A peek at Unpacking merch, and a new way to play Dark Star Mode

How on earth is it September already!? Time flies, especially when you’re headed to multiple events like we have. The team headed back to BitSummit for the first time in three years (!) and showed Unpacking, as well as Witch Beam’s newest game, Tempopo. Then, we bounced over to New Zealand for Wren to give the keynote at NZGDC. But we’re home now, thank goodness!

We’re VERY excited to share that ✨ Unpacking merch is coming soon! ✨ We’re so excited to have partnered with Serenity Forge to create some things we’re so excited to have in our hands soon and do our own IRL unpacking of boxes!

We’ve got two t-shirts, one with a rendition of the final scene that says “Unpacking a life with you,” and the other with Piggy peeking out of a cardboard box—and the box is a POCKET!

Then some keychains of some of our favorite plushies (jk we can’t pick favorites, we love them all) AND an enamel pin set of some of the achievements in the game.

They’ll be available at PAX West this weekend in Seattle (at Serenity Forge’s Booth: #757), and after that… well, you’ll just have to stay tuned! (and we just might have a few more things in store for you… ?)

Also at PAX West, we’ll also be a part of Pinny Arcade’s Pin Quest with these fantastic enamel pins that will be available at the Humble Games booth (#317).

Jeff’s GDC talk is now officially on YouTube! Go listen to him talk through all the intricacies of foley in the game.

A great piece on Jewish characters in video games featured Unpacking and it’s well worth the read!

“We wanted to make the characters feel like real, three-dimensional people so that players could relate to them. One aspect of that is a religious and cultural identity. Our character happens to be an artist, and she happens to be queer, and happens to be Jewish. All of these are important parts of who she is.”

Our Discord is finding new and exciting ways to play the game, play Dark Star mode, and speedrun (yes, we have a speedrunning community!). Our current favorite is “Floor is Lava” mode for Dark Star, where you still have to put everything in the wrong place, but the floor is off-limits! Let us know if you give it a try.

Finally, do you know anyone that hasn’t grabbed the game on PC yet? If so, Humble is having a sale through September 6th, and Unpacking is 20% off in their store.

That’s all for now!

Cheers,
Emily & the Witch Beam team