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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…
Feature: Journey's End
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…
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…
This comes as a surprise. Red Thread Games, the Norwegian studio founded last year by Ragnar Tørnquist with the specific purpose of reducing John to a puddle of shuddering emotion, is making a first-person survival horror game called Draugen. The studio has thus far been working solely on Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, the crowdfunded sequel to John's emotional puberty, since September of last year.…
Feature: Indie Megachat Ultrotranscript, Pt 2
The megachat continues! At the behest of many, I'm carving it into the Internet's unforgetting crystalline walls - one hefty chunk at a time - because mere ears could not withstand its relentless auditory onslaught. Last time, I gathered Obsidian's Chris Avellone, Dreamfall's Ragnar Tornquist, Vlambeer's Rami Ismail, Introversion's Chris Delay, and Redshirt's Mitu Khandaker to discuss what exactly makes each of them "indie" despite their exceedingly different…
Feature: Indie Megachat Ultrotranscript, Pt 1
Let's try this again. Earlier this week, I posted the audio from a spur-the-moment indie megachat I put together during Rezzed, but its audio quality ended up a casualty of the fact that everyone at Rezzed never stops screaming. Never. The agony of existence. It is terrifying. So as a (probably much better) alternative, I'll be posting a transcription over the next few days. If…
Feature: What Is Indie?
Update: embedding fixed, and download links provided! Rezzed was a time of magic and wonder. Indie developers of all shapes and sizes mingled with fans and each other alike, and it was nearly enough to make us all forget that we were trapped in Birmingham. Honestly though, it was a pretty strange scene. I mean, on one hand, there were devs like Vlambeer and Introversion…
As if there weren't already enough reasons to visit this year's Rezzed (in only a week's time!), I'm really thrilled about two developer sessions I'll be hosting. And even more thrilled about who will be on those panels. With game-creating gurus Chris Avellone and Ragnar Tørnquist appearing on both, you'd be a fruitcake not to come along.
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…
Feature: That Beautiful Core
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…
Feature: Dream a little dream
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…
Feature: Journey onward
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…
And by dance move, I of course mean "tectonic shift in creative management affixed to a phrase that happens to sound like it could be a dance move in a universe where things like layoffs and sadness don't exist." Given recent events, however, I imagine that actually adding a dance animation titled "The Internal Shakeup" to The Secret World would elicit a chorus of "too…
Feature: The Longest Interview, Pt 2
The Secret World is officially live, and we've both locked it in a room with our most dangerous mythical creature, Adam, and hurled questions at creative director Ragnar Tornquist until he cracked - by which I mean "willingly and jovially answered my questions in a highly consensual fashion." And today, the insane brutality continues. Specifically, we discuss free-to-play, what Tornquist plans on doing next (hint:…
Feature: The Longest Interview, Pt 1
Secrets! Everybody has them - even you. Maybe you occasionally take two samples at the grocery store, or talk on your cell phone while driving, putting millions at risk. Or perhaps you're just part of some boring, hum-drum Illuminati that controls the world's every thought and action. The Secret World creative director Ragnar Tornquist used to be like you - except more interesting and with…
I've been waiting for a John Walker simulator to arrive, and this is the closest I'll probably ever get. It's the Secret World's GDC presentation, showing off Ragnar-Tørnquist's increasingly-interesting (to me) MMO. You can pretend you're in the room being John Walker, who can be seen here following Ragnar. Toss some water at the screen to simulate the tears that usually flow when John experiences…
Feature: Interview
Last week I sat down to play some The Secret World for the first time. But not before I'd chatted with project lead, Ragnar Tørnquist, in the rather creepy location of a 90th floor bedroom in a vast hotel suite. It's an interview in which he threatens to kill me. We also talk about how people are getting bored of MMOs, why the game has…
Feature: "Everything you’ve ever done in an MMO is selfish."
After spending some time with The Illuminati, I escaped from The Secret World to speak to lead designer Ragnar Tørnquist about overcoming the challenges inherent in building a story-based MMO. We talked about creating coherence in a vast and varied world, the confused and confusing role of the hero in an MMO, and how it's possible to reinvent and deconstruct a genre.
Feature: "I would hate to see the MMO be the end of it."
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…
Feature: "God is in the details"
Playing The Secret World was enlightening but the only way to explore its most secret parts was to sit down with some of the myth-makers who are conspiring together to create this story-led MMO. So I did what was necessary, gathering together three of the minds behind the game and forcing them to talk at me and each other for many an hour. In the…
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