Tunic (video game)

Tunic is played nominally in an isometric view, allowing the player to maneuver their character, an anthropomorphic fox, around the game's world, interacting with objects and fighting enemies; if necessary the player can switch to a more top-down view in combat. The game is structured similar to The Legend of Zelda, with progress limited to certain areas of the game world until the player has collected a new weapon or ability for the fox to use. The game's purpose and method of playing are somewhat oblique; what dialog is presented to the player is generally of an undecipherable language though selected characters or words will be legible in the player's language that may hint towards puzzle solutions, and some of the items that the player will find are pages that make up the game's manual.[1]

Tunic has been developed by one person, Andrew Shouldice. Shouldice had been a developer at Silverback Productions for about six years. In 2015, having participated in a few Ludum Dare events, he wondered what he could produce if he could spend full-time on the product rather than just on weekends. He considered the state of his own career at Silverback and decided to quit to pursue this development.[2]

Shouldice stated the game was inspired by "certain classic triangle-seeking games", obliquely referring to The Legend of Zelda series.[2] As he started working on the game, he gained interest from Finji, Adam Saltsman's publishing label. Finji offered to publish and help refine the game, taking some of the experience they had in preparing Moss for the PlayStation VR release.[1]

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017's PC Gaming Show, the game, previously developed as Secret Legend, was renamed Tunic, along with Shouldice's collaboration with Finji to help publish it.[3] The game was subsequently featured during Microsoft's presentation at E3 2018, where it was announced as a console launch exclusive to the Xbox One, alongside its planned release for Microsoft Windows.[1][4]

• Official website