{"id":44106,"date":"2022-12-28T07:22:06","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T07:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pley2win.com\/xbox\/tunic-may-still-contain-more-secrets-depending-on-how-you-define-secret-says-creator\/"},"modified":"2022-12-28T07:22:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T07:22:06","slug":"tunic-may-still-contain-more-secrets-depending-on-how-you-define-secret-says-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pley2win.com\/?p=44106","title":{"rendered":"Tunic May Still Contain More Secrets, Depending on How You Define \u2018Secret\u2019, Says Creator"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s been nine months since the release of Tunic, the Zelda-like action-adventure game about a fox hero in a strange world; nine months for its community to dig out secrets upon secrets, decipher its multiple hidden languages, and puzzle over the curious ARG at its heart.<\/p>\n

This jubilant community treasure hunting delights both Tunic creator Andrew Shouldice and PowerUp Audio co-founder Kevin Regamey, the latter of whom was instrumental in creating Tunic\u2019s secondary hidden \u201caudio\u201d language<\/u>. Tunic already has an initially incomprehensible written language dotted about the game\u2019s signs, in-game manual, and other locations that the community has deciphered into a legible alphabet.<\/p>\n

But its audio language, discovered a bit later, is a very different marvel. If you\u2019re curious about the specifics, Regamey recently did a massive Twitter thread explaining how he created it that\u2019s pure catnip for music theory, audio, and ARG nerds:<\/p>\n

\n

Tunic\u2019s been out for a while now, sooooo\u2026<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about audio secrets! pic.twitter.com\/efjtNw7RDZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kevin Regamey (@regameyk) October 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As deeply embedded as this language (which the community has dubbed \u201cTuneic\u201d) is in Tunic, it may be surprising to learn that it wasn\u2019t remotely part of Shouldice\u2019s initial plans for the game. He was connected with Regamey almost by happenstance through a mutual friend in 2015 who knew Regamey had a penchant for exactly that flavor of secret-hiding. A few years before, Regamey tells me had made a game called Phonopath as a \u201cglorified portfolio piece\u201d in an effort to get a job at Valve.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhonopath is basically a puzzler based entirely in audio files,\u201d Regamey says. \u201cIt’s like 28 stages long, and the goal is to find a hidden password within downloaded audio files, and you find them through spectrum analysis and signal processing and through music theory knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s real music geek stuff, designed specifically for people who work in audio, and was inspired by Notpron<\/u>, the Portal 2 ARG<\/u>, and the I Love Bees ARG<\/u>. But one thing he felt they all missed was an opportunity to do more with audio elements. Phonopath, then, was intended as an exploration of what was possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the audio components of these ARGs were always so rudimentary,\u201d Regamey says. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Reverse the file. It’s Morse code,\u2019 or whatever. It was very, very easy. I was like, \u2018Man, there’s so much more potential for puzzle gameplay in an audio file.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cContent for No One\u201d<\/h2>\n

While Regamey\u2019s pitch went over well, he was told to apply again in six months, and he took that time to co-found PowerUp instead. Which gets us back to his meeting with Shouldice, who already had the visual component of the secret language (referred to by the community as Trunic) planned out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visual component of the language was something that very early on existed as part of the design where it was just meant to make you feel like you were in a place that you didn’t belong,\u201d Shouldice says. \u201cThere’s more going on here. It’s unreadable. People often reference this feeling of getting an import manual and not being able to read it. That sort of feeling was what was meant to be invoked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regamey and Shouldice talked at a party, and afterward Shouldice sent Regamey a very early build of the game. Regamey sent back a treatment of the game with his own audio included as a mockup of what their working relationship might look like. Shouldice loved it.<\/p>\n