Storyboarding in Unpacking

Australia, 2021

Courtesy Witch Beam Games

Videogame On display Videogames

Part block-placing puzzle, part house decoration game, Witch Beam Games’ Unpacking is an intimate coming-of-age tale that maps the life of an unseen protagonist by asking the player to unpack her house each time she moves. Through eight households that span decades, Unpacking tells her life story without words, but through the domestic spaces the protagonist occupies.

This display explores how the menu flow is integral to Witch Beam Games’ earliest vision of Unpacking. Each save file is envisioned as a photo album, with each completed room recorded as a photo inside. This approach offers a nostalgic, familiar framing to the homes depicted in the game, seamlessly stitching together the disparate time periods that the game covers.

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

Previously on display

15 June 2025

ACMI: Gallery 1

Credits

Production places
Australia
Production dates
2021

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

Curatorial section

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Worlds → MW-01. Storyboarding → MW-01-C02

Collected

153412 times

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/120467--storyboarding-in-unpacking/ |title=Storyboarding in Unpacking |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=14 July 2026 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}