Trine Trailer
Written by Jim Rossignol on December 7, 2008 at 10:52 am.

Trine is a physics-based fantasy platform adventure that looks really rather good. The press blurb explains the main concept: “Trine is a fantasy action game where the player can create and use physics-based objects to beat hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. Set in a world of great castles and strange machinery, three heroes are bound to a mysterious device called the Trine in a quest to save the kingdom from evil…”
Anyway, that physics action makes it a rather splendid puzzler – a kind of Crayon Physics meets Prince Of Persia – so take a look at the trailer after the jump for elucidation. The game is due to hit in Q2 next year.
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Trezoristo says:
Looks fun and has some pretty catchy music too. I hope they manage to integrate the platforming with the physics-puzzling in a way that makes neither feel like a drag when playing.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Very pretty. For some reason it makes me think of Overlord – could be the title font and the forest design.
I wonder if there’s a mechanic to stop you from hovering a wall beneath you to ‘magic carpet’ your way across the level
December 7th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Jim Rossignol says:
Yeah, it’s got the same kind of cartoon neon-edged look as Overlord.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Naurgul says:
It looks very good. Of course, the ever-present problem with these games is whether the premise will be realised or not. Still, keep us informed on this one, RPS overlords! ;)
December 7th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Chris R says:
Interesting… I wonder how the controls feel, switching from the mouse to draw the outlines for objects, and then back to the keyboard to make the jump, etc.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Great idea and nice atmosphere, looks very promising.
Certainly looking forward to it.
Edit: btw, what happened to saturday (yesterday)’s part of 12 games of christmas?
December 7th, 2008 at 11:17 am
For some reason, reminds me of the first 2 Oddworld games. Which can only be a good thing.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:22 am
We the people demand a demo! Although I bet the crayon physics dude is now looking at this going, “why the hell didn’t I think of that!”
December 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
The guy with the sword looks sort of like the Overlord, too.
Anyway, that was lovely! I’m not normally into platformers, but I loved how seamless the physics were in that, and how organic the animations and visuals were. I’ll echo Trez’s comment about the music. ’s nice.
Thanks for pointing this out, RPS, and I look forward to a demo!
December 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
dartt says:
There’re some beautiful animations there. I wonder if I’ll have the wit to think up some of the moves it shows in the trailer when I play it, I’ll probably just end up stacking boxes to bypass every obstacle…
December 7th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
@Jahkaivah
So far, it’s about even – they’re both video games.
December 7th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Also just noticed something looking at the trailer again. There appear to be 3 classes, Ranger, Warrior, Wizard and you can freely switch between them.
Wizard can summon objects and levitate, Ranger can shot and use a grapple hook, Warrior can hit things.
(kinda obvious but didn’t observe it first time round)
@MeestaNob!
My god…. really?
December 7th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Why is there so much negativity towards LittleBigPlanet on here?
December 7th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I’m really enjoying LittleBigPlanet, as and when I can get a good group via the Tubes.
Its platforming is a little gitchy however, and could have done with some tightening.
This, btw, looks gorgeous. Yay for 2.5d. Although the main character animations seems a little off.
December 7th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Kieron Gillen says:
Fede: Christmas celebration posts are weekdays only. At the weekend, we rest, with tea and biscuits.
Tasty tea.
KG
December 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I wasn’t too excited until it got to 1:00 by which point I was pawing at the screen and mewling. Kind of like when Konnie Huq, Tamsin Greig or (bizarrely) Rik Mayll appear or the telly.
Do want!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I’m trine to think of a reason I shouldn’t get excited. Can’t think of one.
Ho ho ho.
December 7th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
oh me god – oh my god – could this be the NEXT WOG? :D
December 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Been looking forward to this ever since I first read about it. Nice to see some video too, looks really great.
December 7th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
This does look rather special, ta for the heads up RPS!
December 7th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The Crayon Physics dude worked for them (Frozenbyte) before showing it to the man and going independent, right?
December 7th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Xyzzy says:
Looks excellent. Might have to pick it up after I get a new GFX card.
December 7th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Looks really nice, but I’m getting sick of the Indie Physics genre
December 7th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
BeamSplashX says:
Maybe Trine will be so good that everyone else cancels their indie physics projects and makes hentai physics games.
December 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I don’t know BeamSplashX, there’s just not much ground to cover there. I mean, once you’ve played one upskirt simulator you’ve pretty much played them all. And there’s not much else to do with physics in a hentai game.
Unless you want to get into fluid dynamics, well then let’s just not go there.
December 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Made by the shadowgrounds guys? Get me a 100mb demo and 50kb of critical analysys stat!
December 7th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Brian says:
Neato! Looks like Contra meets Diablo meets Crayon Physics!
December 7th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Never expected something this awesome from the Shadowgrounds devs. I can’t wait, I only hope it remains a fun adventure and doesn’t lose its charm while trying to push the “innovation” (physics-drawing-puzzles) too much. Ie, hopefully it stays Prince of Persia-esque like you say, rather than become a puzzle game halfway through, like say, Vagrant Story.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I dunno, if it’s anything like Shadowgrounds they’ll take the same fun mechanic and just keep running with it. I doubt there’ll be much more innovation than you see in the trailer (which is plenty I think).
To me, that’s the beauty of Shadowgrounds – simple fun. You’ve seen it all before – now do it in a single video game for hours on end! Kind of like playing Combat Arms without the six-year-old idiot hackers.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
I haven’t checked but I get the feeling that this game isn’t American or Japanese. I’m guessing European and probably central European.
I Don’t what what it is about it but it has a quality that somehow Jap or Yank games always lack.
December 8th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Update: Just checked Frozenbyte on Wikipedia. Finish. So i was a little south in my estimate but just about the right longitude.
December 8th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Man, that’s pretty charming. I’ve been charmed!
But the cynic-worm in me thinks it’ll end up console-only.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Jim Rossignol says:
Balls to cynic-worm! These boys are PC stalwarts.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Kieron Gillen says:
The opposite. With the control system they’re showing, I don’t think it’d work at all on a console.
KG
December 8th, 2008 at 11:54 am
You mean it’s not about building a railway across Australia?
December 8th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Trine is a physics-based fantasy platform adventure that looks really rather good.
Really rather good?
December 8th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Rei Onryou says:
Really rather good is a staple comment for games that are genuinely good looking due to gameplay, rather than the generic “it looks good”. Should be in the dictionary really.
This looks fun in the way World of Goo makes you coo everytime you complete a level. I’d be interested in seeing where this leads…
December 8th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
looks alright, but I would really like to see a more 3d game on this premise.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I think it looks splendid, and the waterwheel/plank physics had me giggling with girlish glee.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Btw, the end of the cinematic clearly promises “Coming to Playstation Network and PC”.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
The one comparison that immediately hit me was not to Overlord but to Blizzard’s The Lost Vikings (three classes, each with differing special abilities all of whom have to work together and be swapped between, in order to bypass different interesting environments). Sure Vikings used a cartoony graphics style and this looks very much more pretty, but you know, I would have expected that after 16 years. From a gameplay perspective though, these look very similar.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:36 am






Looks quite lovely.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:01 am