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General discussionTrine 3 devs apologize and explain the shortness of their game(87 posts)(87 posts)
(87 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 23, 2015
So at the cost of being full 3D, which I already didn't like, it's very short and unfinished. Well, that's one way to squander the success of your series. I hope they make another one, and go back to the sidescrolling model. Then again I myself (and I'm a big fan of Trine) won't buy this one untill it's something like -80%, so I don't know how likely they are to make another one.
Posted August 23, 2015
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Crosmando: 5.4 sounds a hell of a lot of money for what looks to be a very simple game. Something tells me they overpaid their employees or just have really bad management, or both.
They have over 70 employees. If they paid each one 2K EUR per month for 2 years that would be about 3,360,000 EUR for those 2 years. 2K EUR is a relatively low salary in Finland. I would assume that many of the employees were paid more than 2K per month. They could have easily ran out of money if 5.4 M EUR was all they had.

And this is just for the salary. Include other expenses over the two years development cycle and you could easily reach 5 M EUR.
Post edited August 23, 2015 by Elenarie
Posted August 23, 2015
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Breja: , so I don't know how likely they are to make another one.
It's likely to be the last Trine... It took 3 years to make the 3rd episode and it's very much likely the passage to 3d was to implement new game/level design ideas, otherwise it would have felt like a Trine 2.5

They won't financially recover from this so their next game will probably be a new IP with a much smaller budget. In their IP portfolio they only have Splot (for mobiles) and Shadowgrounds so they can't really rely on them to make big bucks on the current PC market. They could however pull out the wild card by doing a top-down shooter but with Trine-like visuals (that would be the anti-thesis of Hatred ^o^). I'm really curious what their next move will be (or just plain bankruptcy....)
Posted August 23, 2015
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catpower1980: They could however pull out the wild card by doing a top-down shooter but with Trine-like visuals
Like a more colorful Gauntlet? Or Get Medieval Reloaded, with the Trine characters talking. :D
Posted August 23, 2015
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Elenarie: They have over 70 employees. If they paid each one 2K EUR per month for 2 years that would be about 3,360,000 EUR for those 2 years. 2K EUR is a relatively low salary in Finland. I would assume that many of the employees were paid more than 2K per month. They could have easily ran out of money if 5.4 M EUR was all they had.

And this is just for the salary. Include other expenses over the two years development cycle and you could easily reach 5 M EUR.
70 employees is huge for a single indie studio working on 1 game, and a 3d platformer at that.

For comparison, InXile Entertainment has between 30-40 people and are working on WL2 Director's Cut, Torment AND Bard's Tale 4.
Posted August 23, 2015
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Lets see if they ban me for my comment. I'm tired of devs thinking they can short everyone just because they mismanage funds and hire tards to work by the hour instead of by the project. They should be working in their spare time on their own dime to get it done. It's probably the artists. Those dumbasses usually end up causing these problems with their commissions/fees.
Posted August 23, 2015
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MaximumBunny: Lets see if they ban me for my comment.
They can perma-ban your from the steam game forum?

Anyway, I doubt they would do that as your comment (I've read it) is the usual type of steam comment, otherwise they would have to ban half of the forumers :o)
Posted August 23, 2015
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Dalswyn: Am I wrong or is it not far off the average playtime for the first two games?
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GR00T: I've no idea. I just know it would likely take me longer, as I tend to be a lot slower than many people in most games I play.
According to HLT:
http://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=10651
http://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=15660

Trine 1 and 2 seem to be on average a couple of hours longer with completed story only, much more so with all the bells and whistles.
Posted August 23, 2015
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GR00T: I've no idea. I just know it would likely take me longer, as I tend to be a lot slower than many people in most games I play.
Well, YOU ARE GR00T! after all...
Posted August 23, 2015
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apehater: hmm ... why do they have to apologize again?
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HereForTheBeer: From a publicity standpoint they felt they had to say SOMEthing, and the "Screw them" or "Apologize" coin toss came up tails. XD

I see this as a contradiction:

"We have squeezed everything we could into the game, there's nothing left on the table."

Followed right after by:

"We initially had a much longer story written and more levels planned..."

You DID leave stuff on the table: the "much longer story" and "more levels". Yes, I realize there's a reason for that: the budget. But by their own words they had fully intended from the start to make a significantly longer game - presumably at a similar price point - and development costs got in the way of that. The snipped content is what got left on the table, and that's the crux of the complaints.

Same price, a lot less content. But I hear it looks really pretty...
i just meant, they feel somehow guilty, but they shouldn't there are far worse games where you pay 50 bucks at release and get a boring 6 hour gameplay game. and i can't remember that i've seen an apologize for such games, example: bioshock infinite.
Posted August 23, 2015
I'd rather have a short game that is fun and enjoyable instead of a 30+ hours run of boredom. Plus Trine 3 doesn't have an AAA pricetag, so yeah, I am fine with the way it is. :)
Posted August 23, 2015
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Rhineland: I'd rather have a short game that is fun and enjoyable instead of a 30+ hours run of boredom. Plus Trine 3 doesn't have an AAA pricetag, so yeah, I am fine with the way it is. :)
They just told you they're disappointed with what they put out, you don't have to defend them any more.
Posted August 23, 2015
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Elenarie: They have over 70 employees.
Why???
I was really surprised that Trine 3 had cost 5.4 Million USD and now I read they employ over 70 people. In the last 5 Years the developed Trine 2 in 2011 and Splot (which is really just a little mobile game) and now Trine 3. So we have two plattformers in 5 years.
Larian Studios employs 70 people too and they made Divinity Sin, Dragon Commander and worked on the Divinity II: Developers Cut in the last five years.

I wish Frozenbyte the best, but 5,4 Million USD and four years development for one plattformer? This will not work out. The must sell more than 300.000 games at full price just to get the invested money back - without earning a single penny. I didn't preorder the game because I don't like Early access and Frozenbyte is way to quick giving games away to bundles.
Posted August 23, 2015
I appreciate FB's honesty despite the reviews and short gameplay. I don't mind a short platformer, hell the game is also a steal at that price too, I only hope they still have resources for Mac and Linux versions, if those get released I'll buy the game regardless of what everyone says.
Posted August 23, 2015
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timppu: So before we continue, how short is "short"?

...the lady asked.
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GR00T: This is what the devs said in the linked thread:

...generally around 6-7 hours is what we think new players will spend with the game on average. We're aware that some players have completed the game in less than that, 4-5 hours for example, and we accept that.
The first two games were about that long as well.
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General discussionTrine 3 devs apologize and explain the shortness of their game(87 posts)(87 posts)
(87 posts)