In a gameplay video posted on the official EA UK YouTube channel, Creative Director Martin Sahlin talks about Unravel‘s gameplay, interaction with the environment, and what motivates the adorable main character.
In this upcoming game, the player takes control of Yarny — a character made entirely of red yarn. Sahlin explains that the character originates from a single ball of yarn that is attached to something at the beginning of the game. The further away Yarny gets, the more it unravels — hence the game’s name. Furthermore, Sahlin talks about Unravel’s interactive mechanics and the extent to which you can synergize with the environment to help you solve puzzles, saying there are “tons of possibilities”.
“They let you climb on the yarn, you can swing on it, you can hoist things, tether things together to connect them, grab things that are out of reach, or make bridges or ramps or even slingshots that you can use to launch Yarny high into the air”.
He goes on to explain what Yarny’s main objective is.
“The further away that Yarny gets, the more the yarn unravels and that really is the core challenge of the game, to make that yarn last all the way to the end of the game so you can tie it all back together”.
This is very cryptic indeed, and doesn’t tell us much about the actual narrative of the game. But the trailer suggests that you are trying to piece together the memories of the woman seen carrying the balls of thread at the start. The game has been hinted to be quite an emotional ride, which seems to support this theory.
This is pure speculation, however, and we’ll have to wait until the sidescroller is released on February 9th to find out for sure.
