Tunche DevBlog: The Story of Mapinguari

Hello, everyone!
Starting today we will be posting interesting stories, development secrets and many more things that usually stay hidden from you, our players. As an indie game publisher we deeply care about the message our developent teams want to deliver to their audience. That's why we are willing to take another step forward and start this series of blog entries.

In this DevBlog entry we will tell you about Tunche's second boss — Mapinguari.His sprites are still a work in progress, so we’ve decided to share with you how he is portrayed in legends. Hopefully this entry will give you a better understanding of how scary and gruesome he is!




Many cryptozoologists believe that Mapinguari is based off of a prehistoric creature named Megatherium. It essentially was a grandfather to a present day sloth, but was much larger in size. Actually, it was one of the largest mammals to roam the Earth! The fossilized remains of Megatheriums were found all over South America. Including Peru, the homeland of Leap Game Studios!

Skeleton of Megatherium.

But being only a giant sloth isn’t enough to become a scary monster. As described in folklore, Mapinguari has one eye, a huge mouth with sharp teeth on his belly, and incredibly long claws. He also exudes a stench so putrid, it can make you dizzy and knock you out, and can even change day into night!

One of many traditional depictions of Mapinguari.


Traditional depictions of Mapinguari can somewhat resemble a North American Bigfoot. But unlike him, Mapinguari doesn’t flee from humans on sight. It’s very much the opposite — he actively tries to hunt down humans, who hurt the rainforest and its inhabitants, or break the jungle’s unspoken rules.


Mapinguari in Tunche.


Artists of Tunche had to refrain from closely following monster’s traditional looks, to fit Mapinguari into the game’s design. But they are working their hardest to make him as fearsome as in Amazonian legends and be worthy of his real counterpart!




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