Have you imagined a game where the environment can only be shown via some maguffin?  Well, technically there’s been a few of those: Devil’s Tuning Fork and Sonar come to mind right off hand.  Adding to that short list is the Unfinished Swan by Giant Sparrow, which puts you in the role of a young boy who has stumbled into a strange world and is following a swan.

According to Eurogamer, this boy is an orphan named Monroe whose mom has died recently.  Monroe’s mom was an artist and created over 300 canvases and he was allowed to only keep one of his mom’s works, which he chose to pick the Unfinished Swan: don’t you just love when plot points explain the title.  One day, that swan escapes from that painting, leaving behind orange footprints that Monroe decides to follow, leading into a strange world.

The core mechanic, at least that is being displayed so far, is that an area will only be white or, at least, have large portions that are only that and you have to throw black ink at the environment to help navigate it and show where everything is. This means you can just throw it on areas that lead you to the next zone or, do like I will thanks to OCD habits, completely paint everything.  If a player takes too long with these sections though, some orange swan footprints will appear to guide them on their way.  As a note, in a concept video released in ’08, there were portions only in black as well and you had white ink during those portions.

Besides these visual elements, there are also some audio ques and elements that will allow the player to make it through these areas without even having to look at the screen.  I’m interested in seeing how that audio element will play out and if one can actually make it through a level just based on the audio.

There’s still a lot of stuff in the shadows, such as about the king of this world who you will be going against, but I’m sure more will be revealed as we near it’s release later this year on the PSN.