The saga of The Longest Journey is now well and truly over, now that the adventure series's final instalment Dreamfall Chapters [official site] has received a 'Final Cut'. This free update brings Dreamfall Chapters PC into line with the console versions, which were released later and fancier. Features of The Final Cut include "improved" graphics and sound, performance boosts, bug fixes, and neat bonuses like playable "deleted scenes."
]]>The final episode of Dreamfall Chapters [official site] may have arrived in June 2016--also tolling the end of The Longest Journey--but developers Red Thread Games aren't done with their adventure game quite yet. They've announced plans to revisit and tweak Chapters with 'The Final Cut', an update bringing extra prettiness and gameplay adjustments to bring the PC version in line with Chapters' upcoming console releases.
]]>This is the end, my only cyberfriend, the end. Episode 5 of adventure game Dreamfall Chapters [official site] launched last night and, unless something strange and wonderful happens, that will likely be the end of the whole thing. It's the end of Dreamfall and it's the end of its overarching series The Longest Journey.
]]>The fifth and final episode of Dreamfall Chapters [official site] will arrive next week, developers Red Thread Games have announced. It's the end of Dreamfall and likely the end of The Longest Journey too, the end of it all. It has been quite a long one: six months since Book Four came out; one-and-half-years since Book One; three-and-a-bit years since the Kickstarter which made this possible; a decade since the first Dreamfall; and almost seventeen years since The Longest Journey started it all. Here, have a peek at how it'll end:
]]>Devoted dreamers, have you finished replaying the first three episodes of Dreamfall Chapters [official site] since their upgrade to Unity 5? Oh for... you've had days, literally days. It's almost like you don't care about being the dreamiest, most dreamingest dreamer dreaming round these parts. For shame. Well, you've got another few days, as Book Four of Red Thread's episodic adventure isn't coming until ooooh Thursday. A new trailer reveals the release date, along with a wee bit of what you'll get up to in the penultimate episode.
]]>Good news: Dreamfall Chapters [official site] should now run better and look prettier for you. Developers Red Thread Games yesterday released a hearty update boosting it from Unity 4.6 to version 5.2 of the engine, which brings better performance, nicer lighting, 64-bit support for folks stuffed with RAM, and more. The first three episodes are now shunted over to Unity 5, and future eps will launch on it. Bringing the game over has been an effort and a half, mind, says head honch Ragnar Tørnquist.
]]>The release date was announced at short notice so you may not have noticed: Book Three of Dreamfall Chapters [official site] came out last night. It continues the story two months later, so hey - it's kinda like the characters have been waiting for this next episode too.
The adventure game's also on sale at half-price to celebrate the launch, down to £12.09 on GOG and £11.99 on Steam.
]]>Red Thread Games have finally announced the release date for the next episode of the Dreamfall Chapters [official site] series. Book 3, subtitled Realms, will be available to download on Thursday, June 25th. The news comes alongside (or maybe through?) a new trailer, which gives a glimpse of what to expect from the upcoming chapter/book/episode.
]]>The art of retcon is difficult to master but in the spirit of Happy Days' Chuck Cunningham, who disappeared up the stairs in Episode 1 and was never seen again, the developers of Dreamfall Chapters [official site] have redesigned the game's main characters for Book Three: Realms.
The character design for Kian and Zoe has evolved over the past few installments in the series, although from the look of the latest design Kian has gone from a taught Taye Diggs to Riker from The Next Generation. Am I crazy, or is he an entirely different race now? How curious!
]]>Conspiracies, rebellion, prejudice and resistance. The worlds of Dreamfall [official site] are on the verge of cataclysmic changes and every decision could tip the balance of power. Dreamfall Chapters Book Two continues a fine story but something is lost between the page and the screen.
]]>When you spend so long hoping for the continuation and conclusion of a story that was part of your earlier life, it's a bittersweet relief to hear that the waiting is finally over. Parting is such sweet sorrow and all that, but it's beneficial to have some closure. The Longest Journey began a decade and a half ago and Dreamfall Chapters marks the end of that journey.
But not yet. Not quite. Here's wot I think.
]]>Dreamfall Chapters always sounded like an episodic game thanks to the second word in the title right there. 'Chapters' are separated from one another in a way that seems more distinct than pages or paragraphs. The use of 'Chapters' was, as I understand it, in keeping with an idea of progression and storytelling rather than separation though. Whatever the semantics might be, Dreamfall Chapters will now be released episodically - split into Books - and the trailer for Book One has just arrived. I recognise these places because I'm the sort of person who wanders around in virtual worlds before they're released.
]]>Fun fact: when it was first conceived, Dreamfall Chapters was going to be an episodic series. Thus, the name Dreamfall Chapters. Before long, however, man of so many yarns that cats are magnetically drawn to his face, Ragnar Tornquist, decided the plot necessitated "one big meaty game with a fully story and a full conclusion." Apparently, though, the game outgrew that model too, so now it's back to episodic. I know, I know. Let Tornquist explain it below. It makes a lot more sense when he says it, that linguistic Viking demigod.
]]>Ragnar Tørnquist describes Draugen as the game at the heart of Red Thread Studios. That’s something of a surprise, considering that a script and concept for Dreamfall Chapters have existed in his mind (and on various hard drives) for more than a decade now. The Nordic horror/mystery will be his new team’s second release and, as he explained to me during a recent visit to Oslo, it’s the game they were founded to create.
]]>Dreamfall Chapters opens with a series of nightmares, wasting no time before informing the player of the high stakes and gravity of its multi-threaded plot. It’s a personal story, of family and sacrifice, but the potential consequences are cosmic. In truth, it’s not a single story at all, it’s a collection of stories within stories and about stories, taking the disparate worlds of The Longest Journey and weaving a larger tapestry. I’ve played the first three hours and found something quite different to the point and click adventure I was expecting.
]]>It's easy to forget that Red Thread Games is working on anything other than Dreamfall Chapters because, well, Dreamfall Chapters. But last year, the viking-est man in game development, Ragnar Tornquist, and his band of merry yarn-spinners announced first-person survival horror adventure Draugen, which does not sound much like Dreamfall at all. Tornquist has instead opted to plant its ragged bones between Gone Home and Amnesia, a description that has me quite intrigued indeed. Debut trailer below.
]]>I always knew that I'd be playing a new Dreamfall game one day. That's partly because I am a creature of unshakeable optimism but it's also because Ragnar Tørnquist had a cheeky sparkle in his eye when I asked him how long we'd be waiting for a continuation of the story back in the days before Red Thread existed. On the question of Dreamfall, he had this to say:
We are definitely doing something more with it and I have the design on my computer but we just need to find the right time and the right people. Hopefully within a couple of years it’ll be something we are working on.
Two years later, that design is only a few months away from being on our computers. I've embedded a half hour walkthrough of an early area below. It's looking damn fine.
]]>All good things must come to an end. Weekends, guitar solos, and - yes - even seemingly unending conversations with a panel of thoughtful game developers. It is nature's way. And so we reach the third and final part of my chat with Obsidian’s Chris Avellone, Dreamfall’s Ragnar Tornquist, Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, Introversion’s Chris Delay, and Redshirt’s Mitu Khandaker. This time we discuss clones, competition, diversity, and the future of PC gaming. Also, Ragnar dies horribly. Or maybe he leaves in the middle. I forget. Either way, READ ON OR REGRET FOREVER.
]]>If you didn't make it to Rezzed this weekend just gone, you missed some cracking talks about videogames. You also missed some cracking early footage of upcoming videogames, such as Ragnar Tornquist and Red Thread's successfully Kickstarterered Longest Journey sequel Dreamfall Chapters. Here's Ragnar and chums in The Purple Room, fielding questions and showing off cyberpunk future-Prague, the UI and controls and how some of the interactions will work. There's also a very English robot, which I can only interpret as an aggressive attempt to upstage Sir, You Are Being Hunted.
]]>Was there really ever any doubt that a Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter would fly past the finish line on beams of glorious rainbow sun and cyberlightning? Perhaps in some dismal, alternate future of implausibly constant sadness, but not in this one. So at this stage, it's a matter of just how rabidly fans frothed dollars into Ragnar Tørnquist's clinking cup, and - as a result - what sorts of dreamy extras we're in for. Unsurprisingly, we're getting quite a lot, given that Dreamfall made nearly double its initial Kickstarter goal. Sadly, however, it narrowly missed accruing the funds necessary for a second, entirely separate game starring The Longest Journey heroine April Ryan.
]]>We all have our cultural blind-spots. Knowing nothing about it, The Longest Journey disappointed me, because it wasn't a high-speed jeep journey across a post-apocalyptic landscape, but instead a story about a girl with a magicface and two addresses or something. Oh, I don't know, why isn't Adam writing this article? I was quite happy polishing my purple men and their guns.
Anyway, it seems that there's now a trailer for the next Dreamfall game, which by a miraculous coincidence appears with less than a week to go on the Kickstarter campaign for that very same game. Conspiracy? I leave you to decide.
]]>If you've never played The Longest Journey or Dreamfall, you could be forgiven for thinking that Dreamfall Chapters is set in a world of rolling hills, sunbeams and magic. That's partly true. There's another world behind and sort of alongside that one. Stark is one possible future of our world, and it contrasts sharply with Arcadia's green and pleasant lands. The latest Kickstarter update contains the first sight of Europolis, a cyberpunk dystopia of dark alleys, and neon-bright corporations and nightclubs. Below, you'll find the latest video, showing the city streets and providing an insight into the state of Europe in 2220. All of the footage is in-game, taken from the current prototype. I've also included some screenshots and concept art, including two new characters, that you can't find anywhere else just yet. For good measure, I asked project director Ragnar Tørnquist to provide some detail about the characters and the city.
]]>The Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter is closing in on $800,000 and that means it's time for the announcement of stretch goals. The first will be unlocked at $900,000 and there's an image below that may contain a clue, as well as details on the rest. Last night's update also included the first footage of the current prototype, which shows a placeholder Zoe avatar, still wearing her old threads, exploring the Riverwood environment shown in the image above (click to embiggen). It's early footage but attractive - far more intriguing than the trees and the flowers is the first look at the 'hybrid' interface. Third person movement, with freedom to explore, and a cursor for interaction.
]]>The first part was the starter. This is the main course. The conversation continues, as Ragnar Tørnquist, Martin Bruusgaard and Dag Scheve go into detail on the plots and plans at the heart of Dreamfall Chapters. There is a huge amount to read, so sit back and eat your lunch at your desk, or relax with a glass of wine or cup of tea. Thought-topics covered include the magic of the mundane, the origins of storytelling, conflict, maturity, and pointing, clicking and other mechanics.
]]>Ragnar Tørnquist founded Red Thread Games with one immediate goal in mind: to finish the story he has been telling for a great part of his adult life. As this interview is published, the Kickstarter for Dreamfall Chapters went live a couple of minutes ago. In readiness, I had a long conversation with Tørnquist, Dreamfall co-writer Dag Scheve and lead designer Martin Bruusgaard earlier this week. The studio is new, the premises are new, but the team are old friends and Dreamfall veterans. In this first part of the interview, we talked about cold hard cash, going indie, Kickstarter and the state of the industry.
]]>Sometimes it takes a while to turn the page. Ragnar Tørnquist announced today that his new company, Red Thread Games, will be developing and publishing Dreamfall Chapters, finally continuing the story that began with The Longest Journey. I wanted to know more about the timing, the return to adventure games and what this means for The Secret World, so I spoke to Ragnar about how far along development has already come, psychological RPGs, storytelling and singleplayer social gaming (not what you might think).
]]>In the first part of this in-depth conversation about The Secret World, the talk focused on the game's fiction and mythology. As the discussion continues, we explore how different the game will be to other MMOs as well as talking about the importance of lore. After covering connections to Indiana Jones and Tintin, the questions turn to other matters as we wonder aloud how long we may have to wait for more Dreamfall. The interview followed a full day hands-on session with the game and those present were: Marten Bruusgaard, lead designer of The Secret World, lead content designer Joel Bylos and the game’s writer/director, Ragnar Tørnquist. We were also joined by Norwegian journalist Knut Gaute Vardenær.
]]>Dreamfall Chapters news comes rarely, and often without detail, but Funcom's Ragnar Tørnquist has sneaked out a couple more bits and pieces. Bits and pieces he's quick to stress are unofficial, from him, and not representative of Funcom. First and foremost, that it definitely still exists. In the sense that it hasn't been given up on. While Funcom is in a bit of turmoil, making a sizeable loss and losing their CFO, it's good to know that Tørnquist and his The Secret World team (who have a lot in common with his Dreamfall team) are still continuing at full speed. And it's good to know that the thinking is long-term, and that Chapters is still to come. Now a few more details about how Chapters will work have appeared.
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