Hi Unpackers!

Wow, it’s been a wild month since we released Unpacking on November 2nd. During that time you smashed ALL of our expectations – we climbed the top of the Nintendo Switch charts globally, were featured on Steam’s front page, and so much more. But even more than that, we got to see how much you all loved and connected with our game. Whether it was the diploma moment, the tears, or the discovery of our 14,000 foley audio sounds, you were just as vulnerable and overjoyed as we felt making this.

From the entire team, thank you.



Unpacking seemed to be overall loved by various news outlets, and it was real cool seeing our little puzzle game up there with some big names. If you’re interested, we highlighted them over on our blog.

It’s still awards season, which means if you enjoyed our game you can help it win some pretty cool accolades! (And then the next time we move, we can awkwardly try and pack the trophies into boxes. If they even come with trophies???)

You can vote for us to win the Can I Play That? Accessibility Awards – Indie Excellence & Best Cognitive Accessibility. If you feel Unpacking deserves any of these, it would mean so much if you would nominate Unpacking. It only takes a few clicks to do so, and it would mean so much to us!

Meanwhile, for those who have been stuck or wanted to discover all the secrets of the game, our lovely Discord community has started an unofficial Unpacking fan wiki, which you can see here.

As for the most frequently asked question we’ve gotten so far… Will there be more content?! We love how much the game has connected with people, but we don’t currently have plans to make additional content. We are really happy with the arc of the game. It’s not the biggest story, but we liked how things finished. Stories start and end, boxes are unpacked, and it’s ok to feel settled. It’s why we spent so long (3.5 years!) working on it — we didn’t want to cut anything we planned. There is a lot of story hidden in the items and environments. If you enjoyed the game, you can always play through again and see what else you can learn about the characters and story. (Only a few people have discovered one of the biggest secrets..!) Basically: we truly appreciate the love and community behind this game. Not wanting to add more content isn’t a sign that we don’t care! We want to respect our game and story, and not try to arbitrarily add to it. For now we’re done, but the future holds many mysteries. If you’d like, you can follow the game’s creative director Wren on Twitter to see what she gets up to, after she takes a well deserved break.

It’s come to our attention there are a number of scam Unpacking apps on the Google Play store. To clarify: Unpacking is NOT available on mobile, and there are currently no plans to port it to mobile. We’re sorry for any disappointment!

Whew!

That’s it for now. Hope you all have a good holiday and rest of your year! 2022 has a lot of mystery to it, but if our game has taught us anything… There are plenty of good things to unpack.

Cheers,

Victoria, Wren, and the Witch Beam team

Hey Unpackers!

It’s that time of the year - the Steam Awards nominations are now open.

We’ve received a lot of love and kind words from you all about Unpacking, and nothing makes us happier than hearing how much you enjoyed the gameplay, the sound design, or the ever-growing chick plush collection.

Unpacking is a game inspired by the experience of my partner moving in with me, and discovering the story behind every item he brought with him. Plus, a love of organizing, of course. The actual act of moving and unpacking can be a stressful one, but we hope this game made it a more relaxing and reflective experience.

If you feel the same, it would mean so much if you would nominate Unpacking for this year’s Steam Awards for the Sit Back and Relax Award. It only takes a few clicks to do so, and it would mean so much to us.

But no matter what, thank you for being a part of this journey!

♥,
Wren and the Witch Beam team

This update addresses an issue that could prevent the game starting if the window had been moved to a second monitor along with some other minor issues.

• In some cases, moving the game window to a second monitor that had a different scaling factor to the default monitor would prevent the game from restarting. Previously we were advising workarounds but this should no longer be a problem
  
• When VSync was disabled, the game was capable of excessive CPU usage. A maximum framerate has been set for when the game is run without vsync
  
• fixed an issue involving drawers that are above doors that could allow incorrect item placement in 2007, 2013 and 2015
  
• fixed a couple of minor visual issues

Save files and progress should be unaffected.

if you have rebound your controls in a way that makes navigating the menus difficult, it's possible to reset them now from outside the game by adding

resetcontrols

to Launch Options. Remember to remove this text once you've customised your controls or they will be reset each time you start the game!

This update addresses an input rebinding issue and fixes some smaller issues and placement rules

• Input rebinding allowed binding the esc key over the primary action input, resulting in menus that couldn't be navigated. This is now prevented and if you had bound it this way the game will revert your input bindings on start
  
• fixed a Steam integration issue that was blocking progression in rare cases
  
• fixed issue where items could be placed in the corner of a shower and not retrieved
  
• fixed issue that occasionally caused items in drawers to be very hard to select if there was an item on the floor behind them
  
• fixed a "vanishing book" issue caused by holding a book over a shelf while changing rooms
  
• added a missing sprite to a toothpaste in 2012 and fixed issue where an item in 2018 could be hung on hooks and towel racks when it wasn't meant to be
  
• tweaked the dining-room reverb in 2007
  
• fixed an issue that was causing red validation outlines to render with visual artefacts on specific screen resolutions
  
• several items have had some extra areas assigned to them either because they should have been that way originally or we saw it in someone's stream and were like "yeah, fair"
  
• fixed other various visual issues

Save files and progress should be unaffected.

Features and improvements

• Big Picture mode now uses a virtual keyboard when naming your album
  
• the pulsing button effect that signals that other rooms have unpacked boxes has been reduced slightly

The pulsing can also be turned off entirely by adding

nopulse

to Launch Options - this is considered a workaround and will hopefully have an in-game menu option in future.

Thank you for playing!

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