The Unfinished Swan: 10 things you need to know

Discover more about The Unfinished Swan as developer Giant Sparrow reveals some little known facts about this incredible PS3 adventure.

1. Virtual reality

The Unfinished Swan started as a student project in the University of Southern California's Interactive Media programme. Originally it was meant to be played with a head mounted display. Over time, the game eventually became a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Not quite white

The white colour 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 eu.playstation.com and PlayStation.Blog at blog.eu.playstation.com for all the latest on this unique and beautiful game.