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No new postsAG Community Playthrough #82: The Dream Machine
Go for it, Tim. It is shorter than the other chapters.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
I had some time so I finished off Chapter 1 this afternoon. Memo to self: look at/examine everything. Also try to move everything. I ran into three minor problems:
1. I expected the note to be easier, I.e. Left click to select a piece. Right click to rotate it. I should have done it the easy way. Take a screenshot. Print. Cut apart with scissors.
2. For the life of me, I didn’t see the key through the fogged up window. Found it eventually by saying “what’s that dark spot?”
3. Solving the circuit board was, without a clue to the objective, was trial and error.
4th problem/question: How am I going to move the sofa?
If I don’t get to Chapter 2 on Thursday afternoon, I may not be able to get to it until Saturday at the earliest.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Regarding the note, you had to rotate the pieces by dragging a corner of each one up or down to straighten them. It took me awhile to catch on to that.
With the circuit board, you have to avoid the path to the red capacitors as much as possible. I solved it the first time by trial and error, so I looked it up to check the logic behind it.
The sofa will be the least of your worries. It’s a clever way by the designers to keep you in the building and others out.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
I played the first episode when it was released, and I remember I liked the game. It’s a bit on the melancholic and even depressive side, yes, but I remember very good humor as well. And very original clay/cardboard design, like Neverhood. I will try to catch up with the playthrough.
Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale
I will play Chapter 1 tomorrow night.
Currently translating Strangeland into Spanish. Wish me luck, or send me money to my Paypal haha
Hello all!
Regrets on the delay, my partner and I were travelling, but just caught up through Chapter 1 tonight. We’re doing the playthrough together and I will share our joint impressions.
Plenty of intrigue so far. Feels a bit Kafka-esque, where everything is a bit off and, of course, the surveillence camera.
We also had some trouble rotating the letter pieces. We had missed the brief text when we first opened the letter. Upon exiting the letter puzzle and going back to it, all the pieces were oriented correctly. None clicked together, but we approximated their location and it seems fine.
Hard to tell if some of the characters are supposed to be exceptionally creepy, because they are all a little bit creepy, haha!
Wish the looping music was a bit more varied - was very happy with the change once we left the apartment.
Looking forward to the plot unfolding and generally excited. Really enjoying running through a game with some inventory and logic puzzles. Hope they increase in difficulty.
This is my favorite scene from the first chapter. It shows the attention to detail the developers put into the environment they were creating out of clay and cardboard. The time it must have taken to construct just the radiators alone amazes me. I also love how much is revealed when clicking on the cardboard boxes here and in the rest of the apartment.
More importantly, the scene allows us to get to know Victor and Alicia better as they share a meal together. Their banter reveals the loving relationship they have with each other, and we learn some of their backstory and their hopes for the future.
In the introduction to chapter 1, we were presented with this quote by Aitareya Upanishad:
“We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.”
I have a question for discussion. Where in this first chapter did you realize that the game might have a darker side to it? For me, it was when Victor persisted in asking Alicia about her dream about the caretaker, and she finally told him.
By the way, each chapter in the original series is introduced with a quote, but you won’t see them if you load a saved game to continue playing. Just click on play and the chapter to continue.
Chapter 2 begins with:
“Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away.”
-William Hughes Mearns
Your search for the “little man” can start now. The target date for completing the chapter 2 is Wed., April 3. As usual, let me know your progress in case a change is needed.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
Hello all,
Had banked on chapter 1 being a bit longer, so had some time to play through chapter 2. At 95 minutes of playtime after finishing chapter 2 for those of you who are curious as to duration.
For me, Chapter 1 had some darker undertones with the music in the apartment. Fairly sinister vibes in a fresh apartment. My partner, however, said she felt it was when the tenants could not remember really meeting the caretaker and his name.
As far as Chapter 2 goes, big strides towards the overarching plot. Somewhat unsatisfied with the quick death of Morton. We were fairly antagonistic with him before his death. Still quite creeped out by the cameras above the beds, especially since it is unclear how that was a necessary part of the research. I suppose it implies that he would sneak into people’s rooms and put the helmet on them while they slept??
The puzzles were a bit more challenging in Chapter 2, but manageable in the sense that there was never too much going on at once.
Thanks @LadyKestrel for sharing the quotes. You are correct that they don’t show in the continuous gameplay. Bit of an odd design choice.
Also, we are experiencing random periods of slowdown. Not really debilitating in this kind of game, but somewhat distracting at times. Even so, looking forward to next week’s session!
Hi!
I hope you all enjoy this Holy Week festivities.
I have invited the creator of the game to join this CPT as I am a friend of him on Steam from the time I was interested in translating The Dream Machine into Spanish and helped him to translate The Gateway Trilogy. Let’s see if he brings himself to join us.
I just finished Chapter 1. Visuals are stunning, and as Laky K pointed before, you can see the love and dedication and hard work they put in the environments.
Music is a bit eerie and helps to imagine there is something dark happening in that building. I laught a lot when I looked myself in the mirror and the answer was “Hello, handsome!”
About the torn apart note puzzle, I got used to it quickly, by rotating the pieces as you move them. At first, I thought it had to be a perfect match, but soon I realize that was not possible and you just need to read enough.
I never liked circuits puzzles, and this one was no exception. After some trial and error, I looked up the solution in a walkthrough (same thing I do with sliders and mazes).
Wife’s dream was quite bizarre, and knowing the game is called The Dream Machine, I guess it has something to do with it.
So far I am enjoying the game very much, and I can’t wait to discover how dark it will become, so I will be playing Chapter 2 tonight.
Currently translating Strangeland into Spanish. Wish me luck, or send me money to my Paypal haha
As to the “strangeness” I, too found Alicia’s dream disconcerting. But I found Edie a bit strange as well. Why would she leave her bridge guests alone just to make a chance encounter with her neighbor?
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
I love this track
Quite disturbing, well crafted!
A1
I agree with you, LL. It has that melancholy blues style, but the percussion gives it an unsettling edge.
Walas,
Thank you for reaching out to one of the developers. It would be wonderful if he could join us.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
Thanks, LadyK for taking the time to reply to my post… yeah, I love the courage to come up with such an output for a musical track, which serves the meaning of a soundtrack 100%, nothing fancy, not even quite memorable, but straight out of Morton’s sick mind
A1
I’ve finished the first chapter & had forgotten just how engaging this game was up to that point.
The time & work that went into the detail of the game I found very impressive but also the story seems to be very thoughtful so far.
I also found the scene of the Neffs having breakfast very appealing as it was to me indicative of the beginning of a new life both in a new home & also the impending birth of the Neff’s first child.
I left assembling the crumpled note puzzle on failing to work out how to rotate the pieces & then like IronCretin found the pieces already rotated when I tried again. On reading how Lady Kestrel solved the puzzle it seemed that it was worth spending more time fiddling around!
I struggled for a while with the circuit board puzzle getting nowhere until I clicked on the different components to read the descriptions & tried after reading the one for the resisters avoiding them on trying to complete the circuits.
I think I realized in the first chapter that the game may have a darker side when it became apparent that the Neffs had been led to believe that Morton was the caretaker.
Hey guys, played the first three chapters of The Dream Machine some 10 years ago, and enjoyed them quite a bit. Unfortunately, I haven’t stayed up-to-date with the game. Seeing you’re playing it here, thought I should finally get around to it.
So, I replayed Chapter 1. As before, my initial impressions of it - pretty good stuff! The graphics are amazing as you’ve pointed out, and contribute to the enjoyably odd mood that’s, yet anyway, grounded in reality.
The humor also anchors it in reality, and I like it’s not some grimdark or morbid surrealism. There’s warmth with the (happy?) couple facing fresh life challenges.
My favorite moments so far are the shot in the mirror (and loving the protagonist’s hair), Morton’s front desk with the music, and Morton appearing in the dream and saying, It’s the first entryway of this kind. I guess it’s the mixture of his serious scientific approach and absurdity that’s endearing here.
I, too, had trouble with rotating the letter, specifically figuring out you need to click the edges to rotate. I do like, however, the pieces don’t fit abstractally when you join them, which would be too gamey/ immersive-breaking/ inappropriate here.
Enjoyed the circuit puzzle. Took me some time, but I managed to solve it by trying to find the shortest routes possible for each wire.
Overall, I like the mixture of easy/realistic inventory puzzles so far and this one, more trickier mechanism-puzzle.
Optimistic as for the rest of the game, could turn out to be top-tier of personal faves. Looking forward to reading your thoughts, too. Cheers!
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