The Trine trilogy seems to be heading to the Nintendo Switch. PEGI recently rated the “Trinelogy” and it’s likely that the initial three releases – Trine, Trine 2, and Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power – are included. Now the real question is when the official announcement will be made by developer Frozenbyte.

Currently, only Trine Enchanted Edition is available for the Switch. Trine 2: Complete Story and Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power will be out in the next few months. The ports aren’t done by Frozenbyte, but instead by BlitWorks, which is renowned for porting a variety of titles, like Super Meat Boy, Bastion, Don’t Starve, and so on, to other platforms.

Frozenbyte, in association with Modus Games, is currently developing Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince. The upcoming sequel is currently in development for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. It’s currently due to release in 2019, but details on its story and gameplay have yet to be revealed.

After spending several months in Steam Early Access, Frozenbyte’s Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is now officially available for one and all on PC. If you pick it up today, you’ll avail of a 10 percent discount on the launch price.

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power continues the series’ tradition of offering action role playing mixed with platforming and puzzle solving. You’ll have three characters – a Knight, Thief/Archer and Mage – which can be switched between to bypass different obstacles.

In co-op, each character can be controlled by a different player. The biggest difference in the three-quel is that it now incorporates 3D gameplay along with the classic 2D platforming. We’ll see how that works out when we get our hands on the game.

Linux and Mac iterations will release later this year for Trine 3. What are your thoughts on the game finally launching? Let us know below in the comments and stay tuned for more information.

The windows version of this game will be available on all your usual PC vendors such as Steam, GOG and Humble. It’s a safe bet those services will also be carrying the Mac and Linux version when they become available. There are also console versions in the works, though there hasn’t been any kind of a date announced for those versions just yet. Trine 3 is obviously the third in what is now a rather long running series that sees Amadeus The Wizard, Pontius The Knight and Zoya fighting to free themselves from the control of magical objects.

While they were working on getting free, they accidentally destroyed the Trine and have set a powerful and evil sorcerer on the world. Now the trio must work to fix the mistakes they made and the problems they created. While the game’s developers are upping the price a bit from it’s early access price point, it will also be including the official soundtrack. That will add about a dollar to the asking price but it’s still a game that is far from expensive. Trine 3 will be available for the PC in its full form on August 20.

The original Trine, which first launched in 2009, was published by Nobilis, the same group that published Trine: Enhanced Edition later. Frozenbyte worked with Atlus and Nintendo of Japan to publish Trine 2 on different platforms, but for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power we only know that Frozenbyte will be publishing the game for PC. Other platform publishers are yet to be announced.

Despite not having an official release date for the game in its finished form, PC players can now get the game early by way of Steams Early Access program. The finished build of the game currently has an estimated release window of Summer 2015.

At this time, Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is only slated for release on PC with other platforms to be announced, but with Trine 2 being available on Microsoft Windows PC’s, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Wii U, it’s likely that Trine 3 will eventually see a multiplatform release.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

The developers were asked why they brought their game to the Early Access scheme, speaking out by way of an Early Access blog listing on the Trine 3 Steam page, Frozenbyte answered, “Trine 3 is our first move towards 3D gameplay in the Trine series, so we wanted to get in touch with our player-base in an early enough phase to collect feedback on the new gameplay features, so we can tweak those into the right direction. Early Access can hopefully provide us with lots of players willing to do this.”

As mentioned above in the introduction portion of this Wiki, the game currently has no given release date, with only a vague summer release window in place. The game first went live to play on April 21st and the Early Access window, “will last approximately a few months.”

The Early Access build of Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power will have less content than the full build of the game which is aiming for a playtime of around 6-7 hours. Speaking about this, Frozenbyte said that, “The Early Access version will have the first two maps playable at launch, and the full version will be significantly longer. We hope to achieve at least 6-7 hours of total playable content for a first-time player with the full version.”

Another function of the Early Access build is to better optimize the game through the implementation of feedback on hardware specific performance. The developer has also said that the final build of the game will feature “working online-co-op” as well as a level editor and specialised challenge stages that are tied into the game’s main story.

At the time of writing, the Early Access build features the first two stages in the game, it also features local co-op functionality. While online co-op is included in the current build, it’s not yet been made bug-free. The game’s three main characters are all going to be available but with only their basic abilities in place. The developer has already said, “Overall, there are still many features that need tweaking and polishing.”

At this time, the game currently supports Windows only and can be played with both a keyboard and mouse or a controller. The final build of the game is likely going to be influenced by player feedback. “We want to listen to community feedback on the gameplay features, and hope to include them in deciding on things like balancing of the different character’s abilities, how the controls work and so on.”

Story

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power picks up the story with our three heroes. Amadeus The Wizard, Pontius The Knight and Zoya The Thief all coming to the decision that having their lives commanded by an item of magical power is not a worthwhile existence, and so they set about trying to free themselves from it.

In trying to do so, they somehow manage to shatter the Trine and now there’s  a heartless sorcerer on the prowl. Now our heroes must undo the damage they have wrought and prevent further problems.

Gameplay

The major gameplay change for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is that the game is now played in a 3D space, opposed to the more familiar 2D sidescrolling setting. This is the foremost change in how the game is played, however the camera will often swing around to give a side-view perspective of a 3D environment that players will move in.

Beyond this change in environment design and perspective, not much has changed. The Wizard still makes use of his powerful Magic to influence the game world and aid with progression through the stages. He also uses his powers to help combat enemies by hurling objects at them with levitation magic.

The Knight still serves as the dedicated melee class, bringing his sword and shield to the fray, slashing, bashing and shield floating his way through the game. The thief returns to fulfil the role of a rogue-esque character that makes use of her agility and bow to help navigate the game.

One of the games newest features is a series of challenge levels that will be unlocked which will feature all manner of challenges for players to complete.

Characters

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power features a primary cast of three returning characters, Amadeus, Pontius and Zoya, a wizard, a knight and a thief respectively.

• Amadeus The Wizard – Amadeus is a wizard of considerable skill, he just lacks the confidence.
• Pontius The Knight – A brave, if clumsy knight, Pontius proves to be a formidable force on the battlefield.
• Zoya The Thief – Zoya is an adventurous and thief of some repute. She brings a bow and a grappling hook into the fights which makes her somewhat more nimble than her armoured and magical counterparts.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Fans of Trine and Trine 2 will be pleased to know that, as promised, Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is now available to play on PC via Steam Early Access. This marks the first time that a game in the franchise has opened itself up to players this far out from its final release, and to the ensuing dialog that that entails.

“We’re doing a lot of firsts here – our first Early Access, our first full 3D adventure, and our first level editor release at launch. We hope to get a lot of feedback to make sure we focus on the right things, and we want to involve the community right from the start,” says Frozenbyte CEO Lauri Hyvärinen.
 
Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is available now on Steam Early Access for $19.99 / 19.99€ / £14.99, and a 10% discount is applied during the first week of the Early Access launch.  The final game is projected to release some time later this year, on PC and, as of right now, at least, unspecified consoles.
 

Frozenbyte Games has announced a new entry in the Trine series and it’s thankfully not another re-release of Trine 2. Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is pegged for release later this year and will be coming to PC and “other formats”. We’ll assume that means Xbox One and PS4 but check out the debut trailer in the meantime and ogle over the visuals.

The Trine games have sold more than 7 million copies in their lifetime which is pretty notable for a side-scrolling, fantasy action game. It’s notable for its unconventional three member group with one player capable of switching between the different characters. Alternatively, you can have three players working together, each players commanding a different class and solving puzzles along the way.

What are your thoughts on the announcement of Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information in the coming months.