Why What Remains of Edith Finch doesn't give players all the answers

“We are incapable of understanding the universe fully, and the best we can do is try to make peace with that, and have a relationship with the universe, but we can’t solve it.”

- What Remains of Edith Finch director Ian Dallas

While speaking with What Remains of Edith Finch director Ian Dallas today on the Gamasutra Twitch channel, we had a chance to ask him about making a game about a cursed family that doesn’t definitively say if there’s a magical curse or monster or not. Though the game’s interactive vignettes take the player through some otherworldly scenarios, it’s ambiguous whether there’s an understandable, comprehensive force behind the Finch family tragedies.

While we didn’t want Dallas to necessarily “confirm” if there’s meant to be some kind of ancient evil in the game or not, we did ask him how he was able to handle that ambiguity in game development, and how he could still make a game with a specific point of view while letting players make a choice on their own. 

As Dallas explained it “It’s a little confusing because—maybe other games have trained them this way, or maybe it’s a personality type—when they’re confronted with a mystery, there’s a sense that 'by the the time the credits roll, I will have solved the mystery.' That’s not what this game is."

To Dallas, What Remains of Edith Finch is a game about coming to grips with the unknown, and asking “What does it feel like to come up against a universe that is stranger than I imagine?”

It was utterly fascinating to hear Dallas talk about the motivating factors behind his game, which range from The Twilight Zone to experimenting with how a PlayStation controller can mimic normal interactions. You can watch Dallas’ full interview describing his design philosophy above, and subscribe to the Gamasutra Twitch channel for more chances to talk to your fellow game developers about how they make their games.