Independent Gaming: Trilby: The Art of Theft

Monday, November 12, 2007

Yahtzee has just released his new game; a stealth platformer titled Trilby: The Art of Theft. It's the first game he's released since he started his weekly game review video-editorial Zero Punctuation.

The game stars Trilby, but is set in 1991, two years before Five Days a Stranger takes place. Each mission has you infiltrate highly guarded buildings to loot and gather information, then sneak out again. The emphasis is on stealth: while you can tazer the guards, if you do it too often Trilby will abandon the mission.

I've only just started the game, so perhaps it's too early to say whether it's any good: but my first impressions are positive. Very positive. Go check it out. You can discuss the game at the Unofficial AoT Forums (set up by the game's beta testers).

Name: Trilby: The Art of Theft
Developer: Yahtzee
Category: "Mission-Based Stealth Platformer"
Type: Freeware
Size: 2.42 MB
Direct download link: On the Escapist, here

Some of Yahtzee's previous projects:
6 Days a Sacrifice
Trilby's Notes
5 Days a Stranger
1213 Episodes 1 2 and 3
Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment

Posted at 4:13 AM by Anonymous

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Anonymous said at 11/12/2007 05:40:00 AM:

TriLby not Tribly.

Anonymous said at 11/12/2007 06:16:00 AM:

Whoops.

Unknown said at 11/12/2007 10:07:00 AM:

Brilliant. Lots of room for player improvement, nice humour... Reminds me of The Clue! which is strange cause gameplay is comletely different.

Lim-Dul said at 11/12/2007 10:54:00 AM:

Nah - this reminds me of Exit.

Nevertheless I find the game quite brilliant - I've been sitting and playing it for the last 2 hours although I should be working. :-P

It seems to have a lot of replay value as well since you can and probably will play through older stages with new abilities.

Way to go!

haowan said at 11/12/2007 11:08:00 AM:

It's a tribly tribly nice hat, what what. Capital.

Greg said at 11/12/2007 11:10:00 AM:

Lim-dul, you are not alone. I've been completely unproductive because of this game. The difficulty level is nice and tricky, just enough to be a little frustrating, I find.

I've come across a few annoying bugs already, but nothing horrifying. For example, your level of illumination doesn't change when you grolly until the animation stops, which sometimes means going from full illumination in to darkness gets you caught anyways. Also, a had a guard stay tasered permanently, which was odd.

Still, it's fantastically addictive and clearly worth playing.

Anonymous said at 11/12/2007 11:12:00 AM:

i don't like the gameplay at all.
not very intuitive.

Lim-Dul said at 11/12/2007 11:33:00 AM:

I've come across a few annoying bugs already, but nothing horrifying. *snip*

Yep, I noticed the grolly-bug too. Or the graphical glitch where guards pass right behind you or even THROUGH you when you're hugging the wall...

i don't like the gameplay at all.
not very intuitive.

Everyone can like or dislike the gameplay but could you elaborate on the "not intuitive" part? How is it not intuitive?

Unknown said at 11/12/2007 11:55:00 AM:

Yup, some layers should be tweaked - Trilby manages to hug a standing guard and the wall without both of them noticing.

Anonymous said at 11/12/2007 02:23:00 PM:

Gah, I'm too fat fingered for this. I keep forgetting it's only space - not space+up - to go up a level, or hiding instead of tazering.

JS said at 11/12/2007 03:18:00 PM:

This is a good attemp at a genre that is not seen often enough in independant games. Like others mentioned, there is some time timing issues when going in and out of the shadows, and some guards react weirdly to some situations, but I guess it's part of the grand minimalistic scheme of things.

I'm surprised that it was made with AGS... But it is a good game.

Greg said at 11/12/2007 03:20:00 PM:

Let's look at it from the other side. Maybe those aren't layering problems. Maybe they're stealth hugs and Trilby is just *that* ninja.

I finished the game quickly. Overall, very pleased with it -- I just now need to go back and improve my rating from its existing 'B'.

Here's hoping we'll see another, though! Hopefully a longer one.

Unknown said at 11/12/2007 04:37:00 PM:

pretty awesome!

Definitely can be a bit awkward control-wise, but that seems to be the case with a lot of 2D games that have several actions.. remember Flashback? That's what it seems like the most to me -- the movement isn't really smooth/fluid like Mario, it's quite rigid and made up of a bunch of discrete "moves" rather than a continuous movement.

i also got a "Der Klue!" vibe, i think it's from the desk/newspaper interface.

the way this game deals with the big problem of stairs/depth in a side-view presentation is really good.

lately whenever i see a great game like this is just makes me depressed.. damn it everyone, stop making great games!!

oranda said at 11/13/2007 10:51:00 AM:

This game is really good. I'm also impressed by what he's managed to do with AGS as far as platforming goes. I really like the way he allows you to go back and redo missions so you can build the dough to get the skills you need, otherwise this game would have been a whole lot harder. As it is, I think the difficulty is pretty fairly balanced. It's just hard enough that each level warrants 3-4 tries before you can do it well.

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 12:38:00 PM:

Really a great game so far, it's just too bad the fourth level is that bad. First of all there's the in my opinion totally nonsensical button-mashing exercise at the beginning, which isn't very difficult, but simply annoying when you have to restart the level for the 20th time. More importantly, though, the whole level is so much harder than the previous ones, because timing more often than not has to be absolutely perfect, when guards and cameras are combined.
It's nice to have this generally different level as a twist in the game, but that way its only use for me is to make Trilby frustrating.
Hopefully I'll make it through the level after another 20 tries. I'd love to go on playing.

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 02:07:00 PM:

MisterX: That level was a stumbling block for me too. One thing that helps *a lot* is to go back and try to improve your score in the earlier levels so you can afford the "more alarms" ability. And I couldn't agree more with the numpad thing in the first screen, that was a terrible design decision. This game really needs a quicksave feature or at least some savepoints mid level.

Still, having finally finished it I absolutely loved it :) It's not perfect but but it gets so much right that it's hard to get too worked up about its faults, heh.

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 02:11:00 PM:

I tried to get level 3 "locksmithing", but unfortunately I already got ranked A on the previous levels. But probably there still are some RPs left to be earned..

Not taking level 4 into account (and obviously none of the following ones, as I didn't get that far, yet) I would still say that it's good there isn't any quicksaving feature. The way it is you can still easily restart a mission, but you still got to be careful not to mess your whole rank up because of a wrong move.

Anyway, Level 4, I'm gonna get ya!

oranda said at 11/13/2007 02:19:00 PM:

@MisterX, Terry

I was stuck on level four as well until I realized that you can tazer as much as you like in that level. At first I thought you couldn't tazer at all, as there was a simple "--" where your tazer count normally goes. I think an infinity symbol would have been a little more descriptive, but dem's the breaks.

Anyway, it gets MUCH easier when you just drop every single guard. Apparently, Trilby doesn't worry about professional pride when busting out of illegitimate prisons :).

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 02:24:00 PM:

Oh wait - I meant mission five, heh. Sorry, you'll see what I mean about the "numpad" thing that you have to repeat every time in the next level MisterX :D

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 02:30:00 PM:

I've really enjoyed playing this - I'm going to post it to TIGSource if none of the other editors over there pick up on it first.

I made a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH9KNwZq55w

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 02:37:00 PM:

@MisterX

Rank "A" isn't the best rank. Getting a perfect "Trilby" is worth 100 more RP.

Another way to build RP is to unlock doors from both sides (it's possible in a few levels).

This game is brilliant. I agree the controls are counter-intuitive, but it's so fun once you get used to them. I can elaborate: why doesn't UP make you go up? and why isn't SPACE interact with doors or safes? He could have still coded down and space to be grolly down. I also kept holding X instead of tapping it to toggle the wall hug. Holding it seems more "life or death" to me.

Oh well, gotta keep working on my scores and get more costumes.

Derek said at 11/13/2007 03:04:00 PM:

Sorry, Terry - I wanted to post it but haven't had a chance to play it yet. A TIGSource review would be much appreciated. Game looks awesome. :)

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 03:08:00 PM:

Aw, grand so - I'll go ahead and type something up :)

It is awesome! Probably one of the best indie games I've played this year, in fact.

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 03:08:00 PM:

And it's been a good year :)

Anonymous said at 11/13/2007 03:53:00 PM:

That level 4 sure is tricky, but sooo much fun :D Bit bad about that intro game in the beginning of that level. Also got to love how it gives several possibilities to solve something, depending on the skills (or lack thereof) you got.

Anonymous said at 11/18/2007 12:33:00 AM:

"why doesn't UP make you go up?"
that's a good question, but many of the old games, like Shinobi (<= 1992), uses control settings like that. space = jump, arrow up = enter doors.

in the last level, are those purple moving force fields avoidable? i was depending on the forgetfulness(?) skill that recovers the alarms to get me through.

i tried to replay previous levels to accumulate reputation point, but it only works on the first level, which i couldn't roll in and unlock the door before. i couldn't get extra rp repeating levels that i have thoroughly completed.

Anonymous said at 11/21/2007 12:40:00 AM:

Brilliant! Fanks from russia for this great atmosferic game!
Spasibo bol'shoe (big fanks)!

Anonymous said at 11/24/2007 09:11:00 AM:

This game is a masterpiece!
The prison level is very frustrating but not unfair, since you can tazer everyone on your way to freedom.

Anonymous said at 12/08/2007 01:54:00 PM:

On the last level, on the part with those wide, moving sensor things, stand behind boxes so they can't see you. If it is a small box, duck behind it.