Developer Chat – Jana Reinhardt Talks About Beautiful Triangular Puzzler ‘TRI’

Like many games before it, TRI is a game that evolved out of a game jam. Specifically Ludam Dare 20, which took place back in 2011. The original game is still playable with downloadable builds available for Windows and Mac as well as an in-browser version. Rat King Entertainment was pleased enough with the final build and players were enjoying it quite well (32,000+ plays on Kongregate) that it was decided that the concept of TRI should be made into a full-fledged title.

TRI is a first-person puzzler that has players creating triangular platforms that essentially function as the pieces needed to solve the puzzles presented to them.

Rat King Entertainment has released purchasable Alpha-builds of TRI for players to check out and support the developers a bit as they work on completing the game. Earlier this week, the latest major content update was released and with it, Rat King Entertainment hopes to collect enough funds for them to efficiently finish the game and prepare it for the end of the year launch. The update introduces the Monk character alongside the already existing Fox.

I was able to chat with developer Jana Reinhardt a bit about TRI, and what players can expect from the game.

IGM: There are currently 12 levels in TRI, how many do you plan to have by release?

Reinhardt: We planned 15 levels, which will be finished soon. There will be a final level and two levels that have additional puzzle mechanics, like force fields which either prevent the player, light rays, or kami ghosts from going through. Then our game is complete and will finally reach beta phase.

IGM: How much has the concept of TRI evolved, since it’s initial design?

Reinhardt: That was our problem from the beginning of the production. “We have the gameplay, now what?” More levels, a different look from the typical “test chambers” style, a story? Those three parts were a hard process and took many different approaches. In the end we realized that the first look (from the game jam game) might even be the best one and we reduced everything in TRI to the things you really need to play it.

IGM: How does the Monk character fit into TRI’s story?

Reinhardt: Monk and Fox are old rivals, like in common fables. None of them are evil, but you don’t exactly know what their motivation is. Their old dispute is about the TRIs the player is using as platforms. The Monk is the one that guides you in this world. He wants you to chase/imprison the Fox, who you will see several time in the game.

At the moment both of them are just in some places and you don’t really experience a story at the moment. They are just implemented to give you an idea how we are going to use them.Because story is such an important but also fickle thing, we want to take more time to do this right, which will happen when the game is beta. The gameplay and people testing TRI is more important to us…right now.

IGM: Beyond the Monk character, what does the latest update add into the game?

Reinhardt: We added: three levels, better designs, fixed a lot of level design and gameplay issues, made it possible for players to interact with us via F11 while playing to instantly send us their bug reports, more music, and because of the huge request the soundtrack is available this time, as well.

Follow Jana Reinhardt on Twitter and visit the official TRI website where the new pre-Beta build can be purchased for $10.