Prior to the launch of the Switch, Nintendo announced serious plans to support indie developed games on the hybrid console. Since its launch, Nintendo has continued to make the Switch one of the most indie-friendly platforms to-date. As a result, the Nintendo eShop features some of the best indie games on the market.
Be that as it may, indie developers are being drawn to developing quality Xbox games. At this very moment, the Microsoft Store features some of the best indie titles including Cuphead, Oxenfree, Inside, Celeste, and soon, it’ll have Tunic.
Tunic, a game that previously went by “Secret Legend”, is an upcoming action-adventure game that we can’t help but compare to last year’s remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As a matter of fact, solo developer Andrew Shouldice has previously mentioned how Tunic was inspired by “certain classic triangle-seeking games,” which could certainly include The Legend of Zelda series.
With that being said, Tunic isn’t just a Zelda replica with an adorable anthropomorphic fox. Instead, Tunic has a whole lot to offer with its enticing gameplay and colorful aesthetic.
Here’s everything you need to know about this upcoming indie title.
Tunic Story
Over the years, Andrew Shouldice has expressed how he wants to make you feel like you’re in Tunic, exploring the isometric world as if you were the fox. This is exactly why the charming little fox will not have a name in this upcoming indie title.
“It’s never really felt right to give the little fox a name, because it’s kind of meant to be You, The Player,” said Andrew in an interview with Big Boss Battle. “One of the things I really cherish in games is the feeling of actually exploring—the point where the distance between player and player character is as short as possible. The fox knows as much as you do about this new world, which is to say, not much at all. Go! Explore! This is a projection of you into the game, figuring things out as you go,” he continued.
As indicated, exploration and combat are going to be a massive part of this upcoming game, however, combat isn’t always necessary. In an interview with SuperParent, Shouldice explained how you don’t always have to engage with enemies. Instead, players can run away to a different part of the world to further explore the countryside. Naturally, combat is required if you want to progress through the game. Though at first, you may wish to take your time and carefully examine the different surroundings in Tunic.
Inspired by the “risky secrets” he discovered in Braid and Undertale, Shouldice has included an in-game instructional manual with a twist. Rather being written in plain old English, the manual will be written in its own cryptic language that Shouldice names a “trippy glyph language.” The little fox in Tunic won’t be able to speak or read the glyph language, although some keen players may certainly crack the code.
“The core of the game is exploring a place that you don’t fully understand,” Shouldice explained in an interview with Red Bull Games. “I have memories of being a kid and leafing through the instruction manuals of video games that my neighbors owned. I was too young to understand them, and definitely too young to play them, but those images stuck with me. Just wondering at the secret possibilities that a game could get at. That’s the fancy-pants auteur reason for it,” Shouldice says.
Tunic Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, everything in Tunic can be viewed from an isometric perspective. This is to allow players to reveal hidden pathways and artifacts that would not usually be perceivable from a side-scrolling point of view.
To further improve visibility when exploring the animated world, you will be able to switch between the favorable isometric view and the classic top-down perspective. This will also make enemy interactions as smooth as possible as the sweet anthropomorphic fox dodge-rolls and attacks every enemy in Tunic.
As seen in The Legend of Zelda series, in-game progress will be limited to specific areas in the colorful world until you collect new abilities and weapons for your little friend to use. At first, you’ll only have a stick, so you’ll have to be careful when facing stronger enemies until you obtain a sword and shield. Besides game manual pages, you can also find essential weapons, potions, and currency in treasure chests spread across the animated world. These items will make fighting against the wide variety of enemies a whole lot easier.
Tunic Release Date and Platforms
In spite of the fact that most indie games are often developed by a team of creators, now and then, we see games developed by one ambitious individual. It’s certainly not an easy challenge to undertake, but when done right, solo-developed indie games can compete with AAA titles when it comes to gameplay and graphics. Stardew Valley is a fantastic example of a one-person-developed indie game done right, and if Andrew Shouldice puts in the time, Tunic may just be the next best indie game on the market.
As to be expected, solo-developed titles take much more time to create compared to games developed by a team, which in turn, can cause unpreventable delays. Which is exactly why Tunic has been pushed back to an unknown release date. Once published by Finji, the game will be available on Xbox One, PC (Windows), Linux and Mac. We will update this section once we have an official release date for Tunic, so make sure to check back in the future.
How Much Will Tunic Cost?
As to be expected, since we don’t have an official release date for Tunic, we don’t yet know how much the game will cost.Â
Tunic Trailers
While there haven’t been many updates in regards to Tunic, there are a few stunning gameplay trailers and commentary videos available to watch right now. Once a new trailer is released, we will be sure to update this section. But for now, here are the trailers listed in order of their release date:
TUNIC – Developer Commentary Gameplay Demo
In the most recent gameplay demo for Tunic, Andrew Shouldice and Fiji’s community manager, Harris Foster, walk you through the game. As Foster controls the adorable fox character, Shouldice covers everything from the in-game pages to enemy combat. We won’t spoil the 17-minute gameplay demo too much, so we highly recommend watching it for yourself down below:
Tunic Gameplay Trailer – E3 2018
Since Tunic didn’t make an appearance at E3 2019, the most recent trailer for the game comes from E3 2018. In the short gameplay trailer, we see the charming fox participate in some fast-paced sword fighting as it dodge-rolls to avoid the brand-new, armed enemies. We also get to see more of the breathtaking 3D world, including what appears to be the foxes’ home (or den).
Every scene is complemented by the ambient soundtrack created by the American musician known as Lifeformed. A soundtrack we hope will be available to purchase sometime in the near future. With that being said, we highly recommend checking out the full trailer for yourself down below:
Fancy watching a longer gameplay video? Then we suggest you watch the full 10 Minutes of Tunic Xbox One X Gameplay trailer from E3 2018.
Tunic Announcement Trailer – E3 2017
The first Tunic trailer revealed at E3 2017 shows the adorable anthropomorphic fox in action as we get our first glimpse of the game. After waking up on a beach, we see the sword-wielding fox fight against some armed enemies as it explores the stunning isometric world. You can watch the full trailer for yourself:
Tunic: Latest News
Over the last several months, the updates for Tunic have been fairly quiet. The game didn’t make an appearance at E3 2019, either, and we haven’t seen a gameplay trailer since 2018. However, we understand that Shouldice is working on the game alone, so we can’t expect as many updates as we would have with an AAA title. With that being said, here’s everything we know about Tunic so far:
TUNIC Update #5
In order to keep us up-to-date with the latest information, developer Andrew Shouldice has been uploading Tunic update videos on his YouTube channel since August 2017. While he hasn’t made a video since January 2019, the latest video is certainly worth watching.
In the Tunic update, Shouldice explains (in his ASMR-worthy voice) some of the tricks he used to create a GIF he made back in December 2018. You can watch all five Tunic update videos for yourself on Andrew Shouldice’s YouTube channel.
Conclusion
Even though we don’t yet have an official release date for Tunic, we can’t wait to explore the animated world full of secrets. Not only that, but we can’t wait to collect all of the pages that make up Tunic’s game manual—pages that may assist us in-game. With that being said until Shouldice reveals the official release date, we’ll simply have to wait for more updates for Tunic.
Once we hear more news, we will update this article to keep you in the loop, so be sure to check back sometime in the future.
Much like Andrew Shouldice, programmer and artist Rebecca Cordingley decided to quit her career in order to fully focus on Ooblets with her partner Ben. Want to find out more about their upcoming indie game? Then, you may wish to take a look at our guide to the most recent Ooblets news, trailers, and rumors.