Dan Marshall of Size Five Games gets interviewed

Dan Marshal of Size Five Games (formerly known as Zombie Cow Studios) has been crafting indie games for more than a few years now and is actually preparing something rather ambitious even as we speak, which, well, does make sense for an indie developer I suppose. Anyway. Here's the interview with the man that can be both funny and, funnily enough, designing anything from run-and-gun to point-and-click games:

Though I'm pretty sure it's not needed, could you please introduce yourself to the illustrious Gnome's Lair readers?

Hello! My name's Dan, I run Size Five Games which used to be called Zombie Cow Studios until I realised how much I hated that name. So I changed it, which kind of weirdly worked out because all the press about what a stupid thing to do it was meant sales shot up.

I made a couple of adventure games called "Ben There, Dan That!" and "Time Gentlemen, Please!" which were very well received. We then did that Channel4 sex-ed game called Privates which everyone just referred to as "the vagina game".

Mind you, I do believe I remember your work ever since those PC Zone articles on Gibbage. Is that really how you entered the world of game development?

Not really - as a kid I always used to tinker about with the likes of Klik 'n Play. One day I decided to learn 'real' programming and picked up a C primer. I'd been working on Gibbage for about 18 months, teaching myself how to code along the way, when I dropped the editor of PC Zone a line to see if he'd be interested in a developer diary. I decided it was a fairly unique thing to be doing, since the indie scene was waaaaaay smaller back then. Anyway, he accepted and that's how I started doing bits and bobs for PC Zone. But the truth is that the 'monthly updates' on my progress were largely things that had happened about a year previously.

And you have now moved on to the world of BAFTA ceremonies. Quite an impressive achievement. How did you do it?

Magic, largely.

In reality: no idea. Channel 4 gave me some money to think up a stupid (albeit sexy) idea, which I then spent on assembling a team, kind of like something out of a blockbuster movie, but way more low-key and with more nerds involved. So I grabbed Lemmy and Binky, who have gone on to work wonders with Project Zomboid, and they programmed and arted a load of stuff. I cried a lot, things went wrong, more things went wrong, and then at the end a game came out.

After that, it was up for a BAFTA which, preposterously, it won.

You've also been instrumental in the recent rebirth of adventure gaming and have managed to remind everyone just how delightfully wild a point-and-click game can be. Why did you decide to go on with Ben There, Dan That?

Ben There, Dan That! actually started life as a stupid little game to bring some attention to Gibbage, which was selling for REAL MONEY. After two years of solid development, I wanted something small and silly to do, and BTDT was the result - it was largely a product of Ben and I going to the pub, having stupid conversations, which I then programmed into a silly-but-charming little game.

On release, it wound up being WAY more popular than Gibbage and eclipsing it entirely.

What were you aiming for?

We were just making a game like the old Tim Schafer/ LucasArts ones we used to love; there really was no big 'thinking' behind it. We weren't aiming to bring back the genre or anything. We were just doing it for the love.

Was it its success that spawned Time Gentlemen, Please?

Yeah, BTDT did really well. We'd talked about doing a sequel, and left it kind of open for the possibility, but all we had was a name. BTDT had done really well and I was getting lots of emails requesting another - Ben and I went to the pub on the understanding that if we could think of something good that didn't feel trite and forced, we'd do it. We wound up sitting in the boozer crying with laughter over some of the stuff we'd come up with, and I guess from there we had no choice...

And how about another sequel? Think it will be possible? Hope it would be able to live up to them lofty expectations?

We're looking into it. The third game, Revenge of the Balloon-Headed Mexican, wound up getting canned for various reasons, which can pretty much be summed up as: it was exactly the same thing again. So, yeah, we've toyed with various other ways of doing another sequel, and it's certainly a possibility when we finally work out an amazing way of doing it that feels fresh and different enough.

 Considered the crowd-funding solution?

For a new Dan and Ben game? Nah. I'm generally anti-alpha funding. Not for other devs, I think it's great for them. But mainly because I do all the work; Ben helps with the design stuff, but I do all the code and art and most of the writing and design... so if I suddenly die horribly, all that money would be for nothing and angry gamers would basically wind up forcing Ben to suddenly learning programming and Photoshop. It'd be a disaster. There'd be binary all over the place, peoples' computers exploding. Doesn't bear thinking about. 

What's more, I'm a bit worried about alpha funding from an 'entitlement' point of view - some of the devs I've spoken to have found their angsty backers constantly berating them for crimes like 'taking a weekend off'. One guy told me he was living in a perpetual crunch, because if he stops his backers get angry. I'm too laid back for any of that sort of nonsense.

As soon as I run out of money, I will change my mind entirely.

You do love variety, don't you? From 2D shooters, to puzzle games, to full-blown adventures, to the run and gun of Privates and the stealthy Swindle. How difficult is it to successfully design all those decidely different games? Don't you confuse yourself?

I guess it comes from the fact that I'm an eclectic gamer - I love all sorts of different things. Growing up I was all about the adventure games and the platformers, but I'm a massive FPS/ third person nut as well. I dabble in everything from little freeware indie games to big RPGs. I quite like the fact I'm constantly doing different things, it means there's fresh passion behind every project. If I was still making point-and-clicks, I imagine they'd have gone pretty stale by now, whereas I'm itching to do something like that again...

On to Privates then... were you shocked when people (especially those Xbox people) considered a funny and deeply educational game offensive?

No, not really. I knew from the off getting it on Xbox would be a challenge- their Rules and Regulations are laid out for everyone to read, and Privates broke most of them. I'd kind of hoped it might just get through because of all the frightfully-worthy educational content. Sadly, it turned out rules is rules. That whole thing wasn't nearly as exciting in real life as the screaming "MICROSOFT BANS VAGINA GAME" headlines. As far as I'm aware, no one at Microsoft even looked at it. An Xbox contact played it, said it was ace, but the rules won't bend and it was a mite too saucy. That was all.

It's not actually very offensive. There's a couple of icky bits - what I wasn't prepared for was most of the ire came from people ewwwwing over the inclusion of pubic hairs. I now realise that was probably from teenagers who haven't seen a vagina outside of RedTube.

Then again, how did you (and the brilliant Privates team of course) manage to make a game that can actually warn about venereal disease in such downright enjoyable way? 

Ha, no idea. The gameplay's pretty simple, because despite all the 'it's rude' protestations it's actually designed for kids. I don't know if you've seen a 13 year old play a game - it's tempting to think they're all Call of Duty whizzkids, but the reality is they're exactly as rotten as we all were when we were that age. It's a nice, pretty, stylish game with some funny bits and some great voice acting, I think that's what really got older people enjoying it. It's an easy romp, nothing too stressful.

You seem to be mainly developing for Windows. Any particular reasons?

Yeah, PC development is great. No barriers to entry, no one breathing down my neck. If I had any talent, I could make a game in a weekend and be selling it online first thing on Monday morning with no forms to fill in whatsoever - that's a huge draw.

There's something really satisfying about seeing your game running on a console, but from a boring business point of view Windows makes a lot of sense.

I'd love to support Linux and Mac, but the adventure games are made with AGS - as soon as that supports Linux and Mac I'll look into doing ports. Privates and The Swindle are made with XNA, so for the time being they're locked to Windows too...

Would you like to have more, relatively at least, open platforms like iOS, Android and Windows available to you? Any plans of bringing your games on mobile platforms?

If AGS had an iOS port, I'd look into making BTDT and TGP for it, but it's not a straight port; they'd have to be re-jigged for the control method. I can see them also being quite fiddly on the tiny screen, so it'd be more work than you might imagine. I'd consider it, but if AGS suddenly worked with iOS I'd probably be more interested in making a smaller, voiced, made-for-the-device Dan and Ben game than struggling to make the existing ones fit.

You are currently working on The Swindle. How would you describe it?

I originally described it as being like Sonic the Hedgehog meets Deus Ex, and I think that's still pretty much spot on - it feels like a platform game, but with multiple path sneaking, shooting, hacking and upgrading, that sort of thing. It's a cartoonish Steampunk game about thieving money, upgrading your kit and going back to thieve more.

Judging by your Twitter comments you have already made quite some progress. Happy with the development so far?

Yeah, it's taking longer than I'd imagined to get the basics set up, but it's finally all coming together. The AI's finally up and about, wandering the halls and chasing after you if you're doing something naughty, so it's finally starting to feel like a game. I'm just toying with various different bits and pieces right now, seeing what works and what doesn't. I'm having a blast, my job is amazing.

The art style seems lovely too.

The big headache at the moment is the art - I'm on the verge of scrapping the current graphics and starting afresh with something a bit bolder... we'll see.

Any other comments kind sir?

None, I'm afraid. I think I've used up all the words I know. My Twitter is @danthat, go there please.

[This very interview has also been (cross-)posted over at the lovely IndieGames.com]

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The Journey Down Interview
• The Book of Living Magic
• Metal Dead: the review
• The Cat The Got The Milk

The Journey Down interview

SkyGoblin is much more than a brilliant name; it's a brilliantly named indie adventure-loving ensemble that has already given us one stunning freeware game, is frantically working on The Journey Down (HD) and is apparently more than capable of coming up (and -importantly- masterfully realizing) unique ideas. Here's the interview with multi-tasking artist, developer and producer Theodor Waern:

Let's start with the basics, shall we? Who are the people responsible for SkyGoblin? And why SkyGoblin?

We are two artists (me and Henrik), and two programmers, Mathias and Markus. We've been making games together as a group for over six years now. Me and Mathias have been fooling around with games together pretty much our entire life though. As a group we've built a bunch of different things. Our major project the past three years or so though has been our free-to-play mmo "nordgame". But we've also worked on a bunch of smaller advergames etc. to stay afloat commercially.

In the beginning of our time together as a group we were actually, for a short period, focused on making mobile games. Among them, we made (but never finished) an awesome little game called Baron's Gold. The premise was that a bunch of nasty sky-living Goblins had stolen the flying baron's loot, and you had to get it all back. This is from where the name SKYGOBLIN stems.

I take it you are adventure lovers that will be focused on adventures. Am I correct? Are there any non-adventuring projects waiting to be hatched?

We love games, but we also love stories. I think this is why we have a bias toward working on adventure games. They are simply a great mix of everything we love to work with. As for future projects though, I see no reason why we couldn't venture into all sorts of genres. We love gameplay design and have a lot of strange ideas we'd love to try out if we were given the opportunity.

The already brilliant visuals of the freeware version.

On to The Journey Down then; the original, freeware release. How would you describe it?

I'd describe it as a good flowing adventure that leaves a warm feeling of friendlyness and a thick feeling of there being something bigger and more sinister going on under the surface.

What were you aiming for?

Well, I aimed on making a game that featured all of the good things from the "golden era of point 'n' click" and none of the bad. People often have rose tinted memories of their old favorite games from back in the day. Fact is, they weren't perfect. They had tons of flaws. To be frank, the genre was still not really thought-through. Unintuitive interactions and illogical solutions were everywhere to be found. I like to think I pretty much succeeded in weeding out those issues and instead focused on those core things that truly make the genre fun.

Also, one of my primary goals in making the game was making a game that I would love to produce. And boy did I love to produce TJD.

Did you expect its overwhelming critical success and all those awards?

After having done quite a lot of testing on a rather large bunch of people, I knew I had something good going that worked on people in general and seemed to strike the right chords. I had certainly hoped to win some of those awards, but hadn't deared wish for that many.

Why did you decide to go with an African aesthetic?

I was raised in a home full of African masks and musical instruments, it has been with me all my life and it is something I've always wanted to explore. Besides it looks cool and has for some reason not really been featured that much in games.

The 2D beauty of the HD remake. 

What are you the happiest with? Is it the lovely graphics? The plot? The music? The dialog? The puzzles?

To me the greatest experience a game can give you is its ambiance -the vibe you get from playing a game. I am very happy with the vibe of TJD. Needless to say, the vibe is a result of everything combined. As an artist I was never really happy seeing my art mashed-up and go low-res the way it did in the original. Also, me making nice art was not news to me, me making good puzzles and story, this was something new. Also me actually producing the whole thing is something I'm very happy with. I will never again under-estimate the title "producer". It's easy to think of this as the role of someone who doesn't do any of the real work. But fact is, the producer is the one who makes sure it actually gets done. Needless to say, that's pretty important.

And why did you decide to go with a commercial remake?

Lots of reasons. My primary reason though was that I realized I desperately needed to turn TJD into my day job if I was ever going to find the time to actually keep on working on it. In becoming a father, my free time for working on hobby projects has now dwindled down to a steady zero hours per day. Making chapter two commercial was a no-go, there's way too little following. I figured the only way to make this work was to revamp chapter one on a bigger scale. Make it more accessible and raise the appeal further. More platforms, speech and more puzzles all add up to a better game, reaching a bigger audience. Hopefully we can make chapter one work commercially, so I can continue doing chapter two as my day job. If not, I'm just going to have to keep it tiny, and work on it on my own, which clearly works, but will wind up being crummier, and take five more years instead of the rough half-year I expect it to take if being produced here, at SKYGOBLIN.

What's new in the, uhm, new The Journey Down?

Most importantly, speech. It adds a TON of ambiance and depth to the characters. I'm not against reading, but theres's no way text can portray emotion the way a real voice actor can. It makes a huge differece in bonding with the characters. Secondly I'd say story. We've added quite a lot of backstory and new characters, puzzles and locations to make the game a longer, fuller experience that really does make the game worth playing even if you've already played the original. On third place I'd say the HD art. I personally -having painted it all- love finally seeing my background art the way I intended it to be. Sure, the original 320 resolution is cute and retro-y and all, but it still doesn't really do the artwork justice. Finally you can see all the detail and effort that has actually gone into creating this world. On top of that we have re-animated all characters 100% which also makes a huge difference. The original animations were desperate at best and I never really felt they were on par with the rest of the production. Now they are.

When should we expect it?

Depending on when our different distribution channels get a move on, my current guess is mid April, for the PC and Mac release. iOS and Android will follow some time during summer.

It's still episodic isn't it? How many chapters should we expect?

Yeah, this is still only the first chapter of four. It starts and ends where the original does, but we've squeezed lots o' new stuff in between.

Impressively and besides the PC, you are (as mentioned) also releasing it for Mac, iOS and Android. A wise choice indeed, but how difficult is actually porting the game over?

Fortunately we made the decision quite early in the process to make an effort to get the game out on as many platforms as possible. Having this in mind, we built our engine, Gobby, around this very premise. This has (so far) made the effort relatively pain-free. Getting it running on Mac was pretty much a piece of cake. Our Mac build is currently as up to date as our PC build and frankly also seems a bit more stable, for some reason.

Our main challenges on handheld so far have actually rather been interaction-wise. Some handsets are TINY, which has forced us to re-design quite a lot of hotspots and puzzles, to ensure that the player will actually be able to perform the desired interactions. I don't doubt for a second though that we will hit all sorts of technical obstacles before we actually have the iOS and Android builds up and running 100%, but all in all it is looking very promising. One potentially scary thing is performance though. One would think that a 2d point 'n' click title would be relatively non-demanding but with TJD this isn't really the case. We have tons of frames, lots and lots and lots of frames of animation that all need to be loaded into memory, fast. Getting that flow smoothly on all devices will no doubts be a challenge.

Do you feel that mobile platforms are well-suited to adventures?

Certainly. But the games need to be built for it to suit the format. Honestly, with a well designed UI, I have a hard time imagining any format working better for point 'n' clicks than tablets.

And what about the general state of adventure gaming? There's a renaissance going on, isn't there?

It certainly seems like it. With the sudden boom of affordable tablets and other handheld gaming devices, point 'n' clicks and similar puzzlers are bound to start flourishing again. Also, Android Market and the App Store are ideal places for small studios to launch experimental, high-risk games without having to bother with publishers, which at least in theory should allow for more interesting and quirky titles to reach the masses. If they'll (we'll) manage to get anything sold though, is a different matter entirely.

Also, Double Fine certainly put pnc's back in the spotlight again with their Kickstarter campaign, proving that there are indeed tons of people out there who are craving these kind of games. How us noname developers tap into that market though is anyone's guess. Being seen is incredibly difficult.

Finally and to let you work on actually crafting games, what does the future hold for SkyGoblin?

Hopefully our near future holds a successfull launch of chapter one of TJD, followed by us immediately getting down and dirty with the actual implementation of chapter two. We actually have quite a lot of chapter two worked out, it just hasn't been... produced. Frankly I hope to pretty much be able to focus on TJD until we finally wrap the whole thing up, but odds are we will have to break off a little now and then and work on other projects to keep us afloat. Financially solely living off of TJD seems pretty unlikely. Don't get me wrong, I expect people who play the game to love it. That however doesn't mean we will be able to reach out and make enough sales to live off of it during the entire production. Such is the tough world of self publishing. So likely we will be doing all sorts of haphazard contract jobs in between, somehow patching our economy together, as we have the past five years or so. We are used to it by now. Zero security, but it allows us to work with what we love.

After TJD, who knows? We have a million ideas and would love to see them all realized. Which one we end up playing with is too early to speculate about at this stage. It's pretty safe to say though that it wont directly involve mask-clad rasta people.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The Steve Ince interview
• Da New Guys review
• The zombie infested Metal Dead
• Et in Arcadia ego

Wing Commander Saga - Preview & Interview

My Wing Commander memories mainly involve scheming. Well, scheming and fighting exciting space-battles while daydreaming the way only a space-opera can force (male) teenagers to daydream, but mainly scheming. Getting the original game, installing a Soundblaster Pro, accessing the Secret Mission packs, being given a copy of Wing Commander II and eventually even upgrading to a 386SX wasn't that easy. Not for a kid my age. Not without scheming. And begging, and pleading too of course, but mainly scheming. I even considered believing in Santa Claus for a moment, but, no, it was scheming that allowed me to experience Wing Commander in its almost full glory.

But, I do believe that's enough on my early teen years, as the future of the mostly ignored space fighter sim genre is actually looking much brighter. The indie, freeware project that's been going on for the past decade and will most definitely revive the Wing Commander universe, Wing Commander Saga, will very soon be made available. How soon? Watch this impressive trailer and you'll know:

Pretty fantastic, innit? And you should know by now that it's only a few days away. Then again you should (but, frankly, couldn't) also know that I've been playing with the almost final version of the game for the past few days and am more than enthralled by it. I do believe my jaw actually dropped a couple of times too.

Wing Commander Saga, you see, is so much more than a simple fan remake. It is a polished, feature-heavy, brilliantly designed behemoth of a game, that could have easily been a commercial release. The game does after all sport over 50 missions, 2 campaigns, 60 voice actors, dozens of Terran and Kilrathi spaceships and roughly 70 cutscenes. And some massive battles involving proper fleets.

What's more and despite using the smart but relatively ageing Freespace 2 engine, the game looks absolutely stunning and should run smoothly on any PC. The high-res models, the beautiful star-fields, those glorious nebulae and an inspired art direction make Wing Commander Saga's space battles the most spectacular of the series. Happily they play excellently too, even if you (like me) eschew the more traditional joystick in favour of keyboard controls. Everything you knew and loved is there in its evolved and refined version: travelling from nav-point to nav-point, on the fly changing of weapons configurations, deploying decoys, giving orders to your wingmen; the lot. You'll even be able to transfer power between shields, weapons and engines à la X-Wing.

As for the missions themselves they cover everything from patrolling and escorting to attacking and defending, and are masterfully scripted, story driven and, for lack of a better word, incredibly fun. Fun enough to keep me playing for a disturbing number of hours. To my defense, destroying Kilrathi hasn't felt this good in ages, and as the game is set some time* before the events of Wing Commander 3 you'll be getting a lot of that, all wrapped-up in a lovely plot and supported by an equally lovely soundtrack. (* Update: The prologue takes place roughly 6 months before the events in Wing Commander 3 while the main campaign begins right before Wing Commander 3 and concludes with the ending of the Terran-Kilrathi War.)

Enough with what I thought about Wing Commander Saga though. It's pretty obvious I loved it and so will you the moment it gets released (most probably here). For now let creator and founder of the project Anton (a.k.a. Tolwyn) further enlighten you via this handy interview:

What is Wing Commander Saga?

Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn is a space flight simulator game, which recreates the vast universe of the famed Wing Commander series. Just like the original games, WC Saga offers a compelling mixture of sci-fi and World War II history, all told through the perspective of a skilled pilot that the player can relate to. We created a highly immersive plot line grounded in the Wing Commander universe which offers compelling characters in thought provoking situations - the very thing that Chris Roberts and his team did so successfully with Wing Commander.

How long did you spend on creating this shining behemoth of a space battles sim?

It is kind of odd to think that it took us exactly 10 years (to the day) to complete the project. It has been a wild and bumpy ride. The project had been pushed back several times over the years because we kept adding new features to the product or refining existing assets. Right now, I am looking back and am amazed at how far we have come - it is a great feeling to see this thing I have been envisioning all these years finally take form.

Weren't you afraid of such a herculean task?

We quickly learned that the process of creating a computer game is much more difficult than we initially thought. The project kept growing because we wanted gamers to experience a wide variety of missions while staying true to the feeling of Wing Commander. There was an intense desire to keep adding new elements, assets & features, which was very seductive. Many of the features we added (like the autopilot) were really great ideas too, so we did not want to let those go. The end result should be highly enjoyable for the players, and that's the audience we need to please.

Click for a more detailed look at the game's HUD.

Care to introduce us to the team?

The team behind Wing Commander Saga was small from the start, but what we lacked in numbers we made up for in dedication and talent. These guys really stretched their creative muscles and put in ridiculous hours to make sure that this project stayed true to the Wing Commander canon and spirit (although we may have taken some artistic license here or there) and made it out of my dreams and into reality. I've worked with some people who were easy to get along with, some others who were more difficult. We've been through hard times, through tough times, but we've all kept together--because we love Wing Commander and have produced WC Saga as a celebration of a great series.

What would you say is the most impressive feature of Wing Commander Saga?

Features don't make games great. What makes them great is the love poured into them, great game dynamics, and solid storytelling--and we've done our best to make sure Wing Commander Saga has all of that. We, as designers, wanted to ensure that the entire experience is exciting: the game makes you feel that you are not just watching the action but actually stepping into the role and experiencing what it is like to be Sandman.

How well does it tie in with the original Wing Commander series?

It should tie in very well storywise. It has several references to the old series, to novels, to other stuff about the Wing Commander universe. Our approach to game design draws mostly upon elements from Wing Commander, but we also analyzed other great titles like Freespace and the X-Wing series. We have tried to learn from all of these sources about what makes for action packed and diversified mission design and I can see that it's really making a difference. I feel that the final product will be great. For example, sizeable fleet battles are things that WC fans have largely only been able to read about, or have inferred in the games... until Wing Commander Saga. The largest fleet action-type battles you have actually been able to play until now were in Wing Commander: Prophecy, and the fan project Wing Commander: Standoff deserves props for taking Prophecy’s engine and putting together some good fleet action.

What does the future hold? Any future projects we should be looking out for?

It's been a fantastic experience to create something in homage of a great series. A big thank you has to go to our fans for their extreme patience over the long development period, as well as to Chris Roberts, Origin, and EA for their generosity in allowing Saga and other Wing Commander fan projects to be released and distributed.

Pulling off something like this is a lifetime achievement. We couldn't easily repeat it, nor would we want to. But who knows, maybe we will start developing a new indie game very soon.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• A Valley Without Wind interview
• Waves: the calm review
• Gemini Rue does sci-fi noir
• Quest in Space with Space Quest

The Steve Ince Interview

From Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword and Revolution Software to So Blonde, The Whispered World and Juniper Games, Steve Ince has been there to help adventure games evolve and show everyone else just how crucial the role of a games-writer can be. Without further ado then, here's the gnomic interview with the writer, artist and game designer responsible for more than a few (adventure and non-adventure) classics:

I understand you started working on games as an artist on Beneath A Steel Sky. Is this actually true? 

Yes, although there were better artists and animators already working there.  The image below is one of my paintings.  I also animated a number of other sprite anims, including the steam in the power room.

But what drew you to it? Was it the apparent quality of the game? The genre? The medium itself?

I was based in Hull at the time and Revolution had its offices there.  Someone I knew told me that Revolution was looking for an artist and I got an interview.  After some test pieces and a meeting with Dave Gibbons I got the job.

I didn’t actually know any specifics about the project or even that Revolution were based in Hull, so it was a really fortunate set of circumstances.

You've also had a rich history in the Broken Sword series all the way from producing and drawing concept art for the original, to doing almost everything for Sleeping Dragon and managing the remake. Any thoughts on the series? Any particularly interesting anecdotes perhaps? Any, uhm, news?

Firstly, I didn’t do “almost everything for Sleeping Dragon”.  While I had a hand in a number of areas, the vast majority of the work was done by a team of talented people, as is the case with all the Revolution games.  It’s always a pleasure working with such people.

The best thing about the Broken Sword series is the way that it’s still vibrant after all this time, which reflects the care and attention that the team put into making it.  It’s also been a great experience for me in my growth as a game developer/designer/writer – so much of my career has been involved in the series it’s hard to imagine I’d be the person I am without my involvement with these games.

I have no news to tell you at this time.

Could you briefly describe the design and production process of Broken Sword III? What were the key choices that had to be made? Were you happy with its reception? Any regrets? Any particularly proud moments?

Like most adventure games, it started with the germ of an idea, which was then built upon through a number of iterations that developed the structure of the story and gameplay in parallel.  Once the high level structure, plot and gameplay objectives were in place we were able to detail up the various sections through a further iterative process.

The key choice that defined how we approached the design and implementation was that of going with direct control 3D, which came about after the direct control version of BS1 worked so well on the GBA.

The game received a number of award nominations and was given best PC game by The Independent (UK newspaper) so I’m more than pleased with the reception it received.

No real regrets, but in hindsight we perhaps should have taken a different approach to the crate puzzles.  Although, considering the small percentage of the overall gameplay they constituted, I do think some people made more of their significance than was really the case.

What about In Cold Blood? It was quite a departure. Do you feel its innovations were succesful?

Yes and no.  I think that overall it was a strong game with a good story.  But I do think that the difficulty ramped up too quickly at the beginning and the artwork and camera angles didn’t always make it clear what was taking place.  Some people loved it while others were less enamoured.

What do you enjoy the most when designing games? What are the major challenges of such an endeavor?

I love the interactions between characters and working out how to make that work in the best way as gameplay.  Adventures, of course, are one of the best types of game in which to maximise this.  The biggest challenge is not letting the characters run away with things – it must always be driven by the actions of the player.

Do you have a certain way of designing games?

I like to work from a broad view in order to get a grasp of the game’s vision and then work up the details from there.  Usually, this is a very collaborative process, which is a huge benefit because everyone involved gives perspective on other people’s ideas and helps to refine initial ideas into more complete puzzles and gameplay.

How about the challenges of writing for games? Or working on dialog and English translations as you did for The Witcher 2 and The Whispered World?

Game writing is an evolving aspect of developing for games.  It’s part of what I enjoy about game development – there’s no time to sit back and take it easy.  The way we view the role of dialogue is changing along with the development of character and voice acting.  We’re doing things now we could only dream of back in the 90s.  The chance to think in terms of character story arcs, sub-plots, sub-text, etc. just wasn’t an option back then.

When I work on games like The Witcher and Whispered World, I’m asked to give a little polish and life to the translation.  The translations are often very good but they can be a little dry and lack the necessary character voice to give the actors something to get their teeth into.  The biggest frustration is being unable to change the number of lines in a conversation.  What works fine in another language in three lines will often work better in two lines in English, say.  This means I have to be creative about how I tweak the three lines to work best.

Sometimes it’s about adapting the lines in a way that the flow of the scene is more natural or better paced.  Sometimes I have to almost look through the translation to the sense of the original scene.

Care to share a few words on your book about writers in video games? 

Writing for Video Games was published in 2006, which seems quite a time ago, now.  I was approached by the publisher who read an article of mine online and liked my style, which is always very flattering.  The book covers a broad, high-level look at writing for games and tries to place the writer in the context of game development for those who are unsure how this works.  It is not about teaching people how to write but how writers can look at their own skills and adapt them to the games industry.  For writers already in the industry some of the book will be stuff they already know and have experience with.

And did you draw upon your writing experience when working on And Then There Were None? It was a grossly underrated I believe and one adventure I sincerely loved.

I had a very minor role on this game.  I was simply asked to do some minor script editing to ensure the British feel of the English used.

You've also worked on So Blonde. The only one of your games I haven't played. Well, should I?

Everyone should play So Blonde.

I’m pleased with the story, characters and dialogue on this game and the Wii/DS version.  The main character goes through a genuine development arc and although she starts out as a whiny spoilt teenager she quickly grows into someone much more self-sufficient.

You've been walking down the independent route via Juniper Games for quite some time now, but what exactly is Juniper Games? And why did you decide to go for it?

Juniper Games is really just a label under which to develop some personal projects, not all of which have come to fruition yet.  It’s not a company or a studio (yet) but it enables me to compartmentalise my projects somewhat.  It’s a way of separating my freelance writing and design work from self-developed projects.

Mr Smoozles Goes Nutso was the first Juniper game and a pretty brilliant arcade adventure too. Are you happy with it (and I do mean both from a creative and a commercial point of view)?

Thank you.

Creatively, I’m happy with it, commercially, not so much.  It got a lot of great reviews and was even Game of the Month at Game Tunnel, but people just didn’t buy it in the numbers I’d hoped they would.

I’ve been toying with the idea of creating an iPad version with voices but so far the tools aren’t available for me to convert it easily.

And now you are working on some games aimed at children, right? 

I’m developing ideas for Star Sweet and Honey Heart, which is going slowly because I need to get a number of things working right before I can push on in earnest.  However, the videos got some great response from people and kids loved them, so I’m really encouraged by this and may well be able to release a demo of sorts in the next few months.

Whatever happened to The Sapphire Claw: Serpent Eyes? 

It’s currently on hold.  I want to return to it at some point but I don’t know when that will be.

Any thoughts on adventure gaming and its current state?

If you look at the broader spectrum of adventure games – casual adventures, new platforms, etc. – the adventure genre is in a great state.  I think that the trick for developers is to create new games with a wide spread of platforms in mind.  Revolution has proved that the touch-screen devices are perfect for adventures.  Double Fine has proved that there are plenty of people willing to crowd-fund the development of quality adventures.

What about the future of gaming. Could we expect something artistically interesting? 

I hope so.  I have ideas of my own but when I’d get the chance to take them further I don’t know.  I’d like to do something that utilises my recent experiments in digital painting.

Do you believe that games could matter they way other mediums do in politics, culture etc? The new intro to Broken Sword was, after all, deeply political.

I don’t see why not.  We might need punchier, shorter games to have the impact that a hard-hitting film would have, but there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be done.  The trick is in making the game fun at the same time as delivering a deep message.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The Dream Machine interview
• Metal Dead review
• Book review: Writing for Video Games
• An oneiric Jonas Kyratzes interview

Discover Incursion with the help of an interview

This picture should tell you everything you'd need to get all excited about forthcoming indie game Incursion by Cube Noir, but bits of extra info never hurt anyone. For starters and after having already played an early (and short) demo of the game I can't help but be deeply intrigued about this ambitious, text-based, story-heavy offering. Then there's an interview with designer Peter Moorhead to further enlighten you: 

Who are you, oh people of the ominous Cube Noir?

I'm Peter Moorhead, typically going by the online alias "gazornonplat", and I'm a British seventeen-year-old studying Computer Science, English Literature, and Film Making. I'm the programmer and creative director for Cube Noir, and started it up single-handedly and with no funding whatsoever about eight months back, although I originally started working on Incursion about a year and four months ago independently. People were asking me about whether or not the project was going to cost money, and that they'd happily pay a few bob for it, so I decided to turn it into something more ambitious, and since then I've brought a few talented people on-board to help make it a reality.

What else is there to say? I love electronic music, anime, Converse All Stars, and ramen. That's me.

And what is Incursion?

Incursion is what we're calling a "new-age text-based adventure game"; it's a story-driven, text-heavy game set in a classic Sword & Sorcery universe. It also features beautiful pixel art from Brian Callahan, and an enchanting soundtrack by Nick Borrego.

Will it be a commercial game?

We're planning to charge around $50, and then release a few $15 DLCs over the following six months.

No, haha. We're planning to charge very little for Incursion, around $5 or so. We might release a few limited edition copies that cost more than that, but they'll have some really awesome content to make the extra dough worthwhile.

We're also planning to release the game's soundtrack, some original artwork, and hey, maybe I'll print out a little bit of the source code and sign it if people are interested, haha.

The first demos of the game seem both refreshingly innovative and very promising. What are you aiming for?

We're aiming to streamline the classic text-based adventure game mechanics into something that is much more accessible, while still reminiscent of those amazing titles. The final game should be a satisfying non-linear experience, with several interconnecting story-arcs, and multiple endings.

Many people will hate it, but some will love it.

How did you decide on a text-based, narrative-rich game? How will it play?

Well I was a writer and critic before I was a developer, so I had a lot of criticisms about how most games handled non-linear storytelling, as well as some ideas about how they could go about it better. I feel like most games tell a story that is far too focused on wholly good or bad events, and that this isn't realistic or engaging. Shakespeare said; "All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players", and he couldn't have been more right; anyone who has been alive long enough to be reading this will know that life is full of good and bad experiences, and in fact, what is life if not our own little collection of unique experiences? There is no karma, no payback, your happiness or misfortune are not always a direct results of your actions, and so an engaging story should reflect this.

Thus is the aim for Incursion's gameplay; you'll have some good and bad experiences, but there will be no predictable and unrealistic moral compass that determines the proportion of each. Just because you followed Lassie and rescued the little boy who fell down the well, that doesn't mean that in the next level you'll find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Where did Incursion draw its inspiration upon?

Oh man, all over the place. It's different for each team member, but my biggest inspirations in gaming were Zork, Unreal II: The Awakening, The Legend of Zelda, Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, Superbrother's: Sword & Sworcery, Half Life, Super Meat Boy, and many, many others. I can't possibly name them all.

Christine Love's Digital: A Love Story was probably my most significant inspiration to make a game like this, even though the similarities aren't all that obvious. That game made me cry, man. Incursion is even developed with the same technology that she used, since I began teaching myself Ren'Py right after I finished her game. Everyone who cares about story or player immersion in games at all needs to play it.

Could you tell us a bit more on those lovable chunky and pixel-arty graphics of the game?

Brian can take full credit for the amazing art. He says he likes the original artwork I did while I was working on my own, but it's really not even comparable. If I had to put an estimate on it, I'd say his was about a few million times better.

He was a perfect fit for the project; he'd always wanted to make a game but lacked the coding knowledge, whereas I'd was capable with code but crap at making art. He's really, really passionate about his work, and spends a lot of time perfecting and animating each piece.

He was inspired largely by Superbrother's: Sword & Sworcery, and also by Salvador Dali, and Eyvind Earle, in fact, at one point the artwork of Incursion was heavily reminiscent of Eyvind Earle's 1950s work, but we had to reign it back in because, while unique and beautiful, it didn't really mesh so well with the rest of the game, and there was only so much you could do with that style.

He also has a blog at househeadstudios.wordpress.com which he updates pretty regularly, mostly with Incursion artwork, so be sure to follow him there if you want to get a sneak peak at new art assets.

When should we expect the released of Incursion?

I can't make any promises, but we're shooting for some time around December 2012 or January 2013 for PC, Mac and Linux. We might also do an Android port if the demand is there.

What other unique traits will the game sport?

The soundtrack is fully dynamic! Nick does a great job of separating and transitioning pieces, so that the changes in tone of each level are smooth and unique to the player's pace. This means that it doesn't matter whether it takes you ten minutes or thirty seconds to progress to the next scene, the changes in soundtrack will still fit perfectly.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Deirdra Kiai presents: The Play
• Metal Dead review
• The Cryptozookeeper review
• Et in Arcadia ego

A Valley Without Wind Interview

Despite not having particularly enjoyed either Minecraft or Terraria there is one game sporting crafting that I simply love and it's none other than A Valley Without Wind by Arcen Games. Must have something to do with its brilliantly alienating and definitely unique setting, its strategic elements, its procedural landscapes, its crisp yet delightfully odd graphics, its deep combat system and its excellent arcade-adventure-exploration gameplay methinks... Anyway, here's Erik Johnson explaining us stuff and telling us what the future holds.

A Valley Without Wind, its ever-evolving BETA to be precise, has been out for quite some time now. Have you been happy with the coverage of the press and the engagement of the gaming public?

In some ways, open development seeks its own attention, and we've been sharing information about A Valley Without Wind's progress since February of last year -- just three weeks into development. So to answer the question, yes, we're happy with it, both through people contacting us about the game and through our efforts to seek coverage from some key members of the gaming press.

As for the gaming public, we find that those who have tried the demo and/or bought into the full beta have really taken to it, some logging in hundreds of hours in the first few months of the beta's availability. The critical thing for us is to just get people to try the game, because we find when people give it a try, they tend to really enjoy it.

You've been providing us with steady and at times really impressive (let alone, huge) updates. What does the future hold? Will the game keep expanding and getting better indefinitely? What major additions could we expect?

At the moment we're gearing up for the final phase of AVWW's beta stage. That puts the game's 1.0 version roughly 8-10 weeks away (not accounting for any unforeseen issues that may come up). Obviously that makes it an extremely exciting time for us with official release coming up rather quick (likely prior to our PAX East showing in April.) That said, our development schedule is to continue to update the game well past the game's launch just as we have throughout the beta. It all really depends on how the game does sales-wise, and subsequently how long after release the community wants to see it expand and evolve. As long as we have a fair amount of people who'd like us to continue to update the game, that's precisely what we have planned -- much the same as we've done with our space strategy title AI War over the last couple years.

Major additions are difficult to predict in a lot of ways, because we tend to work in collaboration with the players to brainstorm and refine the core vision of the game. We have our immutable design goals that we continue to work towards, and everyone is welcome to join AVWW's forums to share any ideas in the active brainstorming section.

How radically can we expect the game to change?

The past several weeks the game has been through a series of those, and is just finishing up with one more bout of fairly major changes, so hopefully we're settled in for a while with most of the radical stuff behind us. That's definitely one of the main purposes of the beta: to get the game to a point where the majority of our current player base finds it fun and engaging. However, if there's something that's in need of drastic change, count on it being addressed, whether before or after launch.

Also meant to ask you: When will AVWW be considered finished? Will there be some sort of official, more or less final release?

As far as being finished, as in no more updates, it will probably be years before we consider it absolutely done. AI War is currently on version 5.0, two and a half years after its own 1.0 release, and it still isn't "done" with another expansion planned for later on this year. Again though, it's all really based on community support.

Regardless of the post-release support, 1.0 for the game is intended to be a self-contained, satisfying experience even if players never chose to update beyond that version. That's the point where we start seeking reviews rather than previews, and courting a larger audience, before we continue evolving the game on top of that foundation.

Now, for those that have criminally not joined AVWW, how would you describe the game?

The game is a 2D side-scrolling action adventure (read: Metroidvania) that hearkens back to the 16-bit era, taking place in a post-apocalyptic world that's been ravaged by an ice age along with several other factors. As the player, you take on the role of a glyph bearer, a chosen one of the Ilari, a mysterious race of non-corporeal beings that look after what's left of the planet Environ. (This is a very different world from our own.)

There's heavy emphasis on exploration, crafting, spellcasting, civilization building, and tactical missions. AVWW is procedurally generated, so no two players' worlds will be alike, and with content updates arriving all the time, there's always something new out there to discover, new resources to harvest, and new enemies to battle.

And why did you decide to add strategic elements to the already rich action-adventure-exploration-crafting gameplay mix?

Because at our core, Arcen is a strategy game development team, that's especially true about our programmers Chris and Keith. They both live and love strategy. We're known at the moment primarily for AI War, an intensive strategy affair we're still updating and expanding, and our puzzle game Tidalis, which while not in the same genre, includes its own bag of strategic elements.

Like Tidalis, Valley is considered to be in a genre that doesn't innately bring about thoughts of a strategy game, but having a variety of methods to solve a problem just sounds like a better experience for more people. I'm not at all a natural at strategy games, but I find the inclusion of those elements in the game gives players more of a choice, even allowing development of individual play-styles as they explore and interact with their respective world.

In more recent versions of the game, the game has actually taken on both more and less strategic elements. More in the sense that we're tying in more and more strategic decisions, and have implemented an "Enemy Progress" concept that is very much the same idea as "AI Progress" is in AI War. But also less, in the sense that we no longer are including a traditional strategic-style map overlay -- we've no longer split our interface into two. Instead of trying to mash two very different game interfaces together, we've opted to make all the strategic bits controlled through the existing action-adventure interface. Most of the core decisions boil down to what missions you undertake, what spells you craft, and otherwise what you choose to do in order to thwart the overlord of each continent.

How about the utterly unique look of the game?

Our intention was to pay tribute to some of the classic 16-bit games of our childhood, while still creating our own feel and an entirely original setting. We've received plenty of positive feedback on it thus far, especially later into beta as some of the rougher edges have been polished off.

As I mentioned, Environ is a very unusual place, and our aim was to have that reflected in the visual style. When we showed the game at MineCon the various locales and enemies (specifically the bosses) took many attendees by surprise. Abandoned futuristic buildings, quiet snowy expanses, and lush undergrounds fertile with flora and fauna closer to what would be described in fairy tales as opposed to anything real. Odd, intimidating creatures that seemed to intrigue as much as strike a bit of fear into players--and that was only the intro portion of the game! Several asked about what else there was to find/fight out there, and where else they could go if they played deeper into the game. That part specifically hooked them in. It was fun to watch.

We've certainly seen the reader comments on some of the press coverage the game's received questioning the incongruity of the artwork. All we can say to these people: Download the demo. Try it out. We think it's quite pretty ourselves, and we've found that screenshots and YouTube videos (even high definition ones) just don't do the art justice compared to actually playing the game. There are details that only at full resolution you're able to see, and a lot of subtle animation that gives life to the exteriors in particular.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The Arcen Games interview
• A review of Tidalis
• Fate of the World: Tipping Point
• Let Oíche Mhaith gently disturb you

The Dream Machine Interview

Anders Gustafson and Erik Zaring are the heart, brain and hands of Cockroach; the indie game development studio that is responsible for the amazing, episodic and visually glorious adventure that is The Dream Machine. And though I have already loved and reviewed the first two chapters of The Dream Machine, I couldn't help but ask the creative duo a few questions. Here's what they revealed; for your eyes only reader:

Let's start off with something not quite unexpected... So, who are you guys? And why, oh why, are you calling your studio Cockroach? 

Erik: We’re two bona fide Swedish nerds on a mission. Anders is the small good-looking guy and I’m the tall and slightly spherical fellow. We are the only game development studio that will survive a nuclear holocaust. Cockroaches just wait it out and crawl back, ready to re-populate the planet. Pretty much the story of my life.

Anders: I just happened to have a bunch of old cockroach illustrations I’d done on my hard drive. When the time came to start a company, I found them and thought they looked quite striking and iconic, sort of like a company logo. So I just slapped them on the letterhead and called the company Cockroach, purely out of convenience. It’s a decision I’ve since regretted from time to time.

And you've been making games for how long before The Dream Machine? Any particular favourites among your previous creations? 

Erik: I like Gateway 2 and the insanely difficult Soap Bubble 2, but I had no part in creating those games however. Anders made those before our beautiful friendship begun. The Dream Machine took my game development cherry, so to speak…

Anders: I started making games while learning Flash, sometime back in 2000. I’d made a lot of previous attempts – on Commodore 64 and Amiga – but they never amounted to anything because I didn’t know what I was doing.

A friend of mine showed me some Flash games he’d put on Newgrounds, which I thought were really impressive. So I started hounding him with questions about programming. In the end I think he grew tired with me, because he gave me access to the source code, so I could find out all the answers by myself. A lot of strong pots of coffee later, the weird words and symbols started to make at least a bit of sense to me. And that led to me being able to create my first “real” game: a 2-player fighting game, starring chickens. Needless to say, it’s pretty crap.

I still like the first Gateway game quite a lot. I like the vagueness of it, and it was also the first point & click game I actually managed to finish, after a lot of botched previous attempts. It was originally meant to be a tutorial for another adventure, but when I compared them side-by-side I though the tutorial was much better than the actual game. So I just scrapped everything but the tutorial and started over.

When – and most importantly, why – did you decide to start working on The Dream Machine? 

Erik: We loosely discussed making a game together during the winter of 2008 and the spark that finally ignited our collaboration happened during late summer that year. Just prior to that, I had sold my part of an animation studio, since I had decided that I deserved doing something nobler than to be a shit-eating service provider. The big corporate productions really wore me down and I had grown tired of polishing other peoples turds. I propelled myself into the advertising and commercial business hoping for fame and glory. That turned out to be a cul-de sac and eventually I had to fire myself. Then I eventually became utterly broke and found no other way to survive and had to make a game made out of clay & cardboard to get food on the table. That’s the honest-to-God truth.

Anders: It was a really strange time in both our lives as I recall. I’d taken employment, designing cell phone applications for some company. They were pretty much in denial about the whole smart-phone shift, and still insisted that 16-bit 320x240 screens were the future.

They lured me in saying they made a lot of games and needed my help designing them. I soon found out that wasn’t exactly true, but I needed to feed the monkey. Just to stay sane, I’d frequently call Erik (or he’d call me) to vent. During one of these conversations, Erik started talking about getting back to just doing things for the heck of it. “Like we did when we were kids…”

Looking back, that was the seed of The Dream Machine right there.

Weren't you terrified of the sheer amount of work required in order to produce those amazingly handcrafted visuals? 

Anders: When Erik started talking about creating the environments by hand, I just chuckled and dismissed the idea. It would be too labour intensive and would require too much pre-planning for my comfort. In order to show me that it was possible, he pulled an all-nighter by his kitchen table, crafting four or five strange little sets. He sent me some pictures of them in the morning and I didn’t know what to make of them. They looked really rough, but they held so much potential. The paint had fingerprints in it, which I loved. Everything looked skewed, unpolished and patched up. But compared to the corporate GUI:s I was making at the time, they were the most fascinating things I’d seen in months. They made me want to be on the other side of the screen.

I resigned soon after that and joined Erik in exploring this weird clay and cardboard universe. That decision occasionally terrifies me, but I haven’t regretted it for a single second.

Erik: When you put your heart into something it usually means that you show extra care and attention. Alas/thus it takes a bit longer. I didn’t realize what it would take to make something like The Dream Machine in the beginning. Now I have come to the conclusion that the most terrifying aspect of our endeavor is lack of sufficient energy/joy to finish this before the summer of 2012 has ended.

It’s stop motion animation you are using, right? 

Erik: It’s a bit of a mix. All the sets are built and photographed, exactly how you would traditional stop-motion. We also use limited stop-motion for simple animations, like doors opening and closing. For the trickier things (most things involving characters) however, we use 3D. Our characters are built by hand and then we grab their textures and paste them onto a 3D meshes, in order to maintain the look and feel of clay.

Anders: Doing it purely by stop-motion would’ve been too risky. The characters have to travel through a lot of different lighting conditions, and with stop-motion you only get one chance. If they hadn’t looked believable, we would’ve had to start over from scratch.

What else would you say makes The Dream Machine the truly unique adventure game it is? 

Anders: For me, it’s all about the marriage of story, gameplay and setting. Creating a full-flavoured experience, making the individual ingredients as tightly knit with one another as possible, without overpowering or counter-acting each other. That’s the goal at least.

We also try to design fair puzzles. They follow a slightly skewed logic for sure, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Ye Olde adventure games. I played Gabriel Knight III when it came out and still get miffed whenever I think about that horrible “cat hair moustache” problem. Or the pixel hunt puzzles in Future Wars. I love the genre, but hate the tropes.

Clay and cardboard still makes us pretty unique. There have been precursors in the exclusive sub-genre of handmade adventures (most notably The Neverhood, The Dark Eye and Blackout) but they all came out more than 15 years ago. We think the world is ready for another one.

Why did you decide to go with the episodic model? 

Anders: Once it became clear how long the game would take to make, we realized might possibly be working on the game for three years without knowing if it resonated with people. That would’ve been awful. So we decided to chop it up and get it the individual pieces out as soon as they were finished.

Looking back, that is one of the smartest things we’ve done so far, since getting player feedback has been invaluable and has really improved the quality of the game. It’s just too bad that we haven’t been able to release them more frequently, but we’re only two confused Swedish guys.

How would you describe your creative process? 

Erik: From my myopic perspective it sometimes happens as follows: Anders (slightly sleep depraved, as always) scribble notes on lots of Post-its using a black Pentel pen. Then he puts them in neat rows on his living room walls. Then he throws some ideas out and put the remaining ideas in a digital document of some kind. Then his slightly spherical companion gets to read it and starts to build stuff. I use foam board, ice cream sticks, Super Sculpey, glue gun and paint to create our sets. I document every step using a Canon 550D. Anders will comment and suggest modifications and eventually approve of my final design. Once lit and photographed, I jump to my next task and Anders starts working his magic, photoshopping and implementing and testing the gameplay.

Anders: That sums it up pretty well, Erik. Sleep depravation, Pentel Sign Pens, Post-its, ice cream sticks, Super Sculpey and a glue gun = The Dream Machine.

You keeping getting back and adding things and interactions to the already released episodes. Is this a cunning scheme to have us replay them? 

Anders: One of the problems with adventure games is that it’s a very fine line between being challenged and being frustrated. Dialling in the difficulty and adjusting the level of hints is very tricky. Especially in an adventure game, once you’re stuck it quickly becomes boring if you don’t receive any more feedback. You start key-chaining, using everything on everything. We see that, so we can go in and add hints surgically.

I also hate the default “That doesn’t seem to work” line. It really breaks immersion for me. All of a sudden the main character turns robotic because the developers didn’t add proper responses. Eventually we’ll cover all of them.

Secretly, I’m also sadistically fond of messing with walkthroughs by remixing some puzzles every once in a while. Creating this type of game is all about getting you to think, and walkthroughs defeats that purpose. If you use them sparingly they’re great, but it’s very easy to get dependent and comfortable. I want to keep players alert and on their toes.

What should us adventurers expect from the final two chapters of the game? 

Anders: Something wonderful...

Erik: We aim for the last two chapters to be like... a metaphorical gun. And then we shot you in the knee with it. You won’t die, but you’ll definitely feel something. That’s what we’re aiming for.

Anders: That’s a box quote right there! “Expect getting shot in the knees, kids. Fun for the whole family!”

Erik: Man, this game sells itself!

Are you happy with the critical and commercial reception of The Dream Machine so far? 

Anders: I’m very happy with how the game’s been received. People seem to appreciate what we’re trying to do, and don’t mind terribly the time it’s taking. It’s such a rush to live in an age were two confused Swedes can make and distribute a game to the rest of the world. That people actually want to go along for the ride is exciting and humbling.

What does the future, beyond The Dream Machine, hold? 

Anders: We’ve been talking loosely about a follow up game, but I’d really like to take some time off and work with a linear medium after this.

Erik: The Dream Machine afterlife? Scary thought. I really don’t know. I’m more of a “right here, right now” kind of guy. There is no future, to quote Sarah Connor.

Anders: Hopefully something less headache-inducing. Hopefully something smaller.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The Book of Unwritten Tales Review
• Jonas Kyratzes - an oneiric interview
• Remembering Willy Beamish
• Blackwell Deception Review