A demo has been compiled out of the modern development build of Triptych. An introduction flagged by a sombre soliloquy by Jeremiah Stone fades into a playable first Chapter. Its environments, themes, and art direction will be very familiar to those who played the last incarnation in the first quarter of the year, with a Scottish VA, rolling rock, and nonsensical story. However, this new Chapter 1 takes a much more Lovecraftian and cryptic approach to the story. You'll be exposed to Jeremiah's past, Necromancy, the disembodied and omnipresent voice of the (much featured in the mythos) antagonist. We use plenty of familiar tactics to illustrate the very unsettling beginnings to an enormous story.
Chapter 1 is story-first, but the other chapters are not. If you are disappointed with linearity or lack of puzzles, we are way, way ahead of you in adding those features to the meat of the game.
A lot of work has gone into reconsidering Chapter 1 without drastically changing it from its original intentions. Our improvements in visual layering and set piece design will hopefully impress the crowd who initially considered Chapter 1 to be aesthetically bland and sterile. Unfortunately, it is recommended that you possess a powerful gaming machine and have the ability to run it on High or Very High, as Triptych will be designed to push Crysis to its limits.
In any case, the chapter ends in a ghoulish fashion and loads into the Doom of Sarcon scene which has been finalized in full 1080p. This anticipates Chapter 2, which will be about uncovering the ruins and mysteries of this ancient civilization. The end of this scene is where the demo ends, but in the full release, you'll still have three full bodied cut scenes and five more hours worth of playable material before you reach the "end" (or the beginning, to be precise)
User feedback will be extraordinarily important. Suggestions will be heard and compiled, from features to level design to story quips. This demonstration is designed to show you guys where we've gotten to with this project since its first incarnation. This is not a representation of the final 6-8 hour release, there is a LOT of game and story packed into Triptych, over 60 pages worth of material in the story alone. Puzzles, horror, exploration and more are to come. Chapter 1 is linear by design.
Triptych will be released Holiday 2012 or Q1 2013 with a 6-8 hour campaign spanning an enormous, comprehensive story, marking the biggest release by Dark Craft Studios to date. There are still a multitude of features not present in the demo build which we will be showcasing in the final release, including a custom main menu UI and music much like Newport and self-extracting installer.
Second Leg of the Media Campaign
November will see the second leg of our extensive media campaign begin. Two more short stories in style of "The Moon" will be added directly to the features page. Afterward, two fictional books will be illustrated and added in .pdf form to a download here; "Caulm Brothers: Our Tales" where the player can read much of the backstory behind the protagonists and, also, a series of letters between Dorian Caulm and Edgar Gray.Once the story tier ends, we'll continue to release media of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, which up to this point has been non-extant. This will be heralded by a genuinely dark and foreboding "story trailer", in which the darker aspects of the Triptych narrative will be hinted at, including necromancy, an elder god, cosmic horror, and the pain between the two protagonists and cinematic shots of the darker set pieces.That will close off our media campaign for Triptych, which will see the last legs of polishing and development through the end of November and hopefully towards the Holiday 2012 release.
