Yarny helps creators reach dizzy heights

Chris Dring meets the man behind Unravel, a 2D adventure game that will be out next year

It was 6 am on June 15 in Los Angeles, and Swedish developer Martin Sahlin was wide awake. He had been for a while, anxiously preparing for “his moment” on stage, when he would announce Unravel — a 2D adventure game starring an anthropomorphised ball of yarn — to an audience of millions. It would be the culmination of the most unlikely of partnerships, proving that a tiny spark of genius can still make its mark on gaming’s big hitters.

The Unravel story had started four years earlier. Sahlin is the creative director at Swedish studio Coldwood Interactive, a 14-person outfit primarily known for low-quality, casual sports games.

“We made this fighting game with Sony [2011’s The Fight: Light’s Out], that was so-so — it reviewed really poorly — but reached a huge audience,” Sahlin recalls. “I felt almost irresponsible, because I was making stuff that’s just mindless. If you have a soapbox and an audience of a 100,000 people … you wouldn’t say nothing. You don’t have to change the world, but you have to at least put your heart into it and say something that means something to you.”

He was eager to try something new, and, after playing in the woods during a camping trip in 2013, he came up with the concept for Unravel. The game stars Yarny, a human-like ball of wool made of a single piece of yarn that slowly unwinds during an adventure. Using his thread to solve puzzles, Yarny’s mission is to reconnect the memories of a lost family.

It’s a curious concept and Sahlin had to find someone to fund it. He found support from an unlikely source.Electronic Arts is not known for small-scale projects. This is the corporation behind billion-dollar blockbusters such as Fifa and Battlefield. Yet Unravel had attracted the attention of its studio boss — fellow Swede, Patrick Söderlund.

“Patrick heard that we were making this game and wanted to meet,” remembers Sahlin. “We are a really small company from a small city in a small country. We are a little dot on the little dot on the little dot. If you come from that perspective, you are used to being bullied. So going into a meeting like that was a bit scary. But it turned into Patrick pitching EA to us.

Unravel receives elated response
“EA doesn’t need us. They have all the monies. So there is no financial need for them to make this, but there is a creative need. It’s our passion project but it feels like it’s their passion too. They’ve been the friendly giant, which honestly was a surprise to us.”

It was this that led Sahlin to Los Angeles, to E3 — the annual celebration of games — and onto a stage watched by millions. He seemed nervous and emotional, talking with a passion rarely seen at these events, and Unravel received a rapturous response online, with gamers creating art of not just Yarny, but Sahlin himself. “I watched a video of me on stage afterwards and I thought: ‘Man, I looked terrified.’ But the thing is, I really wasn’t. I was just genuinely excited and emotional about it.

“When I was done, I was supposed to get off stage and have my microphone taken off, but I said I wasn’t ready just yet, I wanted to see people watch the trailer. I wanted to look at their faces. This was my moment and I wanted to grasp it.

“That evening, I was trying to write an email to the guys back home. But it was impossible because every two seconds a notification popped up with someone saying something super nice,” says Sahlin.

“We were in the hotel lobby making Yarny dolls. I sat there, glassy eyed ... they were making fan art about me … that’s absurd. No matter how good you think your thing is, or how big your damn ego is, stuff like that always catches you off guard.I didn’t know the internet was such a nice place.”

Unravel is a personal project — even the game’s environments are based on places that Sahlin has connections with. So he and the Coldwood team have been overwhelmed to see their project touch so many other gamers.

“I was joking about the game in the office and said, ‘If I can make one person call their mum, then it is a success.’ We have already done that, so I now need extra goals,” he says.

“What I wanted to do was make something that enriched people and touched them and hopefully made them feel good. The game isn’t even out yet, but we have already done that many times over.” Some of the mail I have been getting from people — you feel kind of like the best person in the world. Sometimes it doesn’t take that much to make someone really happy. Sometimes all it takes is a nice trailer with nice music to turn someone’s day around, or to light someone’s darkness.”

Unravel is out next year but even with the developer’s passion and EA’s millions, there’s no guarantee of success. Yet Sahlin is philosophical. “If this doesn’t work, then forget it, I gave it my best. It’s OK to fail if it’s with something that you truly believe in.”