Triptych mod for Crysis

2 comments by C-zom on May 25th, 2012

A few must be wondering, who still remain to care, what is happening with Triptych. I'll cut to the chase: Chapter II has had a very strange journey. When originally it was planned to release a few months after the first, we had a build that was 60% done. The levels were looking good, the concept was holding, and the story was paced really well, with extreme polish added to pacing and immersing the players in what was basically going to be "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" with our own spin of things. And then, a lot happened. Immediately after releasing media, the fanbase complained that concept contributor and chapter 2/3 editor Ian Wiese was putting in a highly unfavorable voice acting performance as one of the leading characters, Dorian Caulm.

Confused as a studio, we had to battle with ourselves to get an answer. We had released his VA to sound reviews in Chapter 1, and somehow even unchanged, the community grew violent against it for the second act. So we sought a replacement, and after a month of auditions, Edwyn Tiong got the role. He is famous for an unbelievable arsenal of works (~300 roles or contributions), but many felt that he would not be able to accurately portray a stoic, but villainous, character. Regardless, Ian Wiese was replaced, and a half hour of recorded dialog was deleted and redone (and rewritten, mind you, entirely) with Edwyn Tiong at the helm of Dorian's role. This alone took weeks to transition to.

While auditions and recordings ran back to back, Chapter 2 sat in idleness and eventually was deleted altogether and replaced by the current build whose media you're only just now starting to see. A darker, drearier atmosphere replaces the photo realistic "Rage"/"Cel-shaded" look we originally were aiming for. Desert plains became caves, tunnels became catacombs, crypts became... worse. All of this redesign has been done by one level designer, *ahem*, and takes eons of time. But a much more sinister and evil atmosphere awaits those who will play, and it may even wind up being darker and more Stygian than even the third chapters ghoulish approach to things, which will surprise everyone who is familiar with our horror projects. 

And now we are getting healthy. The story has been rewritten from the ground up with tons of brainstorming by myself, ads the author, Ian Wiese as an ever-present contributor to the themes behind the second and third chapters, and a remarkable amount of literal/grammar/pacing editing done by Seaglass, of Aoife Gray fame. Edwyn Tiong has given us a tremendous amount of lines without a single complaint, trailers are starting to form out of the rocky surface of the newly designed levels, and pretty soon it will be done, as Chapter 2 will only be about an hour long. How soon? I cannot say for sure, but my gut tells me around the end of July will see a very polished and happily sent-to-sea release.

This isn't really a media news post, mind you, more of that will probably come June 1st. We're gonna release a ton of screen-shots, a second fleshed out trailer, and some story samples for you guys to have fun with, and to convince you this all isn't smoke and mirrors. I hope my explanation for the rocky road makes sense, as its been pretty ridiculous, but things are finally on the upswing.