Last updated on January 16th, 2026 at 06:26 am
The Unfinished Swan – Puzzle Game Review
The Unfinished Swan is a Puzzle/Adventure game from Annapurna Games, LLC, first launched in 9th September 2020.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 63+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes The Unfinished Swan Stand Out
From the creators of What Remains of Edith Finch.
Explore a mysterious all-white landscape by splatting paint to reveal the world around you. As Monroe, a 10-year-old orphan, you'll follow a swan that's stepped out of an unfinished painting and wandered off into a surreal, storybook-inspired kingdom. Each chapter brings surprises, new ways to explore the world, a host of bizarre (and sometimes dangerous) creatures, and encounters with the eccentric king who built this empire.
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, The Unfinished Swan is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 14th October 2020
Recent improvements include:
Thank you for playing The Unfinished Swan!
This version includes key performance improvements and bug fixes.
Download & Availability
The Unfinished Swan is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get The Unfinished Swan on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
The game is unique and surprisingly enjoyable although uncomplicated. Havent had so much fun in a long time. We didnt want it to end! It is a work of art that Al will delight in. Many thanks to the ingenious developers.
Paint the world as you go along. There are so many things to interact with. It took a year, but we found all the balloons and unlocked the demo version. If you like this then try donut county. Annapurna makes wonderful games.
Gotta give credit to the developers of Edith Finch for not milking their success with a million sequels and instead making another completely unique and original narrative game. So many beautiful spaces to explore here! Ignore the negative reviews that say the game doesnt save. It saves whenever you see a new chapter sign.
This game is supported by controller already, it just needs to be recognized by backbone as being supported.
This is a really interesting game with great storytelling throughout. We did consult a walkthrough a few times, and we sometimes found it hard to maneuver, but over all it was very interesting and we are glad we finished it. Would get more games from this developer.
We saw somebody play it on YouTube and we loved the gameplay and we really wanted to be able to play it for ourselves but we could not get it because we didnt have enough money and the right gaming console so thank you so much for making it come to the apple store we also loved what remains of Edith Finch it was really good same with donut county and journey we also saw it played by the same person on YouTube who also played this game his channel is stampylongnose.
First we want to make it clear that this game DOES in fact have a save system. Its checkpoint based so Im assuming those who claimed the game lacked one didnt get to the first checkpoint. (Which took us like 15 minutes.) The gameplay is original. We love the idea of having to paint the level to see where you are going. And it never seems to repeat itself. Every chapter gives you different tools and a different environment for you to use them on. The storytelling reminds us of the books our mom and dad used to read to us when we were very young. Oh how absorbed we would get into the simple stories they would tell. Its a gentle reminder of what its like to be a little kid. And we all need that kind of nostalgia every now and then. This is very much a game that benefits from immersion. We recommend grabbing some headphones and finding a hour or two just to binge through multiple chapters. As you play you will find and collect balloons that you can spend to get a bunch of neat stuff like concept art and a water/ink hose. All of the balloons are hidden with various degrees of difficulty. You dont need to get any of the balloons to beat the game, but its fun to find them as you play. Thats about everything that comes to mind. Its a classic in our book. We just wish we played it when we were younger. We bet we wouldve liked it. 5/5.
After reading the other reviews, we wanted to mention that the game automatically saves now. The bridge people complained about did seem a little glitchy, but we were able to fiddle with it a little, clinging to the side, then moving across from the left side to the right side. It only took 5, maybe 10 minutes max, to get it to work. Everything else in the game worked well. We cant underscore enough how imaginative the game is. Each chapter adds something completely new.
Im confused -what am we supposed to be doing? Am we supposed to splat the swan? Is there a door? How do we get to the next level.
We were very happy with this game, currently on chapter 5 and all of a sudden all of our progress was lost. Is there anything we could to to recover it.
Its a very charming and fun game, but we had the game downloaded and made sure it was saved/went back to menu but a few hours later of not playing all of our progress was gone. Also little bugs showing up. We have a very recent ios and this game is a few years old so was a bit confused and certainly frustrated by that.
We have tried to play this app several times for several hours and every time we stop playing it and then go back to play it it starts over every time. We really want to like it but the frustration is to much.
Great design but cant save the game. We feel like we wasted money and time.
This is a beautiful game, and we loved playing it on the PlayStation. Sadly, there is no save function on iOS. Even if you dont close out the app or restart your device, when you pull the game back up you will be back at the very beginning of the game and sitting through the opening dialogue once again.
The game was fine until the second bridge in the lighthouse section where the vines don't support you. We tried the game in our phone and our iPad. There's no way to move forward and no help. A big disappointment.
The game crashes and we want our refund, and nothing is happening.
Great concept. Beautiful visuals. Fun gameplay. The only issue is that you cant save the game. Who has time to play a game all the way through in one sitting!? Please fix and Ill update our review.
The best mobile release we have played this year. Creative, lighthearted, fit for all audiences. Takes a while to finish the story and has postgame replay value.
Annapurna never misses with any of the games it publishes, and The Unfinished Swan is no exception. This game from Giant Sparrow is one of the best examples in recent memory that invokes the players imagination. The story is well told with fun twists and turns leading up to a heartwarming conclusion that will leave you feeling good for a long time after finishing. Dont miss this.
Like all of Annapurnas games, this one is pure genius. Never seen anything else like it on the App Store. We would give it five stars and more if the developers would just please please please please add a save feature. We have found two game breaking bugs that caused the game to quit and we had to start all over again. Very frustrating.
This game is a masterpiece, this port is near perfect, it's 4 star because in chapter 8 (Seawall), the second bridge you climb under and drop down to another bridge, but it's IMPOSSIBLE to not fall from the vines in to the water. We spent over an hour trying to get across, we've beaten the game on PS, we watched a walk through in case we were going crazy, but it has to be a game error preventing us from crossing.
Seems theres a controller bug in the game thats keeping us from crossing 2nd bridge in The Sea level. No matter how much flora is covering the span we fall off 1/3 of the way. Screen flickers befor it happens. Would really like to finish the game. Its superb in every other respect.
We absolutely LOVED the first few sections of this game. We could not put it down- the gameplay is so unique, the art so beautiful. Then we hit the scaffolding section, which requires superhuman precision in order to jump correctly. Either we can find a teenager to play this section of the game for us, or we can quit. So disappointed that what started as a truly original world-exploring puzzle game devolved into a dime-a-dozen precision jumping game. So we probably wont finish the game, not because we dont want to, but because its boring to fall off a tiny plank of wood 200 times. Too bad.
We Want To Pick Up Where we Left Off. If we have to put the game down, and we put it off in the [background, not closing it]… We have to start over. We dont have that kind of time for a game. We have a life to live too. We know the story line. We only needed to hear it once. We want to pick up where we left off.
Beautiful but every time we open it it starts over :/.
So frustrating. Each time we play the game it starts over from the beginning. Pretty upsetting considering we paid for the game…. Other than that an interesting game format.
A remarkable game that Id love to play through. But, each time we play it, our game is not saved and we have to start over again each time. Please fix.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.1
- Size: 1,043.16 MB
- iOS: 13.4 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: [Annapurna Games, LLC]()
Last updated: 14th October 2020 | Genre: Puzzle, Adventure | Developer: Annapurna Games, LLC