I think Early Access will help us make a better game, as the players have already caught an immense number of bugs and given us a lot of suggestions and things to think about.

A big challenge for us has been the optimization of the game – 3D has made it quite a bit more demanding on hardware, so it’s good that we’re getting info from a wide range of devices from different users. There’s also been a few strange glitches that have only appeared on certain hardware or certain combinations (like a weird screen flicker issue which took a few days to figure out). Overall, we’ve had a very positive start and we’ll continue to update the content and making the game run smoother throughout the Early Access period. The end-result will hopefully speak for itself!

The Team

Trine 3 © Frozenbyte, 2015

We’re currently a company of 76 employees, and the team working on Trine 3 is about 60 people. So it’s a very big project for us and keeping the production on track is a load of work for our producers, who also tackle a number of other projects at the same time.

Our main problems with Trine 3 have been related to the 3D transition, and how the gameplay with different characters works with the added dimension – especially the Wizard and Thief have had their share of design iterations which in turn have presented challenges to level design and enemy design. On a production of this scale, everything affects something.

Promoting And Financing Trine 3

We’ve had good success with the Trine series on a variety of platforms, it’s been on nearly all possible (big) consoles like Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Wii U (with the exception of Xbox One), as well as Win/Mac/Linux and Android, so there’s a good number of people who’ve bought the game. The revenue from different versions of the game have given us the necessary financing, but it’s been a while since we’ve done a full new game release, so the money from the previous Trine games is slowing down of course. Everything we get from the Early Access is going to be used for Trine 3 development as well.

Trine 3 © Frozenbyte, 2015

Promoting the Trine series has been easier throughout the years, as the sequels have given us an existing fan base to work with. For new IP’s, promotion is a lot more difficult and requires thinking outside the box. It’s never easy. Some of our local friends have had lots of trouble getting noticed by the gamers and press, and they’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just the fact that they have to fight with so many other games and established companies and brands.

You can expect the final game later on in 2015! Right now the title is available in Steam Early Access. This Early Access version is launched with four levels in total: two Story levels, one Challenge Level and one experimental “amusement park” where physics go wild.