TUNIC

Tunic  is an  action-adventure game  by Andrew Shouldice and published by  Finji . The game was released in March 2022 on  macOS ,  Windows ,  Xbox One , and  Xbox Series X/S , which was followed by ports on the  Nintendo Switch ,  PlayStation 4  and  PlayStation 5  in September of the same year. Tunic  (originally named  Secret Legend ) was developed by Andrew Shouldice. Shouldice was a developer at  Silverback Productions  for about six years, and in 2015, having participated in a few  Ludum Dare  events, he wondered what he could produce if he worked full-time on  Tunic  rather than just on weekends. He considered the state of his own career at Silverback and decided to quit to pursue this development. Shouldice stated the game was inspired by "certain classic triangle-seeking games," obliquely referring to  The Legend of Zelda  series. Within the game, the player finds pages of instruction manuals, the art which was heavily inspired by the instruction booklets for the  Nintendo Entertainment System  games  The Legend of Zelda  and  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link .  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. The game's soundtrack was composed by Lifeformed, who previously composed music for the 2012 game  Dustforce , and Janice Kwan. 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. 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  Windows . Tunic  launched on March 16, 2022. In addition to macOS, Windows, and Xbox console releases, it also was added to  Xbox Game Pass  the same day 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 similarly 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, adding some touches from the  Dark Souls  series. The game's purpose and method of playing are somewhat oblique; what dialog is presented to the player is generally of a strange 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.