Hello again!
Hope you are all doing well. It hasn’t been that long this time. Has it? But just like I said last time, we want to keep the communication between the dev team and our fans a bit more frequent, so here I am writing a new devblog letting you know what is up in the world of Tunche’s development.
The team is still hard at work here in Lima, Perú, and the situation is still as complicated as last time, with the COVID-19 pandemic still going strong. However we are doing our best to make sure the game is as good as possible and in order to do that, we have to work on each and every aspect of it.
And since we have already talked about the characters and you have had the chance to try out our demos and experience combat directly, I think this is a good chance to talk about something we haven’t mentioned that much before: How will we tell our story?
Tunche has a story? You might be asking. Isn’t it just about beating monsters and bosses to become stronger? Well, it is, but there’s also a plot behind the adventure.
But before I get too much into it, I want to assure those that might be worried about spoilers that I will not ruin anything important for you (or for us. After all, that would be leaking info we don’t want to get leaked)
1. The World of Tunche
As most of you know, Tunche’s story takes place within the Latin-American amazonian jungle. This is a beautiful place full of exotic plant and animal life. But also full of magic and legends people tell their children about. Some of these are terrifying stories about beasts such as the Mapinguari or Tunche itself.
It is not our intention to retell any of these folklore tales directly in-game, but to take many of their elements and make them our own in a whole new tale. This way characters from other legends, like the aforementioned ones, become a part of ours.
When people have asked me about this, I like to (humbly) compare our use of these myths to the way the God of War series uses greek mythology. Mapinguari, Boutu, and the other fantasy beasts from the jungle become our bosses and also allies to the main villain of the story. Each one of them is the master of their own territory and commands their own personal army of lesser magical beasts.
The player, taking control of Rumi, Qaru, Nayra, Pancho, or Hat Kid will get the chance to face each one of them after defeating their minions and eventually meet with the main bad guy behind the chaos in the jungle.
But, as is usually the case, these heroes have embarked in a mission not only to do good but for other personal reasons as well.
2. Story Rooms / Lore Comics
This is where Story Rooms come in. These specialized rooms can be found within each procedurally generated level and present a little bit of our character's backstory and will.
Once a player enters one of these rooms, they will trigger a special scene where they will be able to read a comic lovingly drawn and painted by our studio’s artists. Each comic tells, through 4 or more pages, one of the chapters for each hero’s tale.
The stories we will tell through the story rooms will change depending on which character the player (or players) is using when they go into the room. For example, Rumi’s story will focus on her past and her responsibilities as part of a tribe of jungle shamans and magic users, Nayra’s story will focus on her current journey to prove herself as a worthy warrior to her people and so on.
Each one of the game’s levels holds one chapter of a hero’s story and this will depend on which character you are playing as. This means that in order for you to know the full story of Tunche you will have to play with each one of the available playable protagonists and go through the whole game at least once.
As you can see, there’s a lot more than just slaying monsters and plowing through enemy filled levels in Tunche and we really hope you take the time to read these comics and learn more about our characters, their motivation and their world.
That’s it for today, but I’ll be back soon with more info to share with you!
Stay safe!
Jorge - Tunche’s game director