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The Unfinished Swan: Art and Design Developer Diary

Ben Esposito — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:01:06 +0000

Like a lot of folks, I first saw the tech demo for The Unfinished Swan when it made the rounds online in 2008. The idea stuck in the back of my head but it wasn’t until later when Giant Sparrow put up a job posting that I decided: I had to make that game. I had just graduated from college without much professional experience, so I did what I do best and made a game for them. You can check it out here if you’d like. The video cuts off because the end of the game says “Call me” and has my phone number on it. It got the attention of the Giant Sparrow team, and I ended up flying out to Los Angeles to work on the game. I was elated and a little shocked, but I came to learn that at Giant Sparrow, the player experience always comes first – and my little game was designed to create a very specific experience. Now, in October 2012, The Unfinished Swan is out in the wild (well, to PlayStation Plus members) and we’re proud that we were able to make a truly experiential game.

We had a very unique creative process. In planning out each level, we used a series of index cards representing emotional beats. I would then work with Ian to put together a rough version of the level. If something didn’t feel right, we’d cut it out and shuffle our cards. Hokyo sums it up really well when he says the experience of play is more like eating a meal than looking at a painting. We eat with our entire bodies, at our own pace, using all of our senses. The metaphor of food isn’t purely conceptual; both Hokyo and Ian’s love of food manifests itself in the personality of the King character. In one chapter, players explore the King’s dining hall, complete with an abandoned feast. Also, see if you can find a giant piece of toast hidden somewhere.

Working at Giant Sparrow has been a creative challenge. On one hand, we had a tremendous amount of freedom to experiment with new ideas. On the other, we were a very small team with limited resources, and working with a group of really creative people can be a game of compromises between tech, art, sound, and design. The best part about working with our small team was that the people posing questions were also the ones creating solutions.

Overall, The Unfinished Swan is a really personal game to all of us. We worked together for a long time and poured a lot of our own quirks and experiences into it. When you sit down to play, know that it was created from start to finish with your whole experience in mind. Go forth and explore.

The Unfinished Swan: 10 Things You Need to Know

Ben Esposito — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:11:33 +0000

The Unfinished Swan is an unusual game with an unusual history. We wanted to give you an exclusive look into its history before it lands on PSN October 23rd — as well as some secrets you’d never guess. Find out where we came up with the idea, who helped make it happen, and some techniques we used to make the game feel just right.

Virtual reality: The Unfinished Swan started as a student project in the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media program. Originally it was meant to be played with a head-mounted display. Over time, the game eventually became a PS3 exclusive.

Showing our roots: The pond, which is the opening area of The Unfinished Swan, hasn’t changed since we entered the game into the Independent Games Festival in 2009. The reasons were partly to keep a homage to the area that got us started, and also because it’s a successful level layout.

Tiny team: Giant Sparrow started as a two-person company and grew to 12 people at one point during production of The Unfinished Swan. Being a small team provided a lot of advantages; we were able to try things big studios wouldn’t touch.

Auto-aim: When we were first testing the game, we heard more than once that players wanted some sort of gun that would shoot paint where they were pointing. We weren’t about to give Monroe – the main character of The Unfinished Swan – a gun but we did come up with a fix. It happens behinds the scenes: the game will adjust the arc of your throw to hit things that you’re pointing at.

Secret run: It’s very subtle, but if you walk forward for long enough, Monroe starts to pick up his pace. We added this for players who like exploring so there’s less time spent walking long distances.

Not quite white: The white color you see in The Unfinished Swan is actually not pure white, but a slightly warmer yellowish white. On certain LCD TVs, pure white shows up with a bluish tint – which is not very befitting of a storybook style.

Getting closer to the narrator: The voice of the narrator was originally recorded with temporary dialogue – it’s the voice of creative director Ian Dallas’s aunt. After auditioning other narrators, we weren’t able to find a voice as authentic as a real mother.

Legendary art director: The Unfinished Swan’s art director, Hokyo Lim, was previously the art director for League of Legends by Riot Games. While they are tonally very different, Hokyo’s strong 2D skills have translated beautifully to both League of Legends and The Unfinished Swan.

Stay a while: The Unfinished Swan has four different chapters, each with their own visual style and mechanics. Part of the design philosophy for The Unfinished Swan is to let players figure things out for themselves, so there are a few parts of the game that have never been shown before.

Becoming a minimalist: The Minimalist trophy, unlocked when a player walks through the opening area without using more than three splats of paint, was originally unlocked by not splatting a single ball. Ben, the level designer, could stumble through it using sound but when the rest of the team tested it nobody was able to figure out how to navigate without using paint. After changing it to three splats maximum, it felt like a more balanced challenge.

Want to find out more about The Unfinished Swan? Keep reading PlayStation.Blog for all the latest on this unique and beautiful game.

Watch The Unfinished Swan Comic-Con Panel Here

Ben Esposito — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:35:59 +0000

Hey everyone! I’m Ben, a Game Designer at Giant Sparrow. Last Saturday, a bunch of us took a trip down to San Diego for Comic-Con, where we held a panel that focused on the art of The Unfinished Swan. We want to thank everyone who attended — you’re all beautiful people. If you couldn’t make it to the panel, we’ve put together this highlight reel so you can watch all the good parts! The panel was hosted by Morgan Webb, who made sure things went super smooth as we discussed the ups and downs of developing such a unique game.

On stage we had Ian Dallas, Hokyo Lim, Max Geiger, and me. We showed off some never-before-seen concept art, and talked about how we developed the art style for The Unfinished Swan. We’ve been really quiet throughout development in hopes of preserving the game’s surprises, so it was refreshing to have the chance to speak with fans about our inspirations. Thanks for being patient with us! We’ve got more to reveal soon, so keep in touch with us on Twitter and be sure to comment here!