A Story About My Uncle

A Story About My Uncle is a 2014 indie adventure game by Gone North Games, published by Coffee Stain Studios. It was initially developed by students of Södertörn University in 2012, with a full release in May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, and three years later for macOS and Linux. The game was re-developed professionally after the collaboration with Coffee Stain Studios.

A Story About My Uncle
Developer(s)Gone North Games
Publisher(s)Coffee Stain Studios
Designer(s)Sebastian Zethraeus
Programmer(s)Sebastian Eriksson
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
macOS
Linux
Release28 May 2014
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

A Story About My Uncle is played from a first-person perspective, and the player travels by using floating rocks. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the game received mixed reviews. It was nominated for the Game of the Year award at the 2012 Swedish Game Awards.

Gameplay and plot

A Story About My Uncle is an adventure indie video game.[1] Played from a first-person perspective, the game is a platformer set in a world of drifting rocks.[1] In the game the player needs to search for Uncle Fred.[2]

The game focuses on the narrator's uncle Fred, as the narrator tells a bedtime story to a small child.[1] The uncle Fred is described as "a brilliant scientist – a whimsical and even-tempered version of Uncle Quentin from the Famous Five books".[1] A board in the narrator's abandoned house tells the player that Fred built a waste disposal system, conceivably controlled by starlight. After this backstory, the game begins with the narrator as a child entering the "waste disposal dimension" to search for his uncle.[1] The player follows the uncle character through the game environment, with the player character having a suit that is equipped with a "magical grappling hook and shock absorbers" that stop the player character from taking damage when landing.[1] Later on in the game, the player will find and be able to use jet-propelling boots, which enable them to travel farther in one jump.[1]

Development

The initial ideas for developing the game were "basically playing with gravity in the world – you would turn it upside down" according to Sebastian Eriksson, co-founder of Gone North Games and one of the company's programmers.[3] Eriksson "had been playing around with a mechanic to propel yourself within this gravity-bending game"; this ended up being the main game mechanic, and the game was built around it.[3] The students who developed A Story About My Uncle had "to teach themselves how to use game development software" Unreal Engine because they did not have much experience in the video game field.[3]

The game was developed over three months in 2012, in the Unreal Engine Unreal Development Kit, by a small group of students at Södertörn University.[3][4][5] Being developed for a competition, university students were tasked to build a "non-violent first-person game in the Unreal Engine".[3] The Södertörn students went on to form their own video game studio called Gone North Games.[3] According to Sebastian Zethraeus, they learned how to use the engine in ten weeks and built a prototype in that time; he said that they "were proud of it at the time, but our eyes bleed now when we look at it".[3]

A Story About My Uncle was first released on 30 July 2012 as a free demo;[3][6] the demo was nominated for Game of the Year at Swedish Game Awards.[7] Developers Gone North Games then partnered with Coffee Stain Studios to publish the game on 28 May 2014, on Steam,[8][9] professionally redeveloping it in collaboration with Coffee Stain Studios.[10] The game was released on 28 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows,[11] and on 12 May 2017 for macOS and Linux.[12]

Gone North Games' student developers, together with Coffee Stain Studios, polished the game by "remaking everything from the meshes to the voice acting to the code itself".[3][10] Sebastian Eriksson said that being nominated for Game of the Year, and getting feedback from early players, led the group to finish the game.[3]

Reception

Critical response

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the game a score of 73 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8] As of December 2019 the game scored a "Very Positive" review by over 10,150 reviews on Steam.[13]

Stephen Dunne of GodisaGeek wrote that "Some [players] may find A Story About My Uncle too easy, some people may find it infuriating", but that "most, however, will be engrossed in its ever-glowing and charismatic fantasy world".[14] Ben Griffin of PC Gamer wrote that the game "is fast, fluid and fun".[15] Cassidee Moser of CGMagazine praised the game for being "well-crafted and paced", adding that the "environments are varied and beautifully done" and the "story itself is a light-hearted, innocent magical romp".[16]

Kyle Hilliard of Game Informer also found the game to be light-hearted, but did suggest that this is "at odds with the difficulty late in-game", and so confusing who the game is aimed at.[17]

Accolades

In 2012, A Story About My Uncle received a nomination for Game of the Year at the Swedish Game Awards.[7]

References
  1. Warr, Philippa (30 June 2014). "Wot I Think: A Story About My Uncle". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  2. Walker, Emsey P. (4 June 2014). "A Story About My Uncle Review". GameGrin. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  3. Wawro, Alex. "Shipping your first game while you're still in school: A Story About My Uncle". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  4. Meer, Alec (23 July 2012). "State of Xen: A Story About My Uncle". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  5. "A Story About My Uncle Release Date Announced -". mxdwn Games. 13 May 2014. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  6. "A Story About My Uncle". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  7. "A Story About My Uncle getting Steam release via Sanctum developer". VG247. 23 January 2014. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  8. "A Story About My Uncle". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  9. "First-person platformer A Story About My Uncle hits Steam this month". Engadget. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  10. "A Story About My Uncle gets first teaser trailer, coming in northern summer". VG247. 18 February 2014. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  11. "A Story About My Uncle | WSGF". www.wsgf.org. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  12. @Coffee_Stain (12 May 2017). "A Story About My Uncle is now available on Mac and Linux!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. "A Story About My Uncle on Steam". Steam. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  14. Dunne, Stephen (28 May 2014). "A Story About My Uncle Review". GodisaGeek.com. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  15. Griffin, Ben (4 June 2014). "A Story About My Uncle review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  16. "A Story About My Uncle Review". CGMagazine. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  17. Hilliard, Kyle. "A Story About My Uncle Review – High-Flying Pleasant Platforming". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
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