Dreamfall Chapters funded!

Dreamfall Chapters' Kickstarter campaign ended on Monday with just over $1.5 million pledged to the project. Almost doubling the target of $850,000, the people at Red Thread Games were naturally in high spirits as they counted down to the end of the campaign on a live TwitchTV stream. Keeping with the incredible openness of the past 30 days, RTG invited all their fans to join them, virtually, in their studio and celebrate the end of their Kickstarter adventure. The crew happily answered questions via chat and Skype calls while enjoying a well-deserved lunch of champions.

Now the next chapter (pardon the pun) begins with the creation of the game getting underway. With less than three hours to go on Kickstarter, the "Director's Cut" stretch goal was reached, making the director, Ragnar Tørnquist, very happy. This will see a lot of characters, locations and side quests added to the game which were originally cut due to the low budget.

For fans, this is the end of a nervous but short wait to see if their game of choice would be funded. However it is also the start of a much longer wait for the release of the game in November, 2014. RTG has promised to keep us up to date with their progress through written updates, video diaries and much more. They've also set up a new forum, www.theundreaming.com where fans of all ages can come along and discuss the game and whatever else they might feel like. The forum already has over 1,700 members and more people are joining every day.

Game Details



Zoë's new look in
Dreamfall Chapters

So what do we know about Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey? In the same mould as Dreamfall, there will be three playable characters. Already in the first announcement of the Kickstarter campaign we learned that Zoë Castillo would be one of the three. The last time we saw Zoë, in Dreamfall, she was lying in a hospital bed, unable to wake up in Stark. Meanwhile her dreaming self is stuck in the Storytime, between the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia. In the various trailers and gameplay videos released, Zoë has appeared in both Marcuria in Arcadia and Europolis in Stark, so we know she somehow escapes the Storytime. In Dreamfall Chapters, Zoë will hopefully work towards answering some of the many questions players were left with at the end of the previous game. Will she find out more about Helena Chang, the woman who put her in a coma? Did she really save April Ryan? What is the undreaming? 

Kian Alvane looking
dangerous 

In another video update, RTG revealed that Kian Alvane will be returning as the second playable character. Called the Apostle, he was an assassin serving the Six Empresses of the Azadi and their goddess. Originally sent to kill April Ryan, he was moved by her side of the story on the Azadi occupation. He decided not to kill her, hoping they could work together to resolve differences and learn from each other. Sadly this was discovered by the Azadi and Kian was sent to Friar's Keep, the prison in Marcuria, for treason. A year has passed since then, a year which has changed the young Apostle's appearance greatly. A shaved head and dark, brooding eyes give Kian the look of a man who has been hardened by his experiences in prison. No details yet as to what his part in the story will be, but it's sure to answer more questions about the Azadi and their goddess.

As for the third character, Ragnar Tørnquist has said on Twitter that it will be a female, but not April Ryan. He's also said it's not someone we've encountered previously (more Twitter) (we know Zoë and Kian) and her identity may be kept a secret until the release of the game.

In the same video introducing Kian as the second playable character, Ragnar and Lead Designer, Martin Bruusgaard, talk about "open spaces" in Dreamfall Chapters. Open spaces are locations in the game where players are free to explore rather than being forced to run a linear path. They want to reward curiosity, something that makes the obsessive compulsive video game explorer inside me scream with joy.

As for gameplay, players can choose between using keyboard or mouse to make the characters do their bidding. The stealth and combat sections we saw in Dreamfall will not return in Chapters, something that will please many as they were elements which didn't quite fit in. Like TLJ and Dreamfall, there will be plenty of rich dialogue, beautiful environments to explore and, of course, the many puzzles.

The game is almost 20 months away, but already I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve. I can't wait for the release and will spend the entire waiting period on the forum, hoping for any new updates or details. If the Kickstarter campaign is anything to go by, we'll be seeing lots of goodies and fun interactions with the developers.

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Dreamfall Chapters