TITLE
The making of Unpacking: Developer Witch Beam on bringing the moving indie hit to life
AUTHOR
Chris Schilling
PUBLICATION
Edge
YEAR
2022
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
When we invite Wren Brier and Tim Dawson to talk us through the origins of Witch Beam’s narrative tidy-’em-up, they tell us how it all started in the kitchen. You might know that already – this, after all, was how their game went viral. In 2018, fresh from accelerator program Stugan, the pair posted a GIF of the one level they’d built so far: a short time-lapse replay of various items (mugs, plates, glasses, tea towels, a kettle, a microwave, a cookie jar) being taken from cardboard boxes and placed neatly on marble worktops and wooden shelves.The response was enough to convince them that their apparently niche project could “appeal to a ton of people,” Brier says. Just as importantly, it brought publishers knocking at their door – “or rather my Twitter DMs,” she laughs – one of them being Humble, which ended up publishing the game. Yet the tale of Unpacking begins earlier than that, when the burgeoning relationship between these two developers saw them move in together.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Witch Beam
GAMES MENTIONED
Unpacking
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Wren Brier
Tim Dawson
PRINT AVAILABILITY
March 2022 (Issue 368)