The loss of motivation, inspiration, drive, or all of the above, can be rough. People do deal with it differently though, and needless to say, some manage better than others. However, in the case of Unfinished – An Artist’s Lament, both the artist and his creation are in trouble, as the former is unable to complete the latter. Because of this, Sketch might never know what could have been. Time to step into the shoes of a rather unusual protagonist and hopefully help this struggling artist.
From the get-go, Sketch is only able to walk around on his two feet. No jumping, running, or anything fancy. But as his journey progresses, new abilities will be acquired through… abandoned sketches. In a way, one could say that his artist’s other could-have-been ideas are actually useful now, however indirectly. Confusing? Perhaps a bit, yet both interesting and quite unlike most other puzzle platformers in recent memory, at the same time. When was the last time you got to play as a genuine sketch, after all?
Even if you are fortunate to earn a living making art, you find stress and repetition draining away your soul. If this feels like you, I hope “Unfinished” speaks to you.
With a total of five levels, some focusing entirely on story-telling while others shift to platforming instead, suffice to say, Unfinished – An Artist’s Lament is not the longest game ever. In fact, according to the developer, it “can be speed-run in under 30 minutes”, although that’s hardly a negative, all things considered. I mean, a condensed, straight-to-the-point experience is generally preferable over one that drags its feet, courtesy of pointless filler… ya know? Besides, a demo is available for those not entirely convinced, along with a fleshed-out postmortem of sorts.
Unfinished – An Artist’s Lament on Steam, IndieGameStand [Windows, OS X, Linux] $4.99.