THE DREAM MACHINE

theo · Wed 15/12/2010 10:26:52

Hey y'all!

An artist friend of mine who also lives here in Gothenburg, named Erik Zaring has been working with another dude named Anders Gustafsson in making an absolutely balls to the walls gorgeous point n click named THE DREAM MACHINE.

This game has now reached the sweet time in its life where it's finally available for purchase!

If you're a cheapskate and/or don't take my word for granted regarding getting your moneys worth, I recommend downloading the first chapter, it's free!

Do the indie adventure game crowd a favor and give these guys some love for their incredibly hard work. You can buy all five chapters in a bundle now for the unbelievably low price of 11 â,¬! (Chapters 1 and 2 are ready, the rest of them are under way and will be released as they complete them.)

The art is more or less all made out of clay and cardboard. (How cool is that?!) And it's browser based (flash) and stores your progress online as you go.

A perfect Christmas gift to yourself perhaps?

Monsieur OUXX · Wed 15/12/2010 10:28:57

Curious: Is this pre-rendered 3D or is it pictures of real models?

Igor Hardy · Wed 15/12/2010 10:35:45

Real models with some digital effects for lighting, sky etc. (There is a making-of vid on the website somewhere)

theo · Wed 15/12/2010 10:42:01

Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Wed 15/12/2010 10:28:57
Curious: Is this pre-rendered 3D or is it pictures of real models?

The models are originally real clay, but after that, modeled, textured and animated in 3d after the clay model. As far as I can tell they are not stop motion animated.

Igor Hardy · Wed 15/12/2010 10:47:10

Quote from: theo on Wed 15/12/2010 10:42:01
The models are originally real clay, but after that, modeled, textured and animated in 3d after the clay model. As far as I can tell they are not stop motion animated.

Really!? That's a shame. The animation was a bit strange, but I still thought it's stopmotion.

PatientRock · Wed 15/12/2010 13:40:02

Bought it but the site isn't recognizing my purchase - anyone have the same problem?

ThreeOhFour · Wed 15/12/2010 17:04:15

Ah, I played the demo of this a while ago and it is most wondrous.

Thanks for reminding me about it!

theo · Thu 16/12/2010 21:21:44

Acovel: Honestly I'm not sure. Anyhow if it works, it works:)

PatientRock, I have no idea why that is, I hope the issue is cleared out now. Your purchase was on their first day of release so odds are you caught them with their pants down with some release bug in the payment system or whatever.

PatientRock · Fri 17/12/2010 01:30:16

I emailed them that evening. They responded and fixed the problem very quickly. Just finished Part 1, onto Part 2, woo!

Stupot · Fri 17/12/2010 08:12:49

I played the chapter one beta a few months ago. It's amazing. will definitely buy it... although I might wait for these purchasing issues to die down.

Chicky · Fri 17/12/2010 18:48:55

Their faces remind me of TJD, what beautiful backgrounds. Thanks Theo!

blueskirt · Sat 18/12/2010 21:34:14

I played the demo a couple months ago and I loved it but I'm not sure I like their idea of having a single player game playable only online. I'll probably end up buying it at some point but I hope they'll release an offline version when they're done with it.

Igor Hardy · Sat 18/12/2010 21:53:05

Quote from: blueskirt on Sat 18/12/2010 21:34:14
I'm not sure I like their idea of having a single player game playable only online.

Maybe it's not the best idea as far as immersion and the quality of presentation goes, but if you haven't tried any adventure games of this sort, you're missing out on some really great ones.

blueskirt · Sun 19/12/2010 02:42:38

Care to suggest me some?

Igor Hardy · Sun 19/12/2010 10:29:05

Quote from: blueskirt on Sun 19/12/2010 02:42:38
Care to suggest me some?

Hansel & Graetel (Parts 1 & 2)
Nick Bounty (2 games)
Brain Hotel
Submachine (series)
Daymare Town (series)
Today I Die

Some of the above may have downloadable versions by now.

blueskirt · Sun 19/12/2010 18:32:04

Ah yes, I played some of those. The problem is not immersion or flash, when I'm done with a very good flash game, I check the webpage's source for the location of the .swf file and I save in on my hard drive, so I can still play it 10 years later if I feel like it. My problem with Dream Machine is that I've paid for it AND I can't save it on my hard drive. 10 years from now, if they decide to pull the plug on their site, it will be gone forever.

Igor Hardy · Sun 19/12/2010 18:57:23

So basically one could say the problem is you dislike DRM in your games.

Chicky · Tue 21/12/2010 14:16:23

Hey Theo, may be worth telling your buddy that he made it onto Joystiq!

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/20/handmade-adventure-the-dream-machine-available-for-pre-order/

theo · Tue 21/12/2010 20:07:13

Chicky, I doubt he's missed that. Google them and you'll notice they've caught some amazing coverage all over the place with their game. I think the whole clay/cardboard gimmick is really giving them a push as far as being covered on game sites, and I envy them for it. Hopefully this rather impressive coverage also reflects their sales.