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The Longest Journey

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Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime. The Longest Journey is more than a game - it's more like a book, a movie and a game all rolled into one. Explore an interactive and beautifully created universe from the perspective of April Ryan, a young art student who soon discovers that there is more to her world than meets the eye.

With the power to pass between worlds like others pass from waking to sleep, April must embark on the longest journey of her life; a journey not only across twin worlds, but also into her very own heart and soul. Embark on a voyage across phenomenal worlds, encounter a fantastic cast of unforgettable characters, and unravel one of the most epic stories ever told.

Experience what critics around the world are calling one of the best adventure games of all time. Experience The Longest Journey !

THE ART OF DREAMFALL: THE LONGEST JOURNEY

Ragnar tørnquist, christer sveen.

Released alongside the game as a limited edition pack-in, The Art of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey contains concept and finished illustrations from the game.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

Authors: #ChristerSveen # RagnarTørnquist

Publishers: #EmpireInteractive (Empire Interactive) #Funcom (Funcom)

Languages: #English

Format: #Hardcover

Accessibility: N/A

Year: #Year2006

Genres: #Bundle

#Funcom (Funcom)

Public Figures:

#ChristerSveen (Christer Sveen)

#KjetilHjeldnes (Kjetil Hjeldnes)

# RagnarTørnquist (Ragnar Tørnquist)

#TheLongestJourney (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey [ Drømmefall: Den Lengste Reisen])

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Dreamfall Chapters fancied up with The Final Cut

The very end of The Longest Journey

The saga of The Longest Journey is now well and truly over, now that the adventure series's final instalment Dreamfall Chapters [ official site ] has received a 'Final Cut'. This free update brings Dreamfall Chapters PC into line with the console versions, which were released later and fancier. Features of The Final Cut include "improved" graphics and sound, performance boosts, bug fixes, and neat bonuses like playable "deleted scenes."

The update launched over the weekend, hitting Dreamfall Chapters on Steam, GOG, and Humble. The game is still on sale on GOG to celebrate this, down 40% to £11.39.

Developers Red Thread Games blast the patch notes thusly:

Change log Improved art and sound, including new and revised character models, improved lighting, an expanded soundtrack, remastered voice-overs and reworked sound effects Improved performance Improved controller support Improved German and French localisation Support for save slots Updated Unity game engine A HUGE amount of smaller bug fixes (seriously, the list is too long to post here) Additional features include Playable deleted scenes! Character library Concept art gallery In-game map

This is likely the very final bit of Dreamfall/The Longest Journey (well, perhaps unless it turns out to have some awful surprise bugs that demand fixing). Red Thread have raised the idea of making The Longest Journey Home, a proper follow-up to the game our John called the second-best adventure game , but that looks unlikely.

"The Longest Journey Home will probably never happen," creator Ragnar Tørnquist‏ said on Twitter in 2016. "At least not for a long, long time."

How's the journey been for you, gang?

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The Art of Journey

Link: theartofjourney.com

All images ©Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC.

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• Dreamfall Chapters
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Dreamfall Chapters is the third game of The Longest Journey Saga and the second (and final) of the " Dreamer cycle ". It is a direct sequel to Dreamfall . The first part of the game, Book One: Reborn , was released on the 21 st October 2014. The last part, Book Five: Redux , was released on June 17th, 2016.

On July 22nd, 2017, The Final Cut was released. [1]

• 1.1 Chapters
• 2 Characters
• 4.1 Developers
• 5 Boxed editions
• 6 Concept Art
• 7 Screenshots
• 9 External links
• 10 References

Ragnar confirmed that the story began where Dreamfall ended as well as rewinding to show some Dreamfall events from a different perspective, and that the story followed multiple characters, "both old and new, and there will be more overlapping paths and storylines".

The game is divided into 13 chapters and 5 books. Each book has its own self-contained story arc with a beginning, middle and end.

Dreamfall Chapters follows Zoë Castillo and Kian Alvane . At the beginning of the game, Zoë is still in the Storytime where she was at the end of Dreamfall, and is helping people to overcome their nightmares. She then wakes up from her year-long coma and moves to Europolis , where she gets involved in the upcoming election. She also takes up one of two possible career paths, chosen by the player. Meanwhile, Kian escapes from Friar's Keep , where he was imprisoned, with the help of Balsay Bachim , who wants him to participate in the Marcurian resistance movement.

According to Ragnar the game features all of the main characters of the TLJ "saga". April Ryan 's storyline is developed and even includes events set at various parts of the timeline, between the events of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall , before and after. [2]

An early post on Ragnar's blog gave the following hint: [3]

The following paragraph contains two and a half falsehoods. Make of that what you want: Zoë’s in it. And Crow. Gabriel gets his groove on. There will be puzzles. And an exciting story. You’ll find out more about the Azadi. A Dragon strips down to the ‘bare essentials’ (if you know what I mean). And you’ll learn the true identity of the Prophet.

Chapters [ ]

• Chapter One: Adrift
• Chapter Two: Awakenings
• Chapter Three: Trials
• Chapter Four: Dreaming
• Chapter Five: Anamnesis
• Interlude II
• Chapter Six: Machinations
• Chapter Seven: Hunted
• Chapter Eight: Crossings
• Chapter Nine: Journeys
• Chapter Ten: Umbrae
• Chapter Eleven: Lux
• Interlude III
• Chapter Twelve: Recall
• Interlude IV
• Chapter Thirteen: The Longest Journey
• Epilogue: Those Who Walk Between Worlds

Characters [ ]

Category Dreamfall Chapters Characters should list all characters that occur in the game. Below are some of the more notable ones.

Playable Characters:

• Zoë Castillo , a Dreamer
• Kian Alvane , an  Apostle [4]
• Saga , later as Lady Alvane
• Abnaxus , a  Venar [5]
• Anna , a mysterious ranger who seems to know Kian
• Baruti Maphane , campaign manager for the Unity Party in Propast
• Ben Bandu , a young  Banda [6]
• Benrime Salmin ,  the owner of the  Journeyman Inn [7]
• Blind Bob , a beggar from  Dreamfall [8]
• Brian Westhouse , a former journalist and traveler; later revealed as the Prophet [8]
• Commander Vamon , Azadi officer [8]
• Crow ,  a talking bird  [9]
• Emma de Vrijer  , a holosculptor and gallery owner [10]
• Enu , a  Zhid  rebel [11]
• Falk Friedman , a corporate jager [12]
• Gabriel Castillo , Zoë's father
• Helena Chang , Zoë's mother
• Likho , a  Dolmari   Rebel [12]
• Madame Nyx , madam of a  Dream Den [12]
• Mira , a shady networker [13] [11]
• The Mole , the leader of the criminal underground [11]
• Mother Utana , visiting from Sadir , the woman who raised Kian
• Roper Klacks , an alchemist and merchant [8]
• Reza Temiz , an  investigative journalist for  The Hand That Feeds
• Süleyman "Sully" Sadik , a friend and journalist colleague of Reza's
• Wit , a technological savant [13] [11]

Gameplay [ ]

The game-play is very much like Dreamfall's, but with a replacement for the focus field. While there was meant to be a revamped combat system, combat was abandoned as a gameplay element. An early prototype of the gameplay was showed at Rezzed 2013 in a Developer Session . Ragnar expressed an early desire to see the game released on a range of platforms, including Mac, XBL, PSN and the Wii Store if feasible. [14] As the first stretch goal of the Kickstarter was met, Dreamfall Chapter was released on PC, Mac and Linux. The Final Cut was released on PS4 and/or Xbox One (they even looked at the Wii U). [15]

Of the three playable characters, Zoë and Kian were announced early on. Ragnar also teased a third, female character [16] thus far unknown. [17] The third character was not be revealed until the release of the game. [18]

Development [ ]

On the 1st of March, 2007 Funcom announced that they had received funding from the Norwegian Film Fund (who partly funded the production of Dreamfall ) to partially finance research and initial development for the episodic Dreamfall Chapters , a continuation of DF's story. Funcom decided to use this money to investigate online-only delivery methods of episodic content, mostly in an attempt to circumvent illegal copying and distribution. [19] While this initially proved quite controversial in the TLJ community, expectations gradually faded as production on Age of Conan began in earnest.

Erling Ellingson confirmed that, while AoC was in production, DF Chapters was on hold, but might be taken up again after its release. [20] When AoC was released development of TSW ramped up to full speed, and fans knew DF Chapters would be delayed until at least after the launch of that. Ragnar estimated the development time for DF Chapters as approximately 18 months. [21] After the launch of TSW in April 2012 rumours of a return to DF Chapters resurfaced every so often.

It was not until the 1st of November, 2012 that Funcom reported Ragnar had left to form Red Thread Games for the purpose of creating DF Chapters. [22] Funcom retains the IP for the TLJ series, but Red Thread are licenced to create DF Chapters "and other titles in that universe as well". [23] The Norwegian Film Fund have again provided seed funding to create a prototype [24] , but the team also launched a Kickstarter to raise US$850,000 on the 8th of February, 2013. Ragnar stated that, while the budget for TLJ was ca. US$3million and DF US$5-6million, DFC will be somewhere over US$1million, with Red Thread members investing themselves [25] . Red Thread have also partnered with Blink Studios, which was itself formed from TLJ and DF veterans [26] .

Ragnar has said that fans will be kept up to date with production, not least because funding will come largely from Kickstarter where investors are regularly updated on progress. Further announcements were promised over late 2012, with work on the prototype beginning before a further reveal in early 2013. [27] It is slated for release in November 2014. [28]

On June 27th 2014, Ragnar wrote a message to backers explaining that the team had decided to return to the episodic structure that they had originally planned for the game, releasing each of the five books separately [29] . It was then planned for all 5 books to be released by September, 2015 on GOG, Humble Store and Steam. [30] On June 17th 2016, the development of Chapters was over with the release of Book 5: Redux.

Developers [ ]

• Ragnar Tornquist - creator, designer & writer
• Dag Scheve - writer
• Martin Bruusgaard - lead designer
• Christer Sveen - art director
• Kjetil Hjeldnes - technical director
• Eigil Jarl Halse - technical director
• Sigbjorn Galaen - artist
• Rakel Johnsen - producer
• Quintin Pan - programmer
• Audun Tornquist - programmer
• Morten Nøst - programmer
• Hans Kristian Andersen - 3D character artist
• Eivind Andvig - 3D character animator
• Morgan Sandbæk - 3D artist, environment and props
• Rikke Fjeld Jansen - artist
• Christoffer Grav - Illustrator/Graphic Designer

Boxed editions [ ]

• Journeyman Edition
• Dreamer Edition
• Limited Boxed Dreamer Edition
• Limited Boxed Shifter Edition
• Limited Boxed Draic Kin Edition

• Available on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, PS4 and Xbox One
• Final Cut released 22nd of July, 2017

• Collector's edition slipcase
• Signed collector's edition slipcase
• Wonkers 16Gb USB key
• Printed manual
• Journey's: Birth PB
• Journeys: The Graphic Novel PB
• Unique, numbered and signed Limited Shifter Edition box
• The Art of Dreamfall Chapters printed book
• Tome of the Balance printed book
• Official Sound Track on CD
• Personal thank-you note from director Ragnar Tørnquist
• Signed piece of concept art by Christer Sveen

Concept Art [ ]

Screenshots [ ]

See also [ ]

• Dreamfall Chapters at Red Thread Games
• Music of Dreamfall Chapters
• Choices in Dreamfall Chapters

External links [ ]

• Ragnar's blog , mentioning possibilities for the game engine
• Ragnar's blog , with further clarifications
• Ragnar's blog , a question and answer post
• Ragnar's blog , with more information
• Interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, on the formation of Red Thread Games
• Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter which started on 8th February 2013

References [ ]

• ↑ [1] - change log, playable deleted scenes, character library, Concept art gallery, in-game map"
• ↑ Ragnar's blog - possible DFC content
• ↑ Ragnar's blog - "two and a half falsehoods"
• ↑ Kickstarter update #27 "Video update! New gameplay & a second character!"
• ↑ Kickstarter update #12 "The Loremaster achieved! Additional stretch goals revealed!"
• ↑ youtube "Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarter video update #1"
• ↑ Twitter Benrime will be back
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 twitch.tv/redthreadgames Dreamfall Live Playthrough
• ↑ Reddit AMA answer - Crow
• ↑ Kickstarter update #22 "Stretch goals, a bit of catching up"
• ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 youtube Rezzed 2013 Developer session
• ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Kickstarter update #30 "Stretch goal update!"
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 Rock Paper Shotgun - Mira and Wit revealed
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - PC and Mac release
• ↑ eurogamer.net "We are preparing to go to consoles"
• ↑ Two female protagonists
• ↑ Twitter 2/3 protagonists we already know
• ↑ Reddit AMA answer - third character
• ↑ Funcom.com - first DFC announcement
• ↑ interview with Erling Ellingson - DFC on hold while AoC in production
• ↑ Ragnar's Formspring - DF Chapters development period
• ↑ Funcom.com - formation of Red Thread Games
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - DFC "and other titles"
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - funding from NFF and Kickstarter
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - rough DFC budget
• ↑ Red Thread Games - Blink partnership
• ↑ interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun - production
• ↑ DFC Kickstarter - release date
• ↑ Kickstarter update #52
• ↑ Twitter - All 5 books should be out by September 2015
• ↑ Kickstarter update #113
• ↑ Kickstarter update #115
• 1 Zoë Maya Castillo
• 2 April Ryan
• 3 Choices in Dreamfall Chapters

Entries now open for the pan-African Absa L'Atelier 2024 Art Competition

I t’s a day artists throughout Africa have been waiting for. Entries for the Absa L'Atelier 2024 art competition are now open. The annual pan-African competition, hosted by Absa in partnership with the South African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA) , is one of the longest-running art awards programmes on the continent and is now in its 38th year.

Established in 1986, it has built a legacy of providing the next generation of young visual artists from across Africa with the support, recognition and exposure they need to launch and develop their careers.

Emerging artists aged 21 to 40 from the 12 qualifying countries on the continent are invited to apply and to share both their creative vision and latest work with the world. Whether self-taught or formally trained, entries are welcome from citizens or permanent residents currently living in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, the Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia .

“Absa L’Atelier has a proud legacy of providing a platform for emerging artists to tell their stories and to showcase their art,” says Dr Paul Bayliss, art and museum curator at Absa. “It embodies Absa’s long-standing commitment to African art and is intrinsically aligned to our brand purpose.”

“Absa L'Atelier recognises that every artist's story is significant and impactful, regardless of their background, training or journey. By supporting emerging talent, Absa continues in its mission to advocate for artists who are telling uniquely African stories and bring to our life our ambition to be an active force for good in everything we do”, adds Bayliss.

This year’s competition is a natural expression of Absa’s new brand positioning , which is centred around the concept that Your story matters . It highlights the importance of every artist’s unique narrative and affords a platform for each to explore both personal and universal stories.

Artists are invited to register online at https://latelier.absa.africa/ and to submit a portfolio of between four and five artworks by no later than 31 May 2024 at 16:00 SAST (GMT+2).

The winners in each of three groups of randomly selected countries will be named Absa L'Atelier Ambassadors for 2024 and will receive benefits that include a laptop, intensive masterclasses, mentorship, an international residency and in-country solo exhibition.

In addition to these prizes, a South African entrant who demonstrates vision and development in their art production will receive the Absa L'Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award , which is presented in partnership with SANAVA, the French Embassy in South African and the Institut Français d’Afrique du Sud. The winner of this prestigious prize, which celebrates one of the country’s most prominent and well-loved artists, will receive a 3-month residency in Paris, a solo exhibition at the Absa Gallery and three virtual masterclasses to foster their personal development.

Your story matters. Share it with Absa L'Atelier 2024 on all social media platforms by tagging @absa_group and using the hashtag #YourStoryMatters.

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Is New York Improv Back? I Went on a One-Week Binge to Find Out.

The pandemic dealt a major blow to the once-thriving comedy form, but a new energy can be seen in performances throughout the city.

By Jason Zinoman

Improv comedy became so influential in the first two decades of this century that you could make an argument it mattered more to popular culture than stand-up.

Lines regularly ran down the block outside Upright Citizens Brigade. Students who once would have studied Method acting took classes in “ Yes, and. ” The author Sam Wasson described it as “America’s most popular art ,” and its major theaters were training grounds for stars like Tina Fey, Jordan Peele and Stephen Colbert.

Then, all of a sudden, the boom went bust. The pandemic hurt every live art, but arguably none more than improv. Not only did struggles force the sale of three of its biggest institutions (Second City, iO and U.C.B.), but the prestige surrounding the form faded as criticism mounted over business models built on free labor and racist treatment of artists. The title of the new book “Winging it: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump” captures its new mixed reputation.

But with a flurry of improv theaters opening or moving into new homes in this city, one of the major questions hovering over comedy today is: Can improv make a comeback?

“Second City” began as a New Yorker’s insult , then became a Chicago institution, so its arrival in Brooklyn is a return home of sorts. Not only is its vast Williamsburg complex fancier than any other improv house in town — the Manhattan Theater Club to everyone else’s La MaMa — but its first revue represents an aesthetic shift and possibly a changing of the guard.

“Ruthless Acts of Kindness,” a frenetically entertaining, talent-rich showcase, directed by Jen Ellison with an emphasis on speed and gusto, introduces Second City-style sketch into the cultural diet. There’s improv, some inspired by audience participation, often used in call backs. But it’s overshadowed by punchy, tightly scripted sketch work, dominated by broad comic characters like finance bros singing about doing cocaine and murdering interns, or suicidal society ladies.

Integrating dance, song, juggling, mime and the kitchen sink, it’s a hustling, desperate-to-please entertainment. Among its highlights is a scene where a polite encounter between a coffee shop customer (Ben Rameaka) and a barista (Jacklyn Uweh) escalates into competitive gratitude, each trying to one-up the other in pleasantries. There are some satirical shots at Mayor Eric Adams’s policy of boosting security in the subways, including a double act of blustery police officers (Yazmin Ramos and Uweh) who are obsessed with arresting someone for the minor offense of jumping the turnstiles.

But this show is less about coherent social commentary than jokes. Some scenes are very short, like one where all the cast members pat each other on the butt in celebration like football players, then all but one leave, and she smells her fingers with shameful glee. The longest, a spoof on the British detective genre that’s heavy on goofy accents, leans on crowd work.

The performances stand out more than the material. I could see how these revues could become a target for bookers from “Saturday Night Live.” Ashley Blair, a whirligig of comic energy, is one of those actors whose oddball physicality and spit-second intensity make every scene funnier. Drew Reilly, who plays everything from a football coach to a bitchy gay dancer, hints at Jim Carrey ambitions. Jordan Savusa is a glue guy of the group, providing some much-needed stability and deadpan amid the organized chaos.

There’s a certain anxious energy in this show, an impatience with character development or subtle laughs. Most sketches end in shouting. It’s why one quieter, finely delivered torch song by Uweh, about the exhaustion of a newcomer to the city, comes as a relief.

SECOND CITY’S CO-FOUNDER Bernie Sahlins argued that improv was not an end in itself but a tool to build work. The guru Del Close, who (along with Charna Halpern) helped start a competing Chicago theater, iO, disagreed. Close’s spirit long animated New York improv, especially the Upright Citizens Brigade, which named its annual festival after him. In the most dramatic loss for the art form in New York, U.C.B. closed during the pandemic . It reopened this week in a new space on 14th Street (in what it’s calling previews) and is part of a reshuffling of the scene.

To get a full sense of this reshuffling, I embarked on a one-week binge of improv shows at intimate, unpretentious theaters around the city. Many U.C.B. members have moved to the Lower East Side theater Caveat, where some weekly long-form improv shows like “Raaaatscraps,” a Sunday night staple, and “And Scene,” which matches actors with improvisers, are inspired by old U.C.B. hits. The Pit moved out of its longtime home and has been replaced by Asylum NYC. The most inventive show I saw was at the Magnet: “The Armando Diaz Experience,” which bills itself as “the longest-running improv show ever,” dating back to the mid-1990s.

The “Armando,” performed every Saturday , always begins with a monologue, and at a recent show it was about a connection made on the internet that led a decade later to a real-life relationship. The team of improvisers built patient scenes off this moving story, which made daring shifts in perspective, from the real world to secret worlds, inside and outside of bodies. There was a playfulness to the creativity, bold choices that verged on reckless that wouldn’t make the transition to a script.

My weeklong journey included a couple of shows in Brooklyn, where the improv scene has grown since the pandemic. After seeing the revue at Second City, I took a 10-minute ride across Williamsburg to the Brooklyn Comedy Collective. Its artistic director, Philip Markle, who founded it in 2018, has done creative work building an audience around a dizzying array of shows. He recently announced a “sister theater” partnership between B.C.C. and iO in Chicago which includes exchanges of shows and classes. This means that in one neighborhood in Brooklyn you can now find traces of the longtime Chicago rivalry of Second City and iO.

The Brooklyn Comedy Collective’s 10 p.m. show, “Demon Time,” was the right mix of scrappy and chaotic. The venue was packed and the audience members were decades younger than the crowd at Second City. The concept of the show was that cast members brought a premise to work with scene partners, who would improvise the rest. That was enough to incorporate a few wigs and props, but the heart of these scenes was a crowded stage of comedians listening closely to one another, feeling out scenes slowly. Occasionally an idea would emerge — like a basketball player who was deeply upset by her mistake when she was called for a foul — that provided grist for some good jokes. It went on a little long, but as you watched, the crowd began getting invested not just in the joke but how it would build.

That spirit was the common thread throughout the week of performances. All the shows I saw were either sold out or close to it. Crowds roared at even flat comedy. I can’t say I saw a new golden age, but what was there was a hunger for live comedy generated on the spot. Improv comedy is by its nature going to be less funny and consistent than scripted work, but its appeal is also different. You suspend your disbelief in a great play, but in engaging improv, you find yourself imagining the mind of the performer, thinking along with them. How will they raise the stakes? How will they make sense of this?

The core of its appeal is the opportunity to see the start of the creative act, the birth of a new idea. There’s an irreplaceable excitement in that. It’s why, I suspect, there’s so much activity now. The improv bust opened up opportunities not just for artists and theaters, but also for audiences. If improv booms again, wouldn’t you want to be there when it happens?

An earlier version of this article misstated which day of the week “The Armando Diaz Experience” is performed at the Magnet Theater. The show is every Saturday, not every Friday.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of an improv show. It is “Raaaatscraps,” not “Raatscraps.”

How we handle corrections

Jason Zinoman is a critic at large for the Culture section of The Times and writes a column about comedy. More about Jason Zinoman

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Comedians, no strangers to tackling difficult and taboo subjects with humor, are increasingly turning their attention to the climate crisis .

Delivering a deluge of hard jokes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler tried stand-up for the first time as a double act, aiming directly for the nostalgic pleasure centers of their fans .

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Was a scandal the best thing to happen to Hasan Minhaj ? It repositions him less as a righteous political comic than a more self-questioning, personal comic.