A Fold Apart – PAX East 2020 Preview

Inspired by the real life struggle of making a long distance relationship work, A Fold Apart uses paper craft puzzles to signify the bridging of geographic gaps between loved ones. We had a chance to check out a pre-release demo of this touching game with the developers on the show floor of PAX East 2020.

A Fold Apart has you play as an architect who must live away from their partner as a result of their branching career paths. Both lovers agree to commit and carry on their relationship despite the vast physical gap between them. The game and its mechanics gracefully represent maintaining the connection between the pair with paper based folding puzzles.

The demo of A Fold Apart took us through the first of five chapters that the final game will have. Stages revolve around moving your character to your partner and they act as the end goal. Generally you are separated by chasms or gaps in platforms. In order to create a solid path between the two, the player will need to manipulate the environment. This is done by folding and flipping stages to bridge the gaps.

Environments are essentially flat pieces of double sided paper. You’ll be given the ability to crease over parts of levels to remove obstacles. Further to this, you can flip over and fold the level together to eliminate barriers to moving closer to your partner. You’re effectively using folds of the paper to combine elements from each side of the page.

The visual style lends itself perfectly to telling a touching story, but still keeping it light enough to feel enjoyable. Our protagonist and their partner are cartoonish and endearing with their oversized heads and cute bodies. The environments takes on more of the angular and creased style emblematic with paper craft.

Despite only experiencing A Fold Apart for a brief demo, it’s clear that this is a game with an emotionally moving story to tell. Given that the idea was borne out of the real life experience from the game’s creator, there is an explicit sense of passion behind this puzzle title. The unique incorporation of paper craft into the mechanics further help to elevate it as a promising and memorable indie title. We’re weirdly looking forward to getting choked up over A Fold Apart when it launches on Apple Arcade, Steam, and home consoles later this year.