Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Indie Finnish developers Frozenbyte last caught our attention with their top-down shooter, Shadowgrounds, which was a little Aliens-y. Their latest game could scarcely be further way from that gloom and gunfire: Trine (as in “fine”) is a side-scrolling, puzzle-led, fairy-tale platformer, built in the Swiss-Army-character-swap tradition of Lost Vikings. But is it any good? And what’s with the pricing? Here’s Wot I Think.
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Crikey, as if you didn’t have enough to play this weekend already! Frozenbyte have released the first part of their forthcoming physics platform puzzler as a demo. It’s 460mb, and you can get it here. The full game is apparently out on July 3rd, and you can, should you be so inclined, compare your impressions of the demo with my own thoughts on the full game, which are here. Please do play this one, I thought it was splendid, and Frozenbyte are definitely a developer you should pay attention to.

In typically backward fashion, I managed to arrange a Q&A with FrozenByte’s Lauri Hyvärinen before I’d actually played their gorgeous platform game, Trine. Yeah, I’m a pro like that. Anyway, I’ve had a blast with our preview version of the game, as described here, and Hyvärinen makes things a bit clearer in his replies to my questions. He talks about the nature of non-essential co-op in the game, Crayon Physics, and the possibility of supporting “multiple mice and keyboards” for PC. Read on for more about this intriguing game, which looks like it belongs somewhere on the Venn diagram where Diablo, Lego Star Wars, and Crayon Physics overlap.

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Finnish developers Frozenbyte recently sent us an unfinished version of their forthcoming action adventure puzzler, Trine (rhymes with “fine”). I’ve been playing through the opening levels of this intriguing game – which is something like Lost Vikings in a lavish fantasy world, colliding with modern physics – and find myself entertained. Needless to say, written impressions follow.

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Frozenbyte’s beautiful-looking fantasy platformer-meets-Crayon Physics cleverness, Trine, is revealed in even more detail in their latest video. The footage shows the drawing-as-magic mechanic in more detail, as well as illustrating some of the co-op play that the game will offer. We’re quite excited about this one, and we’ll soon be talking to the team about their work in a splendid RPS interview.
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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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Frozenbyte, the developers behind the Shadowgrounds games, have found a niche in which they’re almost entirely alone. Which is strange, when you consider how very popular the top-down shooter once was. Too many have assumed it a dated concept, replaced by the first and third-person views. But Shadowgrounds nails it, providing non-stop shooting that replaces fiddliness with fun, but still looking awesome. The recent sequel, Survivor, pushed their home grown engine far further, showing off the improved physics and lighting in a game style that could have gotten away without including either. We took the chance to chat with Frozenbyte’s Joel Kinnunen, to discuss working outside of the mainstream, public perception of smaller budget gaming, the role online distribution plays in game development, what’s next for Frozenbyte, and the possibilities of a small-scale indie revolution.

RPS: Many people have asked you whether you were surprised by the success of Shadowgrounds. This always appears as a somewhat tacit insult – as if they can’t believe that a top-down action shooter could possibly have broad appeal today, and are asking you to defend it. Why do you think people are so resistant to “simpler” games?

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I’ve enjoyed this immensely: the half-hour time-limited demo of Shadowgrounds Survivor. It’s a 1gb download, but it’s well worth it, especially since I expect many of you will be tempted to sign up for the full game. Despite the Mr Magoo physics implementation and rather docile boss alien, this is a superb leap forward from the original co-op-focused top-down man-versus-aliens shooter. The pace and general polish has been upped and the overall urge to rollick onwards with your assault rifle is great. Completely and utterly recommended.

We should have an interview with Frozenbyte for you later in the week.