TCHIA

An open-world adventure embracing its time in the sun

Publisher Developer Awaceb In-house

Format PC, PS4, PS5

Origin France

Release 2022

Chalk it up to lockdown brain fog. Or simply that the many, many Geoff Keighley-fronted game events of the past couple of years have rather blurred into one. But Tchia’s reappearance at the recent PlayStation Showcase felt like a thrilling debut. And, in fairness, developer Awaceb effectively acknowledged as much, having cut its second trailer to feel distinct from the first while highlighting what everyone had missed (or forgotten) during its Game Awards reveal late last year.

It seemed fitting during a Sony event that it should open with a bout of ukelele plucking that, for many, recalled Ellie’s guitar playing in The Last Of Us Part II. But, as studio co-founder and game director Phil Crifo points out, that idea was already in place in 2018, when development on Tchia began in earnest – and he has the receipts. “I don’t think they showed it before release, so we basically all discovered it when playing the game at launch,” he says. Was that a galling moment, or a validating one? “It was actually more of a confirmation that, OK, this system works. This makes sense. If the designers at Naughty Dog came up with a similar UX solution, it must mean that we did our job right.”