We can all identify with the inability to finish something. And ultimately, you learn more about yourself and a mysterious King (played by Terry Gilliam), who is the crazy artist who constructs all of the magical art work in the game. You always feel like the swan is leading you, but you can stop along the way and make delightful discoveries.

You toss paint and uncover a whole 3D landscape, always following the orange footprints of the swan (as pictured above). As Monroe, you follow the swan through the landscape. But one day, the swan walked out of the picture, and Monroe began a quest to find it. He chose a portrait of an Unfinished Swan. She died and Monroe was sent to an orphanage, which only allowed him to keep one of the paintings. At the beginning, a narrated sequence tells us that Monroe’s mother was an artist who created more than 300 paintings - but never finished them. But the finished game is by no means an amateur effort, and everybody should play it to see for themselves whether it ultimately makes sense or not.ĭallas wrote the story about an orphan boy named Monroe. He started it as a student project in the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media program. I still don’t know if it was intentional or not, but the game’s story feels unfinished.ĭespite those concerns, Unfinished Swan is a wonderful first effort by Giant Sparrow, a new Santa Monica, Calif., game studio headed by Ian Dallas. But by the end, the developer loses control, introduces ambiguity and doubt, and leaves the player feeling unfulfilled and empty. For much of The Unfinished Swan, the developer Giant Sparrow masterfully interleaves the exploration and the storyline. But that exploration is tied closely to your progress in unfolding a fairy tale-like story about a little boy and his pursuit of meaning under sorrowful circumstances. It is a game about exploring the unknown.

That is the first of many magical moments within this PlayStation Network downloadable game for the PlayStation 3. As it lands with a “plop,” you see that the black paint uncovers part of the 3D space hidden within the white. If you press the right trigger, you lob a blob of black paint. You can turn around, and that is all you see. As soon as it sets up the backstory, you face a white screen. The Unfinished Swan is an interactive fairy tale that begins like no other game.

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