with Negaoryx. We played through the first couple of levels and answered community questions!
  
• IGN Article: Unpacking Captures the Soothing Organization of Moving, Minus the Cardboard Mess
  
• Press-Start Article: Aussie-Made Zen Puzzle Game Unpacking Should Be On Your Radar This November
  
• GameIndustry.Biz Article: How Unpacking kept a steady heartbeat after going viral years before launch

We'll be planning some community events in preparation for launch! Keep an eye out on our social channels for upcoming Reddit AMAs, and join our Discord to be part of the fun when it all comes out. See you veeeeeery soon.

Cheers,
Victoria and the Unpacking team

—

Twitter
Discord

Hey Unpackers!

We were honored to have won TWO important awards at the Australian Game Developer Awards this year for Unpacking: Excellence in Accessibility and Game of the Year!



It means a lot to have Unpacking recognised for its accessibility. With no timers and no fail states we felt we had already created a game with a broad potential audience so it became even more important to be as inclusive as possible. Whenever we put the demo in front of someone and they mentioned something they struggled with that we had not intended to be a struggle, we looked into what we could do to improve their experience and in some cases implement settings to adapt the game to their needs. Games should be for everyone!

As for winning Game of the Year… wow! We’re honoured to receive this award, especially given the incredible games we were up against. Unpacking is such a personal project for us — the idea came about when two of our team members moved in together, and we’ve all put a lot of ourselves into the game. It’s amazing how it’s resonated with so many of you!

The biggest thanks to all of you in the community for having our back, providing feedback, and just sharing the game with your friends. It’s done so much for us, and we hope to make you proud!

The rest of the month is going to be as hectic as ever, so please make sure you wishlist the game! And for those wondering about the price, we can confirm it’ll be $19.99 USD on all platforms. Hope the clarifies any lingering questions about the game.

See you in less than a month!

Cheers,
Victoria and the Unpacking team

—

Twitter
Discord

Hi Unpackers!

We've been poking away at getting our last implementations in before the release on November 2nd. (So soon! Agh!) If you're press or a content creator interested in getting a demo key, you can apply for one here, but no guarantees. And if you know of a content creator who would enjoy our game, please feel free to send it their way or poke them politely about it. Every little bit helps.

If you're interested in the behind-the-scenes of Unpacking, our inspirations, and our journey — we just released a whole dev diary about it! You can watch that here.




Finally, here's a little fan creation shout out to @coco_richelle, who recreated a bunch of our Unpacking rooms in The Sims! All our community members' work and encouragement really keep us going, so thank you for that.



One more month to go!! Don’t forget to wishlist the game on Steam -- see you VERY soon!

Cheers,
Victoria and the Unpacking team

—

Twitter
Discord

Hey Unpackers!

It's official, we finally have a release date!




Over the course of 8 house moves, discover the story of a character you never see and a story you're never told. Pull possessions out of boxes, fit them into a new home, and use the items to learn about the life you're unpacking and create a cozy living space.

Whether you found out about Unpacking years ago or just now, we're grateful for all of the support you've shown us. If you can, don't forget to wishlist the game on Steam and share the news with your friends, family, community, or even your favorite content creator. As an indie team, it means a lot. But regardless of all that, we just can't wait for you to finally be able to play the game.


We're extremely honored to be nominated for 4 Australian Game Developer Awards! We're up for:

• Excellence in Art
  
• Excellence in Gameplay
  
• Excellence in Accessibility
  
• Game of the Year

To have our game next to a lot of stellar titles is so exciting, and we can't wait for the award show to begin. This year’s AGDAs will be held online on 6 October at 7 PM AEDT on IGEA’s Twitch channel, so if you're around then, we hope you can tune in! Fingers crossed we walk away with something. :)



And that's it for this dev log! Our heads are down and focused on getting this all done in time, but we'll have some events and announcements leading up to launch, so please keep an eye out. And if you want to join in on our excitement, you can always find us on Twitter and Discord. Don't forget to wishlist the game on Steam too, if that's your preferred platform!

Cheers,
Victoria and the Unpacking team

—

Twitter
Discord

Hi Movers!

It's been a busy month for the Unpacking team - we're making steady progress on the game and getting closer and closer to when we'll finally be able to announce a release date... but today is not that day! Instead, here's a small dev log on what we've been up to.

Nintendo Switch progress

• Added touch controls for the Switch (and any PCs with touch capabilities)!
  
• Saving implemented on the Switch

Quality of life progress

• Hooked up rumble system for gamepad
  
• Got all of the text in the game localized and implemented

Game progress

• All stages now have music tracks!
  
• Designed a new UI screen and some buttons
  
• All art for Stage 4 is now done
  
• Environment art for final stage is done
  
• Item art for final stage is 75% done
  
• All views outside windows across the game are done
  
• Credits sequence fully implemented
  
• Made a bunch of changes to items and environments based on feedback from internal playtests
  
• Added some secret unannounced features.........ssh!

Have you been keeping an eye out on our social media pages too? We've been having a ton of fun with the community!

We ran a community voting round to choose a couple of the chick plushies that'll appear in the game. Our Discord and Twitter community each got to vote on a different set of chicks, and the winning one from each platform will be in! Thanks to everyone who voted and helped us decide.





Be proud of knowing that you had a hand in making this all happen! And make sure to join our Twitter and Discord for future community events like this.

We also got some great fan art votes! Thank you to @ronjanatt on Twitter for making this amazing cross stitch!


We recently created a TikTok account for all things Unpacking! Please give us a follow there if you're interested in seeing more Unpacking action.



That's about it on our end! We'll keep these monthly updates happening. Can't wait for you to finally get your hands on the game eventually. Can you believe 2021 is already more than halfway done?

Cheers,
Victoria and the Unpacking team

Hi Unpackers!

First, a quick introduction - I’m Victoria, the new Community Strategist for Witch Beam. :) We’ll be seeing a lot more of each other online and in these dev logs, so it’s nice to meet you! I can’t wait to… unbox… more of this game with you. Ohohoho.

*Ahem* anyway.

The Unpacking demo was recently part of the Steam Next Fest, and in the spirit of sharing, here’s some info, cool stats, and fun tidbits for your viewing pleasure.

• People from over 126 countries played the demo!
  
• 94% who started the demo finished the first level, 81% who started the demo finished both levels!
  
• One person played the demo 27 times!!! WOW???
  
• 24% of people found out the mannequin could dab, which is down 5% from last year’s PAX Online experience. Tragic. 
  
• Only 1% of players made sure that the toilet roll went under, not over (the great toilet paper debate… is solved??)

We also launched a Discord alongside the Steam event, and we already have a lovely community of over 700 movers! Make sure to join it if you haven’t, especially if you like cozy spaces, behind the scenes stuff, and chatting with us. We’re lucky to have gotten a bunch of great fan art from a bunch of members like:


By: ImSara


By: stretchmaybesketch

By: keroppibeehive#1027


By: BluPirate

And finally to round it all out, here’s a list of just a few places that covered the demo:

• Destructoid
  
• Kotaku
  
• PC Gamer
  
• Fanbyte
  
• Waypoint stream
That’s it for now, thanks for reading through and supporting us! Back to working on the game, and remember to wishlist the game if you haven’t - it helps us more than you know. Cheers,Victoria--TwitterDiscord

Join Art Director Wren Brier for a look at how the art for Unpacking is made!

Technical Director Tim Dawson and Creative Director Wren Brier will be playing the demo live, answering questions and revealing secrets!

The Unpacking demo is back again as part of Steam Next Fest! It will be available from now until Tuesday the 22nd of June.

Play the first two stages of Unpacking and explore four of the 35 rooms from the full game, coming out later this year.

We also just launched an Unpacking Discord! Come join us here: https://discord.gg/wDhJHrZrmn

Enjoy unpacking!