Hello everyone! My name is Andrew. On September 27th he is the main developer of Tunic coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Tunic is an isometric action-adventure about a little fox exploring a big world, fighting monsters and discovering secrets. However, the heart of the game is mystery and discovery. Before embarking on this project (originally called Secret Legend), The vast unknown— That delicious feeling of being thrown into a world full of secrets. A stranger in a strange land, ready to unravel its mysteries.
One way to make players feel like they’re in a world they weren’t meant for was to fill the game with strange, unreadable language. Instead of signs telling you what’s around the next corner, you’ll see some cryptic symbols. Instead of an inventory screen labeling things wisely, it uses the same unrecognizable runes. To. When I was young, when I was learning to read and write, I was confused by the words in a game I was playing. There is no better way to evoke a childlike sense of wonder than to make the text itself a mystery.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my love for this kind of mystery came not only from the game, but from the manual included in the package. (Or, as they were often called, “instructions.”) I endlessly combed through these documents while my friends played the game themselves. They filled my head with thoughts of epic adventures, incredible treasures and terrifying creatures.
So in the first few months of development, Tunic had its own language and created its own manual. The manual is something that you will eventually collect gradually as you play the game. Like an old instruction manual, each page is jam-packed with illustrations, tips, maps and, of course, secret information.
One of the things I love about these classic manuals is their sense of layout and variety of art styles. Illustrations were often used because 8-bit sprites left much to the imagination. In the Tunic manual, I tried to capture the same variety, with the pros handling the plush side and me providing the graffiti.
Another important part of capturing the feeling of flipping through an old-school manual was its physicality. It’s nice to see a nice clean image, but it’s much more fun to flip through something that feels like a real object. Extra effort was put into recreating the artifacts of the old printing process, even including a visible stapler in the middle of the book.You can zoom in on each page for more detail by pressing the X button. . To make it feel as real as possible, I created a real version of the manual and then threw it away. Folded, torn, taped, and soiled. Then I scanned each page individually for use in the game. The effect is subtle, but I think it was worth it!
The actual version of the manual is blank. That way, I could synthesize what I needed without reprinting and retorting a new manual, which is important for a game localized into 27 languages!
If you’re thinking, “Wow, it sure sounds dangerous to make a game that keeps everything secret and only offers unreadable instructions,” you’re right. It looks like it did! Players will feel like they’ve made a real discovery when they discover an unseen secret. It’s true that the game’s job is to communicate its mechanics and systems, but framing that communication as a mystery to be solved makes the revelation all the more compelling.
We hope you enjoy your tunic.