Quietly announced last year, Project TF is a new side-scroll action mobile game currently being developed by a new Korean developer, Trance Studio. In the most recent headcount, Trance Studio has 33 employees, with talent who have worked on games such as Dungeon & Fighter and, while one of the executives was part of the ChronoBlade development team before it closed in Korea last year.
According to the executive, players in Korea consumed content in ChronoBlade way faster than what the team could develop, hence publisher Netmarble shut the game down despite a very promising start. While there aren’t many successful side-scroll action mobile games in Korea, which is tough even for established IPs, he is confident Project TF is bringing something new to the genre with its features.
One of the ideas being put into place is a more interactive environment, where players can communicate with each other just like in PC online games. The other ideas include a real-time town hub (other games mostly just do room-based lobbies) and a more engaging game story (through cut-scenes and more). Project TF has also taken inspiration from the Diablo series for equipment farming.
While having a real-time synchronous network system might cause issues such as disconnections, Trance Studio has placed faith in the server team to ensure Project TF provides a more stable game environment compared to other mobile games. There is also an AI replacement if any player drops out during gameplay. Trance Studio is currently seeking game publishers to launch Project TF this year.
