Studio Trophis Production Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Studio Trophis Production Company, or Studio Trophis for short, is an independent video games development company, based in Sheffield, UK. Their first game, the white chamber, a point-and-click sci-fi horror adventure, was released for the PC for free download via their website in 2005, and managed to glean a favourable review in the New York Times, along with several PC magazines. "Team Trophis" are currently at work on their second game, entitled For The Game.
| Studio Trophis | |
 |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | Sheffield, 2002 |
| Headquarters | HQ in Sheffield, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Richard Perrin, Paul Johnson, Zakir Rahman, Jonathan Lawson |
| Industry | Video games |
| Products | The White Chamber, For The Game, Better Than Pizza (short animation), Project BattleCabin (forthcoming) |
| Revenue | Unknown |
| Employees | 4 |
| Slogan | Unknown |
| Website | StudioTrophis.com |
Contents |
[edit] History
Studio Trophis was initially formed by two Sheffield university students - Computer Science student Richard Perrin and Japanese Studies student Paul Johnson- in 2002, to complete a game-creation project set by Richard's university. The project grew beyond the original assignment and pair decided to release it on the internet. Zakir Rahman (another Japanese Studies student, studying with Paul Johnson) joined them to provide music and sound effects. This game eventually became the white chamber, and took almost three years to complete including a one year hiatus, as each member of the team was busy with their studies and other commitments. However, in March 2005, the game was finally finished and released for free download from the Studio Trophis website.
As of May 2006 the game has been downloaded over 100,000 times and has featured on many magazines across the world (including the UK's best-selling SFX magazine) often appearing on cover discs.
Recently, Jonathan Lawson, who had previously been running his own online Anime merchandise business joined the company to handle public relations.
[edit] Staff
[edit] Richard Perrin
Richard Perrin graduated from a course in Computer Science at Sheffield Hallam University in 2005. He is currently working for Studio Trophis as producer and gamer designer.
[edit] Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson is the artist and animator for Studio Trophis. His work is heavily inspired by Japanese anime styled artists including Masamune Shirow, Satoshi Urushihara, Ryūsuke Mita, Hyung Tae Kim and Kenichi Sonada.
Paul regularly posts new pieces including work-in-progress for upcoming games to deviantART and www.conceptart.org.
[edit] Zakir Rahman
Zakir Rahman, or Zak, is the musician for Studio Trophis, and is inspired by music from his long-time history of gamesplaying. Especially influential in Zakir's musical stylings are the works of Yuzo Koshiro on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis classics, Streets of Rage 1&2, Revenge of Shinobi, etc. His favorite soundtrack is to the Playstation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which stands as a major influence on his work.
[edit] Jonathan Lawson
Jonathan Lawson, or Ziggy, holds a masters degree in phsyics from Leicester University and joined Studio Trophis in 2006 to handle public relations. His role within the company is to maintain the public website and forum and handle contact with fans, press, translators and voice actors.
[edit] Games
[edit] the white chamber (Project CabinFever)
the white chamber (official spelling is in lower-case letters) is Studio Trophis' first game. A point-and-click adventure game with a science-fiction horror setting.
The player controls a girl who awakens in a coffin in a darkened room. She has no memory of how she got there, and opens the windows to reveal that she is in fact in space. The player must solve the puzzles and move from room to room, piecing together what happened to the crew of the station.
The first release of the game was released for free download in 2005, and featured four endings depending on the player's choices during the game. It had no voice acting, but several animated sections, including an opening and ending. The inclusion of anime sequences meant the game was over 300mb to download. The size was one of the contributing factors to the fact that it was originally available exclusively through bittorrent. In an article for PCZone Richard Perrin stated that using bittorrent allowed them to reduce their bandwidth costs greatly.
The second and current version of the game was released in March of 2006, under the name the white chamber: International Edition. It features five languages, English, Czech, French, Greek and Russian for the game's text. Four new endings were added and the English voice acting was now available throughout. Voice work was provided provided by amateur voice talent Kagome and Phillip Sacramento.
The game was built using the Wintermute Engine, a middleware adventure game engine.
[edit] The Nipsy Restoration (Project RestorationFever)
In 2005 applied for the UK's annual Dare to be Digital game creation competition. Their entry consisted of a rough design document and an early game prototype. The team entry did not get into the final competition so full details of this project are still currently unavailable.
[edit] For The Game (Project GameCabin)
For The Game is currently in production, and is marketed as a collection of games, spanning multiple genres. The games will be drawn together via an overriding storyline that is still unknown, according to the Studio Trophis website, and is set during a galactic games tournament.
The game was originally publicised as for a March 2006 as a series of 6 episodes, each released two weeks apart. The project is now described on the website as a single game and currently has no fixed release date.
[edit] Creative Commons
All of the output from Studio Trophis available from their website is available for free download and is licensed under Creative Commons. The specific license used by Studio Trophis means anyone is free to copy or distribute their work as long as Studio Trohis is credited, that it is not for commercial gain and is not used to create a derivative work.
[edit] Acclaim and criticism
Acclaim
"The sound is especially good. Creepy, high-quality sounds and very appropriate music; some sections are several notches above even commercial adventures in the sound department." - Francesco Poli, Videogames are only for those who deserve them, 20th April 2005.
"Grisly and intriguing, with logical puzzles and surprising plot twists, Chamber is a first-rate garage game." - Charles Herold, New York Times, 6th May 2005.
"It's not a long game, but it makes up for that by having some nice puzzles and great cut scenes, as well as some funkly little Easter Eggs and four different endings... A great start for the Trophis team - we look forward to their next project!" - Leah Holmes, SFX Magazine, June 2005 (#131).
"A genuinely suspenseful horror game in a marvelously drawn anime style. All in all this game is a marvelous first outing by Studio Trophis." - Justin Peeples, The Inventory, April 2005 (#24).
Criticism
"Don't expect a masterpiece, sadly. The anime graphics fit very poorly in the atmosphere, the game is blink-it's-gone short, the plot just barely makes sense, and many animations are just high-end amatorial - with a very low point in the main character. Main character who, by the way, should be at least twice the age she is. ...this game is still not worthy of being released commercially." - Francesco Poli, Videogames are only for those who deserve them, April 20, 2005
[edit] Influences and in-game references
Studio Trophis productions feature many in-jokes, pop culture and gaming references. This can be seen most heavily in the mock magazine article seen in their first game the white chamber. Here is a list of some of those documented so far:
- The magazine article in the white chamber contains anime styled versions of character from the popular webcomic Penny Arcade.
- the white chamber's Commander Artemis Trend and the team's Dare To Be Digital entry The Nipsy Restoration, are both references to a character, Nipsy Trend, from a Skid Row live video.
- A Nintendo NES and Commodore 64 tape deck can be seen in the storeroom of The White Chamber, next to the mock magazine article. If the player attempts to use the NES (called an MES in the game), the character becomes trapped in a lo-res, 8-bit version of the game.
- The musical band advertied in the white chamber, The Helmeted Impostors (seen in the mock magazine article), are a reference to the character Jagi from the Japanese anime Fist of the North Star. The Helmeted Impostors look almost identical to Jagi, and their song "Say my name!" is Jagi's catchphrase ("Ore no na wo itte miro" in Japanese).
- The horror in the white chamber is heavily influenced by the game series, Silent Hill by Konami and the movie Event Horizon. A direct quote from Event Horizon can be seen when the players open a sealed metal box in the game.
- A red traffic light in the TV series Twin Peaks is shown just before particularly sinister moments in the show. It appears in the white chamber during the corridor sequence as a Twin Peaks reference.
- Dr Salt, a soft drink seen in the white chamber, is a reference to Dr Pepper.
- In the short animation, Better than Pizza, the pizza box contains the label Busey's Pizza. This is reference to the Hollywood actor Gary Busey.
