FAQ

In this section wie try to list the most frequently asked questions from the community. The page will be updated once in a while!

Who are you?
We are btf, a former collective of art students from Cologne and Berlin, Germany. We work on a wide range of projects, from TV shows to music videos, short films, exhibitions – or video games. Each of our projects is a matter of the heart and carried out with much love for the details, from the first draft to the final product. If you are familiar with German TV, you might know our late night TV show »Neo Magazin Royale« with Jan Böhmermann. We also created a series for Netflix called »How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)«.

How did you finance development?
Trüberbrook received a funding in 2016 by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as part of the »programme for the development and production of innovative audio-visual content« to get started. We also did a succesful Kickstarter in November 2017.

When was the game released?
Trüberbrook was released for PC on March 12th 2019 (digital download on Steam and GOG.com and Mac App Store). In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there was also be a physical retail release of the PC version, exactly two days later on March 14th. The console versions for PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One followed on April 17th 2019 (digital download). Again two days later, on April 19th, the retail versions for PlayStation®4 and Nintendo Switch came to stores worldwide.

On which platforms was the game released?
Trüberbrook was released for Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

Will there be a mobile version, too?
We would love to create a mobile version for iOS and Android after the initial release. There are some technical challenges though, which need some extra time and will be adressed immediately after the initial release. Stay tuned!

Will there be a DRM-free version?
Yes, there is also a DRM-free version of the game, available on GOG.com.

Will the game be on Steam or GOG.com?
Yes, the game is also available on Steam and GOG.com.

Which languages are supported? Does the game have voice acting?
The game was released in English and German, both with full voice acting and subtitles. Additional subtitles are implemented for Spanish, French, Polish, Czech, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese (Trad.), Chinese (Simpl.), Korean and Japanese.

How long is the playtime?
In an immersive world like Trüberbrook, some players love to inspect every little detail, while others just like to rush through and drive the story forward. The average playtime is 6 to 8 hours, depending on your playstyle.

Is this a classic point-&-click adventuregame, like in the olden days?
Not exactly. Though we draw a lot of inspirations from the great classics, we streamlined the game design for a more modern and casual approach. The puzzles and their implementation are intentionally fairly easy compared to the great classics, the inventory system is reduced and the whole experience itself is rather relaxed and slow-paced.

Why on earth did you chose such a labour-intense technique to build your scenery?
We just love to build tiny worlds and we could spend days and nights in the carpentry! Since our first student projects and our graduation films, miniature scale modeling and stop motion animation played a big part in our work. If you’d like to check it out: One of our first short films, »Armadingen« (2011), was set partly in a world of model railroads. Then there was »Concerning Dinosaurs« (2012), Florian’s graduation film set in a prehistoric model world with stop motion animated dinosaurs. As huuuuge adventure game fans, the application of these techniques was a somewhat obvious choice. We believe that a world like Trüberbrook needs a unique and magical look that can only be achieved through miniature scale modeling. While working on the first Trüberbrook models, we tried a lot of different approaches on digitalizing the models, utilizing 3D-scanning and photogrammetry. Some of these experiments resulted in their own little projects, like our music video »Baggage Man« for Sizarr (2015).

What’s your pipeline / workflow?
After the scale models are set up and photographed in their different lighting scenarios, we start to digitize them. Very roughly summarized this includes four steps: scanning the miniatures via photogrammetry, preparing them for a real-time engine (retopo etc.), reprojecting the atmospheric lit photographies onto the mesh (as often done in matte painting workflows) and lastly importing them into Unity. Here we recreate the lighting for the characters as closely to the original image as possible so they can move freely while still reacting dynamically to light changes.

Is this workflow in any way faster, better or cheaper compared to traditional asset creation for games?
None of the above. But does it give the game a special look and style? Hell yeah!