Trine 3 devs respond to criticisms in a new video

Whatever your opinions on Trine 3, we can't help but feel a pang of sympathy for its developer, Frozenbyte. Since its release on the 20th August, the game has sparked a largely negative response on Steam, with complaints about Trine 3's brevity, cliffhanger ending, and newly-added 3D elements.

Frozenbyte's head Joel Kinnunen has already taken to Steam's boards to explain why the game wasn't as many of its fans wasn't all they'd expected. The studio's now followed that up with a new video, which responds to the furious complaints over Trine 3's abrupt conclusion.

"In hindsight, our biggest mistake was that we didn't let you all know that we had plans to split the game's story into different parts, or that the game would be shorter than previous games in the Trine series," marketing manager Kai Tuovinen. He goes on to explain that, while the studio didn't quite know what form the next parts of the story would take - a free update, paid-for DLC, a full-blown sequel - they planned to continue it if the response to Trine 3 was sufficiently positive. It's now clear that those plans are on hold. 

"We've screwed up in the minds of everybody, and it's difficult to bounce back from that," Tuovinen contines. "I'll bite the bullet and blame myself [...] Now that everybody hates us, our plans for the continuation for the series are completely on hold at this point."

This clearly wasn't a fun video to make, and the low morale is plain to see. As VG247 points out, it's a reminder of how fragile even an established studio like Frozenbyte can be; even after 15 years of making popular games, just one poorly-received title can leave a company reeling. We remain hopeful that Frozenbyte will absorb the impact of Trine 3 and move forward - remember Shadowgrounds: Survivor? That was a great game.