Where can I read Unpacking patch notes?

This page lists official Steam announcements for Unpacking, including the latest post "Paralives x Unpacking collab". Each entry links to the full changelog on Steam.

How many people are playing Unpacking right now?

Unpacking currently shows 94 concurrent Steam players on SteamScope. Player counts refresh on a rolling schedule — typically about every 30 minutes for high-priority titles.

How often are Unpacking patch notes updated on SteamScope?

SteamScope ingests new Steam announcements as they are published. Check back after major updates, seasons, or balance patches to see fresh entries at the top of this feed.

Is Unpacking patch note data official?

SteamScope republishes developer announcements sourced from Steam's public news feeds. SteamScope is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. Always verify critical gameplay changes on the official Steam announcement.

Unpacking Patch Notes & News

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Unpacking Patch Notes & News | SteamScope

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

hummelinesteam_community_announcements

1429d ago

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! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/cdf34b965705df3965e37ced1aef36f750724506.jpg 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). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/14de8f4716894601379dcd11182db99d725ceb28.png 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/46a0603927051e729071da03760f5db35c0928e7.jpg 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

Taking a deep dive into Unpacking’s sound & design

hummelinesteam_community_announcements

1467d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/e77531ae7f782164cc00579e7210cfbeb018d2a3.png Above: @beezelbee_ is building the 1997 room in miniature, and we’re loving following the process Hello Unpacking fans! It’s been a busy month, but at this point, maybe there’s no such thing as a slow month!

ABC Australia Mini Doco

We’re very excited that this mini-doco has come out—ABC Australia came to Wren and Tim’s apartment on the day of the game launch, and it’s crazy to think about how far we’ve come since this day in November. We also got reminded that we made our Twitter account four years ago, and it’s resulted in some nostalgia as we think about where we were at that time—at Stugan, in Sweden, building out ovens and taking the first pass at the 1997 level! Wild to see all that progress. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/ec92030528b30cbb3f11a08d7676b2232009fd16.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/d772b2006c1855ce77e44774dfdfdf8cf15e9ed4.jpg

Listen & Learn

Jeff & Ange have been giving some great behind-the-scenes looks at the sound design behind Unpacking. First up, they were on Level with Emily Reese to talk about sound, music and the complications of recording foley for the game, and then followed that up with a video as part of Save & Sound, which dives into the environmental ambiance of the levels (listen for a school letting out at around 3PM in the first level!), how they tracked the sounds of objects across different surfaces. And keep in mind there’s variations on each sound as well! We put together a TikTok of some of our favorite sounds—what’s yours?

Another peek

On the other end of things (narrative and game design, that is!) Wren & Tim have had a few chances to take some deep dives as well. The PlayStation podcast had them on to talk about different playstyles, hidden details (if you shake the PS5 controller, it shakes the item!), and telling narratives in unique ways. Then, on an episode of Noclip, they talked about all the systems behind the game, and the video is a great look at the game being built in Unity as well as the grids on each level for item placement!

We’re headed to BitSummit!

So excited to announce that we’re headed to BitSummit X-Roads this year! We showed Unpacking at BitSummit in 2019, and we’re so glad to be headed back. If you’ll be there—let us know!

Easter Egg found!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/cebcaa179127dedf48d567bb7a3b60172876f1cb.jpg We’re delighted to say that the easter egg from last month’s newsletter has been found! It’s found by interacting with the game console in the 2015 level—and is Witch Beam’s next game, TemPoPo! That’s all for this month! Next month brings BitSummit and Wren’s keynote at NZGDC, and we can’t wait to share both with you! Cheers, Emily & the Witch Beam Team

Five great reads, two deep dive videos, and one easter egg

hummelinesteam_community_announcements

1510d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/040155cb64e9a160ab5c04fc86c546e568fc2988.jpg top row and bottom left: Karoliina Korhonen / bottom right: María Ambrosoni We are loving these Sims 4 builds that have recreated some of the apartments from Unpacking! If you are so inspired, please share with us on our Discord or on Twitter!

Game maker’s notebook

ICYMI, we’ve had two different sessions with the Game Maker’s Notebook, one with Jeff about sound and music, and one with Tim and Wren about narrative, how the game came about, and more. Check ‘em out!

Some great reads

There have been some great articles recently about Unpacking, and we wanted to share them:

How a video game about unpacking gets the bisexual experience spot on | i-D magazine dives into streamers’ reactions to the final levels of the game and how important that representation feels to experience in a game.
How Unpacking's art combines beauty with clarity | Eurogamer talked with our artist, Angus Doolan about creating isometric designs that can be readable, tell a story, and fit within the mechanics of the game
The creators of Unpacking on developing a "weird", queer, BAFTA-winning game | Wren and Tim sat down with Eurogamer to discuss mechanics, level design combined with storytelling, showing the many facets of the protagonist, the surprise reach of the game, and more.
Objects tell stories in Unpacking | Tim wrote a piece for the PlayStation blog about the real-life inspiration for items in the game
Meet the Brisbane couple who claimed two major prizes at the BAFTA Game Awards | It’s been very surreal to have our local news come and interview us!

The G.A.N.G. Awards

Making room on our shelf for two more awards—this time from the Game Audio Network Guild! We won Best Sound Design for an Indie Game and Best Audio for an Indie Game, and we’re really proud to be recognized among an incredible slate. You can see the full list of winners here.

A little easter egg to find…

A pixel art rendition of the key art for our next game exists somewhere inside Unpacking, and no one has found it yet! Let us know if you find it! Cheers, Emily & the Witch Beam team

Vote for us in the Webbys & check out our GDC talks!

hummelinesteam_community_announcements

1565d ago

Hello all and happy April! It’s been a very busy month for us, and it’s not over yet! First up, we’re nominated for FOUR Webby Awards, and would greatly appreciate if you could send a few votes our way. We’re right on the cusp of winning for two in particular, so click here to vote: Family & Kids, and Best User Experience. Voting closes TOMORROW, so don't delay!

Still time to pre-order

Also you still have time to get your pre-orders in for Physical Editions of Unpacking as well as the soundtrack on vinyl! Pre-orders end May 1st, so don’t hesitate! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/e3462d32371c303e7dc1f56a96e9797ed046ca16.jpg

Have you played Dark Star Mode yet?

Our favorite part of this month, though, was announcing our favorite secret about the game: Dark Star Mode. We announced it on April 1st, and somehow people thought we were joking! Imagine that… 😉 Dark Star Mode is real, and the only tips we’ll give you are these: make sure to start a new album, and remember that everything has to be in the wrong place: including things you haven’t unpacked! If you can move it, it must be moved! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/eb11edb721fa3f876ec09cf92790248e667a804c.jpg

GDC talks online

GDC has passed behind us, and you can now watch and read our talks! Jeff’s full talk on all things foley is here—and available for everyone!—and you can also read a summary on Game Developer. For a look at Wren and Tim’s talk about narrative, you can also check it out on Game Developer.

We’re on cloud nine…

In the space of a few weeks, we won two GDCA Awards, Best Audio and the Innovation Award, and then at the BAFTA Game Awards, we won Best Narrative and EE Game of the Year (thank you to everyone who voted to help make that happen!) At the BAFTAs, you might have seen that we were so surprised, we didn’t have a speech planned 😬 but we realized after it was a great chance to thank everyone involved once we’d caught our breath a little. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35621891/90d26b4129c00242874617943870d1b49304b691.jpg That’s all for now, and as always, follow us on Twitter for even more news, join our Discord to chat with other fans, and follow us on TikTok for fun videos. Cheers, Emily & the Witch Beam team

Unpacking news & patch notes

Unpacking news & patch notes

Today’s the day! Unpacking is officially available on the App Store and Google Play!

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We’re headed to GDC!

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ABC Australia Mini Doco

Listen & Learn

Another peek

We’re headed to BitSummit!

Easter Egg found!

Get ready!

More info about the event:

Game maker’s notebook

Some great reads

The G.A.N.G. Awards

A little easter egg to find…

Still time to pre-order

Have you played Dark Star Mode yet?

GDC talks online

We’re on cloud nine…

Award Nominations

Game of the Year Lists

5,000+ Members in our Discord!

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