Developer Interview

Creative director Ragnar Tornquist explains what you can expect from Dreamfall.

• Watch
• Download

SAN FRANCISCO--Norwegian studio Funcom created what many adventure game fans consider to be a classic in The Longest Journey back in 2000. But the successor to that acclaimed game won't be the traditional point-and-click adventure game its forebear was. The developer is purposely attempting to make a game that's different from most others on the market. Designer Ragnar Tornquist explained that he finds it difficult to classify Dreamfall: The Longest Journey within any standard game genre and that, frankly, this doesn't bother him one bit. In fact, the designer likens the game--which will combine elements of adventure games, stealth games, and third-person combat--less to a traditional adventure game and more to a page-turning "thriller" novel, especially since the game will emphasize its multilayered story and characters.

This is Zoe. She's 20. A college dropout. Our story's heroine. And she's also in a coma.

While we were shown only a few brief sequences from an early part of the game, we were able to get some idea of what the developer is trying to create. An early part of the game begins with Zoe Castillo, the game's primary protagonist, lying in bed on a sunny day in a futuristic version of the Moroccan city of Casablanca. Sunlight streams through the windows past her watchful father, who, after the death of Zoe's mother, has only his daughter left. There's only one problem: Zoe has, for whatever reason, ended up in a coma. This opening sequence is narrated by Zoe herself, who suggests that the only way she could be communicating with you, the player, might be because she's having an out-of-body experience and who explains that the world is in terrible danger, especially since everyone else who could have helped prevent the impending danger is already dead.

After this cryptic introduction, the game flashes back about two weeks to a time when Zoe was more conscious, but just as confused. Zoe, much like April Ryan from The Longest Journey, begins her adventures as a young adult who isn't really sure what to do with herself. A former student in Casablanca's thriving Capetown University bioengineering program, Zoe recently dropped out of school, broke up with her boyfriend, and now lives with her father in the wealthy and relatively safe town, whose local economy is built on advanced biotechnology and a rather loose interpretation of the law. And even more strange, she has started to see things--most specifically, a black-and-white picture of a small girl who whispers only, "find her, save her," and seems to appear in every TV and computer monitor Zoe looks in. At the beginning of the game, Zoe is convinced that the apparition is the result of either a viral marketing campaign or a dropping signal generated by "static," the effects of solar winds on the worldwide wireless network. As Zoe wakes up, she finds that her mobile phone is ringing--the object will act in the game as a sort of quest log that keeps track of where she needs to go next.

The game will also have a traditional (but minimalist) inventory for items you pick up...and very little else in terms of an interface. Tornquist explained that the game is attempting to be both highly cinematic and more accessible to a wider audience, so as a result, it won't have any huge opaque windows cluttering up the screen. Much of the game's interaction will take place using the "focus field," a narrow beam of light that emits from your character and lets you interact with whatever it falls on, such as an item you can use or a character you can talk to. This interface seems to work quite well with an Xbox controller and may very well be the answer to how to create a good point-and-click interface equivalent on consoles.

Dreamfall will have a very, very minimal interface.

Once you've targeted an object, you may then have a choice of ways to interact with your target. These will be shown onscreen, not as big long lines of dialogue to read through and choose from but as brief text cues in a radial menu, which have a text explanation at the bottom of the screen. In a dialogue, it's assumed that your character has said something that corresponds with whichever option you've chosen to move the conversation along.

We watched as Zoe descended the stairs to speak to her father, who makes it clear that he's concerned about his daughter's recent decision to abandon her degree. While this kind of buildup of Zoe's character might seem out of place for a game, Tornquist explained that the game will attempt to flesh out its characters before they're thrown into the action. The designer pointed out that by the end of the early part of the game, players will have met not only Zoe, but also her father, her best friend, and her ex-boyfriend, and they will hopefully understand her motivations better before tossing her into action.