For months I have been waiting for the release of the little game with the cute little yarn character appropriately named Yarny. I watched video and interviews for cons, read blog posts, and I have even gone as far as making my own little Yarny figure from wire and yarn. While I would normally avoid demos and PR blitzes like the plague so as not to spoil the game, this time I just couldn’t wait – I signed up for the EA Access membership and played the first two levels during the 10 hour trial period.
Unravel is a puzzle based platformer from EA that allows the player to solve problems using yarn that Yarny unwinds from their body. As both a lover of puzzle based games and a crafter (predominantly a knitter) this game called to me in the same way that previous games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Yoshi’s Wooly World have in the past. While I have to admit that the yarn physics and the cute knit characters in the previous Nintendo games have made for some fun hours spent gaming and my collection of yarn Yoshi amiibo have a special place of honor on my amiibo shelf, I also have to say that Unravel gets at the heart of crafting in some very real ways.
I knit for a lot of different reasons. I originally started knitting as an adult after a 25 year hiatus (I learned as a young girl from my grandmother) in order to keep my hands busy when I stopped smoking. Before Pea was born, I knit out of hopefulness. I knit an entire pattern book worth of baby hats (with matching booties), about a dozen pair of wooly pants, and baby blankets. Every stitch gave me more hope that I would one day be putting these little knit things on a baby of my own, that these things would one day protect and warm my baby when I couldn’t. I knit baby things for friends’ babies because I wanted those babies to feel the same loving hugs and I knit scarves and shawls for friends and family who were sick or grieving because I wanted to wrap them in the love that I felt for them. Knitting is my way of…connecting. And I feel like Unravel has a handle on that.
Unravel starts with an elderly woman reminiscing over faded, cracked pictures and photographs of babies lovingly wrapped in what I would guess are hand knits and carrying her knitting basket up the stairs of her house to presumably find a comfortable place to knit. One errant ball of red yarn escapes from her basket and then we see Yarny climb onto a small couch adorned by a small pillow stitched with the words Lycka Blommar Ur Sma Enkla Ting which translates from the Swedish as “Happiness blooms from the small things”.
Happiness Blooms From the Small Things
Looking at the elderly little grandmother and the small smile that crosses her face when she looks at the pictures of the babies that she has love, held, and clothed we understand that she really does understand that lycka blommar ur sma enkla ting. And beautifully…fortunately, we are going to be given a glimpse into these small things and the happiness that they bring.
As the game and puzzles progress we are given bitter-sweet glimpses of the remains of a happy family. Tear stained photo albums, rusted tricycles left in the yard, kites, bar-b-que grills, and apple trees perfect for climbing by children and Yarny. As we play through the first two levels are also see scenes of children playing in the yard and with the items that Yarny uses to solve the puzzles materialize and dematerialize in soft glowy dots. It is simultaneously beautiful, nostalgic, and incredibly sad. It is the reality of life. Children are born, we love them, cherish them, and raise them, we grow old and live with the happiness of the small things.
Even now when my little one is still quite small there are moments of sheer joy and the ache of memories of times past with finding the tiny baby sock in the pocket of the winter coat that you haven’t worn in months or years. Remembering the day you knit it, the day you put it in that pocket, and all of the days that you pulled it onto her little foot. The thought of that little foot that’s not so little anymore, but that you love none the less. Unravel captures the feeling of this perfectly and, while it can’t stick a little sock or hat in your pocket, it can give you ethereal glimpses of children playing in the yard and remind you of the moments that you spent watching them as you knit them new jumpers and sipped on a beer (or in the case of our Scandinavian grandma, a cup of tea).
The environment of the game is inspired by the landscape of Northern Scandinavia and it is absolutely beautiful. The music (composed by Swedish composers) is calm and draws you into the game, which is devoid of words, in a way that makes you feel content and calm even when you are trying to make a jump for the fifth or fifteenth time. One of my biggest concerns for Yarny was the fact that we were told early on that Yarny had a limited supply of yarn. The game quickly reveals that during the course of the actual gameplay the yarn can be replenished, but I was (and still am) terribly afraid of the possibility that Yarny will eventually run out of yarn. And that they will finally be fully unraveled and lost like the grandmother’s memories. But until that moment comes Unravel takes me and Yarny on a journey through those memories and serves a beautiful, yet constant reminder that happiness does indeed bloom from the small things.
