Lock 'n' Load

Interview - Cockroach Inc.

We had a pleasant chat with two standup lads from the Swedish independent game studio called Cockroach Inc. about their upcoming project, The Dream Machine. Behind the intriguing title there hides a game laden with charisma, one which puts even the more familiar sounding adventure games to shame with its unique visual identity. If you want to know what they revealed and what were the topics covered during our chat, read on.

Please introduce yourself and your project.

My name is Erik Zaring

and I work as the producer and head builder on The Dream Machine, which is our most ambitious game to date. The Dream Machine is a point & click adventure build by hand out of mainly clay and cardboard.

For how long have you been designing the game?

We started off with The Dream Machine project late summer of 2008. Previous to that Anders wrote some of the story and designed some early playable tests (originally intended for Gateway 3). So we’ve spent two years (not full time) making the game.

Where did the inspiration for the game come from?

To name a few sources of inspiration: Polanski, Cronenberg and Monkey Island. We also looked at a lot of Polish poster art and paintings by Beksinski. And of course, the whole madcap idea of creating a computer game out of clay comes from The Neverhood – Doug TenNaple’s 1996 masterpiece.

Your game design is quite unique. Was it difficult to work on?

Yes and no. The most

challenging thing is to keep our forward momentum. This project tends to be draining at times. It’s so much to do, making several episodes. It’s like giving birth to five kids at once. We need the labour to make The Dream Machine as good as possible. Occasionally when all the pieces fall into place, it’s utterly WONDERFUL.

Working with materials such as clay and cardboard is easy. I’m an expert, but there’s no way around that it takes hell of a lot of time. We really like the hand built quality, but next time I think we’ll opt for a material that requires less time, like building the sets out of minced meat and bacon. If I get hungry, I’ll just fire up the stove and cook a grand meal out of it!

What sets your game apart from other point and click adventures? What things do you like most about the game?

For my part, I’m quite proud of the art-style and overall mood of our game. The dialogue/story/music fits together to create a sum that is more than the individual parts. What Anders thinks? Well, that’s hard to know really. He’s kind of an enigmatic guy. But I’m sure he’s very proud of the pacing of the story, and how well the game’s been received so far.

The Dream Machine has a bit more mature/serious slant than most point & click games. We’re both over 30 years old, so we’re really making a game that we would like to play. That makes it a bit hard to compare to others.

You have released the first chapet of the game for free, which is a nice gesture. But, what of other chapters? How mayn episodes did you plan to release and what will their pricing be?

The Dream Machine saga consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is free in order to give the player a fair chance to try the game and see if they like it. For the rest of the chapters we’ll charge something like $3-5 each.

How long is a single chapter of the game , and how long does it take to finish the entire game?

Every chapter will roughly be the length of a feature film – about one and a half hours. It’s hard to give exact numbers since different players solve problems at differently. The last chapter will probably be a bit shorter, since it’s the dramatic climax, and it’s hard to sustain a climax for one and a half hours. At least for me ;)

What will the puzzle difficulty in the game be like? I ask because many gamers don't like when things get overly hard and complicated.

We have a system running discreetly in the background, which registers statistics for how many players actually solve any given puzzle in the game. If we note that we have a significant drop anywhere, we can add clues or re-think the problem entirely. We want the game to be challenging, but if we lose 30% of our players on one puzzle, we have to do something about it.

We also note different interactions the player attempts, which we didn't think of. If enough people try to use, say, the baby oil with the apartment key, we go in and write a response for that. Our hope is that, in the end, every possible interaction will have a proper response, instead of the boring default "That doesn't seem to work".

Why have you opted for

the game to be playable only in Flash/via web browser? On one hand, it is a practical decision, because no installation is necessary and you can play it on just about any PC with an Internet connection. What of the people who don't have Internet access?

This is an important question. What’s the most democratic way of making sure that players worldwide can play our game, regardless of technical know-how or economic means? Our answer is Flash, since it works on 98% of the computers out there. As you mention, you don’t have to install the game since it runs in a browser and you also don’t need to patch it. It’s as simple as that.

Players without Internet access are getting fewer every day. As a platform demand, I think it’s much more reasonable to require that the player has Internet, than require the player to buy an expensive plastic box to put underneath their television.

In order to make the gaming experience as smooth as possible, we discreetly load assets – like music and new rooms – in the background. If you’re not connected to the Internet, the assets will simply fail to load.

What are some of your favourite point and click adventure games?

Ah, it’s hard to pick your favourites, isn’t it? I mean there’s been so many great point & click games! But off the top of my head: Sanitarium, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Gabriel Knight 1, Loom, Beneath a Steel Sky, The Neverhood, Samorost 1 & 2 and every single game ever released by Delphine Software.

Other – non-point & click – games have also been a huge influence. Another World is an all time favourite, and the Space Quest-, the Quest for Glory- and the King’s Quest-series all shine vividly in my memory.

What do you think about the rising trend of releasing more and more adventure games? Many thought that the genre was outdated, but in renect years there's been somewhat of an explosion of adventure games ( the renovated Monkey Island games and its Telltale counterpart, So blonde, Machinarium, Gobliins! 4, the Ankh series, Sam & Max...).

It’s a great trend! Finally this genre gets re-vitalised! Nowadays you don’t have to feel like a necrophiliac just because you’re into point & click adventure games. Splendid titles like Monkey Island, Machinarium and Telltales’ Sam & Max-series are paving the way for a resurgence of the genre.

But the core mechanics of adventure games will always be popular, whichever genre they surface in. People like to explore interesting environments at their leisure, they like solving problems and they like to engage with characters and storylines that has a bit of meat on them.

The fact that web based games and digital distribution is becoming more and more valid forms of releasing games, has a lot to do with it as well.

Do you have any plans for the future? Some new ideas for games?

We have plans and ideas for the future. Anders has several in fact. But we have to make sure that we safely deliver The Dream Machine before we start something else. Probably after a long deserved vacation, once it’s all done.

Thank you for your time and your amazing game!

Thanks for having us, and goodbye for now!

We hope you’ve enjoyed, which hopefully enticed your curiosity about this truly one-of-a-kind game. If the hunger is not yet sated, try to relinquish it by clicking on some these links.

The Dream Machine
Cockroach Inc.
The Dream Machine Facebook Page
The Dream Machine Blog