Who wants to go exploring?

If someone were to bust in and ask you that question what would you answer be?  Maybe you would have questions for them, where?  Well if they answered the question of where you wouldn't really be exploring, how about when?  If they were able to answer that question I am sure they would have knocked before busting in, they would probably make an appointment or schedule this adventure.  Where is the fun in that?  The best adventures start with an intriguingly unexplainable event that leads to the discovery of a new space, area, or what most gamers are familiar with a new world.  This kind of exploration is something that for the longest time was only available in role playing games and even then in a limited form of finding new towns and shops full of people to talk, the beautiful vistas players would come across when traveling between in areas but thankfully gaming has come so far that indie developers are taking these basic concepts of discovery and spacial mechanics to new heights.  Leading the charge of evolving discovery is new comer Giant Sparrow and their first title The Unfinished Swan.

With a beginning similar to the classic Alice in Wonderland instead of following a fidgety white rabbit the player is following a mysterious white swan that has up and walked out of painting, what ensues is an adventure of exploration that cannot be found in other game.  The above picture is indicative of The Unfinished Swans are style but what it doesn't portray is that the whole game world is white and appears to be a blank canvas.  There is no combat, no enemies, pure exploration controlled by the player who has one ability, throwing black balls of paint it gives a feeling that is indescribable, not only does this give the feeling of exploration for every area of the game but it gives a feeling of creation.  You are literally painting the world almost as if you are giving this world life, while throwing paint to show your surroundings there is no telling what you will come across.  There is no warning of what lies behind each and every corner in the game, one of the most fascinating things is how the game handles boundaries as a loose guide for the player. 

Giant Sparrow handles guiding the player by not guiding them but giving them a slight nudge in the right direction, the only color the player will see in this world that isn't pure black and white is a yellowish gold color marking the swans foot prints and other objects the team would like to put emphasis on, perhaps a beautiful statue or other carefully created piece in this beautiful painting.  The most important guide to the player is water, when the player first encounters water it is something that is hard for them to understand, all of a sudden the paint ball they tossed does not splatter and show an are it simply land sin the water and floats.  Visually this is incredible for the sense of discover, the use of simple black balls of paint to uncover this world they are in always keeps the player intrigued as each splat shows part of an object before them but as soon as the first ball the player tosses that doesn't burst they are immediately drawn to why this happened.  The beauty of The Unfinished Swan is that the amount of finished work in this painting all depends on the players play style, the player can choose to take their time and paint every aspect of this game world or just enough to advanced through the world and continue exploring in search of this swan.  The question is when The Unfinished Swan released this fall is how much of this beautiful painting will you finish? 

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