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[overhead]

Updated April 2013!

Our first-person 3D environment exploration&puzzle game TRI is still under development, but a big portion of the gameplay is now implemented and there are already several levels fully playable. You can download a demo with one level, or fund us by paying $5 (you get access to the alpha)!

Along with the usual FPS gameplay (walking, jumping, grabbing stuff), TRI mainly features the ability to create triangles. With these, you will be able to reflect light rays and deadly lasers, redirect little flying ghosts and also walk on walls and ceilings.

More infos on WWW.TRI-GAME.COM

Follow @RatKingsLair on Twitter

[Craig Stern]

I am going to go ahead and suggest that you name this game Tri Again.

[overhead]

Haha, great idea. Our current favorite right now was "Tri and Error", but it's not really fitting for a fantasy themed game. :)

[overhead]

Devlog entry 1:

OK, this is the current state:

This is not only not much, but also ugly. I apologize. My artist and I are working independently from each other - she is doing concept arts, research and whiterooms, while I'm testing stuff in my little testlevel. I mainly try to script the following things now (in C#):

• A new character controller - the ones I used before, found in Unity itself or in the Unify wiki, are not suited for my needs, so I have to create one myself. This is something I don't look forward to, but it has to be done. :(
• The triangle gameplay from the first game. It has to be re-created, as I don't want to just copy the code from a 48h contest entry, and I want to make it better. You create the triangles in the original TRI with a gun much like the portal gun, which was awkward to use sometimes. Our new fantasy setting will allow the use of "magic" and probably make the process of setting three dots in the world more streamlined. At least I hope so.

This is it, and it will need more than enough time to do these two things. After that, I'll try to re-create the lasers, which won't be lasers anymore in Tri 2. :)

Regards,
overhead

[C]

Posting to follow.

 

[Pemanent]

stalking this thread. 
Tri Again. I second that.

[overhead]

Devlog entry 2:

OK, a little update. The FPS character controller (rigidbody-based) and the ability to create triangles are in the game again, although both parts are not finished and won't be in a long time. I think these are so important as core elements that I will work on them occasionally throughout the whole development, but for now they function good enough in order to make some gameplay videos for our planned crowdfunding campaign ...

Because I already made a first person game with triangles, programming the same elements in "Tri 2" feels more like polishing than actual creating. And I hate the polishing part. :P But at least it's worth it - for example, the triangle creation process feels much better now. You can control each of the three points individually by just dragging them. It reminds me of a 3D modelling program, which might not be very immersive, but at least it works better than before and can now be refined until it feels more natural - like a game with magic stuff.

As long as the current triangle is invalid, ie. it either intersects with other geometry or its sides are too long, it's transparent and intangible:

left: valid triangle / right: triangle intersecting static geometry
(Yes, the texture is the standard Unity refraction example texture. :P)

This week, I want to recreate the lasers. They will be just normal rays of light in Tri 2, and shine through holes in the walls. They probably will activate doors and other things via crystals which have to be focused or so. In order to bring more variety to the game, we plan to have more elements which have to be reflected with the triangles, like particle streams or even falling rocks and other objects. Time will tell.

Regards,
overhead

PS: Unfortunately, there already is a "Tri 2 - Tri Again" ... But as I said, I'd rather want a name which fits to a fantasy theme. :)

[overhead]

Devlog entry 3:

The basic functionality of the rays of light is finished (again: more or less). This means they get generated as soon as the game starts and they can be reflected via created triangles. As soon as they hit a wall, the player, or another object, they get cut off. Obviously they don't do anything relevant for now, but as soon as I have to implement the actual gameplay in the levels, they (hopefully) will be able to activate crystals and/or kill enemies and the player. Perhaps they even will heat something, or shed light on things ...
BTW, as opposed to the lasers in the original TRI the rays of light can get weaker the longer they are, which means they have a maximum length. And - for aesthetic purposes - they can get wider or more narrow, so it looks more like they come from natural light sources.

Two different coloured light sources get reflected.

I began implementing the rays by using the standard LineRenderer from Unity. This produced some problems (like distorted UVs, and they don't look too great if you frontally stare into the ray source). I now generate them procedurally by creating meshes formed like cylinders (or cones); later I will allow more shapes which might look interesting. Of course there also is generally a lot to do on the art side, right now the rays are not very pretty to look at. I think about giving each light ray part a spotlight, but this probably won't be healthy for the perfomance, even with deferred lighting and all.

Left: UV distortion in LineRenderer, thanks to affine transformation. Or whatever.
Right: Current light ray implementation with cylinders, with debug lines activated.

But my biggest enemy for now is transparency. With the triangles having a nice refraction shader and so on, they have some serious problems with transparent objects - like themselves, the particle effects, and the light rays. Thanks to sorting issues it never looks right, and my current solution (drawing the rays in front of the tris) isn't the best as you can't see any light rays which might be behind your own triangles. :/

Transparency sorting issues.

As soon as I have time again I want to add two features to Tri 2 which weren't originally in the first TRI: walking on walls, and reflecting objects which fly in constant curves. These features hopefully will have a little surprise-effect for those who might watch our gameplay video - the one we want to make for the crowdfunding campaign.

Unfortunately, I'm sure I won't post a new entry next week, because there will be not much time to work on Tri 2. For example, the Global Game Jam will commence, and I'm not only participating but also co-organizing our site in Leipzig. \o/ I'm also trying to port our first iOS game, Pitman, back to PC - just for fun and because some people really liked it.

Regards,
overhead

[John Sandoval]

I am intrigue.

[Taugeshtu]

my biggest enemy for now is transparency.

BTW, mine too. Just post there if you'll found proper solution (except switching to UDK, it's inacceptable for me for numerous reasons)

Concept's nice, other than that I don't really know what to say - just best of luck, guys)

P.S.
Looooooove 3d indie. It's rare, and usually well-done.

[Andy Wolff]

I like your triangles
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▲ ▲

[overhead]

Thank you very much. ;)

BTW, the artist of our little company maintains the indieDB page of Tri 2, and uploaded some concept art.

[Taugeshtu]

Whoa! That is absolutely type of fantasy I was hoping you'll use. Guys, I looooove you!

But! If triangle had limited ende length, wouldn't it be painful to "buil" them in such opened areas? (I mean big space under the square/brigde at 3D pic)

[Ashkin]

Hello, what is this beautiful thing and why have you been hiding it from me.

[overhead]

Guys, I looooove you!

We love you too! <3
(Seriously, your project looks amazing!)

But! If triangle had limited ende length, wouldn't it be painful to "buil" them in such opened areas? (I mean big space under the square/brigde at 3D pic)

It's really just concept art right now, so the actual levels will be more suited for the gameplay. For example, we plan to place posts, beams, columns, pillars, etc., loosely distributed in the room in order to provide anchor points for the triangles. Of course, this isn't the only alternative, I'd also like to see more freeform gameplay without handholding. There will be narrow places with many possibilities to build the tris, and very wide places for more ... atmospheric reasons.

Hello, what is this beautiful thing and why have you been hiding it from me.

We thought you would steal it from us! ;)