TRI: Of Friendship and Madness

[edit]WARNING: The pictures and videos in this post are very outdated.
Please look at the latest posts for new stuff![/edit]​

[edit2]What's more, the game is finally done and released![/edit2]​

Hallo!

This is TRI, our first somewhat bigger commercial game. It is a first-person 3D game with environmental puzzles, inspired by immersive games like "Portal", "Thief" and "Zelda". In TRI, you create magical triangles to solve puzzles and reach hidden places in temple-like structures.

The current features include:
Features:

• freeform 3D platformer with unusual style (no test-chambers )
• build triangles to overcome abysses, reach unknown places, and walk on the walls and the ceiling
• control light rays by reflecting, and destroy obstacles with dangerous lasers
• explore the dungeons of TRI, collect treasures and solve puzzles

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TRI is currently closed pre-alpha, which means you can buy it for $5 right now (which is 50% of the final price) and get access to the current and all further builds. More informations can be found on our website, tri-game.com - there even is a demo, showcasing the first part of the pre-alpha (out of currently three sub-levels).

Regards,
ratking (formerly "unheilbar")

 

Just a little update: We're trying a Kickstarter campaign for TRI right now - together with 8 other developers, so it's somewhat novel.

 

Wow looks very interesting!

 

Thanks a lot! I made another video, showcasing the silly eye bugs (soon to be in the game):

 

Hey fellow Unity users,

just wanted to let you know that we worked on TRI for quite a bit (with a big break at the end of last year, as we had to work for money for rent and food)! The new alpha version 0.2.0 of TRI is out now, with 0.2.0a just around the corner. The version number sounds low, but it's a pretty advanced version really.



After redoing the art style several times we are now happy with the general design, so this is now how we want it to look! With the new version we also changed the layout of the levels, and there are seven now - we want 18 in the final release. We created a more "beginner-friendly" tutorial and the pacing is different altogether. We also got some great feedback so far.



So, if you want you can try the demo and give us some feedback. Or just watch the trailer! ;-)

Regards,
ratking

 

I think this is an interesting concept, I mean, space-bending puzzles in a 3d environment ala Portal is always interesting. but I think you need to be careful that some of the stuff you have to draw triangles to overcome isn't meaningless and boring... I see in your videos having to draw triangles just to get up to a doorway that's a littler higher than you can reach. Okay maybe once or twice that's a puzzle but then it's so obvious that it becomes tedious. If too much of the game focusses on `Oh I've got to draw another whole bunch of triangles just to get across a gap` then it's going to get repetitive fast. You'll need to keep it fresh with extra-clever puzzles and be careful of having to basically re-play the same thing again and again. Besides that I think the big triangles are cool to look at.

 

Looks pretty cool! I agree with imaginaryhuman that the key is going to be level design that surprises and delights players with each new stage. IMO a game of this type could be as short as 1-2 hours to complete and I'd still pay for it if the puzzles and play were amazing (yeah, sort of like the original Portal).

I'm curious- what happened with the Kickstarter? I see it ended way short of the goal. Do you have any quick post-mortem thoughts on what went well / badly with it?

 

@imaginaryhuman,

thanks for your answer! Yeah, I guess in the trailer the triangle creating looks a bit tedious, but be assured it really isn't. Did you try the demo? So far everyone who played it and talked to us said the ability to use the triangles for spiderman-like powers is cool. ;-)

I guess we need to emphasize more that creating the triangles for overcoming abysses and wall-walking isn't the puzzle per se. Puzzles are mostly opening certain doors in TRI with switches and boxes right now, but later we will re-add the Kami (little floating ghosts) and the light rays, which will be the real puzzle parts in combination with the triangles. You can see these features in the older videos / trailers.

As of now, TRI has a bigger emphasis on exploration, and we actually like it that way, so we might do even more "walking and looking" stuff. We probably need to do a trailer that presents our intention more clearly.

@cmo,

we were inspired by Portal, but regarding the complexity the game isn't that similar. Think of the triangle creating as a additional way to explore the area, like normal walking and jumping.

The Kickstarter campaign has several reasons why it failed, and I think this could be a page-long article about it. But I guess it's enough when I say that out of the 9 teams who were part of it not everybody participated enough to make it awesome, the pledges were confusing and the overall marketing was kinda meh. The coolest thing was the kinda novel idea to combine several projects into one, but that made the overall pledge goal too high and confused a lot of people.

Regards,
ratking

 

Currently trying to add an NPC. He talks to you and jumps away. Or so.

 

Current state of the latest level, re-introducing reflecting light rays and lasers:



We have around 11 levels now, 6 still need to get make. At least we're pretty confident now what they should include.

It's still possible to get the game on http://www.tri-game.com. ;-)

 

We made a new trailer!

So yeah, that means we finally released an update (0.3.0, codename "MagicalMonk") with 3 new levels, an art upgrade, an additional character and a lot more. The game is now ~75% done, so we also increased the price (from 5 to 10 bucks) and switched our payment method, along with a major overhaul of the website. TRI is now available via the HumbleStore widget instead of our own shop. Oh, and there's also a special edition with soundtrack.

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And it would be nice if we could get some votes for our recently started Greenlight page:

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Thanks!

 

Wow looks amazing! The art style is simple but very elegant and the gameplay looks like a lot of fun

 

Look really good. I really love the concept of the game!

 

Thank you both!

 

I've been playing your Tri Demo (?) on Kongregate (Link) a few months ago and It was kinda fun. Glad to see a serious project turning out of this.

 

Hey Mauri, thanks! The TRI on Kongregate is not really a demo, but was made within 2 days for a game jam. The current TRI we're making currently is our attempt to take the gameplay to a higher level.

 

After some months of work we finally can present the beta version of TRI!



We're also happy that it recently got greenlit on Steam. Thanks to everybody who voted for us!

 

Congratz on being Greenlit!

 

Thank you! I was really surprised! ;-)

 

I am considering buying the game. I just love these games.
Downloading the demo as we speak

EDIT: Played the demo, and I loved it. However, I would change picking up items with "E". Sometimes I was shooting TRI's trying to pick something up. And the movement doesnt feel perfect to me. However, the game was really fun to play.

 

@levoTNTO: Thanks for trying the game! You should be able to change the key for picking up and using items in the options. Tell me if that doesn't work.

 

Hallo!

After more than 2.5 years, we finally released TRI, with the help of our publisher Rising Star Games. It was a wild ride, and often we wondered if we can actually finish the game.

So, we're really happy to be able to announce that the game is now out on Steam, GOG, HumbleStore and other sites.

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This is our release trailer I made a week before release:

Here are some new screenshots:

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Now here's hoping the game will be at least a small success for us, so we can get on with game developing! Thank to Unity, and its community, for helping me out when I had problems!

Kind regards,
ratking