The Unfinished Swan

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Unfinished Swan is an upcoming[when?] download exclusive for the Play Station 3 by Giant Sparrow.

In it, you play as a young boy who has chased a swan into a strange, surreal world where there are huge swaths of unfinished white space. Using globs of black paint to splatter and reveal your surroundings, you must make your way ever forward hunting the titular swan.

The gameplay is puzzle and exploration based, with throwing paint as the only revealed player interaction thus far. Powerups will give you bigger splatters or more "splats per second".

The game will be available for download on the PSN in TBA 2012.

Tropes used in The Unfinished Swan include:
  • Cel Shading: On what is shaded, anyway.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Items you should pay attention to are in color: swan footprints, balloons (which hold Power Ups), markings on gates...
  • Color Contrast: Black and white, naturally. Nearly everything starts as white, and you splatter it with black paint to reveal it. Rare important objects have color, including the swan footprints, which makes them stand out all the more.
  • First Person Ghost
  • Motif: According to the lead developer and designer, the game has a children's storybook or fairytale motif.
    • Color Motif: Swan footprints appear in orange, the color of warmth and vitality. Given the empty and sterile nature of the world, this is probably a deliberate contrast.
  • Nintendo Hard: According to Word of God, "It can be super hard, yeah".
  • Power-Up: Balloons hide toys to improve your paint splatter. You can make the splatter area larger or increase the rate you can throw paint globs.