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A Space for the Unbound

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A Space for the Unbound
Developer(s)Mojiken Studio
Publisher(s)
  • Toge Productions
  • Chorus Worldwide
Director(s)Dimas Novan Delfiano
Producer(s)Eka Pramudita M.
Designer(s)
  • Eka Pramudita M.
  • Elwin Lysander
Programmer(s)Ahmad Fadlillah
Artist(s)
  • Dimas Novan Delfiano
  • Roland Melvin Z.
  • Wildan Rahmat R.
Writer(s)
  • Brigitta Rena
  • Galuh Elsa A. N.
Composer(s)
  • Masdito "Ittou" Bachtiar
  • Christabel Annora
  • Bambang Iswanto
EngineUnity[1]
Platform(s)
ReleaseJanuary 19, 2023
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

A Space for the Unbound is an adventure video game developed by Mojiken Studio and published by Toge Productions. It was released on January 19, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is set in the late 1990s and follows Atma and his girlfriend Raya, who live in a suburban area in Indonesia, as they explore their newly attained magical abilities and deal with supernatural powers that threaten their existence.

The game designer's focus was capturing what it felt like to grow up in Indonesia in the 1990s and preserving his memories as an Indonesian through the game. The game received positive reception from critics, with reviews focusing on the game's solid sense of place and heartfelt story.

Gameplay

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Critics remarked positively on the game's distinctive pixel artstyle.[2]

The player controls Atma, an Indonesian high school student who is getting close to graduation along with his girlfriend Raya.[3] Through the powers of a red book that Atma finds, he gains the ability to "space dive" into people's minds and help fix their problems through puzzles that the player completes.[3][4] These changes can affect the person's point of view and help them deal with their trauma.[3][4] His girlfriend Raya, through the same book, gains "X-Men-esque powers", including levitation and changing the nature of reality.[3] They face the issues that come from their new powers and investigate the supernatural forces that threaten their existence.[3] Later on, Atma obtains a magic wand and gains the ability to "rift dive" to another time in a location.

Throughout the game, the player can interact with people, objects, and cats.[3][4] Most of the game is at a slower pace and involves exploring and talking with people through point-and-click gameplay.[3][4] The game features several minigames that help ground the game in its place and time, like practicing football and dodging falling objects with button inputs; fighting minigames that involve pressing a sequence of buttons in a time limit to attack and pressing the button when the moving bar hit the target. The game also features some cats, which the player can pet and name.[4]

Plot

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Atma and his girlfriend Raya, high school students in Surabaya, are nearing graduation but remain uncertain about their futures. Instead of focusing on their plans, they create a bucket list of activities, starting with watching a movie. Atma also dreams of writing a story with a young girl named Nirmala, who gives him a red book that allows him to "spacedive" and enter people's minds. Each dream ends with him drowning while trying to save Nirmala and waking up at his school desk.

During their cinema outing, Raya reveals her reality-altering powers, creating a world based on the film Cat Wonderland. However, the couple is warned of an impending apocalypse by the cats within the world, prompting them to escape back to reality. Atma notices the cinema staff behaving like cats and uses his spacediving ability to restore their sanity. Shortly after, Raya collapses, and a crack appears in the sky, signaling an anomaly.

Later, Raya collapses again while trying to halt the anomaly. With help from Admiral, their adopted cat who gains the ability to speak, Atma prepares a cake to restore Raya’s strength. Erik, a school bully, kills Admiral, takes the cake, and knocks out Atma. After Atma catches up to Erik and spacedives into his mind, he uncovers Erik's abusive upbringing. Nirmala appears, ejects Atma from Erik’s mind, and turns Erik into a werewolf-like monster. Raya restores Erik to normal but seemingly kills him before fainting again as the crack in the sky expands.

Atma reawakens to find Raya missing and the school preparing for a festival. He discovers that Raya has altered the minds of several townspeople in retaliation for past mistreatment. With help from his classmate Lulu, Atma restores them to normal. Raya, overwhelmed by the pressure of organizing the festival and trying to escape her trauma, has been rewriting reality. Nirmala transforms Lulu into a humanoid swan during a spacedive. Atma finds Raya on a bridge, where she seemingly kills Lulu and reveals her intent to control the town. When Atma attempts to spacedive into her mind, Raya destroys the book and summons a meteor to crash into the city.

Atma wakes up in the ruins of the city, with debris falling from the sky, while the festival continues undeterred. With Marin’s help, Atma reaches the school and protects her from Raya. In a spacedive dimension, Atma learns that Marin was once close with Raya but distanced herself after doubting Atma’s existence. Nirmala turns Marin into a humanoid snail, and Raya destroys her before passing out. Atma retrieves the spacediving book and enters Nirmala’s mind.

A flashback reveals that the events of the game occurred within Raya’s mind and that Nirmala and Raya are the same person - Raya Fitri Nirmala. As a child, Raya met Atma, who had run away from home seeking to start a career in writing, and the two became friends. One day, Atma, being unable to swim, drowned trying to save Nirmala. Raya, in a moment of resentment, separated "Nirmala," who represents her hope and positivity, from herself and believes herself to be at fault for Atma's death. Raya’s inner conflict, compounded by her abusive father, led to Nirmala turning people who wronged Raya into monsters.

In the final confrontation, Atma spacedives into Raya's mind and learns her father became abusive due to increasing debt and disapproving of her creative endeavors, and that the story he and Nirmala wrote was an allegory for her life. Atma and Raya's mother guide her through her traumatic memories and convince her to face her fears. Raya ultimately accepts her past and ascends from the dream world, leaving Atma behind as a memory.

In the real world, Raya, now visibly older, awakens in a hospital bed, having recovered from an unstated incident. Her mother, now separated from her abusive spouse, plans to move the family to a new city. She goes out for one last walk around the neighborhood, reflecting on her journey and healing.

If the player completes all the items on the bucket list, a post-credits scene shows Raya visiting the spot where Atma died, leaving a bouquet and the spacediving book.

Development

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Dimas Novan Delfiano, Mojiken Studio member and game director for A Space for the Unbound, started development on the title in 2015. A team of two to three people began work on the game while the studio also developed other games at the same time.[5] Dimas completed an initial prototype of the story in 2015, which served as a core for what would be developed.[5] Dimas found the first few years of development incredibly difficult, as he struggled to build a substantial game from the beginnings of the prototype.[5] In 2019, Dimas noted that he had found the "right formula for the game" and Mojiken released a demo that "was released to positive reception" in 2020.[5] Around the same year, everyone at the studio (numbering about 12–14 people) was able to shift focus to working on the game.[5]

Dimas wanted to create a game set in an Indonesian high school from a young age, and was inspired by the concept of an "anime pilgrimage," where people travel to compare real-life locations against their anime-depicted counterparts.[5][6] He wanted to highlight his personal experience of growing up in 1990s Indonesia, and wanted players to feel the same passage of time that he had experienced.[5][6] Dimas was inspired by multiple Japanese concepts during development, including "Mono no aware," or the "pathos of things," which Dimas described "as an appreciation for or awareness of impermanence and the passage of time."[5] He noted that "every generation has its own memories and [A Space for the Unbound] is our memories and we want to preserve that before we completely forget about it."[5] Dimas said that it was his goal to preserve his memories as an Indonesian growing up in the 1990s in the game.[5][6] The game was heavily inspired by the works of Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai.[3]

The game heavily features anxiety and depression in the story, and Dimas and the rest of the development team consulted professionals for their input to help with telling it appropriately.[6] The space diving mechanic was created to help explore these themes in more detail.[6]

Reception

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A Space for the Unbound received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregate website Metacritic.[7][8][9]

Rock Paper Shotgun's Rachel Watts said that the game "takes a supernatural teen drama [and] gives it real heart," and called its release "a wonderful start to 2023."[3] RPGFan's Audra Bowling felt that the game succeeded in blending both despair and anxiety with themes of hope and healing, and that it could help players see their lives from a new perspective.[2] Nintendo Life's Lowell Bell felt that the game's length was padded out by unnecessary challenges, but still recommend it in a positive review for its touching story.[4]

Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell called the game "magic" and said that "in many cases you will be deeply, maybe profoundly, moved."[10] TouchArcade's Shaun Musgrave praised the game's support for the Nintendo Switch's touchscreen during dialogue sequences, and said it was "one of the best narrative driven indie games I've played."[14] Nintendo World Report's Joe DeVader felt it was a "must play" for people who enjoyed narrative experiences in video games.[11]

Awards

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A Space for the Unbound appeared on lists of the best games of 2023 by Kotaku[15] and Inverse.[16]

Awards and nominations
Date Award Category Result Ref.
2023 The Game Awards 2023 Games For Impact Nominated [17]
2024 New York Game Awards Off Broadway Award for Best Indie Game Nominated [18]
24th Game Developers Choice Awards Social Impact Award Nominated [19]
Audience Award Nominated

References

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  1. ^ "Made with Unity Monthly: January 2023 roundup". Unity Technologies. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Bowling, Audra (January 24, 2023). "A Space for the Unbound Review". RPGFan. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Watts, Rachel (January 18, 2023). "A Space For The Unbound review: a supernatural teen romance with a wonderful sense of time and place". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bell, Lowell (January 18, 2023). "Review: A Space For The Unbound - A Beautifully Rendered, Breathtaking Adventure Game". Nintendo Life. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Valentine, Rebekah (January 28, 2023). "A Space for the Unbound Took Me on an Emotional, Nostalgic Anime Pilgrimage". IGN. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e Castle, Katharine (April 8, 2022). "Coming of age: How A Space For The Unbound is paying tribute to childhood, nostalgia and Indonesian culture". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "A Space For The Unbound". Metacritic. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "A Space For The Unbound". Metacritic. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  9. ^ a b "A Space For The Unbound". Metacritic. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Tapsell, Chris (February 1, 2023). "A Space for the Unbound review - a slice of life, and all its pain". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  11. ^ a b DeVader, Joe (January 20, 2023). "A Space for the Unbound (Switch) Review". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  12. ^ Fitzgerald, Simon (January 18, 2023). "Mini Review: A Space for the Unbound (PS5) - A Powerfully Engaging Story-Driven Adventure". Push Square. Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  13. ^ Packwood, Lewis (January 18, 2023). "A Space for the Unbound review – Indonesian school adventure has a fantastical twist". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Musgrave, Shaun (January 24, 2023). "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring 'Persona 3 Portable' & 'NeverAwake', Plus the Latest Releases and Sales". TouchArcade. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  15. ^ "The Best Games Of 2023 (So Far) [Updated]". Kotaku. June 6, 2023. Archived from the original on November 27, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  16. ^ Rowe, Willa; Bea, Robin (December 23, 2023). "The 10 Best Indie Games of 2023, Ranked". Inverse. Archived from the original on December 25, 2023.
  17. ^ Spangler, Todd (November 13, 2023). "The Game Awards 2023 Nominations: Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3 Lead the Pack With Eight Noms Each (Full List)". Variety. Archived from the original on November 13, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  18. ^ Kerr, Chris (January 4, 2024). "Alan Wake II and Baldur's Gate 3 lead 2024 New York Game Awards nominees". Game Developer. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024.
  19. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (January 16, 2024). "Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3 top GDC Award nominations". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on January 16, 2024.
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