Well, they had that exclusive "feel royally screwed over by Amanita" pre-order bonus once, but ... ;)

Can't speak for others on this, but for me it's more about the practice itself rather than the content.

To use a famous example, Horse Armor was totally non-essential cosmetic DLC.

Supporting/tolerating the questionable practice, led to much more questionable practices.

No, I get that and I agree. I was just referring to those who explicitly made it sound like the game was not worth buying and playing without that little bonus level about a dog from another game.

Adding a preorder (exclusive?) content bonus to win the trust back by "forcing" you to buy the game b4 reviews after a "dubious" Trine 3 is really the way to go -.-. Well that's earliest a buy at like a 60% discount or more and only if it turns out good

Sad news, in the opposite to the other Trine versions Trine 4 has no Linux support.

There's the next problem:
Their Linux devs left.

Wait, did I see a very fantasy moth? Yep, confirmed on second watch.

It wouldn't bother me nearly as much if the previous entry in the series wasn't an unfinished 1/3 of a game. They never finished it, and now apparently they are basically pretending it never happened instead of apologising... and as a cherry on top they pull this. Bonus level or not, locking out part of your game behind pre-order after such a fiasco feels almost like intentionally trolling.

Imagine a developer saying "yeah, our previous game was a broken mess, but this time the Pre Order Edition has most of the bugs removed!"

What I'm saying is this doesn't seem to be "part of the game".

That being said, it still feels like Frozenbyte dangling a shiny new carrot in front of customers to make them forget about the foul one they just made them swallow, so there is a certain touch of audacity or desperation to it.

I'm trine to contain my excitement! Having played the first game ten years ago as a 14 year old kid, it's great to see Trine coming back. I was worried that Frozenbyte would abandon the series.

I see people are still bashing Trine 3, something the devs heard a lot in its release and even went as far as making an apology video because of it. I never considered T3 a bad game. The thing I was disappointed in most was the cliffhanger story. However gameplay wise it introduced many new ideas and I think it was fun to play. The characters had improvements on their movesets, Zoya becoming more useful in puzzles with the rope mechanics and Amadeus becoming more useful fighter thanks to his new mobility during levitation. Also I think the old moves adapted well to 3D.

When making sequels, there are roughly two ways to do it. Either building upon the foundations of the prievous game (from God of War 1 to GoW2) or putting together something completely new and different (GoW 2018). Frozenbyte took the harder road with T3 and they got my respect for that. Trine 3 was all about seeing what they can do (to test the limits and break through). Even if they ended up underestimating the new challenges of the 3D transition, it was a brave move. That's Finnish Sisu for ya, perkele!

Anyway I hope people stop holding grudge over Trine 3 and give the new game a chance.

I'll start by saying I really like how this game looks, and hope that it will be another good game. I'm sorry to see the lack of a Linux version, but I do understand that situations change. However, pre-order exclusive content is something I really dislike, a lot. This trend of trying to get people to buy a game before it's out and reviewed hits a nerve with me.

Since I am planning to wait for some reviews, I'm automatically disqualified from getting the full release. Since I am then unable to get the full game when I do buy it, the game is disqualified from me paying full price for it. Pre-order bonus content needs to stop, and I will speak with my wallet. If the game is good, which I hope it is, I will buy it, but not until there is a deep discount. Frozenbyte is one of the developers I like, even though mistakes were made. Please reconsider the pre-order exclusive.

Shame about the lack of Linux support. I loved the first two, would've very much liked to play this one, too.

I sincerely hope that the pre-order bonus is just about the level being available "at launch", and will become generally available for everyone some months after launch.

Just to make it clear, I like Trine 3 and would like to pay to have it finished. Am I the only one?
Sure they miscalculated, it happens, but that wasn't as bad as what I see happening now.

So it only supports Windows 10?

I will, as soon as they finish the story of Trine 3. Trine 4 would have been their chance to do so - but they decided not to. So I decide to withhold my money until they do finish the story, before starting a new one.

Plus the tactic to withhold actual game content unless you buy the game blindly before it's even released is just low enough to blacklist Frozenbyte on a matter of principle. And the sentence on their game page really reads like trolling or like desperation: "Yea, our last game was incomplete. But this time it will be complete. Promise! For realz! ... Unless, of course, you wait for the actual release and reviews. Then we will punish you by not giving you the 'bonus' content that we've cut from the game."

The following is speculation: If they have to resort to such low behavior for pushing pre-orders, they probably don't have much faith that the game will still sell well after release. So they probably expect bad reviews for reasons best known to them.