The Dream Machine
April Update
After a rather drab winter full of cold, rain, slush, snow, introversion, self-destructive drinking habits, fever dreams, hot soups, cozy family holidays, revisits to old games, binge watching of TV-series, book reading, layer dressing, extra radiators, long johns, casual spooning and frantic mistletoe make-out sessions, we're slowly approaching the end of Chapter 6.
Right now we're about knee deep in the last puzzle sequence. It's pretty extensive as you might imagine. Once that's done we also have a few closing sections to work on, before we push this bad boy into earnest testing. So the release of Chapter 6 is still some ways off.
While taking a break from Chapter 6, I decided to push a fairly meaty update live to ensure the game is running smoothly for y'all. It fixes and improves a lot of things, but I think my favorite is that the safe door now displays correctly when you look at it through the basement window. For no good reason, that's always bothered me and I finally did something about it.
So cheers for me, for being useful.
And cheers for you, for being patient and awesome.
Check out the details below:
• Game: Fixed UI bug
• Game: Added profile blinks to Victor
• Chapter 1: Tweaked item descriptions
• Chapter 1: Tweaked living room graphics
• Chapter 1: Reduced compression on Victor's wake up animation
• Chapter 2: Fixed sleeping Morton-related visual glitch
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Fixed safe-related visual glitch
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Reduced blur in basement window
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Tweaked basement graphics
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Tweaked lobby navigation button
• Chapter 3: Added hints for radio puzzle
• Chapter 3: Tweaked hints for radio puzzle
• Chapter 3: Added dialogue
• Chapter 3: Replaced sound assets
• Chapter 3: Added hints for Victor Nine puzzle
• Chapter 4: Added hint for tea puzzle
• Chapter 4: Fixed tea pot visual bug
• Chapter 4: Tweaked graphics in Edie's dream
• Chapter 4: Attempted to improve drag & drop functionality on photo wall
• Chapter 4 & 5: Tweaked dialogue
• Chapter 5: Fixed door bug in Willard's dream
• Chapter 5: Tweaked knight's dialogue
• Chapter 5: Added knight's grave interaction
• Chapter 5: Added auto save point before stomach sequence
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Cheers,
- a
April Update
Spring is slowly arriving in Sweden and I can't tell you how happy that makes us!
After a rather drab winter full of cold, rain, slush, snow, introversion, self-destructive drinking habits, fever dreams, hot soups, cozy family holidays, revisits to old games, binge watching of TV-series, reading of books, dressing in layers, extra radiators, long johns, spooning and frantic mistletoe make-out sessions, we're slowly approaching the end of Chapter 6.
Right now we're about knee deep in the last puzzle sequence. It's pretty extensive as you might imagine. Once that's done we also have a few closing sections to work on, before we push this bad boy into earnest testing. So the release of Chapter 6 is still some ways off.
While taking a break from Chapter 6, I decided to push a fairly meaty update live to ensure the game is running smoothly for y'all. It fixes and improves a lot of things, but I think my favorite is that the safe door now displays correctly when you look at it through the basement window. For no good reason, that's always bothered me and I finally did something about it.
So cheers to me, for being useful.
And cheers to you, for being patient and awesome.
Check out the details below:
• Game: Fixed UI bug
• Game: Added profile blinks to Victor
• Chapter 1: Tweaked item descriptions
• Chapter 1: Tweaked living room graphics
• Chapter 1: Reduced compression on Victor's wake up animation
• Chapter 2: Fixed sleeping Morton-related visual glitch
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Fixed safe-related visual glitch
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Reduced blur in basement window
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Tweaked basement graphics
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Tweaked lobby navigation button
• Chapter 3: Added hints for radio puzzle
• Chapter 3: Tweaked hints for radio puzzle
• Chapter 3: Added dialogue
• Chapter 3: Replaced sound assets
• Chapter 3: Added hints for Victor Nine puzzle
• Chapter 4: Added hint for tea puzzle
• Chapter 4: Fixed tea pot visual bug
• Chapter 4: Tweaked graphics in Edie's dream
• Chapter 4: Attempted to improve drag & drop functionality on photo wall
• Chapter 4 & 5: Tweaked dialogue
• Chapter 5: Fixed door bug in Willard's dream
• Chapter 5: Tweaked knight's dialogue
• Chapter 5: Added knight's grave interaction
• Chapter 5: Added auto save point before stomach sequence
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Cheers,
- a
March Update
I hope y'all survived February – the bleakest and grayest of months (at least for those of us on the northern hemisphere). Both Erik and I survived, which is fortunate since we still have another chapter to finish. Right now we're working on the last big puzzle sequence in the game. It's fairly involved, with lots of moving parts. But once that's done, we'll be on the home stretch. We're not ready to give any dates yet, since historically our release estimations have been off by a mile or two.
In the meantime, here's a small update to ensure the game is running smoothly for y'all.
Check out the details below:
• Game: Tweaked UI
• Game: Added XML load UI
• Game: Tweaked credits
• Chapter 2: Tweaked dialogue
• Chapter 2: Fixed anvil related bug
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Added sound effects
• Chapter 5: Added interaction options
• Chapter 5: Tweaked interaction options
• Chapter 5: Attempted to fix void crossing bug
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Cheers,
- a
February Update
I couldn't go back to sleep so I figured I might as well use the time productively and push an update live. It's not super meaty, since we've mainly been busy working on Chapter 6. I've been trying to get rid of that annoying crash on start-up bug that happens on PC sometimes, but I haven't quite nailed it yet. It still happens - but hopefully less frequently.
The last few design bits on Chapter 6 have started to fall into place, and Erik has begun building some of the last sets. Once they're a little bit further along, we'll start implementing. I wish I could tell you more, but you wouldn't thank me if I did.
In short: still a lot to do. No date yet.
Check out the update details below:
• Engine: Staggered XML file loading
• Engine: Improved start-up time
• Game: Tweaked UI
• Game: Added captions to the chapter selector
• Game: Tweaked Game Menu button behavior
• Chapter 5: Tweaked dialogue
• Chapter 5: Tweaked some exit interactions
• Chapter 5: Tweaked door behaviors in Willard's dream
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Cheers,
- a
January Update
Hot off the heels of the new year, we decided to upload a new volley of tweaks! Like a little software firework, resplendent and delightful.
Right now, we're designing the last third of Chapter 6. There's still a lot of work to do on it for sure, but progress is picking up. We don't have a release date yet, but we'll tell you once the dust settles.
Check out the details below:
• Engine: Tweaked dialogue manager
• Engine: Fixed rare bug that would make the wrong dialogue option dim
• Engine: Made certain dialogue options undimmable
• Chapter 1: Tweaked mirror interaction
• Chapter 3: Tweaked bartender dialogue
• Chapter 4: Made sure Victor remains seated during tea party
• Chapter 4: Fixed typos
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Cheers,
- a
December Update
This month's update took a little bit longer than usual. That's because we've been ever so busy finalizing the first two acts of Chapter 6. Aside from some minor additions, they are now finished and we're moving on to finalizing the last act. Hopefully we'll have a solid release date estimation soon.
Taking a very brief break from Chapter 6, I thought it might be a good idea to release the updates we've done to the previous chapters. Nothing major, mostly small humble tweaks. We hope you'll like them regardless.
Check out the details below:
• Game: Tweaked UI
• Game: Improved performance while on menus
• Game: Increased sound ducking on menus
• Game: Swapped graphical assets
• Chapter 1, 4 & 5: Fixed rare elevator glitch
• Chapter 2: Tweaked portal puzzle
• Chapter 2: Added hints to portal puzzle
• Chapter 2: Prevented player from self-sabotaging ear puzzle
• Chapter 3 & 4: Tweaked sounds
• Chapter 4 & 5: Tweaked inventory graphics
• Chapter 4 & 5: Fixed Willard's letterbox interaction
• Chapter 5: Fixed witch house transportation glitch
• Chapter 5: Fixed graphical glitch
• Chapter 5: Fixed grave related bug
• Chapter 5: Tweaked void gate interactions
• Chapter 5: Fixed typos
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Oh, and happy hollidays!
Cheers,
- a
November Update
In celebration of a new and exciting month, I decided to bestow an update upon you, our beloved players! Working on Chapter 6 gave us reason to go back and tweak some old environments. That gave us the opportunity to fix a few things that's been bothering us for a while.
Chapter 6 is going pretty well (no date yet). It's been hard to dial in the right trippy vibe, but I think we've gotten a lot closer during these last few weeks. Things are about to get weird...
Check out the details below:
• Engine: Fixed music manager bug
• Engine: Added mouseover actions to reading aid
• Game: Realigned helmet overlay
• Game: Made sure the game menu icon displays correctly
• Game: Tweaked UI
• Chapter 1: Swapped graphics to high resolution equivalents
• Chapter 1: Decreased compression rate of graphical assets
• Chapter 1: Color corrected graphical assets
• Chapter 1: Tweaked clipping mask
• Chapter 1: Tweaked kitchen background
• Chapter 1: Tweaked living room background
• Chapter 1: Tweaked fridge behaviour
• Chapter 1: Added dialogue
• Chapter 2: Tweaked surveillance room background
• Chapter 3: Tweaked mermaid interaction
• Chapter 3: Fixed depth sorting issue on deck 2
• Chapter 4: Added interaction options
• Chapter 5: Tweaked mob scene background
• Chapter 5: Optimized lake water animation (map view)
• Chapter 5: Split asset file to combat memory crashes
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue!
Cheers,
- a
October Update
I'm sipping on some coffee, looking out over the line-up of odd clay figures sitting on my windowsill. One of the figures (who's supposed to be god) looks like he's smoking a joint. I can't say I blame him. Sweden is unbelievably dull and grey today. The kind of day that just makes you want to crawl back into bed. Besides, gods need to get their rocks off as well, I suppose.
I'm taking a brief break from Chapter 6 in order to deliver this steaming hot update. It's fairly meaty, mostly addressing small niggles in Chapter 5. It might not win any awards, or instigate a revolution, or win the Democratic primaries, but it is another step towards making this game perfect.
If you want to check out all the nasty, sexy details, you'll find a rundown below:
Update contents:
• Engine: Added 'endDialogue' option to task manager
• Chapter 1: Swapped graphics to high-resolution equivalents
• Chapter 3: Removed bench interaction
• Chapter 4: Tweaked dialogue
• Chapter 5: Removed graphical glitch in Selma's room
• Chapter 5: Tweaked object descriptions
• Chapter 5: Tweaked interaction results
• Chapter 5: Added dialogue options with lynch mob
• Chapter 5: Optimized laser beam graphics
• Chapter 5: Optimized lake water animation
• Chapter 5: Removed an interaction button once the wall is breached
• Chapter 5: Added object interactions
• Chapter 5: Fixed walk area bug by the lake
• Chapter 5: Enlarged navigation button outside Selma's hut
• Chapter 5: Fixed armour interaction displaying wrong verb
• Chapter 5: Added hints (if 'Hint mode' is on)
As always: shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue in the game!
Cheers,
- a
September Update
It's Saturday in Sweden and I'm uploading a fresh volley of files for the game. While I wait for them to finish I sip from a glass of Prosecco, absentmindedly gazing out over the horizon. The color on the trees have started to change. Autumn is approaching.
Chapter 6 is still a while away from release, but it's looking really sweet. It keeps surprising me and Erik – which is a good sign. At this point it's obvious that the game has a life of its own and we're just invited along for the ride, making minor course suggestions here and there. I think it's safe to say that it will be the strangest chapter so far...
As for the update, you'll find all the nasty, sexy details below:
Update #1 (2015-09-19):
• Chapter 2: Added hints to statue puzzle (if hint mode is on)
• Chapter 4: Tweaked note book texts
• Chapter 4: Made sure some states saves permanently
• Chapter 5: Tweaked dialogue
• Chapter 5: Tweaked walkable surfaces
• Chapter 5: Fixed inconsistent cube behavior
• Chapter 5: Optimized beam graphics
• Chapter 5: Fixed typos
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Tweaked background graphics
• Chapter 2, 4 & 5: Tweaked background sounds
We hope you like it. Shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue in the game!
Cheers,
- a
August Updates
We just released another update for the game. That's how we do things around here. We did quite a lot of changes this time, but forgot to write them down as we went along. I also forgot to put pants on today. That's how it is sometimes. We've all been there.
If you ever forget something, we won't hold it against you. It's natural. The Machine accepts you for who you are.
Most of the changes we made were in service of Chapter 6, which we still don't have a date on. Progress is steady and results are looking good.
Below you'll find a content listing:
Update #1 (2015-08-04):
• Game: Tweaked UI
• Game: Improved performance while on menus
• Chapter 1: Fixed sound glitch when calling Mr Morton twice
• Chapters 3: Fixed typos
• Chapters 3 & 5: Tweaked background graphics
• Chapters 3: Swapped background graphics for high-resolution equivalents
• Chapters 3: Tweaked object interactions
• Chapter 1-5: Tweaked dialogue
We hope you like it. Shout out in the comments below if you encounter anything strange/buggy in the game. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to report an issue in the game!
Cheers,
- a