Tchia immerses players in the brand-new journey of the titular character, a young adventurer on a quest to save her father. In the game, Tchia employs the use of a unique soul-jumping ability that allows players to possess various animals and objects, which adds an exciting new layer to gameplay. By possessing different creatures and items, Tchia can fly, swim, climb, and engage in combat, allowing players to tackle challenges and puzzles in a variety of creative ways.
In a Game ZXC interview with Tchia game director and Awaceb co-founder Phil Crifo (ahead of the game's release), he provided with a closer look at what players can expect from the new soul-jumping mechanic. Crifo outlines various aspects of the mechanic and its use in combat, exploration, and the scope of the game’s narrative. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Did you experiment with different ways of implementing the soul-jumping ability before settling on the final version? If so, can you describe some of those early iterations?
Soul-jumping went through several iterations. At first, it was just a simple telekinesis ability, which was fun but fairly limited since it didn’t help with locomotion and was cumbersome in combat situations. Then it evolved into possession but with Tchia staying in place in a trance-like state. This was somewhat better, but it still didn’t help with locomotion since you would always go back to square one when you finish your soul-jumping. So after that experimentation, it became what you see, warping into objects and animals that lets Tchia traverse the world while soul-jumping.
Q: How did your team come up with the concept of soul-jumping into objects and animals in Tchia?
That evolution was informed by the fact that New Caledonian folklore and legends often involve shapeshifting and animals taking human forms and vice versa, so it felt thematically relevant. We designed Tchia as a toy box, where every mechanic could stand on its own as a self-sufficient little nugget of fun. From there, we designed our world to incorporate fun and interesting ways to use those mechanics.
Q: Can you describe the process of designing and implementing the different abilities of the animals and objects Tchia can soul-jump into?
Once we were fully committed to the sandbox, toy-like aspect of our design philosophy, we knew we had to make almost everything possessable by soul-jumping. That was definitely a challenge in terms of the programming and animation workload it required, but we built our systems smartly enough that we didn’t need to re-do anything from scratch for every new object or animal. What was liberating on the design front was to realize and accept that not every animal or object should have a purpose or be of significant importance. Some do, of course, like a dog’s ability to dig up treasures will be helpful for a treasure hunt. But we were also okay with the fact that some animals and objects are just fun to control, and don’t have to serve a deeper purpose.
Q: How did you balance the different abilities and strengths of the animals and objects Tchia can control with the overall difficulty of the game?
Like I mentioned, some animals and objects won’t be of much use for combat or locomotion. It’s up to the player to find out which ability they can use to help in specific situations, which fun. Once you realize that an oil lamp can create a fireball, for example, you won’t look at them as another random prop for the rest of your playthrough. I think that sense of organic discovery and getting better by tinkering ultimately helps keep you engaged. There are no objectively “overpowered” objects because most of them will only be useful for a specific purpose, so it balances itself out.
Q: How did you go about creating and designing the visual effects and sound design for the soul-jumping mechanic?
The visual effects actually came out a bit late in the development of the feature; we realized it lacked a bit of a punch. The sparkly, glowing effects were designed as if Tchia’s magical glowing eye was emitting them. For the sound effects, we wanted something that wasn’t too violent and loud. As you’ll be soul-jumping a lot throughout the game, it needed to be impactful but not overwhelming or exhausting. We didn’t really have points of reference in New Caledonian culture and folklore for how to portray magic, since it is usually less visually over the top in local legends, so we had to create it from scratch.
Q: Were there any particular challenges in designing the combat system around the soul-jumping mechanic, and if so, how did you address them?
We started working on combat a bit later in development, so the locomotion and soul-jumping mechanics were well-established by then, which helped. Basically, we tweaked some features and added some to make sure it felt good to combo and improvise on the fly. This included the Soul-Throw, which is an ability that lets Tchia project an item quickly while unpossessing it on the spot. I think the combat implementation clicked pretty fast once we had those big building blocks set up. It is definitely an unusual way to handle combat though, so I hope players won’t feel too disoriented. Ultimately, I think it makes the flow of the game super fun. You don’t have to learn a whole other gameplay style for each situation. It’s more about how you use the tools.
Q: What challenges did you face while developing the soul-jumping ability, and how did you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenge was figuring out where to stop in terms of what you can soul-jump into, making sure it was clear to the player, and that it never created frustration. I think the UI and effects help with that. When you go into soul-jump mode, the things you can possess are highlighted green, so it’s very straightforward. Hopefully, people are not mad at us that they can’t become a car!
Q: How did you approach teaching players how to use the soul-jumping ability and integrate it into the overall gameplay experience?
At the start of the story, Tchia hasn’t discovered her powers yet so the player gets to learn alongside her. Once you get a good grasp on the ability, you can upgrade your soul meter (which lets you control things for longer) by completing the mysterious totem shrine challenges. It was important to ease players into the mechanic for pacing because it’s a bit unusual to have so much freedom up front. So by the time the world really opens up, you are at the early stages of the powers, and hopefully driven to improve them when you realize organically that they can be super useful for traversal, combat, and puzzles.
Q: What are some of your favorite moments or experiences related to developing the soul-jumping mechanic in Tchia?
Every new animal we implemented was always a treat. Seeing the animations and abilities take shape and getting to control them for the first time was nice. Especially since those animals are inspired by New Caledonian fauna, which I grew up around and have always loved. It was so cool to be able to make our own little versions of them and actually play as them too!
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Tchia will be released on March 21, 2023, for PC, PS4, and PS5.
