Prepare to Lose Yourself in A Place for the Unwilling

As trivial as it may sound, games have a long way to go when it comes to truly achieving narrative freedom. But for all the unexplored nooks and crannies of “meaningful” gameplay there are those few shining (mostly indie) attempts at taking it all one step further. A Place for the Unwilling looks to be such an attempt, this being the main reason it got me so intrigued. Well, the gorgeous art style also played a big role.

A Place for the Unwilling offers a very intriguing concept from the get-go. Promising a sandbox adventure as its basic building stone, the game looks to mix the timed exclusivity of Majora’s Mask with the narrative prowess of Sunless Sea – quite the bold undertaking, but one that is also equally promising. By the looks of it, you’ll play as a trader who is simply one of several normal, everyday people inhabiting the poorer bit of a town dressed in soot and steam. A town that is also constantly changing its scenery, with buildings growing and shrinking and shifting the urban landscape.

For as crazy as this all sounds, the simple goal of the game is to get by each day while discovering the stories (and perhaps mysteries) of the place you live in and the people you walk past. In the same time, with each day being fixed to a certain length and the developers promising no maps or objectives to guide players through their everyday life, A Place for the Unwilling starts to sound quite intimidating.

Crucially, the story of the game will be delivered by an actual writer (Ángel Luis Sucasas), as he is joined by an additional trio also hailing from Spain. I must note that the developers mention already having support coming from a Spanish publishing company called GamesBoosters, however it seems that the €20,000 required for funding the Kickstarter project are simply meant as an additional boost to enable the full-time development of the game.

That being said, such a sum is pretty reasonable, and with €30,000 promoting a stretch goal for bringing the game to PS4 and Xbox One I wouldn’t be surprised to see A Place for the Unwilling covered above its minimum requirements. Hell, I’d love for that to happen.

Track the progress of the A Place for the Unwilling Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.