Facts for Kids

The game starts in a quiet house where an older woman looks at a baby photo and picks up a ball of yarn. From that moment Yarny appears and can step into framed pictures on the wall. Each picture is a memory, so you visit places that mattered in the woman's life.

Early memories feel warm, like beaches and mountains, while later ones show changes such as factories and pollution that affect a rural forest. Along the way Yarny collects red badge pieces to fill a photo album. The story gently shows loss—people important to the woman are no longer there—but it ends with Yarny helping finish the album and keeping those memories alive.

In May 2016, the publisher EA extended its agreement with the game maker Coldwood Interactive so EA would publish Coldwood's next project. This made it likely that Coldwood would continue working in the same creative world.

A sequel set in the Unravel universe was later confirmed and named Unravel Two. It was officially announced and released on June 9, 2018, during EA's EA Play presentation. The new game continued the cozy, yarn-filled storytelling that fans liked. What new adventure could yarn take you on next?

In the game you move Yarny through landscapes where toys, plants, and furniture feel huge—like being small in a backyard. Yarny can use his yarn to make ropes, tie knots, pull things, and swing across chasms. Many moves depend on simple physics: if Yarny ties a line and jumps, he can swing like a little pendulum.

As Yarny walks, the thread that makes him slowly unwinds. This makes him shorter and limits what he can do, so you must find balls of red yarn in the scene to refill him. The yarn mechanic is part puzzle and part story, because the creator said the yarn also stands for love that stretches when you move away from what you care about.

Soundtrack for Unravel is written by Frida Johansson and Henrik Oja. They make music that feels warm and simple, like a small folk band playing in a cozy room. The songs use traditional instruments you might hear in folk music — soft strings, gentle accordion-like sounds, and light plucked notes — so the music matches the gentle, homespun world you see in the game.

The soundtrack was released on June 24, 2016, so players could listen to it outside the game. Because the music is quiet and full of feeling, it helps you understand the story without words. Which instrument would you choose to tell a quiet story?

Unravel is a gentle puzzle-platform video game made by a small Swedish studio called Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game was first shown to the public on 15 June 2015 and came out around the world on 9 February 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows computers, and Xbox One. The main little hero you control is Yarny, a tiny creature made from a single thread of yarn.

Yarny moves through real-world places that look giant, and the yarn that makes him can be used to solve problems and cross gaps. People liked the game’s pretty scenes, music, and sweet feel, though some reviewers wanted smoother controls and more puzzle variety. A follow-up game, Unravel Two, arrived in 2018.

Many reviewers liked Unravel for its beautiful look and calm feeling. People praised the visuals, the little hero made of yarn, the soundtrack, and the warm tone of the game. At the game show E3 in 2015, some viewers even called it the most visually impressive game that the publisher EA showed that year.

Not everyone agreed on everything, though. Some players and reviewers said the controls felt tricky at times, and they wanted more kinds of puzzles. Others found the platforming — the jumping and moving through levels — a bit hard in places. Still, most reaction was positive because the game felt thoughtful and different.

A small team at Coldwood made the idea for Unravel after their creative director, Martin Sahlin, made a tiny yarn doll while camping near his home in northern Sweden. The landscapes and puzzles borrow from the woods and shores around Umeå, the town where the team lives. EA’s DICE studio helped publish the game, and Sahlin introduced Unravel at EA’s E3 show in 2015, where many people liked its warm look.

The game was built with a game tool called PhyreEngine. EA tried to register the name 'Unravel' in the United States, but that attempt was turned down in early 2016. Unravel released worldwide on 9 February 2016.