Triptych mod for Crysis

3 comments by C-zom on Apr 16th, 2013

Triptych development continues to steadily rise towards a release, which is aimed comfortably at a Q3 2013 window. The continual maturation of the level design and themes is creating a fundamental consistency that was absent in 2012 builds of the game. Tonality, music, sound design and gameplay are all meshing together for a more uniform Lovecraftian/Occult experience. That said, there is still plenty for me to do and add to Triptych before I'm comfortable releasing it to the public, or even beta testing it among our staff in DCS.

It has come to my attention that people were unhappy with the amount of advertisement we were doing for Triptych, and I agree. We weren't showing enough of the levels or enough trailers, so I've fixed both of those problems below in the start of a massive media campaign.

One final trailer is being cooked up specifically tailored to newcomers of the mod, or people who don't "get" the story. It uniformly explains what the mod is entirely about and what kind of themes it tackles in a subtle, isolated way with trailer-specific levels and audio and music that you won't see in the game.

Triptych is a Lovecraftian horror/adventure that tells the tale of two brothers, Jeremiah and Dorian Caulm, and their experience in the occult since a young age. Upon visiting an ancient cemetery lost to the world, betrayal separates the two in a fork on the road and each brother ventures forward in their own way, experiencing Lovecraftian horror in deeply seeded occult themes along the way. The tale intersects between both brothers in splits (or creases) across time. A visitation to a supposedly lost civilization; a hellish dreamscape in a frozen town of Providence; the continual return to whatever truly happened in the Ipswich Insane Asylum; the Arid deserts of Egypt; and many, many more places are trekked through.

Triptych is developed and written for fans of Lovecraftian horror, as well as fans of Nietzsche, Crowley, the general occult/esoteric side of things, Sumerian, Gnostic, and Pagan themes. Things tend to get seriously dark and nuanced in Dark Craft Studios' stories, with a focus on mature and poignant atmosphere.

Our 'games' are a bridge between, say, Dark Corners of the Earth levels of story and interaction and Dear Esther style walking/listening/exploration. We don't tread heavily on combat, stealth, puzzles or anything else too much even though those aspects are present. We are a story-first developer.

Unlocked: 500 Trackers: Guaranteed release of a "story package" next to Triptych. All storyboards, scripts, screenplays, some old drafts, old lines, new voice acting, and in-game book pages in an easy to read format.

Unlocked: 525 Trackers: A play through of Triptych will recorded in a series of videos, with Dark Craft Studios developer bantering over it, from Glenn, Ian, and hopefully some supporting staff on the week of Triptych's release.

550 Trackers: Reaching 550 trackers will show rebooted interest from the community to us, and will allow us to release a "Final" Triptych demo. It'll be a repeat of last year's, but with the final builds of Chapter 1 and it's two flanking cut scenes. It will demonstrate all the things we've polished up in the year since the last demo including our new user interface, install process, book reading system, sound engine and more.

575 Trackers: Reaching this tier will unlock a full-fledged developer commentary by Glenn to be added as an optional feature in the Triptych install, revealing hours of detail in the story, level design, and coding processes and world creation.

600 Trackers: The highest of our planned rewards. If Triptych reaches 600 or beyond an illustrated .pdf release of ten short stories all set within the universe of Triptych, utilizing side characters or expanded mythos, will be written by the Triptych writing staff. A daunting collection of eerie, mysterious, thought provoking flash fiction stories as our compliments to you -- the fans -- for supporting us, allowing you to learn more about the world cultivated in this mod.