Fifteen minutes with Unravel 2, and creator Martin Sahlin
"People think it was because I was scared, or nervous," Martin Sahlin says. We're playing Unravel 2 together in a small room backstage at EA Play, just after his on-stage appearance to announce the game and its surprise release to the world. It's three years almost to the day since Sahlin made his E3 debut - when he introduced the original Unravel in a humble, grateful presentation which endeared himself and his creation to the world. "But it was actually just joy," Sahlin continues. "It was one of the happiest moments of my life."
Where the original Unravel starts brightly but culminates in a darker tone, Unravel 2 begins on a bleak note - the boat crash seen in the game's reveal trailer - to then become brighter. This change reflects Sahlin now being in a different place in his life, he says. Another big difference for Unravel 2 is, of course, the fact we're playing in co-op. "I noticed lots of people saying they played it together," Sahlin says. "So we knew we had to put co-op in." Co-op acts as a puzzle mechanic - controlling two Yarny characters to help each swing and launch the other flying skywards to higher platforms - and as a safety net. If one Yarny character falls, the other can simply climb back up the connecting string between them.
"They are actually called Red and Blue," Sahlin mentions. Yarny is a name which arose during the first game's development and stuck, but it came from the fact people were comparing the unfinished Unravel 1 to a 'yarn-filled Journey'. Hence: Yarny.
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