Check Out This Critically Acclaimed Game Developed in Halifax

Written By: James McGuirk

“Tunic” is a game released in 2022 that reached critical acclaim and success. The game had a very small development team, consisting primarily of one person: Andrew Shouldice. Shouldice was born and raised in Halifax and lived in the city throughout the game’s development. Due to the game’s success, I decided to play through the game and conduct a deep dive into its development which led this Halifax-made game to reach the heights it hit. 

Tunic's development began in 2015 after Shouldice left his job at Silverback Games. He did not know exactly what he wanted to do, but knew that he wanted to work in game development. He began by entering game jams and it was only a short time before he realized that he wanted to make something bigger and spend more time on a game. Originally, the game was titled Secret Legends, and Shouldice had only been working for a few months before he realised he would need help. Shouldice contacted Power Up Audio, and they helped contribute to the project.

In 2017 Shouldice found a producer, Felix Kramer, who connected the game with the publisher Finji. Tunic was officially announced as the game’s name with a trailer at the E3 2017 PC Gaming Show with a release date of 2018, but the game required additional development before it was ready to be published. Fast forward to December 2021, the game was reintroduced with a trailer at the Game Awards with a release date of March 16, 2022, on Xbox and PC. The game was able to stick to this release date. Later on, in 2022, it eventually came to Playstation and Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2022, becoming accessible on all of the main gaming platforms.

Unfortunately for the game, it released right around the same time as many of 2022’s largest games (Elden Ring, released February 25; Horizon Forbidden West, released February 18; Kirby and the Forgotten Land, released March 25, 2022). Despite that, Tunic was able to find much success. There are no exact numbers online, but it is lucky for an indie game like Tunic to get 100,000 total sales and, as of right now, it has almost 250K units sold on Steam alone, which would likely be much less than half of the game's sales. While the amount of praise and number of sales speak volumes enough, I can also personally attest to Tunic being a great game.

The game’s inspirations are obvious. The combat and bosses resemble the “souls-like” games such as Elden Ring or Dark Souls, developed by FromSoftware. The combat is what makes the game challenging. I died a lot playing through this, but it was never too hard to enjoy. For those interested in the other aspects of Tunic but do not want tough combat, you can turn on invincibility at any point in the settings. The look and the feel of Tunic, including the game's name, take inspiration from The Legend of Zelda series (The protagonist “Link” usually wears a green tunic, similar to the fox protagonist in Tunic). Anyone who has played a Zelda game can tell from one look at the game that there are many similarities between Tunic and the Zelda franchise. However, to call this game a “Zelda-clone” would be a disservice. 

Tunic is innovative, especially through the inspiration it takes from the Zelda franchise. One of the game's main mechanics is finding instruction booklet pages all over the map. You can access this booklet anytime throughout the game, and receive tips and advice on what to do. The booklet is inspired by manuals that would come with the early Legend of Zelda games, especially Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. By being a long adventure game in the 80s, it was quite obtuse with plenty of secrets that would be nearly impossible to uncover without help. The only way someone could beat the game would be with the help of the manual that comes with the game upon purchase. Tunic takes that idea of relying on the manual and integrates it directly into the game. Many modern games are quite “hand-holdy,” but Tunic stands out by making the player do the work. Slowly figuring out the next thing to do through the help of the booklet, as well as trial and error, makes the player feel intelligent and accomplished during a time when more games treat the player like a child.

Screenshot taken by James McGuirk

The puzzles in this game are so clever and challenging. As you get more pages of the booklet, you realize that there is so much underneath the surface of the game; every moment has so much going on that the player will not pick up on until later. I personally found the puzzles very addicting. Once I hit a certain point, I flew through the rest of the game in no time. At several points, I even had to take out a pen and paper in order to figure out the solution to a puzzle. I do not want to go too deep into the specifics because so much of the joy of Tunic comes from making these discoveries on your own, but solving the final puzzle was one of the most satisfying moments I have ever experienced in a video game. Even beating the game barely scratches the surface; there is so much more for the player to discover if they desire to find it. The developers put so much love and effort into the game, knowing that there is a good chance almost no one would go so far to find everything. They even made their own audio language in the game and left all the tools for the player to decipher if they want to.

After playing through the game, it was apparent how it was able to achieve such success and acclaim. I would definitely recommend Tunic to anyone who might enjoy the difficult combat of Dark Souls or Elden Ring, the world and puzzles of the Zelda franchise, or even anyone who just likes the game’s cute and charming art style. It also supports a smaller independent video game development team that would benefit more than any larger AAA studio. The game is currently available on all current video game platforms for $34.99 on Nintendo Switch, $34.99 on Xbox or free with an Xbox Game Pass Subscription, $39.99 on Playstation, and $38.99 on PC. 

Alex Phillips