RagnarTornquist.com

The good people over at the official Dreamfall forums - particularly ‘Sianna Tors’ - have put together some really cool resources:

The first one is a complete (and detailed) character list from the game, the second a chronology of events.

We actually spent a lot of time on all of these minute details when building the game, so it’s great to see the fans digging into that stuff and trying to make sense of it (and we’ve made sure it does). I could, of course, post our development notes here - but what would be the fun in that?

There’s also the most excellent Dreamfall model viewer - Dreamview - created by another member of the community. It’s a great idea and the kind of effort that’s highly appreciated and encouraged by the development team. Dreamfall modding, anyone? Well, hey, someone else already got started on that. Bring on the total conversions!

Dreamfall

I don’t think it’s actually based on .hack, but more partly inspired by it.

NBT is neither based on nor inspired by .hack. I’ve never even played that game. The confusion has arisen, I think, because of this Wikipedia entry. Suffice it to say, there’s not a whole lot of correct information in that article. The horse’s mouth (i.e. me) has not spoken, and few know The Truth.

anyway, the next big thing huh?? and it’s a MMO. Haven’t played MMO since.. well never. Don’t know what to expect, but if you’re writing it, I’m sure the story is good.

Vote of confidence appreciated, Yuriko. I’m doing much more than just writing it, however. As with Dreamfall, my title is director, which means that I’m creatively responsible for the game. For the most part, that means supervising every aspect of the production and doing reviews. Lots and lots of reviews of every aspect of the game: from monster design to community webpages. Where I will be most hands-on, however, is in the writing. That’s my carrot-on-a-stick for doing all the other stuff.

Will there be a strong and complex story?

You betcha. I’m very, very happy with what we’ve got so far.

Also are you the sole writer and director for NBT?

I am the director, yes, and I’ve worked on the story for years now, but once we go into full production, we’ll have a staff of writers. A project like this is so massive that there would be no way for me to do all the writing on my own. We’re currently scouring the world for the very best - and most suitable - writers, and I’ll get back to that in a future post.

Ragnar, I don’t care if it’s the Next Big Thing, quite frankly - MAKE THE THIRD TLJ!!

Dreamfall the Next isn’t being shunted aside completely for another project. I still dedicate an hour here and there to make sure that everything is ready for the if-and-when. And to repeat what I said in the last post: just because NBT is my next project doesn’t mean that a Dreamfall sequel will necessarily have to wait years and years to get underway.

And you make now MMO with Conan, so.. aren’t two MMOs too much?

I’m not personally involved with Age of Conan, and Funcom has more than one team. In fact, we have three teams: Anarchy Online is still very much alive, and there’s a bunch of really talented people working on that game, too. Worldwide - we have studios in Beijing and North Carolina - I think Funcom’s getting close to having 200 employees. Online gaming is our main focus, and that’s why we’re making NBT. (Plus it’s a fantastic concept.)

Hmm. I join the pantheon here when I say I’m not a traditional fan of MMO games… but I am open-minded. One thing does spring to mind… how may years do you think this project is from completion? Are you aiming for it to be Funcom’s next “big” MMO (after Conan)?

Yes, NBT is the Next Big Thing after Age of Conan, and it will be a while before we’re done. I’m not going to cause widespread panic in-house by saying exactly how long it’ll take, but don’t look for this game to go live in 2007.

I’m glad to hear that you - that many of you - are willing to keep an open mind. Even if you don’t like MMOGs, you won’t have played one like this before, and there will be Much Fun to be had for those who appreciate a cool setting, intriguing stories, original characters, adventuring and exploration.

As for the rest of you, I’ll try making this site a worthwhile place to visit regardless of the genre I’m currently working in. Do stick around.

OT, when will you do the Dreamfall post-mortem? In other words, when will it be released everywhere?

Not sure - it’s been, and continues to be, a slow rollout - so I’ll give it a while. I might post the first part within the next few weeks.

i shall pray the hardest that the final longest journey would NOT be mmo.. i’m sick of mmos =/

Dreamfall the Next will not be an MMOG, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of The Longest Journey universe going online at some point in the future. I, for one, would love to wander freely through the two (three? four?) worlds, encountering NPCs and other players. Imagine the possibilities in exploring the entirety of this world that, so far, you’ve only seen bits and pieces of!

Q&A, TSW

Joystiq reports that Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is now compatible with the Xbox 360. Which is, you know, excellent news. I had no idea they were even working on it, but I guess the blood sacrifices and Bill Gates voodoo dolls helped. Thanks, guys! We really do love everything Microsofty.

Keep in mind that this only applies to the North American Xbox version. I’m sure the European PAL version will be supported eventually, but that’s not even out yet.

Dreamfall, News

I have a problem. I don’t know what to call the project that I’m currently working on, because the name is secret, the working title might also be secret, and since I don’t want to mess up any plans, let’s start by just calling it ‘The Game’.

Okay, so what is ‘The Game’? ‘The Game’ is:

- Online, massively multiplayer, and persistent. (Might as well get that one out of the way.)
- Completely original.
- Not at all what you’re expecting.

What ‘The Game’ isn’t:

- In any way related to The Longest Journey or Dreamfall. (Sorry, guys. That’s not happening yet. That does not mean, however, that it’ll be three years until we start working on the sequel. It could very well happen sooner - if it happens at all. Because I’m not saying it will. But I’m working on making it happen, one way or the other.)
- Your standard elves-and-dwarves fantasy MMOG.
- Ready to be revealed yet.

Yeah, okay, not a whole lot of substance to any of that, was there? Sorry. That’s all I’m willing to say right now, but there’s more to come. Soon.

(By the way, I’m sick of calling this game ‘The Game’. So let’s call it NBT - Next Big Thing - because that’s what it is. At least as far as I’m concerned.)

Depending on how you look at it, NBT’s been in production for a very long time, or a pretty short time. Prior to Dreamfall, we worked on a project which metamorphosed into NBT - codenamed, coincidentally, ‘NBT’ - and it was moving along quite well when priorities got shifted around, the NBT team - or most of it - became the Dreamfall team, and Age of Conan became Funcom’s next MMO. This stuff happens often: games get delayed, cancelled, put on ice; we’ve all been there, every one of us who’ve worked in this industry. It happens. You move on. You make something else. And that something else was Dreamfall, so I’m pretty happy about the way things turned out.

Besides, with almost three years in the thinking box (and plenty of brainstorming meetings) between NBT-of-yore and NBT-of-today means the game is leaner, meaner, and worthy of the moniker. I am, in a word, psyched to be working on it. Again.

But the history of NBT goes back more than four years. The concept has been bouncing around in my head for the better part of a decade now, and while this game isn’t the same game that I dreamed about in 1997 - or in ‘99, when we wrapped up The Longest Journey and I was pitching my next project - it’s definitely a close cousin. So this is a real dream project, a game I’ve wanted to make for a very long time, and now it’s actually up and running for everyone to see.

(That’s a subject for another post, however. Let’s take a couple of steps back first.)

Dreamfall was a sequel (yeah, I know: a ’spiritual successor’, but let’s call a spade a spade, and move on), and when you make a sequel, you have a pretty solid framework to build on, and you have a basic blueprint you need to follow. You can’t deviate too much. You have to appeal to an existing audience. It’s both restrictive and comforting: you have your box, work within it, worry more about the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’.

With NBT, however, things have been, and continue to be, very different. The ‘what’ is definitely a big issue. Since we’re working with and building on existing technology, the ‘how’ can wait. Right now, we’re focusing on the ‘what’.

When you start making a game, you don’t (usually) get a big pile of money and two-and-a-half years of peace. Games cost a lot of cash, and there has to be a certain guarantee that it’s going to make back that cash - with plenty of interest. That’s just the way it has to be, because otherwise there would be no games. Simple economics. So when we start working on something big and expensive and original, people need to be convinced, and they need to be convinced over and over again. With Dreamfall, it was easy: we were making a sequel to The Longest Journey. With NBT, it’s harder: we’re making something brand new. And with something new, you have to sell it to the people paying for it, the people working on it - everyone.

It sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it forces you to focus on the ‘what’ and how to communicate that to people. And that’s going to be important when you start talking to the press and to the players, to really know what it is that makes this particular game - NBT - stand out from the crowd, shine, be worthy of attention and people’s money. This isn’t a sequel, you can’t point to the past and say, “look, it’s sort of like that, but better”. This game has to stand on its own two feet. This game has to earn attention the hard way.

Good thing, then, that the ‘what’ is shaping up to be a pretty spectacular ‘what’ - due in no small part to the team currently working on it…

(To be continued.)

Game Industry, TSW

Did you play Psychonauts, RE4, God of War? I sure hope so.

I have, and I believe I’ve documented my love for the latter two in a previous, long-ago post. Psychonauts I started playing quite recently - and thus it should have been in yesterday’s post - but I haven’t gotten very far yet. It’s great fun, brilliantly written, dense and smart. The gameplay is focused and, while not hugely original or stunningly exciting, it’s certainly polished. One of these days I’m going to get back to it.

And i also find it funny you critiquing other games and knocking them for the same flaws Dreamfall does even worse.

And:

“…The world feels very restrictive, the gameplay rudimentary…” Oh gentle irony, how thy strokes upon the canvas of life do paint a portrait that we know all too well.

I’m fully aware of the potential irony of my criticism, but that won’t stop me from pointing out what I like and don’t like about other games.

Seriously now, PoP 3 hard?You propably don’t play lots of action games.The gameplay is quite addictive and the lack of saving points makes it harder(and anyway it is a console game, you are not supposed to save whenever you like).

I had no trouble with The Sands of Time, and the only reason I stopped playing that one was boredom. (It got a bit repetitive after a while, though I got through about 70% of it. It’s still a great game.) I find this latest Prince of Persia both more difficult and less responsive. I do play a lot of action games, and while I’m by no stretch of the imagination a highly skilled gamer, I don’t suck either.

And who said you’re not ’supposed’ to be able to save whenever you like in console games? That’s an unfortunate holdover from the olden days, and there’s no reason why games shouldn’t allow you to save whenever and wherever you want. It’s a pet peeve of mine, because it means that I have to keep playing until I’m allowed to save - or lose the last ten, fifteen, twenty minutes (sometimes more; I remember one particular Final Fantasy X session where I lost a good ninety minutes because I had to leave the house, and I hadn’t made it to a save-point yet). In this day and age, that’s simply unacceptable.

games

Right, so by ‘tomorrow’ I meant ’six days later’, and by ‘early in the week’ I meant ‘Friday’. Funny how that works, isn’t it? What, me deliver anything on time? Ha! But do tune in tomorrow for that promised next-project, first-post thingy. I’m almost done, and it’ll be online before midnight Friday…somewhere in the world.

So: sundries, then.

It’s been a while since I, um, opined on movies and games, and now that the summer season is upon us - like a lion upon its prey - I thought I’d start with the Big Flicks currently dominating cinemas worldwide…or at least the ones I’ve seen so far:

The Da Vinci Code. I thought this was a well-made adaptation, although it was too true to the book - which I read two and a half years ago, but still remember quite clearly - to be particularly engaging. If you haven’t read the book, however, it’s worth catching. I still don’t know why it’s gotten such a bad rap, because it doesn’t deserve it. Yes, it’s talky, and yes, Tom Hanks looks a tad frayed around the edges, but it’s relatively smart, just the right side of silly (although the silly does rear its ugly head during a ridiculous car chase), and it’s occasionally stirring. Not a landmark, and perhaps a missed opportunity, but still.

X-Men: The Last Stand. Speaking of missed opportunities… I went in with very low expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised. But still… It was fun, but such a wasted opportunity that I honestly wanted to hate it. Yes, there are some good set-pieces and effects (and a few really bad ones, betraying the flick’s rushed schedule); yes, the gang’s back, and that in itself is cause for celebration; yes, Brett Ratner did a decent job of mimicking Bryan Singer and making it feel like a continuation of the saga. But the whole thing didn’t add up to much in the end, and, like I said, it was an enormous wasted opportunity. I mean, you have the whole Dark Phoenix storyline, probably one of the best known and best loved - not to mention most epic and emotional - sagas in Marvel history…and this is what you do with it? Freakin’ Alcatraz? If they’d left the Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix plot for the next movie, and focused on the mutant cure, it would have been pretty good. As it stands - it was fun, but ultimately empty. And most importantly: a wasted opportunity. But hey, if you have no idea what ‘Dark Phoenix’ means, and you’re only looking for a solid action flick to pass a couple of hours, then by all means, it works, and it’s not bad.

Mission: Impossible III. Meh. Lots of stuff blow up real good, but Tom Cruise runs weird. Philip Seymour Hoffman kicks ass, as usual, and the movie moves along at a brisk pace. Oh, and Simon Pegg makes a wonderful guest apperance. Our boy’s got a role in a big Hollywood movie! Bless. But overall, it feels like an extended Alias episode, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s not all that thrilling either - especially since we’re talking big screen, big budget, and no Sydney Bristow.

There’s little to be particularly excited about before Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest hits theaters in July - and, of course, after that, Superman Returns. Which will definitely be worth watching.

When it comes to games, I haven’t had much time to play anything for any extended period of time, but I have been going back to some releases I never got around to playing, including:

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Xbox). I love the first one (of this new ‘trilogy’), I didn’t play the second one, and now I’ve spent a few hours with the third one…and I don’t think I like it. First off, it’s just too damn hard. Secondly, the controls don’t feel as tight as they should. And thirdly, I can’t get my hands around the combat. I usually do okay with third-person action adventures, but this one - I don’t know. There’s something not-quite-right about it. I’ll give it a bit more time, but I get frustrated, especially when it’s too damn far between checkpoints. Give me the ability to save at any time - please. Is that too much to ask for?

Far Cry: Instincts (Xbox). I’m liking this one so far, but the disc doesn’t agree with my Xbox, and all too often the game crashes with the message ‘Your disc may be dirty’. It isn’t, and without the ability to save at any given time (again), it’s quite frustrating to have to replay large chunks of the game. So I might have to give this one up.

Kingdom Hearts II. So far it’s not been all that exciting. The world feels very restrictive, the gameplay rudimentary, and the story utterly, utterly confusing. No, I didn’t play through the first one - it got boring after a while - so that might explain it, but maybe some clues would be in order? Still, it looks and sounds great, and it’s got tons of Disney characters in it, which means that I’ll keep playing for a while longer. I just hope it picks up.

Shadow of the Colossus. Fantastic. Beautiful. Stunning. At times frustrating and dull, with an empty world, and trial-and-error gameplay. But a masterpiece. A work of art. A true milestone in gaming. See how this might get confusing? No matter how you look at it, however, it’s unique, it’s stirring, and it’s a must-play for anyone who claims to be a gamer.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Haven’t had a chance to check this out yet, but I’ve heard it’s supposed to be quite good. Anyone? Anyone? Oh, go buy it already. PC and Xbox.

Movies, games

Yup, you read that right. This is not a Dreamfall post. I will not be talking about Dreamfall at all. If you want to post your comments regarding Dreamfall, use the previous post or go here.

(I read those forums from time to time in order to stay updated with what people are discussing, and The Winter forum in particular is an interesting read: the theories around, and dissection of, the storyline is intriguing stuff - but only for those of you who have finished the game, because Thar Be Spoilers. Big time.)

But this wasn’t supposed to be a Dreamfall post, so let’s move on.

A few posts ago I mentioned that we’ve started working on a new project, and for those of you wondering what that’s all about - well, check back early next week. I’m going to start blogging the development (without giving too much away, of course; we’re working in total secrecy here), and hopefully keep that going regularly from now until the game’s released (and beyond). Which is a ways off, of course. So next week I’ll talk a little about the process of starting production on a game that’s not a sequel, how the team is being put together, and what milestones we’re currently working towards. It should be pretty interesting.

As for the ’sundries’ - I’m leaving those for tomorrow. Let’s just ease slowly into this whole ‘not a Dreamfall post’ thing. All right?

EDIT: Oh, and the title of the previous post, ‘She ain’t quite dead yet’, is in reference to Dreamfall - the game, which, obviously, is a ’she’ - and nothing else. Sometimes a cigar is just a brown and smelly thing you put in your mouth. Sorry.

Dreamfall, General, News

I think I’ll hold off on the Dreamfall postmortem for a bit, simply because it seems a bit crass to go dissecting and analysing a game that hasn’t even been released everywhere yet. I’d rather everyone have a chance to play the game before reading my take on the reviews and the feedback. So until the game’s out in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan - and wherever else it’s going to be released - I’ll put the scalpel down and back away.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some (mostly) non-Dreamfall related sundries.

Dreamfall