The August Before Preview: Like Unpacking, but Packing Instead

Recently, I replayed Unpacking and really got into it. In fact, I finished the whole game in one day in a few hours. There’s just something so meditative about unpacking things and placing them. But what about doing the opposite, when it’s time to pack? This can bring a range of emotions; excitement, nervousness, sadness, happiness… This is exactly what you do in the game The August Before. I came across this game when browsing through demos to play and it caught my eye, perhaps because it reminded me of Unpacking. I decided to give it a try, and found it quite intriguing.

The demo of The August Before is available for free on Steam and itch.io. As of yet, there is no release date, although on Steam, it is at the moment noted to possibly be coming sometime in 2025.

Story – A Room Full of Memories

The premise of The August Before is actually straightforward. You’re playing as a young woman who is bound for college, and she is in the process of packing up her bedroom ready for the big move. She’s got her suitcase out, but her room is a mess and her stuff is everywhere. The goal is not only to pack the things she’ll be taking to college, but also to tidy up her messy room. As you pack and clean, you’ll learn more about the young woman you are playing as. 

It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone as you pack and clean their room (and I don’t mean about their general tidiness!) I discovered that the protagonist loves fashion, having a dressmaker’s dummy in her room, as well as a sewing machine. She also has spools you need to tidy away, as well as fashion magazines. You also learn about her girlfriend through post-it notes, half-written letters, and photos scattered around the room.

I loved what I was given story-wise in this demo, which lasted me about 40 minutes. I’m interested to see what the full release brings. Will we get more information about the protagonist and their love interest? Will there be more rooms to clean, like Unpacking with its different levels and locations? We’ll have to wait and see.

Gameplay – Packing and Cleaning Up a Life

The purpose of The August Before is to pack up as well as clean up a young woman’s room before she heads to college. I knew it would be slightly different from Unpacking for numerous reasons. For one thing, this is a first-person 3D game, not an 2.5D pixel-art game. You also pack a room instead of unpacking it. There’s actually quite a bit involved with The August Before‘s demo that makes it distinguishable from Unpacking, and makes it an intriguing – not to mention relaxing – game in its own right.

Pick Up and Sort

When you first start, you’re faced with a bedroom that is full of mess, stuff everywhere. Your job is to sort, tidy and pack everything you can pick up. To help you out, you’re given a checklist of things you need to pack in the suitcase, which you have handy on you throughout the entire playthrough. It also reminds you to clean as you go, with a progress bar at the top of the list. 

The all-important checklist, essential when deciding what to pack.

In order to sort through stuff, you have to walk up to it, aim the reticle, and select it to pick it up. You then carry it to the place you want. To help you out, the game will highlight where the item goes. For example, the bin will have a glow around it whenever you pick up a screwed-up paper. There is another element to handling items. You can zoom them in and out with the mouse wheel. This ends up being important if you want to properly throw something away or set it down, otherwise it just drops to the floor. This did make the tidying-and-sorting process slightly trickier, but I actually liked this. I found it better than just selecting something to pick it up then selecting, say, the bin to throw a paper away. It made it feel more realistic.

The packing-up was the easiest part of The August Before. There’s not much to pack away. You just need to find the items around the room and put them in the suitcase. As you put something in there, extra items are added, such as a vinyl record. I liked this extra touch.

Pack or Throw Away?

You don’t just pack though. As you search the room for the right items, it’s pretty hard to ignore the clutter and mess. There are books everywhere, screwed up balls of paper, old post-it notes, clothes hangers, little candles… It goes on. You’ll be kept very busy as you sort through everything. Some things you put in the suitcase, but others, you have to choose whether to take it to college or leave it behind for storage. With most things though, they’ll either get tidied away or thrown in the bin. This was probably the part I liked most, the element of the game that I found quite meditative.

This bed alone is a mess and needs a lot of sorting out.

Old post-it notes and scrap paper goes in the bin. Books have to be returned to the shelf. Candles go in the basket on the floor by the window. Hangers have to be hung up on the rail in the wardrobe. Magazines and old drawings are stored away in a folder. Whilst you’re doing all this, you can play tapes on an old tape player in the room. A nice touch was finding different cassettes around the room and having to manually carry them over the player, insert them, and press play. All tunes are ideal for creating a relaxing environment while you tidy and pack.

There are a few extra things to note, namely some puzzle elements. For example, I located a box that required a security code to unlock it. I won’t spoil for you how you get the numbers, but let’s say you have to make sure you haven’t missed anything in the room. 

When I finished the demo, I never actually fully finished cleaning the room – at least according to the game. I’d checked everything off the list; it even said the room was cleaned despite one or two things left to do. I never got to 100%, although I made sure everything was done. I’m not sure what would have happened if I had reached 100%, if something was meant to happen. I decided it didn’t matter too much, although I did wonder if I missed something. Or was it a bug?

Removing the posters from the wall reveals a lot of writing.

Graphics & Audio – Soft Tunes in a Softly-Rendered Environment

I was impressed by how visually attractive The August Before was while playing. I love the bedroom I was tidying. Everything you pick up is worth examining for the detail in it. Nothing looked off or poorly created. I did notice the graphics flickering on the cassettes that I dropped on the desk, which slightly took the edge off the immersion of the game, but it’s not a big deal.

The music that you could play during the game was pleasant to listen to, just what you’d expect from a meditative narrative game. You don’t have to play music if you’re not worried, but I liked putting the cassettes in and having background music while playing.