Funcom announces Dreamfall

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 February, 2004

Government backed sequel to The Longest Journey.

Funcom has this week announced that its is developing a follow-up to The Longest Journey called Dreamfall, and that the game will be unveiled in detail at this year's E3 trade convention in Los Angeles. It should be out in time for Christmas 2005.

Set in the 23rd Century, Dreamfall stars a young lady who stumbles upon a conspiracy related to dreams, which could destroy the twin worlds of science and magic. Realising she's in over her head, she seeks assistance from none other than April Ryan, the heroine of The Longest Journey.

"We're making a game that can be enjoyed equally by fans of the first game and new players," says game director and writer Ragnar Tørnquist. "In 'Dreamfall', we are expanding the scope of the adventure genre to include action elements that will allow us to tell an even more involving, exciting, and surprising story."

Perhaps more interesting than the product announcement however - at least given that we know very little about Dreamfall - is the news that the game is being partially financed by a grant from the Norwegian Film Fund. This represents the first time the Norwegian government has actively endorsed videogame development.

Although the Norwegian Film Fund has been around since July 2001, when it was set up under the auspices of the Royal Ministry for Cultural Affairs, 2004 is the first year that videogame have counted as a medium entitled to grants, and Dreamfall seems to be the first beneficiary of the new arrangement.

Anybody interested in how games are funded would do well to add EG sister site GamesIndustry.biz to their bookmarks. Recent discussion on the subject includes a look at Fund4Games, which aims to "de-risk" the development side of games with its new funding model.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 7 years ago

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  • terminalterror #1 8 years ago

    \o/ I loved the Longest Journey!

    I'm glad they are going for a new character with guest appearance by April Ryan, I was afraid they would try to shoehorn another epic journey on April's shoulders, which wouldn't quite work.

  • bionutz #2 8 years ago

    Cool!!! I had asked the developers back then already to make part 2, but they were busy with other things. I'm sooo happy!!!

  • UncleLou #3 8 years ago

    Hm, I am pretty sure a "Longest Journey 2" has been announced ages ago, and I am pretty sure as well that EG had a news item about it.

  • otto #4 8 years ago

    YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

    /punches the air

    Ecstatic about this news!

    UncleLou, yes, we know there was going to be a sequel (or at least, Funcom had said they were planning to make a sequel), but there were no details at all.

    Extremely pleased to see that there's going to be one, the only balrog in the woodpile being, will it play on my ancient PC (unlikely), or will they make a Mac version (very unlikely), or will I have to borrow a PC from somewhere to play it?

  • degust #5 8 years ago

    It won't be quest anymore, so who cares?..

  • otto #6 8 years ago

    Oh fuck! I just saw this bit!

    "we are expanding the scope of the adventure genre to include action elements"

    Noooooooooooooo!

    /deflates

  • killerbob #7 8 years ago

    Hm, I am pretty sure a "Longest Journey 2" has been announced ages ago, and I am pretty sure as well that EG had a news item about it.

    yes, they annouced "The Longest Journey .static" last E3.

    quote from gamespot, last may:
    The trailer consisted mainly of vague text descriptions with concept art drawings, though it did suggest that the sequel will pick up after the original game left off. The game will feature a new protagonist--a young woman who, according to the trailer, will be tasked with rescuing April Ryan (the heroine of the original game). The trailer also suggested that you'll "face new enemies," and then it cut to a drawing of an imposing-looking man wearing an ornate suit of armor while brandishing a sword on horseback.

    i guess this is just a renaming/reshaping of that game?

    edit: oh, i forgot to add this..
    (translated from the webpage of the norwegian filmfond)
    "Dreamfall" is a natural further development of the world created in connection to "The Longest Journey", the greatest norwegian game success ever. The developer wishes with "Dreamfall" to develop a fully 3D-world with elements of action, like sneaking, climbing, swimming and, if the player wants it, combat against the evil forces of the game. THe carrying element however, is the story. The year is 2219. A young woman, Zoë Castillo, reveals a conspiracy to control humanity through dreams. Her journey brings her to a high-tech company in Japan that has developed a machine to control peoples dreams and harvest their dream-energy. Zoë realizes theres only one person out there that can help her: April Ryan. But first she, and the player, must find her. The story is mostly linear. Within every aspect of the game there's a certain degree of non-linearity. There will also be several solutions to the problems and several alternative results that will influence the game and the flow of the story.
    Edited by killerbob at 19/02/04 @ 14:17

  • itamae #8 8 years ago

    Oh fuck! I just saw this bit!

    "we are expanding the scope of the adventure genre to include action elements"

    Noooooooooooooo!

    Ha! Another genre screwed up by action elements. Who the hell do they think will buy this game, 14-18 year olds? Morons...
    On the other hand I thought that The Longest Journey was pretty meh so I don't really care.

    /quickly gets coat and runs like the wind

  • MikeD #9 8 years ago

    Problem is that many of these companies go/will go bankrupt by the sales of their halfassed action product. While there is a small but strong and loyal adventure audience out there.

  • bionutz #10 8 years ago

    I missed the "action" point too!!! Oh noooooo!. Fuck we want the longest journey two!!!

  • uk_john #11 7 years ago

    Another opportunity lost. But quietly.

    Remember the mainstream gaming press when they heard Sam and Max 2 was being written, and again when it was cancelled? Nothing like that for TLJ or Dreamfall, so it will quietly become a generic action-adventure and by the time it's released in early 2006 (I predict)it will be just another title that will succeed as much on its advertising spend as anything else.

    This game has been signed to a small German publisher I believe, for European distribution, and FunCom are saying they will do it themselves for the rest of the world. Either way, you're not going to get a big marketing spend. That leaves word of mouth. That's why it needs to be more adventure and less action. But I don't think it will be. So sad. So sad.
    Edited by uk_john at 21/01/05 @ 19:07