Tunic, released March 16, 2022, by solo developer Andrew Shouldice (with composer Lifeformed), captured the magic of playing The Legend of Zelda as a child—not understanding everything but exploring anyway. The isometric action game about a fox adventurer became a cult hit.
Mystery and Discovery
Tunic’s genius: the in-game manual appeared in fragments, written in a fictional language. Players pieced together mechanics, secrets, and lore by finding manual pages—recreating the joy of reading NES instruction booklets.
Hidden Depths
What seemed like a cute Zelda homage revealed layers of complexity. Cryptic puzzles, secret areas, and a true ending requiring deciphering clues across the manual challenged players. Speedrunners and secret-hunters obsessed over Tunic’s mysteries.
The game won multiple awards and proved one person with a clear vision could compete with AAA Zelda-likes—while doing something Nintendo would never dare: trusting players to figure it out themselves.