Production & Co

I just found a slew of photos we took during the early months of production. If memory serves, most of these images are from early 2009. Erik had just secured some funds for a proof-of-concept game/movie mix project and I had just resigned from my job. That's basically how it all started.

Since we already had an adventure game engine up and running, we figured why settle for a proof-of-concept demo? Why not just take the money and launch full scale production straight away?

Since we knew we wanted to build the game by hand to a large extent, we set up shop at Erik's former business partner, Mikael Lindblom, in his stop motion studio at Dockhus Animation.




This is Mikael working hard on one of the games basement locations. This precise location has changed quite a lot since then, so don't worry, we're not spoiling anything for you.

This is basically how we set up most of our locations: three walls and a floor. No point in putting in a ceiling since it would not be seen by the player – and would also make lighting the set very difficult.

Setting up shop at an existing stop motion studio had the advantage of most of the equipment already being in place. Having to buy lights/rigs/dimmers/cameras/etc. would quickly have eaten up the entire budget. (Film grade lights are worth their weight in gold.)

I spent most of the early days writing the design document for Chapters 1 & 2. This was made extra nerve-wracking since Erik and Mikael where already hard at work building sets – usually faster than I could write the scenes. Any drastic changes and the whole set would have to be re-worked after the fact.

To a large extent we circumvented a lot of potential problems by setting the game in an apartment building. This way, Erik and Mikael could start building rooms by the functions they where supposed to have (a kitchen, a toilet etc.) and start working in the details once I knew specifically what the room needed to contain for gameplay purposes.

This turned out surprisingly well, even though we had to retrace our steps on some of the sets.

The characters also started out in a similarly vague fashion. In our early discussions they where basically ciphers, reduced to one or two characteristics: "shady old man", "disabled black guy" etc. Then we started fleshing them out once the process demanded it.

The handsome young fella behind the clay figurine is Erik by the way.

This is one of my favorite sets in the entire game: The dead tree.

This photo was taken over a year ago. Yeah, we have been working on this project for more than a year now. What started out as a proof-of-concept demo evolved into... something else.

In less than a month we'll be releasing the first Chapter for you to try out. We're getting ready to send our baby out into the real world.

And we're dying to hear what you think...

Cheers,

 - a

New Preview!

Our friend Bryson just posted a nice little preview about the game over at his blog. Check out what he thinks of the game here: The Dream Machine Preview

(The image above is from his brilliantly charming game LUV Tank.)

Nordic Game Conference

We'll be displaying the game at the Nordic Game Conference. If you plan to attend, don't hesitate stopping by for a demo of the game. Ample piles of clay will be available, so you can get down and dirty - and perhaps find your inner child again.

Erik's the tall blond guy with glasses. Tickle him and he'll tell you all his secrets. Anders is the short, shifty looking fellow who'll make a grab for your purse (or murse) once you turn your back.

Both enjoy it when people buy them drinks.

http://nordicgame.com/

Autistic Revelations

I put some extra effort into some of the The Dream Machine: Chapter 2 props. I build them 50% larger so they look nice for the required close-ups. We have a general rule of thumb when creating a TDM set: 70% of the stuff should look great by itself, but give the remaining 30% that extra polish and attention to detail.

I can't talk too much about the purpose of this strange contraption, but it will crop up in Chapter 2, and will be even more important in Chapters 3 and 4. The base for the dial is made out of a Swedish 1 krona coin. I'm not entirely satisfied with the above paint and design. I'll await Anders' final decision.

On a related note: I curse the day we decided to go all the way creating a game made entirely out of clay and dirt. I have... unhealthy dreams of simple vector graphics and lovely 3D objects dancing in front of me.

But remember, whatever they tell you in school: having autistic tendencies can be a resourceful trait later in life...

And, please join us on Facebook

Stay tuned folks,

 - Erik

Easter Promises

The Easter Bunny brought me this peculiar egg the other day.  Hope you enjoy it...

 Happy Easter!
-Erik and Anders