The sixth and final chapter of gorgeous handcrafted adventure game The Dream Machine [official site] will arrive on May 11th, developers Cockroach have announced - six-and-a-half years after the series started. Oh the wait has been long but the games have been more than worth it. The Dream Machine's the story of a husband and wife who move into an apartment and soon discover a mysterious machine is surveilling and messing with residents' dreams. It's well-written and a treat to look at, built from clay and cardboard. Here, have a peek at Chapter 6's workshop in this trailer:
]]>Rather than marvel at digital houses we couldn't even dream of owning an armoire to put in IRL, let alone the whole building, we've turned our attention to the world of videogame apartments. These chunks of partitioned living are often just modular, nondescript spaces designed to house clues or bolster the sense of people living in a city, but occasionally there are apartments which offer up a real sense of their owner's character or palatial penthouses which ooze nouveau riche luxury.
]]>The Dream Machine's episodic structure has been... sporadic. Chapters one and two came out in January 2011, with the rest promised soon after. Chapter 3 appeared in November 2011, taking longer than expected. Which was nothing compared to chapter 4, which finally appeared in August 2013. It was quite a wait, and rather a short entry. It's been slightly over a year since, and now we have Chapter 5 - the biggest part of the game yet. Here's wot I think.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Cockroach certainly never intended to take nearly five years to finish hand-made point-n-click The Dream Machine. What was intended to be six chapters over a few months has become essentially one a year. But with each one better than the last, and the fifth chapter due to appear before the end of the year (apparently to be as long as the first four put together), now is the perfect time to play through in preparation.
]]>The Dream Machine's first chapter was so lovely that, in a fit of something or other, I vowed to wait until the whole thing was out before playing any more. Well. Whatever reason I had for that decision, I hope it was worth it. Four years later, the end is drawing near-ish. The fifth chapter of six will arrive on November 14th, developers Cockroach have announced.
"Why's it taking so long?" seems a silly question to ask about a game made from clay, cardboard, paint, and odds and ends by two people, but Cockroach's answer is that this one is "bigger than all the previous chapters put together." Crumbs.
]]>Hand-crafted point-and-click The Dream Machine is taking Swedish indie devs a lot longer to make than they'd planned. So it's a shame that this extended development is really the series' only weakness. As Chapter 4 finally appears, almost two years after Chapter 3, the story of Victor and Alicia is pretty hard to have remembered this far on. But it's worth remembering, because this continues to be an absolutely superb experience. Here's wot I think:
]]>Well here's a spot of good news. The fantastic The Dream Machine series has awoken from its almost two year coma! I cannot believe it was as long ago as November 2011 that the third chapter appeared, but post time stamps never lie. Chapter 4 is due to appear on the 1st August, with promises of an enhanced look - and more importantly, a continuation of the intriguing claymation-n-cardboard adventure series.
]]>The Indie Royale returns with The Stuffing Bundle, which makes me think of stockings brimming with gifts rather than breadcrumbs and sage shoved inside a carcass cavity. My headline-dominating opinion is that the three released chapters of The Dream Machine are the stand-out content and on this very site you can read what John and I said about the game in the dwindling days of 2011. The remainder of the stocking is filled with Children of the Nile, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Puzzle Agent 2 and Adventure Apes and the Mayan Mystery. As I write this, minimum price is £2.99.
]]>Just a quickie - the first three chapters of the extremely good cardboard-and-clay The Dream Machine are now up on Steam. You can still buy them directly from developers Cockroach if you'd prefer, and those who already did will receive a complementary Steam key. Steam has the first two chapters (bearing in mind that the first chapter is available for free) for £3.19, and the third chapter for the same, this week, with all five (the final two are as yet unreleased, but will hopefully appear later this year) for £9.59 or your provincial equivalent. There's a trailer to commemorate this below.
]]>If you were running a commercial website, the most important thing you could do would be to make sure you put the game name in a prominent position in the post, and of course in the title, to ensure the maximum presence on Google. What would be ridiculous would be an annual massive feature in which you hide the name of the games in question, even from the tags, in order to maintain an air of surprise. But then as Saint Cliff taught us, Christmas is about giving, not receiving. So what are you - who is getting it ALL wrong - receiving today?
]]>What a season we're in for adventures just now. With the re-release of Gemini Rue, the gorgeous Book Of Unwritten Tales, impending games from Amanita, and now a new chapter for the utterly engrossing The Dream Machine. The first two were groundbreaking for their remarkable use of claymation in cardboard sets, but how does it fare once it reaches a third part, and we're used to the design? Here's Wot I Think.
]]>A new trailer for the wonderful The Dream Machine has appeared, which rather nonchalantly includes lots of new footage from the forthcoming chapter 3. Which looks... intriguing. The Dream Machine is one of the best written and most interesting adventure games in years, built entirely out of clay and cardboard, and glacially released in chapters. However, the new footage also contains the surprise at the end that the game will be appearing on Steam toward the end of this year.
]]>The Dream Machine has already become one of my games of 2011 (despite being released in 2010, pedants). Its touching story and elegant point and click puzzles, combined with a gorgeous claymation and cardboard construction, puts it in a rare crowd: a great adventure game in the new millennium. Wanting to know a lot more about how it came about, and the thinking behind its design and narrative, I sent questions to one half of the development team, Anders Gustafsson. His engagingly detailed answers explore ideas of dream induction, the homogenisation of gaming, the role of voyeurism, and why non-interactivity isn't passivity.
]]>The Dream Machine is a unique-looking point and click adventure - handmade sets, and animated with claymation - that is being released in chapters. The first two are now out, and I've played my way through them, meaning I'm fully qualified to tell you Wot I Think.
]]>I'm currently listening to some of Nico's solo jazz stuff so I'm probably finding indie point'n'click claymation showcase The Dream Machine a little more otherworldly than it is, but it's still got a lovely, mysterious tone to it. Anyway, yes- chapters 1 and 2 have just been released, with the first being completely free (you could be playing it within 5 seconds via this link to the game's site) and the second requiring an €11 payment that'll also get you access to chapters 3, 4 and 5 when they're released. I've been playing for the last half an hour and I'm really impressed. If you're a fan of adventure games, dreams or clay, check this one out. Cockroach Inc. have done a beautiful job. There are a few trailers out now, but I've posted the one with the least spoilers below.
]]>It turns out there's a direct channel to my heart. It's the words, "a Point & Click adventure game made out of clay and cardboard."
Gosh.
The Dream Machine is looking utterly beautiful. It's a hand-made game by Cockroach Inc., built in three dimensions, and then photographed. Below are screenshots and a trailer, which you absolutely must see.
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