The Unfinished Swan

The Unfinished Swan
File:The Unfinished Swan logo.png
Developer(s)	Giant Sparrow SCE Santa Monica Studio Additional work by: Armature Studio (PS4/PSVita)
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)	Ian Dallas
Producer(s)	Max Geiger
Composer(s)	Joel Corelitz
Engine	Gamebryo
Platforms	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3 NA 20121023October 23, 2012 PAL 20121024October 24, 2012 JP 20121213December 13, 2012 PlayStation 4 & PlayStation Vita
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Unfinished Swan is an adventure video game developed by Giant Sparrow for the PlayStation 3, released in October 2012 through the PlayStation Network. The game starts with a completely white space in which the player, a boy named Monroe, is chasing after a swan that has escaped a painting. The game was released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in October 2014.

Gameplay

Based on the prototype tech demo from 2008 it was assumed that the game would mainly feature splatting gobs of black paint in an otherwise white world but a later demo changed this to an inverse scenario while featuring ominous music.

Development

Development of The Unfinished Swan began in February 2008, as a XNA developed prototype which took about 2 months to complete. Later in the year the prototype was expanded and submitted to the Independent Games Festival where it was part of the student finalists, but ultimately losing against Tag: The Power of Paint in its category.

The 2008 tech demo presented a "cold and desolate" atmosphere, using songs released by Moby under a non-commercial license. However, within the same year, the development team had settled on the concept of an "interactive children's book."

After its showing at the IGF, Sony and Giant Sparrow signed an "incubation deal", which provides funding, office space, equipment and advice in the form of help from SCE Santa Monica Studio.

Music

The score to The Unfinished Swan, composed by Joel Corelitz, mixes electronic music with a string orchestra and string quartet. The orchestra and string quartet were recorded in Nashville at Ocean Way Studios by the Nashville Music Scoring orchestra.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 80.95% Metacritic 79/100 Review scores Publication Score Edge 6/10 Eurogamer 6/10 Game Informer 8/10 GameSpot 6.5/10 GamesRadar GameTrailers 8.9/10 IGN 9.0/10 Joystiq OPM (UK) 7/10

Midlife Gamer gave the game 8/10, stating "The Unfinished Swan is a fantastic addition to a growing branch of unique and stylised games." but apart "from the games short length, progressing the growth of the vines in the second chapter is definitely the weakest point of this game and feels very linear in its delivery, but the rest of the game more than makes up for this deficit. Other than enduring a spot of motion sickness, Amy Flower of Gamesblip was impressed, rating the game 8.5/10: "It isn't the longest outing, but so what? The Unfinished Swan is an engaging trip back to when a sense of wonderment wasn't confined to the dollar amount on our latest electricity bill." The Unfinished Swan won two BAFTA awards in 2013, one for Game Innovation and one for Debut Game.

External links

• Official website (English)
• The Unfinished Swan tech demo on Vimeo

• 2014-10-14, The Unfinished Swan dated for PS4, PS Vita in Japan, Gematsu
• http://gematsu.com/2014/08/journey-unfinished-swan-coming-ps4