The archive · Games & Play · Product decision · 2022
Tunic scatters its own instruction manual through the world as a puzzle
An isometric fox adventure where the NES-style manual is a collectible: pages hide across the map, most text is a made-up language, and learning is the game.
Tunic Team (dicey) · Finji
What it had to solve
Tunic is a Zelda-like isometric action game from solo developer Andrew Shouldice, published by Finji in 2022. Modern games had replaced the physical manual with tutorials that explain everything; Shouldice wanted players to rediscover the joy of a manual — as an object, a collectible and a source of mystery.
How it works
Tunic, released in March 2022 by publisher Finji, is an isometric action-adventure about a small fox in a big world, built over years by solo developer Andrew Shouldice. Its most distinctive idea is nostalgic but unusual: instead of tutorial prompts, the game scatters the pages of its own instruction manual across the map for the player to find.
The manual is styled as a weathered booklet from the 8-bit era, complete with staples and creases. Shouldice built a real physical copy, then folded, ripped, taped and stained it so every page would feel like an object with history, before scanning each page into the game. Most text — in the booklet and in the world — is written in 'Trunic', a phonetic invented language, so players must read illustrations and context to understand the rules.
The design turns learning into discovery: a page found behind a waterfall may teach the fox a new move, while a later page reframes something already seen. Audio designer Kevin Regamey even hid a second language in the soundtrack that only appears in spectrograms. The result is a game that trusts players to piece its secrets together, and critics treated the manual as its signature feature.
The approach paid off in recognition as well as praise: GameSpot gave Tunic 9/10, Rock Paper Shotgun ranked it among the year's favourites, and in February 2023 Tunic won Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game at the 26th DICE Awards, beating a field of celebrated indies.
Why it lands
- A manual page is a reward you read at your own pace, so instructions arrive as curiosity rather than interruption.
- Scattering pages turns the rules themselves into map objectives, giving exploration a reason beyond combat and loot.
- The invented language forces context-driven learning, recreating how players once decoded manuals without being told.
- The weathered physical craft makes the booklet feel like a real relic, so even finding a single page feels like treasure.
What it did
The manual became Tunic's signature: GameSpot scored the game 9/10 and called the booklet one of its best links to the past, RPS ranked Tunic among its favourite games of 2022, and Tunic took Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game at the 2023 DICE Awards.
What you can take
Let the artifact carry the instruction: an object players enjoy flipping through can teach better than a tutorial, because the wanting to know is the pull.
Since then
Tunic's manual became the most discussed element of the game: the process of building and destroying a real booklet was covered by GameSpot and other outlets, and the game's secrets — including its musical language — kept players and communities decoding it long after release. Released on Xbox and PC first and Switch and PlayStation later in 2022, Tunic went on to win Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game at the 2023 DICE Awards and was widely cited as proof that a solo developer could build a critically celebrated action game around a single, strange idea.
Sources
- How Tunic's Cool In-Game Manual Was Made
- Did you know Tunic has a secret musical language on top of its cryptic game manual?
- Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok sweep the board at 2023 DICE Awards
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