GameCyte

Last December, developer Frozenbyte and publisher Novilis announced "Trine," an upcoming fantasy action title on the PSN and PC. The launch trailer looked pretty interesting, and not only created anticipation for Frozenbyte's next game, but also made me want to know more. I managed to get in touch with Frozenbyte designer and CEO, Lauri Hyvärinen, and got some of my questions answered. While nothing groundbreaking could be answered (and several gameplay-related questions had to go with "no comment") due to the early stage of the game, Lauri did tell us a little more about where the idea for "Trine" came from, who the three characters in the trailer are, and what the game will be like.

Brendon Lindsey: How did the original idea for "Trine" come about? Is it based on anything?

Lauri Hyvärinen, Designer and CEO of Frozenbyte: I could say the idea for "Trine" came mostly from our expertise of two-dimensional gameplay and our passion for great games with stunning audiovisual presentation. The idea started off a little smaller and has later evolved into the current "Trine." One of the “final” big design changes was in the spring 2008 when we made player-created physics a much more important part of the gameplay instead of just “normal” physics that the game had from the very first day.

About how long has the game been in development, and how many people are working on it?

We have had "Trine" in design/pre-production since spring of 2007, and we shaped the idea until early 2008 when we started the real production. The pre-production team was a couple of guys, while the current production team is 16 developers.

Will the game have a story element it focuses on? And if so, will it be a central narrative driven by the game, or more a means of advancing the game through stage after stage like it was in "Shadowgrounds?"

The game will have a strong but simple story, and it will be present both in some cutscenes and in the game. The gameplay itself progresses from level to level, but inside the levels the player will have unlimited number of choices to progress past certain challenges. The story is about a kingdom in a war, and about three different heroes who, for various reasons, are not currently participating in the war, but are soon thrown in the middle of it, and what's worse, they have to do it together.

You guys added multiplayer in "Shadowgrounds" pretty late in development because fans were asking for it. Are you guys developing "Trine" with multiplayer in mind, or is it going to be strictly a solo affair? And if it will allow multiplayer, will that be co-op, online, split screen, etc.

The existence and extent of multiplayer features of "Trine" will be announced in early 2009. I can't say more yet, sorry!

Looking at the video, it looks like players will switch between various classes throughout each level in order to progress. Is that something that's going to be required, or is it more of an optional choice? Like, will people have to switch to a different character to get past points or is that just one of several ways?

Switching between the three characters – the Wizard, the Knight and the Thief – is a core idea of the gameplay, but the player has a lot of freedom in using them. Most puzzles and situations can be solved with any character or any combination of two characters. Every puzzle has a solution that is the hardest to figure out but allows the “smoothiest” solution, and they also have the most obvious solution which is usually the hardest to execute.

Ultimately the player gets to pick and choose his own solution.

Speaking of the the three characters, can you explain how they differ from one another?

The Wizard never finished the wizarding school and never learned the fireball spell, but he is able to summon objects of varying kind that help in solving puzzles and create new ways to overcome obstacles.

The Knight is the king's loyal but a bit simple-minded knight and capable of causing physical destruction and mayhem everywhere he goes – unintentionally, more often than not.

The Thief stole the ancient Trine object but her treasure turned into her prison, and she now has to use her agility and dead-on accuracy to swiftly surprise the monsters roaming the once-flourish lands. We will be revealing more information on the characters later.

The game looks a lot like a sidescrolling platformer with some elements of player creation—at least with the wizardly fellow. Can you talk a little bit about that? Will "Trine" be like "LBP" where players are both a player and creator simultaneously?

Our focus is more on the of object creation as a gameplay element, not in that the players have to create the levels itself. Our difference is in the freedom of allowing the player to create the objects wherever and whenever in the game and using those objects to solve puzzles and get past difficult situations.

I may be totally off base, but the trailer makes it look like there's quite a bit of platforming, some puzzle solving, and some action, and it's all sort of mixed together. How would you say that's broken down in terms of what players will be doing most often?

We are going to balance it somewhat equally, and give the player a choice in how he or she wants to tackle each situation. If you want to fight your way through with the Knight, you can, or if you want to be a bit sneakier with the Thief, go right ahead.

There are some moments when a certain character is required but expert players can probably figure out some alternatives to those too. The final balance is still under development and we'll make some adjustments based on player and tester feedback. However, the intensity of fighting can be adjusted from the game’s difficulty setting directly, as the higher difficulties will bring in more enemies to battle against.

The trailer shows a lot of various action, but one constant throughout is the cursor which seems to move independently. Can you talk a little bit about that? How will players control it, and what role will that play?

The final way of controlling the game on PS3 is still under testing. Currently we have the PC's gesture system variation and a more simplified object per button option as alternatives. The idea of the game is not to challenge the player in the object creation itself but to challenge the player in where and when to create the objects in order to pass the challenges.

Was there a reason you guys went with the PSN over XBLA? Or is it more "That's just how it happened"?

I'd say it's more how it just happened. That said, the final platforms list may have more than two, but this is dependent on various things, especially if we consider possible sequels and such.

We've seen a lot of requests to have the game on XBLA or WiiWare and it's nice to read, even if it's not happening right now. We have been very happy with how things have progressed with Sony and are excited that our first console release is for PSN. We are big believers in the downloadable markets so we are really looking forward to releasing Trine.

I have to ask, but will there be trophy support on the PSN release, and will the game make use of SIXAXIS controls?

We will have both Trophy support and use of SIXAXIS. The extent of both is still being evaluated and tested.

And you probably knew it was going to come up, but any hint on what your other two projects in development are? I don't suppose one of them may be "Shadowgrounds" and PlayStation 3 related?

Our future plans will definitely include PS3 and console platforms in general, in addition to PC. "Shadowgrounds" is a successful brand fully owned by us, so we could say it's likely that we will see more "Shadowgrounds" in the future. So a combination of PS3 and "Shadowgrounds" might not be that far-fetched...

However, our next title to be announced in 2009 is not a "Shadowgrounds" game but again a totally new IP, and if "Trine" didn't surprise you, this definitely will!

Special thanks to Lauri for taking the time to field some questions and put up with me during a very busy time of development at Frozenbyte! You can watch Trine's first teaser trailer below.