It's a difficult process to describe, essentially like creating a stone rubbing of the entire world. The black contrasts directly with the untouched white space, immediately engaging the player's innate sense of distance and perspective.

As globs of paint splatter on the surrounding surfaces, their shapes are revealed. It is, at first glance, a void.įrom a first-person perspective, the player's only form of navigation centers on the ability to splatter the world with black paint. There are no shadows to guide you, no shades of gray to give shape to Monroe's surroundings. The world isn't governed by the usual laws of light either, meaning that everything is completely white. The first area Monroe visits, a perfectly white garden, presents players with an environment utterly dominated by white. As they so often are in stories like these, the door is magical, and transports Monroe to a world very unlike our own, a world where paint is more than pigment and can change the very fabric of reality. Its ability to plant players firmly in his shoes, to help us see the world as he does, is what makes it special.%Gallery-168082%Following the death of his mother, Monroe awakes in the orphanage one night to find that her favorite unfinished painting – a swan still missing its neck – has leapt from its canvas and wandered through a small door. The Unfinished Swan is the story of a child, Monroe. They can remind us what it was like to lift a rock in a garden, discovering the creatures that live underneath, or how it felt to dribble paint on a sheet of paper, fold it in half and reveal a butterfly. More than books or movies, games engage us, and the good ones pull us in. I think this is something that most invested players realize, whether they've ever articulated it or not.

What they do particularly well that isn't explored often enough, is rekindle our childhood capacity for amazement. Typically, they appeal to our baser instincts – usually the desire for power, in whatever form that may take, be it blasting aliens, slaying dragons or scoring touchdowns.

Download the unfinished swan xbox