Tchia is inspired by GTA, Zelda, and the island nation of New Caledonia

You might look at Tchia and recall Link’s glider in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Also, you might be reminded by open water sailing. The Wind Waker. But developer Awaceb co-founder Phil Crifo thinks there’s a better comparison: Grand Theft Auto.

“Even though it’s very different in terms of tone and theme, I think the way [GTA developer Rockstar] is able to build fictional worlds based on real places, and take those real places and make them get the essence of a place built into a video game world, has been a real inspiration for the way we treated our rendition of New Caledonia,” Crifo told Polygon.

Polygon will embark on a Zeldathon in 2023. Follow us as we journey through The Legend of Zelda, starting with the 1986 original game and ending in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

TchiaThe new open-world adventure game ‘The Wilderness Child’, about a boy who explores the wild, takes place in New Caledonia (a tiny island country in the Southwest Pacific). It’s where Crifo and several other members of the development team grew up; all the voice actors are local to the island, too. Rockstar has been creating fictional stands-ins for real places like Liberty City in New York, San Andreas in California, Vice City in Miami or Los Santos Los Angeles. For the developers at Awaceb, making an open-world playground meant drawing inspiration from Rockstar’s ability to transmute real geography into fun.

“When you grew up playing GTA with your friends, everyone had that moment when you’re like, ‘Can you imagine if GTA was taking place in our hometown?’” Crifo said. “We did a little bit of that with Tchia.”

Instead of dealers in drugs and guns however Tchia is about the titular child and her ability to transform into anything in her environment — rocks, a camera, a bird, or a piece of flaming coal. A lot like If Grand Theft Auto 5’s Trevor Philips could turn into a baseball bat or a stained T-shirt.

Crifo claimed that New Caledonia should be created TchiaThis was more about drawing the vibe of the archipelago than it was about mapping the terrain. “What’s the vibe? What’s it like living there? Is it like living there? How do you give the food a scent, a flavor? It’s very tricky to do,” Crifo said. Tchia is filtered through the lens of a fantasy childhood in New Caledonia, dripping with the islands’ culture and influences. It’s adventure and exploration and nostalgia wrapped up in a singular culture.

Image: Awaceb/Kepler Interactive

It’s that childhood sense of wonder, then, that evokes the Legend of Zelda comparison. Even though Crifo said he’s not a Legend of Zelda superfan, Take a deep breath of the wildThese ideas sparked new ideas Tchia’s development, like its choreographed landmarks or its glider, which allows Tchia to float over huge swaths of land. Awaceb is made up of 12 people, so the team can achieve the grandness or size of Take a deep breath of the wild wasn’t an option. It still managed to create a strong sense if place.

Tchia’s defining characteristic is its tactile nature, Crifo said. Tchia is able to touch, hold, or throw objects. But you can also become them, and feel the weight of an object’s movement. The shape-shifting is a complement to the music and instruments. TchiaThese use real chords to play rhythm minigames. Crifo recommended climbing coconut trees to help players feel the spirit of the area. There’s a weight to Tchia as the branches sway and dip the higher she gets. The tree is used as a catapult by Tchia to propel herself around the globe. (Coconut tree climbing, Crifo said, is a big thing in New Caledonia; everyone’s got their own technique.)

“Miyamoto always said that Zelda stems from his childhood, exploring caves and roaming around the wilderness,” Crifo said. “TchiaIt was originally built from the same idea. We have similar roots in that sense, which grew into very similar plants.”