Upcoming Patch

In the upcoming patch we decided to get slightly more ambitious with the way we handle sound in the game. More specifically, with how we handle the background drone tracks.

While working on the climax of Chapter 3, it became painfully apparent that the current music system was hopelessly lacking. Since the game will only become more and more dependent on music and sound in Chapter 4 & 5 we decided the time was ripe to chuck the old system and begin from scratch.

The old system could only handle one track and would fade that track out while transitioning from one room to the next. This was done so the music wouldn't become grating during a long load. The code was obviously written some time ago, when speedy connections were still pretty rare.

Nowadays, loading a room takes a few seconds or less, so the music never really becomes a problem.


With the new system, the music will just keep on playing when you transition between rooms (provided they play the same background track), seamlessly modulating the volume and pan of the track.

In the end, we hope adding background tracks will be a lot easier – so a room can have two (or more) background drones, unnoticeably blending while you walk around in the world. In a game so dependent on atmosphere and mood, these small system changes makes a huge impact and we really hope you'll like it.

We're also working on a system that broadcasts interactive hot spots if you press the space bar. Searching for what you can and can't interact with (pixel hunting) is one of the most tedious tropes of adventure gaming, and we're glad to see it alleviated.

Is there another feature you'd like to see in the game? More auto save points? More interactive objects? Just write a comment and we'll take your suggestion into account.

Cheers,

 - a

Steam Sale Ending

The glorious Steam sale is about to end. Get The Dream Machine cheap while you can: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/14622/

Small Update

We've updated the game slightly. The biggest change is that the auto save now saves data to the cloud. This is done to make sure you don't loose any progress while playing the game and is done automatically. Hopefully you won't notice any change at all.

We've also gotten rid of the little foot cursor indicating where you can and can't go. Instead, if you click on an unwalkable area, Victor tries to walk as close as possible. The algorithm that guesses where you want to go is admittedly still a bit rough.

Here's the full run-down:

• Engine: Autosave now saves to the cloud
• Engine: Fullscreen mode is prohibited during log in
• Engine: Made it possible to click outside the walkable area
• Engine: Removed the feet cursor indicating walkable areas
• Engine: Fixed bug that occasionally caused Victor's dialogue to be drawn too high on screen
• Web: Minor UI tweaks added

The Dream Machine Patched

Our first major patch just went live on Steam!

Aside from various bug fixes it also upgrades most of the graphical assets from 900 x 600 resolution to 1800 x 1200. The bump in graphical fidelity makes a big difference, especially if you're on a high resolution display. We really hope you'll like it!

Here's the full content rundown:

Additions:

• Engine: Doubled the resolution of most graphical assets
• Engine: Tweaked UI to scale and perform better on high-res displays
• Engine: Game now boots in windowed mode if Fullscreen has been set to off (PC only)
• Chapter 1: Added tool tips during the first environment
• Chapter 1: Added 50 new interaction options

Bug fixes:

• Engine: Fixed crash on launch that happened on OSX 10.7
• Engine: Game now correctly saves settings when using keyboard short-cut to toggle Fullscreen mode
• Chapter 1: Fixed a bug that would cause the game to freeze when talking to the old lady twice
• Chapter 1: Fixed bug that would cause dialogue related to the torn note to show up too early
• Chapter 1: Fixed interactivity on floorboard showing up too early
• Chapter 3: Fixed rare occurrence of all letters in the blackmail puzzle showing up as 'A'
• Chapter 3: Fixed various typos

Cheers,

 - a

Steam Launch!

As you may have noticed already, The Dream Machine has been launched on Steam! Go to the page below to check it out in all its glory:

Steam Store: The Dream Machine

Steam Launch Trailer

In celebration of the upcoming Steam release, we decided to release a launch trailer for the game.

We hope you like it!

Check it out here!

The "Secret" Feature

The new "secret" Steam feature we've hinted at is an accessibility aide that reads all dialogue aloud through your computer's text-to-speech converter.

It's mainly intended as a help for people who have problems reading tiny text, but it's also a really fun/strange way to experience the game a-new if you're already familiar with it. I wouldn't recommend it on a first playthrough though, since it tends to skew the tone of the game towards the comical...

Cheers,

 - a

Victor speaks...

The Dream Machine is coming to Steam!

We're thrilled to announce that The Dream Machine is coming to Steam! The launch day is set for May 11th, so the wait is almost over. Expect more announcements with details etc. before out strange little baby goes buck wild on the Steam network!

Cheers,

 - a

Leisure Suit Larry

I thought we were being pretty edgy and experimental keeping track of what players do in The Dream Machine, but I just found out Sierra On-Line used a similar data-driven development model for Leisure Suit Larry waaay back in 1987.

Ouch!

Here's a quote from Al Lowe himself, who's doing an AMA over at Reddit right now:

"It was the first game we beta tested at Sierra. I wrote a module that recorded what you were doing when you asked a question the game didn't understand. The beta testers collected the text file created and mailed them to me on a floppy disk by horse back. I then sorted them and made sure the game had some sort of answer for everything they asked. So the games owes its intelligence to the beta testers."

I highly recommend the rest of the AMA if you're interested in old-school adventure games. It makes for a great read!

Cheers,

 - a

Footsteps Redux

We've completely reworked the footstep system in the game. It's not the sexiest update so far, but it was in dire need of an overhaul.

Footsteps now propagate dynamically depending on where the characters are on screen, and instead of 4 steps per floor material we now have more than 20 per surface.

It makes a surprising amount of difference.

Cheers,

 - a

Indie Game Challenge

We're thrilled to announce that The Dream Machine was selected as one of the 10 finalists in this years Indie Game Challenge!

Visit the web page below and vote for The Dream Machine! Please, please, please!

Indie Game Challenge 2012

In protest of SOPA & PIPA

We quote: "PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the US Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the US government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting 'creativity'. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites -- they just have to convince a judge that the site is 'dedicated to copyright infringement.'

The US government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill."

Learn more here

Another Massive Update!

In celebration of the new year, we released another update to the game. This time we added 75 new interactions possibilities to Chapter 1 and 2, and over 130 new interaction possibilities to Chapter 3.

Through the magic of Google Analytics, we can see whenever a player tries to combine objects unsuccessfully. Every so often we add proper responses to the top failed interaction attempts, instead of leaving the boring standard 'That doesn't seem to work'. Our goal is that every single interaction possibility will eventually have a proper response.

At this stage, the things we're adding to Chapter 1 and 2 pretty much fall into the 'strange & rare' category. For instance, attacking the bedroom pillow with the crowbar now has a proper response. In Chapter 3 we're still seeing some confusion during some of the harder puzzles. If a lot of people are trying to use every single inventory object on everything in the scene, it's a pretty good indicator that more tweaks and hints are required.

From a game design point of view, it's also important that the stimulus-response cycle never gets predictable. If you keep getting the same response no matter how you interact with the world, you will get bored very quickly. It's the equivalent of getting exactly the same loot drop every time you kill a monster in Diablo.

We don’t track who did what. All that happens when you attempt an interaction is that a counter increases by 1. So if seven people try to smear baby oil on the radiator in the bed room we just see something like this: "Chapter 1:Bedroom:Use baby oil on radiator:7".

Personally, I'm very fond of this data-driven approach to game design, since it makes the player an active part of the process. I look forward to taking this approach to the next level once The Dream Machine is done and dusted.

Development news on Chapter 4 will follow in the next post. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

 – a

The Million Dollar Question

Question: I don't like that you're spending time writing progress reports/posting things on Facebook. Why don't you just focus on getting Chapter 4 done?

Answer: I'm glad you ask! We like to communicate with people and make sure everyone knows where we're at. During production of Chapter 3, we mainly focused on getting the chapter done, which ended up with us not communicating with those people who were eagerly waiting. It's a mistake we hope not to repeat.

As strange as it sounds, writing these types of updates also save us time. We receive quite a lot of mails various types of reports, and instead of answering individual emails – even though we do that as well – this general approach is a lot more efficient.

We also regard the blog/Twitter/Facebook as ways of chronicling whatever's going on with the game, so we try to update it as often as we can. Hopefully we'll add a lot more to it in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,

 – a

Developing Chapter 4

Chapter 3 seems to have reached a pretty solid state by now. We're still receiving the odd bug report once in a while, but overall we're pretty happy with where we're at. If you find something you think seems strange, don't hesitate sending a line or two at this address:

tdmfeedback at-sign cockroach.se

Development on Chapter 4 is under way, and has so far produced some stunning looking sets. Chapter 4 will be the longest of all the chapters, but it's also a chapter where we revisit some familiar locations, so hopefully that'll keep production manageable.

Right now, Erik is working on some of the new sets, while I'm doing some much needed engine tweaks. Hopefully these tweaks will allow us to produce and implement content faster than before. I'm not a programmer, but so far I'm pretty chuffed.

We know we're straining your patience with our slightly spaced out release schedule, but judging by what we've seen so far, we think they'll be worth the wait.

We love you.

Cheers,

 – a

Chapter 3 updated!

We just uploaded a massive new update to Chapter 3. More than 200 interaction possibilities were added.

Cheers,

 - a

Chapter 3 has launched!

This just keeps getting weirder and weirder...

Something's approaching on the horizon...

Something is brewing in the kitchen...

A New Trailer Appears!

We're pushing towards the finish line on Chapter 3, but just to whet your appetite a bit more here's a new trailer we decided to cut!

The stellar music is made by Ale Speranza, and if you enjoyed it you'll be happy to hear that he's the main contributor to the music in Chapter 3. Check out his other works here.

Watch the trailer here!

Feel free to share the link! We hope you enjoy it!

Cheers,

 – a

Twitter

After much press ganging we've finally decided to join Twitter! So if you're wondering why Chapter 3 is taking so long, it's because we're busy tweeting up a storm.

No not really. But if you feel like staying abreast with the latest developments, we suggest you follow us there as well!

Tweet, tweet!

@theDreamGame

Server Maintenance

Just a quick heads-up: There'll be some server maintenance between 03.00 and 05.00 CET 14th of April 2011. It's just for two hours, but we're sorry if it causes any inconvenience for you!

Chapter 3 is progressing well, but still needs a bit more time. It's still a bit early to set a date for its release, but you'll be the first to know once we do.

Cheers,

 – a

Sorry about the lack of communication

We're sorry to say it, but our estimated release date for Chapter 3 has been pushed back a bit. It's a bit a more ambitious in scope and will require more time to complete. We will announce a new date once we feel confident that we can stick to it.

We're working hard on Chapter 3 right now. Sorry about not communicating more. We hope you understand.

Cheers,

– a

Spreading the love

Every once in a while people question our choice of genre. Adventure games are dead, they say. The genre died in its sleep back in '98 supposedly, and we'd be well advised to stop beating the dead horse.

Obviously we disagree with this notion. Sure, it might not be the commercial power house it was back in the golden days, but it's far from dead. It's not even particularly niche either, since it's one of the best selling genres of the Nintendo DS.

You don't have to take our word for it. Recently the supreme chaps over at Ars Technica and IGN decided to revisit the "ailing" genre and found that it's doing quite well, thank you for asking. Fact of the matter is that it's feeling better than it has in a long time. Both articles make for nice reading together over a cup of coffee and some pastry, and can be found here and here.

Feel free to send us links to similar articles, if you know of any. We can't get enough of reading about this!

Cheers,

 - a

IGF's Audience Award

Regardless of who wins, we're honoured and delighted to be rubbing shoulders with this stellar line-up. Aside from the jury picked awards, there's also an audience award that you can vote for here:

2011 IGF: Main Competition Audience Award

Go forth and make your voice heard!

Cheers,

 - a

Why is the game only playable online?

During the time since launch some people have expressed concerns over the fact that the game is only playable online, with no downloadable version being offered. We'd like to take the moment to address these concerns and outline some of the reasons why we've chosen this model.

As gamers, we think the pros of this model outweigh the cons:

Play on any OS (Mac, PC, Linux). Play from any computer (home or work) with cloud saved inventory, settings and progress. No install required: play instantly, without the game taking up any of your precious hard drive space. Patching is automatic. We can continuously add things like language support down the line.


We also consider this game to be a continuously supported service, not a static product that we're done with and then just send out into the world never to hear from again. Distributing it online allows us to check statistics for how people play and adjust the game accordingly. If enough people try to solve a puzzle in a way we didn't think of, or can't solve it at all, we can actually see that and act accordingly. This helps us make the game better.

Another factor is Piracy. We're only two people making this game and we don't have the financial backing of a publisher. We looked a lot at what had happened to Machinarium. They released the game as a single downloadable file and unfortunately got heavily pirated because of that. According to their estimation about 85-95% of the played copies where pirated versions, and though we're quite liberal about piracy, those numbers sound frankly depressing. That's was a situation we wanted to avoid. We hope you understand.

We don't limit how many computers you can play the game on or how many times you can install the game, which to us differentiates us from intrusive DRM-models.

The game requires an Internet connection because of the cloud save system and because the assets (things like background music and the rooms) are discreetly streamed in the background to minimize loading times. Without a connection they would simply fail to load. That raises the accessibility bar a bit, but players without Internet access are getting fewer and fewer every day.

These are some of the main reasons we went with online distribution. Is it too intrusive? Do you fear you might lose your game?

Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments.

Cheers,

 - a

Independent Games Festival

We just heard word that The Dream Machine is a 2011 IGF Main Competition Finalists! So it looks like we'll be going to San Francisco in the end of February! If you plan on going to GDC, don't hesitate in stopping by our little demo station!

This was the second time we entered the game into the competition. Last year we didn't get nominated for anything, but the judges provided solid constructive feedback, which really helped us hone in on the games week spots. A year later we submitted a much more polished, much better game and this with much better results.

We've been quietly chipping away at this game for two years now. A crazy undertaking, some might say, but reading the kind words of players, and getting this kind of news, strengthens our belief that it's all been worth it.

Speaking for myself, this has been the hardest, most challenging thing I've ever undertaken – but also the most gratifying. A big sloppy Thank You hug to everyone who's egged us on along the way!

Cheers,

 - a

PayPal

Right now we're looking into offering alternatives to PayPal to those of you who – like us – don't happen to agree with their handling of the WikiLeaks case.

It will be while until we have an alternative payment system up and running, though, so for now I guess PayPal will have to suffice.

If you have already bought the game through PayPal, don't worry, changing or adding another payment method won't affect your purchase.

Cheers,

 - a

We have lift-off!

One...

Two...

Three...

Any day now...

Sorry about the lack of updates, but we've been busy getting the new website done. Right now we're tinkering with the last minute polish, so it's not live yet. Though it may look similar to the old one, the functionality has actually gotten a complete and much needed overhaul.

So what's different, you ask? Well, for one, the Store menu option is now accessible, so you can actually buy the game! If you do, you'll get immediate access to the second Chapter of The Dream Machine, so you can finally find out what's on the other side of that door...

We have also implemented the system that saves your progress, inventory and settings to the cloud, so you can play the game from any computer. The cloud save system has actually been running parallel to the old cookie based system for a while now, in order to minimize any possible transitional friction. Hopefully you won't even realize that something is different at all.

With this bad boy out the door (tomorrow most likely), we can finally turn our full attention to the latter chapters of the game; which are looking really good so far.

We can't wait to hear what you think of Chapter 2!

Cheers,

 - a

Why the game won't be free

It dawned on us that we haven't really made any clear statement as to whether the game will cost money or be free. So in the interest of clearing things up a bit, here's the model we're currently considering:

The first chapter will be released for free, to give everyone a fair chance to try the game and see if they like it. The following four chapters will cost money, however if you pre-order them before the game is released you will get them at a discounted price. The system for pre-ordering will come online sometime next week hopefully. Pre-ordering the game will let you play the second chapter immediately.

Though we'd like to release the game for free, we simply can't afford it. We're only two guys working from our homes. We don't have any investors or publishers backing us up. We've been working on The Dream Machine for almost two years now, and we've put a lot of time and soul into making it.

We'd also put the money we hopefully make into working on another game like this. So if you like this type of game, why not vote with your money and support the makers? If you don't support this type of niche games, they will vanish and be replaced by bland same-y shooter clones, like Call of Honor™, Medal of Duty™ and Modern Halo™.

In an effort to make everybody happy, we will release the game as cheaply as we possibly can. That is the best we can do without going bankrupt. If you'd like to chime in on what you think is a fair price, feel free to do so in the comments. We will keep your opinion in mind as we decide on the final price point.

More about that next week.

Cheers,

 – a

Would you buy a used car from these guys?

Just a quick heads-up to say that development on Chapter 2 is almost complete, and we're gearing up to launch the first two chapters in the coming weeks. It's a frightening – but very exciting – prospect. We've been working on this beast for two years now, and being at a stage where it's time to release it into the world, makes us feel like nervous parents seeing their kid off to their first day of school.

The beta testing of Chapter 2 is now over and we thank everybody who helped us break the game! There's still some minor tweaks to fix, but the bulk of the chapter is robust.

We also had the chance to talk a bit about the game when we where in Texas. If you feel like hearing what we have to say, you can find a stellar write-up/video interview here:

IndiePub interviews The Dream Machine team

Cheers,

 – a

Don't mess with Texas!

The Dream Machine won in the Best Art category at IndiePubs 3rd Independent Game Developers' Competition! Thanks to everyone involved!

Jury's motivation: "The Dream Machine was chosen for Best Art due to the meticulous detail that went in to every object and landscape in the game. Even the smallest element, from the wet grains of sand, to the uneven floorboards, or even the cracks in the ancient stone pieces, adds volumes to the narrative and immersion presented to the player. By using an art form rarely seen in games and presenting it in a masterful manner, it is no wonder that The Dream Machine has earned the award for Best Art."

Seen above is the stellar Hitbox Team, who walked away with the Grand Prize for their superb game Dustforce! Congrats to Woodley and his team on a well-deserved win! Just seeing that photo makes us all warm and fuzzy inside!

You can read about – and play – all the finalists here.

Cheers,

  – a

Match made in heaven

Some of the Photoshop wizards over at Eurogamer made this sweet little mash-up image with Morton and Meatboy for a recent article. And boy, don't they look good together?

They look so happy, so tranquil! Can you hear the slow jam playing in the background? Or the sound of Morton tapping his little feet to the rhythm? I swear, any second now they'll burst into song. Their voices will be as clear as a crystal gently washed by spring dew.

If you want to read said article – which we recommend since it's really good – you can find it here:

Eurogamer's The Dream Machine interview

Hug the universe!

Through an awesome stroke of good fortune, we've been nominated for an award in the 3rd indiePub developers' contest! We feel deeply honored and look forward to going to the ceremony at GDC Online in Austin, TX in the beginning of October.

If you plan on attending, swing by the IndiePub booth and hang out with us a bit. Erik is the tall blond fellow with the shifty gaze. Anders is the short, brown haired biker/outlaw type standing next to him.

Aside from answering questions about The Dream Machine, we both enjoy dancing slowly and amorously for money.

We also enjoy it when people buy us drinks.

Hell Week Survived 2

We just pulled through another crunch period to get Chapter 2 finished. It wasn't as grueling as the last one, but working around the clock for extended periods of time does leave you drained and whimpering. The good news is however that sitting on our hard drives right now is a feature complete, fully playable version of Chapter 2.

Sure, it's still a bit rough and buggy in places, but for an early playable it's also surprisingly solid.

In the coming week we'll play test the crap out of it, before turning our full attention to Chapters 3 & 4. We will need some help with the testing, so if you feel like helping us out, don't be shy to give us a shout in the comments section or on our Facebook page. It won't be an open beta like Chapter 1 was (there's only a limited amount of beta keys), but if you're willing to play the game a couple of times and try to break it in whatever way you can, you're A-OK in our books.

In other – slightly related – news, the voting for the IndiePub competition is now over. We hope we win, because it would help us a lot. But, more than that, we hope you had a chance to play some of the entered games!

And if you're wondering why Erik hasn't written in a while, it's due to the fact that he just became a father.

Cheers,

 – a