During the game's introduction, an old woman is seen looking out her window, before she adjusts a picture of a baby and picks up a ball of yarn. As she proceeds upstairs, a lone ball of yarn rolls out of shot. Yarny, an anthropomorphic creature made of red yarn, and the game's protagonist, then walks into shot, and is looking around in wonder at his environment. Through various picture frames in the house, Yarny can visit environments that were significant in the home owners' lives, and discover their memories about the places; the initial memories are happy, such as visiting the sea shore, or hiking in the mountains, but eventually darker memories are revealed: the rural forest area is industrialized, which in turn causes accidents with toxic waste, and people start moving to the city. A memory also reveals that the old woman's husband died from a heart attack.
At the end of each level, Yarny finds a red yarn badge it collects on the cover of a photo album in the house, which then fills with photos of the memories encountered along the way. On the final two levels, however, Yarny only finds one half each of a heart-shaped badge. On the final level, played in a cemetery, Yarny struggles its way through a snow storm to find the final half of the badge, but it slips from its hands, and jumping after it, Yarny unravels completely, with only a red thread of yarn remaining in its place. The badge piece is then picked up by a human hand.
Yarny awakens in a camping backpack, holding the missing piece; it quickly runs home to place it on the photo album. Startled by a child entering the room, Yarny feigns to be inanimate again, and once the child leaves, it places the missing piece on to its final place on the photo album cover, which it then opens up to reveal the final passage and the end credits.
According to Sahlin, the yarn that makes up Yarny represents love, and that the character unravels as they travel away from what they love.
Development and release
Although developer Coldwood's previous works received unfavorable critical reception, Unravel reportedly showed enough promise for EA's DICE to arrange a publishing deal with EA. Subsequently, Unravel was announced at EA's E3 2015 conference by the game's developer and creative director, Martin Sahlin. During the game's presentation, Sahlin was noted to have "reacted to his on-stage appearance like most of us would: with shaking hands and a warbling voice." Sahlin's nervous and excited presentation of Unravel was met with a positive reception from the conference's audience. Following the announcement, Sahlin became the focus of well-circulated appreciative posts and fan art on social media website such as Twitter and Tumblr.
The game itself, especially its aesthetic, was also well received after its announcement; VG247 claimed Unravel was, "the most visually-impressive game EA showed". Initial reactions to the game also drew comparisons to Limbo and Sony's LittleBigPlanet series. On 14 December 2015, EA announced that the game would launch worldwide on 9 February 2016.
The game's backgrounds and puzzles are inspired by the landscape of Umeå, Sweden; Sahlin drew inspiration for the game after creating a Yarny doll out of tire wire and yarn during a family camping trip in northern Sweden. Sahlin has elaborated, "We live in the sticks. It's a very small town, very far north, close to the Arctic circle. There's not a lot of people, but a whole lot of countryside. I wanted to share some of that, some of the places that I love. I think you don't really see enough of that in video games. You tend to see more fantastical stuff." The game was developed on Sony's PhyreEngine.
On 21 January 2016, EA abandoned the "Unravel" trademark after their application was rejected by the United States Patent Office. Despite this, the company confirmed that the game would retain the "Unravel" title.
Reception
Unravel received "favorable" reviews according to the aggregating review website Metacritic.
Caitlin Cooke of Destructoid scored the game a 10 out of 10, summarizing her review with: "Unravel cherishes the best moments in life while recognizing the hard battles we sometimes face as families, all wrapped up within delightful gameplay and stunning scenery. The atmosphere is so compelling that I couldn’t help but feel like a piece of my own story was wrapped up in the game with the rest of the photo album. It’s rare but a special thing when a game manages to impart a story that touches strings deep in the heart, and Unravel manages to meet and exceed this feat."
In awarding the game an 8.5 out of 10, Electronic Gaming Monthly's Spencer Campbell commended the developer's ability to create a story that intertwines with the gameplay without compromising in quality, and called the game "a surprisingly deep puzzler with an unmeasurable amount of charm." He specifically praised the puzzles for making use of real-world objects and the story for feeling emotional. Campbell acknowledged the game's short length but said that those who judge the game only on length are missing out.
