The last time Ragnar Tørnquist said that Dreamfall Chapters, the episodic continuation of his adored adventure that began with The Longest Journey, was going to actually get made, he wasn’t telling his fans the whole truth. Dreamfall Chapters was something he wanted to make, he just wasn’t sure when he would get the chance to do so. It’s been nearly seven years since he first made mention of the game, after all. How do we know that this time he’s for real? The new details about the game’s development and some screenshots posted at studio Red Thread Games’ website are a good start.
“Our handsome and talented artists have been working very hard, and while most of their work in not quite ready for primetime (soon now, very very soon) we just wanted to post an exclusive teaser of what’s in store,” reads the message from Red Thread Games, “A prevue. A taster. A starter. Or, as the French would say, and hors d’oeuvre.”
The update sheds at least some light on what will actually take place in the game. Chronologically set after the end of , the second game in the series, the game again takes place in Marcuria. Rather than the icy winter setting of “Dreamfall,Dreamfall Chapters will take place over all of the seasons, giving a longer, wider look at life in Tørnquist’s fantasy world.
“We’re actually working on Dreamfall Chapters. We didn’t make it up to avoid embarrassing questions from our parents about what we’re doing with our lives.”
Red Thread Games licensed The Longest Journey universe from publisher Funcom in November, marking Tørnquist’s return to the world after spending years developing MMO The Secret World. It may ultimately be for the best that Dreamfall Chapters didn’t release when the developer originally intended as today’s gaming market is far more receptive to literary adventure games of this kind. Most notably The Walking Dead. Adventure game developer Telltale Games announced at the beginning of January that it’s sold 8.5 million copies of the five episodes of The Walking Dead, a figure that continues to grow. Independent developers like the makers of Kentucky Route Zero continue to gain a following for lyrical adventure games as well. Dreamfall Chapters may be far more of a success in 2013 than it would have been in 2007.
