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Tunic started with a difficult choice for lead developer Andrew Shouldice: stay at his stable job or take the plunge and quit to work full-time on his budding game idea. In 2015, Shouldice closed his eyes and jumped. However, when asked why he made that decision, he initially hesitates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy indeed?\u201d Shouldice answers after a beat with a chuckle and a dramatic tone that suggests Tunic\u2019s development cycle was a long one. There is no single incident he can point to that spurred him into making his choice. Instead, several factors, including how much he enjoyed making past one-off projects and his dwindling excitement for his job, influenced his decision to strike out on his own. His departure wasn\u2019t without uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking to myself; this might be a bad decision,\u201d Shouldice says. \u201cBut I would rather make the bad decision now than always wonder what could have been, you know? Which is very cheesy, I understand. But that was sort of the thing that ended up pushing me over the edge. I really want to do this. Maybe it\u2019s a bad idea, but I have to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seven years after its inception and four since its grand debut on the E3 stage, Tunic has finally launched. The vibrant isometric action game puts you in the boots of a sword-wielding fox fighting through a world of winding paths, mysterious structures, merciless enemies, and hidden secrets. Its art style, combat, and setting earned Tunic an ever-growing crowd of fans over the years. But while it\u2019s currently one of the highest-rated releases of the year, Tunic started as a small solo project.<\/p>\n
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Free of his employment safety net, Shouldice sat down \u2013 coffee in hand \u2013 to work on a project that wasn\u2019t even a fully formed concept. His only direction at this early point was to make a game \u201cwith lots of secrets\u201d and a protagonist \u201cgoing on an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n
That moment was when the game\u2019s now-familiar vulpine hero started to take shape. Despite the sword-wielding fox being one of Tunic\u2019s most endearing elements, it exemplifies the project\u2019s early uncertainty. The creator admits the idea for the creature stemmed, in part, from his limitations in modeling humans. And this wasn\u2019t an outlier. Shouldice recalls he struggled a lot with inexperience in the early development process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first large-scale, commercial 3D game that I\u2019ve made,\u201d says Shouldice. \u201cAnd for a long time, I was the only person putting code into it. And I was a programmer by trade, but there are a lot of things to learn about video games. And the programming part wasn\u2019t necessarily the trickiest sphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Realizing he would need some support, Shouldice began to look for additional creators to help him craft his game.<\/p>\n
Shouldice first sent an email to Terence Lee, who, along with his wife Janice Kwan, would later work on Tunic\u2019s soundtrack. Though excited by the idea of the project, Lee was unsure if he\u2019d be available to compose for the adventurous title due to other obligations. Later that year at 2015\u2019s Game Developers Conference, Tunic\u2019s lead developer managed to connect with Lee and Power Up Audio\u2019s Kevin Regamey, who would go on to lead the design of Tunic\u2019s sounds.<\/p>\n
Regamey recognized Tunic\u2019s potential after playing a very early version of the game. \u201cI played this build for, like, 10 hours,\u201d says Regamey. \u201cIt was crazy. [Power Up Audio] all played it as a team, and we\u2019re like, \u2018Who the hell is this guy?\u2019\u201d The moment was even more remarkable for Regamey when he remembers Shouldice saying, \u201c\u2018This probably won\u2019t make it in the final game.\u2019 And it\u2019s true [that] nothing in that build\u2019s in the final game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily, not everything from the game\u2019s humble beginnings was scrapped, including the concept for its surprisingly tranquil music. \u201cI always liked that contrast in the game of it being really visually and aesthetically gentle and pleasing but also being difficult gameplay-wise,\u201d says Lee. \u201cSo, when I made music for it, I intentionally tried to make it a bit more chill and relaxing. And I think a lot of people connected with that.\u201d Both composer and audio designer emphasize how vital the soundscape is for Tunic, with Regamey saying, \u201cThe audio is almost like a character in that world\u2026 there are a lot of moments throughout the game where it is necessary and important for the audio to take the spotlight. The music and the sound are kind of one-to-one with all these other things, like the game design and the level design and the art.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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With new teammates onboard helping to create a concrete and executable game, the early notions of secrets and adventure started getting fleshed out. One concept that enthused Shouldice was \u201cvisually pleasing and beautiful\u201d isn\u2019t inherently \u201con the opposite end of the spectrum of difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are places for games, like some early Zelda games,\u201d says Shouldice, referencing a prominent inspiration for Tunic, \u201c[that] are beautiful and colorful, but still have that amount of difficulty and challenge that encourages you to be brave and to go to places that maybe you\u2019re not ready for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here, Shouldice\u2019s idea of a game with adventure becomes apparent. He sought not only to create an experience where the character goes out into the world to fight foes and open treasure chests, but one that encourages the players themselves to be adventurous.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most exciting moments for me when playing a game,\u201d says Shouldice, \u201cis seeing something scary and having that thrill of \u2018I need to run away, or I need to deal with this.\u2019\u201d This idea is not just limited to combat. Tunic\u2019s developer suggests that stumbling on seemingly impossible challenges or treading on ground that feels off-limits while exploring is a vital part of the games he admires. In Tunic, Shouldice says he wants players to experience the rush of thinking, \u201cMaybe you\u2019re in a place where you\u2019re not supposed to be right now, you know? Maybe you\u2019re really exploring in uncharted waters now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nostalgia was also instrumental in shaping Tunic. It\u2019s clear the game takes many visual and design cues from NES, SNES, and Game Boy-era Zelda entries, but there\u2019s more to it than that. The team talks about trying to recreate the feeling of finding unexpected lore in a game\u2019s instruction booklet or putting your head together with friends to figure out the answer to a challenging puzzle \u2013 something that has become less common when players can simply look up a guide online. One of the easiest places to see Tunic\u2019s retro design aspirations is in the in-game illustrated guides scattered throughout the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pages that you pick up are more than just a collectible. It\u2019s not just you know, \u2018I got all the manual pages. Hurray for me,\u2019\u201d explains Shouldice. \u201cBut maybe you\u2019ve had this experience of flipping through a manual for some game and having that be an extension of the game experience itself. So, it\u2019s not just, \u2018Yeah, I know how to wall kick.\u2019 The game tells you all about that. Sometimes there are secrets; there are things that you can only find out from reading the manual in those old games, and Tunic is definitely that way. There are plenty of things that you will have to pore through these pages to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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With the core game coming together, producer Felix Kramer joined the crew and, in 2017, publisher Finji \u2013 which previously worked on Chicory: A Colorful Tale and Night in the Woods \u2013 started working on ways to spotlight the project. A year later, Tunic took center stage at Xbox\u2019s E3 showcase.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the trailer appear there was a treasured memory for me,\u201d says Shouldice. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a warm, fuzzy memory because I lost a lot of heartbeats that day. But that will definitely stick with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the team had been working on Tunic for three years, 2018 was the first time many people became aware of the game and began watching its development. That group of new fans included various game makers, who connected with the project and, consequently, began incorporating some of its ideas into their work. \u201cEvery now and again, people will say that they\u2019re drawing inspiration from [Tunic],\u201d says Shouldice. \u201cAnd given that this game so deeply draws its inspiration from other things, it\u2019s pretty special to hear that other people can see it and, you know, feel that same feeling and want to make stuff themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those people was Eric Billingsley, who began working on Tunic as a level designer in 2020. \u201cPrevious to that, I was working on my own solo thing, Spring Falls, and Tunic was one of the visual references I was using. So, it was exciting to come on to [Tunic],\u201d says Billingsley. \u201cAt that point, the game was pretty much solidified in most of the areas, but a lot of the areas still didn\u2019t look final yet. So, my job was to go in and bring those areas \u2013 make them look nice, like the stuff that had already been seen in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Having admired the game from the sidelines, Tunic\u2019s newest member may have been excited to get started, but he was also realistic. The level designer was stepping into the middle of an ongoing and years-long development process. Thinking back over that time now, Billingsley recalls not only his continuing enthusiasm but also the obstacles he faced in his new role.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest challenges I found is, because the game is so stylized, sometimes it\u2019s hard to tell when things look finished or not,\u201d says Billingsley. \u201cIf you go too detailed, it doesn\u2019t look like Tunic anymore, and if it\u2019s not detailed enough, it doesn\u2019t look like a finished thing. And keeping track of how everything is connected is even sometimes a challenge when it comes to level design.\u201d<\/p>\n
But many problematic aspects of Tunic\u2019s design also feed the game\u2019s strengths. Tunic\u2019s isometric perspective, for example, initially felt limiting to several team members. Billingsley acknowledges the view could be restrictive, but \u201cthe hidden benefit of that is now it\u2019s very easy to hide little secret paths.\u201d Conveniently, this plays right into Shouldice\u2019s vision of a game stuffed with secrets that prompt engaged exploration.<\/p>\n
Power Up Audio\u2019s Kevin Regamey also weighed in on the isometric perspective, saying it could \u201cresult in you hearing things that you can\u2019t even see because [the sound\u2019s source is] beneath the pane of the camera view.\u201d But, mirroring level design, this constraint turned out to be a blessing in disguise. \u201cAs it stands now, there\u2019s basically no 3D audio in the game, in the traditional sense,\u201d says Regamey. \u201cEverything\u2019s playing back in 2D; it\u2019s just like playing sounds. And it feels a little more one-to-one with how things were done back in the day.\u201d Again, that unexpected result reinforces Tunic\u2019s direction, this time emphasizing its old-school sensibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The fully assembled team worked furiously on Tunic over the past few years to prepare it for its 2022 launch. During that time, Tunic\u2019s lead developer was aware that some fans had been waiting half a decade or more to get their hands on the game and blames himself for the long wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the person that\u2019s responsible for the development time, I think,\u201d says Shouldice. \u201cThere was content creation and level design and learning how to make good animations and all those sorts of things. I think it\u2019s probably safe to say \u2013 maybe the others could correct me \u2013 there\u2019s no part of this game that has not been revised at least once or twice. I think the model of the key that you get early in the game might be the first version of itself. But a lot of other things are second-generation assets that have been rebuilt as I\u2019ve learned more about what this game is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eagerly admitting the process took longer than any of them expected, his teammates underline other reasons for the extended development. Composer Terence Lee muses on how, in the beginning, no one really knew what the final project would even look like, resulting in ever-shifting work. Additionally, the game\u2019s audio and level designers emphasize some time-consuming, but necessary changes demanded a sizable chunk of the developers\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a small, small team,\u201d asserts Billingsley. \u201cThere was no way to do this project very, very quickly.\u201d Especially since, according to Billingsley, the original size of the game was \u201ctwice as big, but it was mostly empty space.\u201d Regamey, though hesitant to talk about cut parts of the game for fear of disappointing fans, did go on to reveal one section of Tunic that eventually got the ax.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere once was a desert in Tunic,\u201d Regamey explains. \u201cThere is no longer a desert because running across dunes was decidedly not as interesting as the other parts of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The team finally saw the finish line after revealing Tunic\u2019s March 16 release date at The Game Awards in December. The announcement was a big achievement for the Tunic crew, as their trailer opened the massive show \u2013 which scored a record-breaking 85 million livestream views that year. When the finish line was in sight, it was hard for many of Tunic\u2019s creators to decide whether they were relieved or nervous that the journey was almost over.<\/p>\n
Looking over the experience, Shouldice shares his wish that Tunic \u201cmanaged to capture that sort of childlike wonder\u201d the games in his youth inspired. \u201cAnd whether or not people get that feeling from the finished game, I don\u2019t know,\u201d says Shouldice. \u201cI hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n