There’s a Lot to Unpack in Witch Beam’s ‘Unpacking’
With COVID-19 still raging almost-unchecked, 2020 has seen numerous conventions cancelled, transitioning instead to online showcases to avoid filling massive halls with sneezy, coughy, moist, and infectious humans. (Sorry for that description, fellow meatbags.) One of the largest is PAX x EGX, combining two of the biggest US and European gaming events – conveniently owned by the same parent company – into one nine-day long virtual event, packed with new games, announcements, and studiously timed demo releases.
One such demo is the almost alarmingly charming Unpacking, developed by the brilliantly-named Witch Beam – the Australian studio previously responsible for Assault Android Cactus. Having debuted at PAX Australia in 2019, a free playable demo is now available on Steam.
Unpacking is described by Witch Beam as “a zen puzzle game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home.” The studio also describes it as “item Tetris“, but “reverse Tetris” may be closer, as you remove objects one at a time from neatly packed boxes and fill a room with them. The full game will feature eight house moves, progressing from a childhood room in 1997 and checking in with the protagonist as she grows, though the demo features only the first two homes.
It’s a beautiful game, with frankly ridiculously beautiful and intricately detailed pixel art for the rooms and the objects in them. Yet between its gentle music and relaxed, no-pressure gameplay, Unpacking is also remarkably calming, soothing even. For anyone with ‘neat freak’ tendencies, finding the perfect home for everything is borderline cathartic.
While most objects can fit anywhere, rotating with a right-click of a mouse button to better slot into place, a few key items have specific places they need to live – a childhood diary on a pillow, a first apartment that mandates your sandwich toaster lives in the kitchen – and will glow red if they need moving to their proper locations. Finding that sweet spot is an unexpected dopamine hit.
Although the girl who’s life you’re arranging remains unnamed and unseen, Unpacking does build a narrative over the course of the game. Just in the first two ‘levels’, you notice hints of her personality, clues to who she is from the items she keeps closest. She’s artistic, an avid reader, loves football – or soccer, if you prefer – collects action figures and plushies in equal measure. She’s a gamer, with both a Tamagotchi and a Game Boy Color amongst her possessions. Oh, and she might be queer.
The hints are there, if coded in a few stereotypes. The sportiness is one, but in the second home, you notice her wardrobe is almost entirely masculine clothes – and includes a checkered ‘lumberjack’ shirt. A framed photo you can hang on a wall clearly features another girl. In both rooms of the demo, a diary is a key item, hinting at secrets she’s not ready to confront. Witch Beam may intend for this all to be left to player interpretation, but for LGBTQ+ players, the signals couldn’t be clearer.
It’s all strangely intimate too, building a sense of connection with a character we never even see. Witch Beam promise that players will learn more about the inhabitant over the course of the game by paying attention to the items that move with her from home to home – and, tellingly, the ones that don’t.
You can play a free Steam demo of Unpacking now, ahead of the full game’s release in 2021.
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