Because "gamers".

It's possible the levels are done and completely ready to play....

And then you're just lacking the models, the animations for the models, the polish, and any semblance of looking livable...

I'm reminded of Morrowind when the game can't find a model or texture, it has some default ones: HUGE FREAKING YELLOW EXCLAMATION POINTS!. Yeah those were to help find where models/meshes/textures were missing, but often in levels they have a lot of placeholder objects until they can make or put in the ones they want. The Trine series doesn't feel like they make and reuse the same models a hundred times for every level, instead there are many shared models and unique ones for individual levels (much like how sonic and megaman games worked).

So it's not really a contradiction... But overreaching is obviously what happened.

Hmmm extra credits comes to mind about the minimum viable product, and then adding to that... and if it wouldn't work as a minimum product for prototyping and testing, then you probably should figure out why before you invest a lot of money into it.

They squeeze everything their budget allow.

The longer story and levels is just in paper, to convert them into the game require 10 million more. They left nothing on the table that can be charged as DLC.

Wow, people are really going overboard in that thread, it's not like Frozenbyte released a broken game and are censoring the forums like some other much more deserving developers on Early Access or green light.

It is pretty. I've played the pirated copy of Trine 3 and beaten (legit) Trine 1 and 2, that's why I was interested so dearly.

The fact that it's so short really turns me off. I'll buy when it's 75% off on Steam later - perhaps sooner than later.

I gave me another reason to not preorder a game.

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My interpretation of "nothing left on the table" refers to the piles of money they had to develop the game and ran out of.
I did completionist runs through both Trine 1 and 2. I own Trine 1 on GOG so have no idea what my time was as there was no way to keep track at the time (and technically Galaxy's time tracking is still broken so still inaccurate at best), but Trine 2 I own on Steam and did the Complete Story in 51 hours playing as a completionist including the bonus aftergame content.

howlongtobeat.com gives useful numbers for both the first games including for straight playthroughs, completionist runs and speed runs to get a better idea of what to expect. Trine 3 appears to be between 3-7 hours long depending on the gamer, which for me coupled with other negatives I read in comprehensive Steam reviews makes Trine 3 a dud to pass on for me, at least until it shows up in a bargain bin Bundlestars bundle or similar. GOG generally doesn't do rock bottom throwaway pricing like that though.

I can't stand the South crap and Total...... videos in every game discussion thread on the Steam forum .

From what I've seen the game looks awful, which to me is more of a problem than the shortness.
Although the shortness coupled with the high regional pricing is a bit of an issue, but still if it was at least amazingly fun to play...
And when I say the game looks awful, I mean awful as in something I really have no desire to play.
Graphically it looks very nice.

As much as I enjoyed the first game, I did not get the hype around it. It's a fun game but it was not the bees knees.

I am sad that it isn't as long as I would like, although I think they did a really great job otherwise with the transition to 3D which honestly ruins most of the 2D games we have come to love. I hope that someday they can increase the length and if nothing else the next game should be somewhat easier to make with the assets-models, game engine improvements, etc. I was one who preordered it and I am still happy with it. Guess it becomes a lot more difficult when you start trying to make what should be a AAA game and you are still an indie studio with the restrictions in budget that make it difficult to make the game you dream of.

Thus a wise man said 'don't change a winning formula'.

ouch that sounds kinda tough - spending the triple amount of money for a somehow "inferior" game than Trine 2. They just should have sticked to the the concept and principles of Trine 2 and created a "big" Trine V2.5 instead of "rushing" (gameplay and budgetwise) the 3D concept and by this rather releasing a concept demo than a really polished game

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.