Dreamfall Chapters: Keeping Faith in the Long Journey Ahead

Curiously, developer/publisher Funcom is not backing this particular project. Tørnquist's Red Thread Studios is comprised of the same individuals who brought the previous games to life, but the Norwegian company that published The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, not to mention online role-playing games like Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World isn't part of this equation. The big question: why not?

Tørnquist answers: "Funcom's focus since before the launch of Dreamfall in 2006 has been on the online space, and I don't think they were ever able to reconcile that with continuing The Longest Journey saga, or to find a way to bring TLJ or Dreamfall into the online realm. Sure, there were Discussions. Ideas. Pitches. But it never really worked out, and The Secret World grabbed all the time and all the people for many, many years. There really was no room to do both, to be honest, particularly since they couldn't really do another Dreamfall without me and the core team."

"Part of me also didn't want to jump straight into Chapters after finishing Dreamfall," he continues. "I needed to do something else, and The Secret World was another labour of love for me, a game, story and universe I was deeply passionate about. We actually started working on that one before Dreamfall, so I was eager to get back to, and finish, TSW. I just didn't count on it taking six years…"

I asked Tørnquist if he was burnt out on massively multiplayer games--and his answer isn't that surprising, considering he's devoted so many years to them. "I love The Secret World dearly," he responds. "I am extremely happy with my time on that project, and with what we managed to accomplish. I'm extremely happy to see the game doing well, and being taken care of by a passionate and dedicated team. But it was time to move on, both from TSW and from MMOs. I spent six years of my life working day and night on that game, and yeah, I did miss single-player games, I missed adventure games, and I missed the characters and worlds of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall."

'We know where this story is going, we know where it's destined to end.'

Tørnquist plans to pursue other projects with Red Thread Games, but for now, the focus is Dreamfall Chapters. With Funcom out of the picture, the team can exert full creative control over the game--and that's where Kickstarter comes in. The team was awarded a $175,000 grant from the Norwegian Film Institute, which is enough to create a working prototype, and design multiple characters and environments. It's not enough, however, to make an entire game. Tørnquist seeks $850,000 more in crowdfunding, which is no small sum. He says he's equally excited and terrified by the process. Or, in his own word, "terrifited." But what happens to Dreamfall Chapters if the Kickstarter is unsuccessful?

"[…] we're putting everything we have into this Kickstarter and the project, and while it's not do-or-die for Red Thread Games, I think we're going to have a difficult time making Dreamfall Chapters happen without the Kickstarter cash. If the Kickstarter fails, we'll roll with the punches and get back on our feet, for sure. Red Thread Games will survive. We're passionate about this, and we aren't going to give up easily. We will finish the Dreamfall Chapters prototype and then jump onto other projects in order to keep our heads above water. Hopefully, we can get back to Chapters some day soon, but it will definitely take a lot longer and be a lot more uncertain without the Kickstarter funds."

Presuming Red Thread Games gets the funding they need, however, then you should expect to see Dreamfall Chapters arrive in November of 2014. It's hard not to wonder, though: is the strength of player nostalgia, and that of the Longest Journey/Dreamfall brand, enough to drive the Kickstarter's success? Says Tørnquist, "I think the strength of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall name will get us started, and I think the desire to see the story continue will definitely give us some traction, but it won't be enough. We're prepared to do a lot of work to get noticed, to spread the word, to show even non-fans that we're working on something really exciting, really beautiful, really important. After all, with Dreamfall Chapters, we're not just continuing The Longest Journey saga and wrapping up the Dreamer Cycle, we're making what we hope will be a great adventure game--one that all PC gamers should check out and play."

And what will playing that game be like? While The Longest Journey was a pure point-and-click adventure, Dreamfall took a different tack, adding gameplay elements like combat and stealth, and not always to the game's benefit. It's also hard to ignore inroads made by other adventure games, such as Telltale's The Walking Dead series, where choice is a major element. Tørnquist says that player choice is important to Dreamfall Chapters, though, he says, "I would use the word 'freedom' instead of 'choice'. Not that we won't have the latter, but the story is set and you're moving through it, discovering it at your own pace, seeing it from different vantage points and perspectives. You have the freedom to experience the story the way you want to experience it. To me, adventure games are about characters, worlds and plots--in that order. We want players to be able to explore the characters and the worlds freely and without artificial barriers and time limits."

He continues: "Movement in the game world will be similar to Dreamfall, albeit with a different control scheme and GUI, but interactivity will be handled a bit differently. We're doing a lot of work to bring point-and-click into a 3D setting, and I think we've succeeded with that. We'll show off our work-in-progress prototype during the Kickstarter campaign, and hopefully explain a bit more about how it works. But I think adventure gamers will be very pleased."

'Dreamfall Chapters is a game about changes. About life. About the chapters of existence.'

Tørnquist is clearly thrilled to return to the universe first described in The Longest Journey, and that excitement is likely to be shared by the series' passionate followers. "Recreating our characters, beginning with Zoë, and making her look so much more human, so much more expressive and animated, really excites me. (And no, not in THAT way.) The way we tell our stories changes completely when we can let the eyes and facial expressions tell part of the story. I can't wait to write for the new Zoë; it really is a revolution in storytelling for us."

"And in addition to the technical side of things, being able to finally continue and conclude the story we began in Dreamfall--that is, of course, incredibly exciting, incredibly inspiring," says Tørnquist. "That makes me jump out of bed every morning. We know where this story is going, we know where it's destined to end, and now it's just a question of giving life to our characters and worlds, to write the words and to fill in the blanks. That's a great feeling. We can sit down and flesh all of this out and do our best work ever. We've learned so much since TLJ and Dreamfall, and all of that is going into Chapters."