Hi guys,
So Polygon posted on amazing interview on Dreamfall Chapter yesterday and boy does our future look WATI-bright!
The article starts with a reassurances that there are
in fact three playable characters in Dreamfall Chapter, joined by familiar
faces from the other two games, but that's not all. Right after that it is
revealed that Zoe will in fact return, alongisde those three playable characters, however she will have changed
drastically since Dreamfall. Ragnar says: "(...) she won't be the same
Zoë we met in Dreamfall. Like all of our characters, she will have grown and
evolved, and Dreamfall Chapters is going to take some daring twists and trusn.
Birth, life, death- it's about all of those things, and no one is safe from
life. Growing up isn't easy, and Zoë will understand this better than
most."
So it seems like Ragnar treated Zoë as a non-playable character in the interview. Since he said that either Zoë or April would be a play-able character, so does that mean April will be one of the big three?
Ragnar also revealed that they were planning on releasing Dreamfall
Chapters about 3 or 4 years after Dreamfall, but that obviously didn't happen.
He then apologizes to us for letting us wait for this long, which I think is a
really nice gesture. We forgive you Ragnar, now get back to Dreamfall Chapters
and work on the prototype!
Ragnar also reveals that Dreamfall Chapters will have a diffrend art style than
TLJ and Dreamfall and he says it will reflect a particular narrative and
thematic evolution in the game. He also claims that the mechanics and
combat are an improvement over what we saw in Dreamfall. He talks about the
focus field which he didn't like (and neither did I), and the clunky controls
(those were his own word). He claims that with chapters they are doing
something a lot more intuitive and that the current prototype already feels
a lot better. This all sounds very nice, but... didn't Ragnar say they would
drop combat altogether? So why mention it as being improved in Dreamfall
Chapters? I hope this'll end well... but I have Faith/faith.
The next paragraph is really interesting as it talks about the structure
of Dreamfall Chapters' story. Ragnar reassures us again that the game will not
be episodic, but instead the game will be divided into three "books".
Each of those books will be themed around a season and phase of life, beginning
in spring and ending in winter. He also says that the game's story will cover a
period of just over a year. If Ragnar's comments about the game starting after
Dreamfall (and maybe even rewinding a bit) are still relevant, we have a fairly
good impression of the time the game will cover.
Ragnar once again proves that he can make games like no one else can
saying that Dreamfall Chapters will explore themes of growth and change. He
also says that chapters will grow throughout the game, which will affect the
title's mechanics, while each book in the game will emphasize differend aspects
of these themes, and thus have different mechanics, eacht book will play and
feel a little different. He then talks about the passge of time, a subject
that he claims to be fascinated by. He says that Chapters will explore what
it (the passage of time) does with us, how people evolve, and how they stay the
same. I cannot possibly tell you have excited I was after reading this. It
seems like Dreamfall Chapters will be a very, very unique game indeed! Good job
Ragnar, we know you can do it!
While writing this interview I was looking at the next passage and I couldn't
really decide what to add in the blog post, so I figured I'd just quote the
whole thing: "It's really a game about growing up, growing into your role,
into yourself. I think it's a theme we can all relate to. We're going through
that, all of us. Learning to comfortable with who we are and where we're at in
life. That's hard to do. I struggle with that myself, and that's why it's an
important story to tell, and a theme that will resonate well with everyone
playing the game. I believe. I hope." The reason why I decided just to
quote the whole thing is because it shows what makes Ragnar's games so great:
they touch on themes that other games don't and they dare to be different in a
time where shooters and action games rule the market. Dreamfall and TLJ were
great stories with characters that I could relate to on an emotional level and
I think Dreamfall Chapters will be the same, and maybe even better.
After that Ragnar takes a little break from talking about Dreamfall
Chapters and he once again makes a refference to The Longest Journey 2 saying
that Dreamfalll Chapters will be the last game in the Dreamfall series, but it
probably won't be the last game in the Longest Journey saga. He promisses that
the team plans to resolve all (and if not then most) of the cliffhanger from
Dreamfall, but may leave some things unexplored, such as what happened in the
period that takes place between Dreamfall and The Longest Journey, and the
whole "War of the Balance" thing mentioned at the end of The Longest
Journey.
I found the part of the interview that comes after this to be very reassuring.
One problem a lot of people had with Dreamfall is that it felt a lot more
scripted and less natural than The Longest Journey did. Ragnar says that while
they know the general character arcs and the major beats there also is a lot of
room to write something fresh and new. There is room to re-invent, to
re-imagine. Just like he did with Dreamfall, he once again mentioned that
by now they have changed as writers and designer, and as people. They have
grown and that will affect the game.
In the next part Ragnar takes back a step and talks about hte game
itself. He says that they plan and expect to get most of the original
voice-actors back. He also promises that if they need to re-cast any character
they will strive to get some of the best voices in the industry to voice them.
He then shows us how important it is that we help him with funding Chapters
saying: crowdfunding is probably the only way Dreamfall Chapters is ever
going to see the light of day.
He then talks about starting his own studio. He says that he knew he
couldn't make Dreamfall Chapters at Funcom because the game did not fit in with
Funcom's online-only focus. He then talks about some of the obstacles along the
way (aka The Secret World, no hate intended as I love the game). He also says
that traditional publishing methods have not been ruled out, but he believes
that route would slow the development of the game and create new complication. He
adds that he hopes he doesn't have to, and the same goes for me. Ragnar and his
team really need full control on this project and they need to be able to do
whatever they want.
After that there is a short part on the studio itself. Ragnar says that
by the end of 2013 the team will expand to 17 or 18 employees. The article also
mention that the name Red Thread Studios is a play on the term "red
herring" and a reference to the thematic thread that will run through the
studio's games, along with having Ragnar’s initials (RT), right? The interview
ends with Ragnar talking about the beauty and freedom of having your own studio
before ending with: "I really feel the time has come for me to go back to
working with smaller teams and the sort of collaboration I enjoyed during my
first decade of making games, 15, 20 people tops. Everyone doing a big of
everything. Being able to actually make a contribution instea of spending my
days in meetings and putting out fires, and never really connecting with
people. Getting to be more hands on. Parhaps also leaving my comfort zone. Well
defintely that."
And that's it. Thanks to Polygon for this amazing interview. Thanks for
Rangar for being epic. Thanks to Iamsteve for bringer this my attention. Don't
forget to check back as new info appears.
-WorldsReunited
