[The Longest Journey] will almost certainly get the Greenlight

APODionysus

The Longest Journey is considered by many to be the greatest Adventure Game Series of all time. It's one of my favorite video games of any genre of all time. I adore it. But why is this relevant now, APOD? Don't you spend enough time extolling the game's virtues every Steam Sale? Why create a thread about an old and dead series? Well, first some history.



Between science and magic, between order and chaos, between Stark and Arcadia, there is an ancient balance

The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Funcom and lead designer Ragnar Tørnquist which was released in 1999. It tells the story of a young girl named April Ryan who discovers she has the ability to travel between two worlds - the technologically advanced Stark, and the magical Arcadia. She must harness this power to save both worlds from certain destruction. The game remains relatively unknown despite being a critical success with a score of 91% on metacritic. It's been praised for it's rich game world, deep and moving story and, in particular, April Ryan, its stellar female protagonist who I would argue is one of the most "real" protagonists in video games. It is a masterpiece.

You don't have to take my word for it. Here is John Walker of Rock, Paper, Shotgun who is a far better writer than I am, extolling the game's virtues.



The future holds secrets only the past can reveal

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is the sequel to The Longest Journey, which was released in 2006. It followed, primarily, the story of another young woman from Stark, Zoë Castillo as she investigates an ex-boyfriends disappearance which leads her into a web of intrigue involving both Stark and Acardia. The game contained some considerable changes from its predecessor, including moving from a traditional static-screen point-and-click to a more open third-person style. It also introduced multiple player characters and light combat components.

The game received praise for its characters and story and its gorgeous art which still holds up to this day. It did receive some criticism for lacklsuter combat and stealth segments, but still holds up as one of the absolute finest adventure games ever made.

It did, however, end on a rather large cliffhanger. Which leads us too


Dreamfall: Chapters

Originally intended to be an episodic series picking up immediately where Dreamfall left off, the game never seemed to materialize. Funcom chose to focus on online games instead such as Age of Conan and The Secret World. Fans of the series waited... and waited... hoping.... yet nothing materialized. Several members of these forums held out hope of a possible Kickstarter campaign - pledging in advance hundreds of dollars - but Funcom showed no interest.

Which brings us to now. Funcom has transferred ownership of The Longest Journey IP to Tørnquist and his newly formed company Red Thread Games, which has finally begun pre-production on Dreamfall: Chapters Details here.

However, I think our own @minor incident had a more apt description of the event:

minor incident wrote: »

Ragnar just became my hero. In my mind, I picture a shirtless, beefy viking dude, hair blowing in the wind, standing on a mountain. A mountain made of the corpses of those who stood between him and the rights to Dreamfall.

IMAGES AND CONCEPT ART

Concept Art:

Zoe


Zoë meets a Tree Spirit in Dreamfall Chapters

Screen Shots:

Marcuria in Autumn


Sunset in Arcadia

[img][/img]
Zoe's Character Model - Did you guys know Young APOD thought she was really cute? That hasn't changed

This thread will be a hub to discuss the old games and I'll keep the OP updated with news on Chapters as it comes out.

Sorry if this isn't the best OP. Its my first. Any suggestions are welcome

Ynuu

This... this is some awesome news right here. I picked up TLJ & Dreamfall during the Steam Summer Sale at the urging of such classy folk as reside on the Steam thread and loved them.

yesssssssssssss

so excited

cooljammer00

I'm more of a Syberia girl myself.

Lost

Welp, Guess I know what I'll be installing and replaying for a while.

APODionysus

So there's been some news. If anyone was afraid the announcement of Dreamfall Chapters would lead to more silence for another 6 years - breath a sigh of relief.

Polygon Interview

Highlights include that they're are expecting "most, if not all" of the original voice cast to return and more information on the team involved and some things they learned from Dreamfall. This includes Tornquist being rather open about the mistakes they made:

"A lot of the combat [in Dreamfall] was awful," says Tornquist. "That's gone. I think the focus field was a misfire. It was supposed to supplant the cursor, but it didn't work very well. It also wasn't used much, which I guess was a good thing. In general, I wasn't happy with the controls in Dreamfall. It felt clunky, particularly on the PC. That's something we're fixing. With Chapters, we're doing something a lot more intuitive. The current prototype already feels a lot better. The first time I sat down to play it, I knew we were on the right path."

However, the real pertinent information is that, while the fledgling studio will also be using its own money and some funding from a grant from the Norwegian Film Institute, it will be launching a Kickstarter Campaign in Spring of this year.

Dreamfall Chapters will be partially funded through crowdfunding website Kickstarter, with a campaign scheduled to begin in early 2013.

I also want to direct your attention to a REALLY great Rock, Paper, Shotgun interview from just after the initial announcment. It's all great, but I want to particularly point out two two bits.

First, Chapters may not be the end of the tales of Stark and Arcadia:

RPS: I’m assuming you don’t want to give anything about the story away, but is it a direct continuation?

Tørnquist: It will carry straight on. As we’ve acquired the license to do other titles in that universe as well, and while I just want to talk about Chapters now that doesn’t mean that’s the only story.
It carries on basically from the moment Dreamfall ends, continuing and wrapping up the loose threads that we left players with in that game.

Also, this just made me laugh

RPS: What about crate pushing?

Tørnquist: You can’t have a game without pushing crates. We haven’t worked out the crate angle yet.

So... Kickstarter for The Longest Journey. I'm going to start saving now

Esh

ALL MY MONEY! ALL OF IT!

Gandalf_the_Crazed

Years ago, I found a beat-up boxed copy of Dreamfall in a used books store in Chattanooga, behind random CDs and strategy guides. Never heard of it before. Didn't really know what it was, was it a point-and-click adventure game? Was it a 3D platformer, like some sort of weird Mario thing? Man, I just picked this up because of that girl on the front, I guess. That's dumb. Well as long as I'm here, I guess I'll read the story-fluff on the back of the box.

...

...

...wait, where's the price sticker? Can't find--doesn't matter anyway, I'm buying this shit.

Best impulse purchase I've ever made. I fucking love the worldbuilding in these games.

Nocren

Dreamfall... The only game I've purchased, 3 times, and never played, because I never finished TLJ (purchased 4 times).

I really need to just clear my schedule and play through them.

I even purchased Secret World to support the company even though it's nearly unplayable on my laptop.

SightTDW

Today is so full of awesome news. Is there a button on kickstarter that gives them direct access to my bank accounts? Because they can have it.

Now to actually go finish both of these games. I got halfway through both of them before computers shitting themselves, but up until that point they were the best non-comedic adventure games I'd ever laid eyes on.

APODionysus

https://twitter.com/RedThreadGames/status/293361633626034176

Ok that's no direct confirmation, but it certainly sounds like a coy way of indicating that there will be an ARG for Dreamfall Chapters. It makes sense as doable... set the ARG in Stark, which actually has technology similar to the web, and go from there. I'd dig it.

PMAvers

Your formatting is bad and you should feel bad.

APODionysus

PMAvers wrote: »

Your formatting is bad and you should feel bad.

It was the formatting Twitter gave me if you click "embed"! I assumed it would work! I changed it to just a link now

Also

Red Thread Games ‏@ RedThreadGames
Our shiny new website goes live tomorrow, Thursday -- and we have the very first work-in-progress art from #DreamfallChapters to go with it!

I'll post the link to the site tommorrow night after work and toss a few peices of the shiny art up into the OP.

Drez

Boy, it sure has been a long journey to get to a possible third game...

Nocren

Boo!

Off the stage.

APODionysus

Drez wrote: »

Boy, it sure has been a long journey to get to a possible third game...

I get so excited that someone actually posted to this thread.. and find out its just a really awful joke. Thanks for that.

APODionysus

Red Thread Games website is LIVE!

Not a whole lot there at the moment. I will say that whoever they have writing for the site has a good sense of humor. The biggest goodie is a very early screenshot found here.

It's not much but it makes the game certainly feel more real. Progress is actually being made, things are happening. Plus I'm now very excited to see Arcadia in the Autumn.

Ill try to drop the screenshot onto the OP when I get home tonight.

As always ill keep this thread up to date as news comes out. Can't wait for the Kickstarter campaign!

PRationality

Oh I have to watch this thread for the Kickstarter! Between Gabriel Knight and The Longest Journey this is how my dad and I got through his divorce from my mom. Pfft who needed a social life when my dad and I were playing TLJ for six to eight hours every saturday night.

Good memories.

We've been waiting so eagerly for the new game and with Jane Jensen teasing everyone under the sun about what 'Mystery Game X' is from her Kickstarter last year...OMG ALL MY MONEY EVER.

APODionysus

A few things from their twitter.

Lots of coverage incoming including ingame screenshots showing our excellent engine in action. Big reveals! Videos! Soon! #DreamfallChapters

So we will actually have some stuff to talk about "soon"!

Also, in a tweet from Tørnquist



Every little thing that reminds me this is actually happening and not a fever dream makes me so giddy.

Tenek

And the KS is launched. Target - November 2014.

Dreamfall Chapters continues and concludes the gripping story of Zoë Castillo, the Dreamer.

Revisiting familiar locations and characters, and introducing new sights and sounds, new faces, new game mechanics, new thrills and challenges, Dreamfall Chapters takes the player on an emotional, exciting and challenging journey -- from a dystopian cyberpunk future, through the mysterious and dreamlike Storytime, to the magical landscapes of Arcadia.

We aim to recapture the heart and soul of The Longest Journey and to improve on the immersion and game mechanics of Dreamfall in order to bring you a fitting, satisfying and emotional conclusion to the Dreamer Cycle.

- Experience a deep and complex storyline that continues the epic saga of The Longest Journey and concludes the Dreamer Cycle that began with Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Explore a beautiful, rich, detailed, interactive and living world that mixes a cyberpunk vision of the future with magical fantasy, along with a broken and decaying dreamworld
- Play as three different characters, all on journeys across worlds, through life, and into their own hearts and souls
- 3D point-and-click interface and engaging puzzle gameplay designed for fans of adventure games

cooljammer00

Hey, Syberia had an ending, right?

PRationality

Take all my money please. Well a nice chunk of it. I put in for the $500 tier...I want all the pretty extras...also my dad is paying half since he loves the game too XD

APODionysus

@minor incident

Please report to Kickstarter. Your wallet is needed.

Wow, this was far earlier than I expected. February isn't exactly Spring.

I really, really want to do the 500 teir.

Ill have to pick up a few extra shifts, but it'll be worth it. Also I'm pretty sure I can convince the girlfriend to go in on it with me. Early on in our relationship, one of our very first activities was playing The Longest Journey together. It was very much a bonding activity - it also earned me her nickname for me: "Banda"

Ill update the OP when I get home from errands.

Zephyr_Fate

Backed this. You should be ashamed if you don't do the same -- the first and only Kickstarter I've backed yet.

PRationality

Zephyr_Fate wrote: »

Backed this. You should be ashamed if you don't do the same -- the first and only Kickstarter I've backed yet.

This'll be my...well 60th to date, but my 6thgame. My dad & I backed the new Broken Sword game, and Jane Jensen's Game Moebius (and if god is with us, Mystery Game X will be Gabriel Knight 4). On my own I backed Dust, Republique and a side scroller Japanese game.

Mostly I back books and graphic novels though.

SightTDW

I just backed it at the $50 level. I've never paid more than the absolute minimum to get a game out of it with Kickstarter, but I am happy to throw some extra at this.

DarkPrimus

cooljammer00 wrote: »

Hey, Syberia had an ending, right?

Ugh. Technically.

Pretty much everything I liked about the characters and setting in the first game were entirely gone.

Sterica

Our rule on Kickstarters is pretty cut-and-dry, so maybe you all should talk a bit less about that specifically.

CheesecakeRecipe

Well I guess we don't have a lot to talk about at the moment seeing as how it is one of those punchstopper thingamabobbers.

Pack up our shit and go home fellas? I dunno. Seems like needlessly killing conversation.

cj iwakura

Can't wait, final product looks superb, and I'll happily support however I can.

Sterica

You can keep talking about it, but I wanted to step in before people started tossing links around.

Just maybe don't get too specific on stuff like what you tier you bought so nobody gets the wrong idea.

DarkPrimus

Y'know, I never did beat Dreamfall for whatever reason. I wonder if I've got my physical copies of the two games lying around still.

APODionysus

The screenshots and models do look GREAT for whats surely so early in the process. The game sure seems like its going to end up look very good. Which isn't too surprising considering Dreamfall still looks great despite it's age. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in motion more, but the bits you DO see in motion in the video are quite nice.

It's also moving at an incredible rate. Its been MAYBE 12 hours and It's already at 34%. I'll be honest, I was a little terrified that it wouldnt have generated as much as excitement as I thought it would and not do well, but it seems those concerns were unfounded.

Now that Rorus has cleared things up a bit - I was holding back on any more updates to the OP for fear of getting the thread shut down, I'll try to add some of the concept art and screenshots to the OP.

Erlec

So two main interviews so far has been most interesting regarding the game:
RPS coverage
Rockpapershotgun also has loads of interviews about the previous games, and tons with sevreal of the red thread crew (Go through The secret world interviews if interested). I think it's Ragnar's favorite outlet of the information, so stick to the site if you want to keep up.

Eurogamer interview
Reveals much of the same information, but tells what will happen if the kickstarter fail:

Eurogamer Interview wrote:

"What happens if we don't reach the funding is that we will finish the prototype that we have already received a grant to make, which means we'll be working on it for another month or so," Tornquist said. "Then we will start working on other things in order to, basically, feed our families and to keep our offices."

I apologised for steering him onto a rather grim topic.

"No, no, no, it's not grim," he said, "it's something that we have to be realistic about.

"The plan is for the company to be alive and to keep going. Dreamfall Chapters will be, at the very least, massively delayed [if it's not Kickstarter-funded]. We will of course then look around for other ways to fund it, ways that are not as good for us or the players, but we will try to get the game made. But instead of a year and a half, it could end up taking five years. And that is the grim reality of it.

For more constant updates, follow the redthread site.

Clearification regarding company name: The Red thread is a metaphor in Norway about the consistency of the work or what provokes the characters into following the events that happen (or to use the phrase, the underlying thread of the narrative). An example would be Princess captured -> Hero Called -> Hero Goes on Journey -> Hero saves Princess. The term comes from weaving.

If you guys have any questions regarding the company as such, I've been a long time fan of their work and as a norwegian have ease of access to information regarding the franchise and the game.

cooljammer00

Looking at when the Kickstarter started, and how much money they have already....I highly doubt they won't make their goal. I assume all these point and click fans came out of the woodworks for these Kickstarters?

cj iwakura

Pretty much. Seems to be the last bastion of the point'n'click supporter. Also niche WRPGs.

I wish JRPGs could find an avenue, but due to how the localization industry works, that's pretty much impossible.

PRationality

Oddly I thought they named it 'Red Thread Games' for the symbolism of fate and being tied to a person (or people). Since that kind of applies to the game. Still I think that's pretty interesting.

APODionysus

Less than 36 hours and Dreamfall is past the halfway point. I honestly didn't expect it to go this fast. I know it'll start to slow down a good bit, but I would not be surprised now if its funded in the first week.

That is fantastic.

According the their blog, there's a lot more interviews and articles coming soon, so we'll have more information to talk about!

Adellios

I think in honor of the good news of a third game, I'll be streaming hopefully both games this weekend.
Never played either game before so it will be pretty much all new to me. From the looks of the cutscenes already, it's going to be an amazing series.

Ynuu

so happy right now

so happy and suddenly, inexplicably missing fifty greenbacks

APODionysus

Adellios wrote: »

I think in honor of the good news of a third game, I'll be streaming hopefully both games this weekend.
Never played either game before so it will be pretty much all new to me. From the looks of the cutscenes already, it's going to be an amazing series.

I'm so jealous of you.

Getting to experience those games for the first time.

You are in for quite the time. Say "hi" to Crow for me, I miss the guy.

Nocren

Looks like I was wrong and I DON'T own them on Steam. Time to fix that, then start and complete both games.
For the first time.