Yarny “stands for love” in Unravel

It’s a blisteringly hot day in Los Angeles 2015, and an intrepid trio of your favourite writers is busy shuffling into the building where EA has their usual E3 press conference every year. Same old, same old stuff really. Barring a highlight here and there from Plants Vs Zombies and Mass Effect, the conference itself is rather…boring. It was stuff that we’d pretty much seen before and were already expecting.

And then a game developer comes on to the stage, to announce a new game about love and connection that plays out over various stages. And people were instantly sold, when they saw the hero of Unravel: Yarny. An absolutely adorable bundle of cotton who players would control as the little fella explored the world and made actual connections with people.

Hell, Zoe went ape and began making plans then and there to steal Yarny and smuggle him back home.

“Yarn means a lot of things in Unravel. It represents the bonds between people, the red thread that ties everyone and everything together,” creative director Martin Sahlin said in a blog-post for Unravel.

It stands for love, and Yarny is the manifestation of all of those things. Tethered to something important at the start of the game (and trying to make it to the end without unraveling), Yarny is a helper – a positive force.

I really wanted Yarny to be brave, and to accomplish great things despite being so small. I hoped when we were making the game that Yarny would be empathetic and relatable, and based on your support, I can see that Yarny is already reaching people.

There aren’t many games out there that can touch my disgusting, blackened heart but Yarny might have that potential when it arrives February 9.

Last Updated: January 8, 2016