Free Indie Games – Trilby: The Art of Theft is High Class Theft

Trilby: The Art of Theft is a fascinating game for any number of reasons. It comes to us via Ben Croshaw, better known as Yahtzee, the creator of Zero Punctuation. It wasn’t the first game he made, nor the most popular or even the best. While most know him today for his fast-talking review series, he was once well-known in indie game development scenes for his fantastic Chzo Mythos point and click series. So how does Trilby stack up?

Thieving Thefts

If you’ve played Gunpoint, then you’ve played Trilby: The Art of Theft. Though, Yahtzee’s 2D stealth platformer has the aforementioned game beat by several years. It’s actually pretty alarming how similar the two games are. You’ve got a grapple hook that lets you jump up to higher levels, and you can upgrade your skills or unlock new ones, like rolls and such. You’ve also got a stun gun in your umbrella, but you can only use it two or three times per level, as the game doesn’t want you running around and fighting everyone. This is absolutely a stealth game above all else.

If this were a newer game, the levels would probably be randomly generated and the guards would also be randomly placed throughout. Luckily though, it’s not, there’s no random anything or any rougelike elements whatsoever. It’s actually pretty refreshing to play a game that’s had some design effort put into it for a change. This way it feels like every run feels like a true test of skill rather than getting lucky with layouts.

Trilby: The Art of Theft isn’t much to look at. True to Yahtzee’s style, it’s drawn one hundred percent in MS Paint. I guess it’s not that bad, in that case. Luckily the brilliant music by Mark Lovegrove balances that out. The soundtrack he created is truly top notch, and is almost worth listening to on its own.

If you want to see the game in action, and hear more about the game, check out the video above. For more videos just like this one, why not check out our YouTube channel?