TUNIC creator Andrew Shouldice drew on the feeling of exploring a park near his childhood home in Halifax, while the game’s seven-year development gave him and audio director Kevin Regamey time to discover what the project could become. In a spoiler-free 2022 interview, the developers described the personal memories, design influences and evolving production that shaped the game.
How a Halifax park informed TUNIC’s sense of exploration
Shouldice recalled mapping parts of a park near where he grew up in Halifax. Its features included a pipe, a large rock, a lake and chickadees. What stayed with him was not just the layout but the possibility of finding something new in a wide-open space. He described it as “a big, wide, open space with all kinds of cool stuff, and you just want to run as fast as you can to see what’s next.”
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Tunic - Switch | $49.50 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
![Tunic | Standard - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41du12lCBzL._SL160_.jpg)
|
Tunic | Standard - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code] | Buy on Amazon | |
| 3 |
|
Animal Well - Nintendo Switch | $34.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
Yoshi's Crafted World - Nintendo Switch | $52.90 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
Puyo Puyo Tetris - Nintendo Switch | $18.98 | Buy on Amazon |
That memory became an emotional reference point for TUNIC, rather than a claim that the game reproduces the park literally. “But I think that emotion definitely is something that carried through,” Shouldice said. The recollection helps explain why discovery and curiosity are central to the game’s atmosphere.
Other influences behind the game’s world
Shouldice named The Legend of Zelda and Fez as influences. He also recalled listening to music by Terence Lee, who records as Lifeformed, and said it helped color his early feelings about the project. These influences sit alongside the Halifax memory: a mix of game references and a personal sense of wonder, rather than a single blueprint for TUNIC.
#1 Best Overall
- Explore a hostile and intricately-connected world of shady forests, sprawling ruins, and labyrinthine catacombs.
- Fight mighty bosses deep beneath the earth, high above the clouds, and in places stranger still.
- Collect the missing manual pages, bursting with hints and original full-color illustrations.
- Discover hidden treasures to help you on your way.
- Unearth secret relics, secret techniques, secret puzzles, and… listen, there’s a lot of secrets!
Why development took seven years
MobileSyrup framed Shouldice’s development journey as seven years in its May 27, 2022 interview. Shouldice attributed the length to the combination of a small team, a relatively large and complex game, and an iterative process in which the project’s shape emerged over time. He described the work as a process of finding out what the game was becoming, not simply executing a fixed plan.
The interview offers a useful contrast with short audio projects that might be completed in days: a larger game leaves more interconnected decisions to revisit as it changes. It does not provide a formal schedule, budget or staffing count, so the seven-year figure is the interview’s account of the journey, not an independently audited production timeline.
Rank #2
- A Nintendo Switch Online membership may be required for online play. Please check the game detail page on Nintendo.com for membership requirements.
- TUNIC ISOMETRICORP Games Ltd. 2021 . All rights reserved. Finji and regal weasel and crown logo are trademarks of Finji, LLC.
How Power Up Audio’s work evolved
Audio director Kevin Regamey said he and Power Up Audio had been involved since early in development. He recalled that Shouldice first contacted the studio in April 2015. Because the game continued to evolve, audio work had to account for uncertainty and compete with other vendor commitments; as the project became more concrete and less likely to change substantially, the work could accelerate.
Regamey summed up the pacing this way: “It was a lot of — as far as pacing goes — leisurely walking towards the beginning, and then a sprint at the very end.” The pattern reflects how sound production can depend on design settling into place: early collaboration can span a long stretch, while final integration and polish intensify once the game’s needs are clearer.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Rank #3
- Explore - Illuminate the dark. A world of puzzle boxes with a profound atmosphere. Light candles for safety and gradually fill out your map. Nonlinear -- explore and collect items in whatever order you choose.
- Solve puzzles - Observation is rewarded. Enemies, environment, and items interact in surprising and systemic ways. All items have multiple uses. Learn how innocuous details can become meaningful.
- Survive - Tread carefully. Assess for yourself what is safe and dangerous. Focus on tension and suspense rather than action. You are disempowered, but can make clever use of your environment and items.
- Languages – In-game text languages English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish.
What TUNIC: Design Works adds to the story
In a November 21, 2025 interview, publisher Finji described TUNIC: Design Works as documenting the game’s seven-year development. Finji said Shouldice kept notebooks filled with ideas, plans, failed experiments and anxieties. That account offers a later glimpse of the personal record behind the iterative process described in the 2022 conversation; it does not establish current retail availability for the book.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Ferocious Competition - At the heart of Puyo Puyo Tetris is the fighting spirit of players competing against each other to be most clever, cunning, and quick-witted one to set up devastating attacks on opponents. It's the classic easy-to-learn puzzles mashed up into a multiplayer battle like no other!
- Adventure Mode - The game also has a single player mode with ten unique acts, eatch with ten stages. They feature different characters from the Puyo Puyo or Tetris universes and have unique challenges to learn and master game mechanics that players must overcome!
- Arcade Modes - Online play has Puzzle League, which tracks players' ratings, players can save replays to upload and share, and more.
- There's also an in-game shop players can use their points to unlock different Puyo and Tetrimino skins, background music, stages, and more.
Rank #4
- Explore each stage and then find even more secrets by making your way through the stage backwards on the flip side
- Overcome varied enemies and obstacles, like Zombie Guys, Skelesaurus, Ukiki, and Monty Mole as you seek out hidden collectables; ESRB Content: Mild Cartoon Violence; Genre: Action, Platformer
- Pass a Joy Con controller to a friend for 2 player cooperative exploration
- Clad Yoshi in collectable, protective, handicraft costumes as he makes his way through each stage
Sources
- Bradly Shankar, MobileSyrup, “Tunic developers reflect on Canadian inspirations, seven years of development and more,” May 27, 2022. The interview was edited for language and clarity; quotations above are attributed to the published interview.
- Finji, “An Interview with Tunic Lead Dev Andrew Shouldice,” November 21, 2025.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
