Feature: 'The Second Longest Journey: Interview with Ragnar Tornquist'

Today's main feature is an interview with Funcom Writer/Designer Ragnar Tornquist, as he discusses the completion of the long-awaited sequel to The Longest Journey, called Dreamfall, as well as linear storytelling in games, the importance of good localization, and what to expect in the next generation of game development. In the following excerpt he explains the importance of localization to the success of The Longest Journey: That's the great thing about Europe is you have all these markets, and if you spend time localizing, there's an enormous profit to be made. The Longest Journey was translated into thirteen languages, and that's part of the reason why it sold so well. In Poland, it sold something like 20,000 or 30,000 which you just couldn't do if it was in English. I think a lot of American publishers don't know that or disregard that, they see it as a lot of work, but if you work with local partners, that's actually a smart way of doing it. And the same in Asia too. Something we're going to do with Dreamfall, or at least with our next online game, is to get into Asia and make sure it's localized for every market and tailored for that market because that's where the big business is. I mean America and Europe are huge markets but Asia is enormous in comparison. You can now read the full Gamasutra report on the subject, including Tornquist's thoughts on storytelling in games (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).