NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

"For the longest time we’ve wanted to create a game that took the visual language of comic books and brought it to interactive, animated life. With Dustborn, I believe we’ve succeeded."

Dustborn has a visually very striking art style. How did you settle on this look for the game?

Here at Red Thread Games, we’re big comics fans. I’ve personally read comics my whole life, and still do — although there hasn’t been a lot of spare time these past few years.

For the longest time we’ve wanted to create a game that took the visual language of comic books and brought it to interactive, animated life. With Dustborn, I believe we’ve succeeded, largely because of art director Christoffer Grav’s background in illustration and graphic design. His art style and direction has been central to the game’s development.

Not only does Dustborn look like a comic book; we also tell the backstory of the characters through an in-game comic (which also exists in printed form for those who bought a physical copy), and at the end of every chapter you get an illustrated recap of the game’s events — great for reminding players what’s happened, especially if they stop playing for a little while. It’s like those “previously on” segments you see before a new TV episode.

Dustborn was made with the Unity engine, so we had to write our own shaders to accomplish the unique look… and we plan to continue this style with one of our upcoming (and unannounced) games.

The setting of the game sounds incredibly unique. What were your inspirations for the game’s story?

Oh, there are so many influences, it’s hard to name them all — but the story was heavily inspired by real-world events in the past decade. There’s a growing political and societal division between people, not just in North America and Western Europe, but across the globe. Part of this divide is due to social media and the spread of mis- and disinformation. We wanted to tell a story where this theme — the power of words, and how language can be weaponized — was central to both the narrative and the game mechanics.

We were also inspired by games like the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series — which has done such a great job mixing genres and play-styles, and balancing a serious story with lots of silliness in a unique and interesting way — and by Final Fantasy 15, and Life is Strange: True Colors.

On the comic book front, The X-Men is an obvious source of inspiration, along with Preacher and Transmetropolitan — and many others. We obviously dug deep into our collection to see how we could use that visual language in a video game.

But Dustborn was also informed by our love of road trips and the desire to tell a story about a journey across an alternate history North America, visiting different locations and biomes along the road, and spending time with a diverse group of characters inspired by our own personal experiences.

Will players be able to influence the story through their action? We know you can have branching relationships with the other characters, but does that influence the main narrative?

To some degree, yes; each major character in the game receives their own ending, informed by Pax’s words and actions, and some scenes play out differently based on how you decide to solve problems, and on the characters’ current emotional state. The game really isn’t about those major narrative branches — it’s much more about the little things, about how people feel and react, how they respond to your dialogue choices — but you can certainly influence the plot in a variety of ways, and there’s room for replay.

"There are so many influences, it’s hard to name them all — but the story was heavily inspired by real-world events in the past decade."

One of the things Dustborn promises is a lot of varying gameplay mechanics depending on the location and what’s going on in the story. How deep can players expect the different gameplay mechanics to be?

Honestly, Dustborn is more about variety, joy and delight than deep game mechanics. There’s combat, there’s a music rhythm action game, there’s something we call “Echo recording”… along with lots of mini-games. Our goal was to keep players on their toes, constantly, and to mix genres, vibes, tones and moods, and to make the game easy and accessible for narrative players to get through the story — not to make a hard-core game that’s particularly challenging.

That said, there’s depth if you go looking for it and invest the time. The combat system, for example, allows you to upgrade your magnetic flying bat (!) in three different ways, using discarded tech you collect during exploration. You also craft new “Shouts”, which are used in combat, and combined with your crew’s powers unlock new combos. And the music game has different completion levels, based on your performance — and these affect the dialogue in the game.

The central gameplay mechanic – using words to fight and solve all sorts of problems in the game – sounds incredibly intriguing. What can you tell us more about it? How did the idea for it as a gameplay mechanic first come about?

This is the central theme of the game: words have power, and we have to be careful about how we wield and weaponize them. This ties back to how social media has become such a powerful force in our lives, and how information — including mis- and disinformation — affect us all, culturally, politically, spiritually, emotionally. We wanted to make a game where that theme manifested as a game mechanic, and that’s how the idea of Vocals (or “Vox”) came about. Pax and her crew can use their Vox — powerful words — to manipulate people and fight enemies.

It sounds like music plays an important role in this game. Could you elaborate more on what players can expect?

Music does play a large role in Dustborn. Pax and her crew pose as a punk-rock band on their journey across America, and you have to both write new songs and perform them at venues along the road. Your performance affects the story in small ways; you don’t have to be good at it, but there’s room to practice and improve, and to expand your set list.

Our composer and audio director Simon Poole was a key person on the creative team, and the game’s score was written alongside the design and development of the rest of the game — we believe that sound and music are crucial to the player experience, and the audio and soundscape are also closely connected to the game’s meta-story, which is about the origins of language itself.

"This is the central theme of the game: words have power, and we have to be careful about how we wield and weaponize them."

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the game be?

If you rush through the game, you can probably complete the story in 12-15 hours — maybe less, if you’re rude to everyone and cut them off! But if you take your time with every conversation, get to know each character, explore all locations fully, look for collectibles and enjoy the journey, you could easily spend 20 hours or more on this road trip.

Do you have any plans to bring the game to the Switch, or perhaps its upcoming successor?

Not to the original Switch, no, but we’re very interested in Nintendo’s next console, and if Dustborn performs well, I wouldn’t be surprised if we announce something in the first half of 2025!

Force your friend Sai to stop the car when police sirens start blaring or don’t. Decide how you’ll deal with the officer in question. Opt to trigger them. Watch them get flattened by a passing truck. It’s a notable first impression for an adventure, which would have had more impact if it hadn’t been spoiled in the marketing leading up to launch.

"The plot revolves around a mysterious cargo that Pax and her friends – Sai, Noam, and Theo – must deliver to Nova Scotia, an even more mysterious organization, for unknown reasons."

This is only the tip of the alternate history American road trip, however. At first glance, it may seem like a cry of rebellion, a push-back against authority with the power of words and the rhythmic button presses of music. It’s also a journey of friends, family, bonding, and acceptance…when it isn’t teasing a background mystery involving a mysterious tree that pops up in Pax’s dreams, perhaps hinting at the origins of her powers. Maybe this is connected to the Voices that also crop up later on. Maybe not.

Dustborn spins several plates throughout its runtime, devoting significant time to its authoritarian world and diverse cast of characters. There’s success on some fronts, stumbling at others, and a roughness that wouldn’t feel out of place among the motley crew, even if it’s more challenging to embrace at times.

The plot revolves around a mysterious cargo that Pax and her friends – Sai, Noam, and Theo – must deliver to Nova Scotia, an even more mysterious organization, for unknown reasons. This is done under the guise of a punk rock band, touring the American Republic and singing not-so-vague songs against oppression. It’s an intriguing set-up that’s far more endearing than the initial heist-gone-wrong would indicate and provides significant time for bonding with your allies. Of course, there’s more to each person’s motivation than meets the eye.

While there’s the promise of a new start for everyone, Pax seeks to reconnect with her estranged family, including her sister, Ziggy. Noam pines for Hong Kong, her homeland, while Sai seeks to become more self-assured. Theo is a wild card – his motives are uncertain despite the dorky dad energy he exudes. However, perhaps the most intriguing thing about each person’s feelings is how Pax’s decisions can influence the side they show her.

"Regardless, the characters are easily the best part of Dustborn’s experience – they’re imperfect, unpredictable, mired in their tribulations and doubts, and yet incredibly endearing."

For example, Noam could come across as more of an outsider, while Sai becomes better at masking her emotions. Theo, meanwhile, can oscillate between a buddy, father figure, or boss. This approach goes beyond the typical binary of “good vs. evil”, lending more layers to each character and their goals.

While dialogue choices and the like can make some motives more prominent than others, there are also the different Vox that each character (aside from Theo) possesses. For example, Noam can “gaslight” people, calming them and making them more amicable. Sai can turn her skin to stone and also possesses relatively impressive strength.

Aside from Pax’s abilities, which can range from silencing individuals to pushing them back with force, relying on other character’s Vox can affect how your friends view you, for better or worse. Push Sai when she’s emotionally vulnerable, and it may come back to bite you, especially if there are no attempts to smooth things over.

You can’t go against every decision – some situations demand you use Vox. It’s understandable in flashback sequences, especially with some plotlines, but it can feel limiting in certain circumstances. Regardless, the characters are easily the best part of Dustborn’s experience – they’re imperfect, unpredictable, mired in their tribulations and doubts, and yet incredibly endearing, backed by strong voice acting performances.

The systems governing your interactions with them could use some more polish, though. Certain situations will provide new dialogue choices if you wait. If that doesn’t happen, interrupt away, which can sometimes overlap with an ongoing dialogue. It’s especially jarring when you explore the environment and interact with different points of interest, spurring a stream of “so, anyway” among your party as they attempt to continue their trains of thought.

"Unfortunately, Dustborn has bigger issues, especially with performance and optimization. Higher settings resulted in frame drops, even during scenes with very little happening…"

Exploration is otherwise straightforward – objectives are spelt out in large colorful text that fits the overall comic book aesthetic. You can discover items in the environment, some to serve as gifts for your friends and speak to other NPCs for more context on the world. On the punk rock side of things, the rhythm game mechanics are competent – press buttons in time with the beat for a high score and hope your audience is satisfied. However, Pax can also engage in combat, using a bat (an unwitting gift from the Horned Riders.

She can unleash combos, evade, block attacks, and use her Vox to Push foes, with other powers eventually becoming available. You can also taunt an enemy, unleashing a quick damage combo that can wipe out multiple enemies in short order or chunk bosses. Combat is decent, broadly speaking – nothing amazing, really above average, but also more responsive to control than I expected. Following your first battle, options for more or less combat abound, so that’s nice. You can even turn off combat banter (which also suffers from spoken dialogue overriding and conflicting with each other).

Unfortunately, Dustborn has bigger issues, especially with performance and optimization. Higher settings resulted in frame drops, even during scenes with very little happening, including sit-down conversations where you’re casually panning the camera around. Things improved when dialing the quality down, even if performance still felt uneven. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it still occurs enough to impair the experience. There were also cases of background objects disappearing and reappearing.

Fast-forwarding dialogue isn’t possible, which is especially annoying if you decide to start a new playthrough and select different options. The Story So Far feature is good for looking back at the decisions made thus far (and how they compare to other players). However, you can’t view other potential outcomes or hints towards the same in a branching tree a la Quantic Dream’s titles. There’s also no manual saving – quitting out initiates auto save, but certain decisions from a few minutes ago may not have registered, which is more of a nitpick but still worth noting.

"Like any road trip, Dustborn is far from perfect. Nevertheless, it packs enough quirkiness and spontaneity to make it worthwhile while presenting a likeable cast, appealing aesthetic and intriguing premise."

Overall, I enjoy what Dustborn is going for, warts and all. Red Thread Games opts for an impressive scope with the setting and overall gameplay. As compelling as the former can feel, the latter can feel a bit scattered. The rhythm fan in me vibes with the punk rock approach, while the hack-and-slash enthusiast is indifferent to the combat.

Bonding with the characters and watching them open up, watching the little dialogue boxes hint at potential outcomes of choices, and pressing forward even if I can’t predict their responses is engaging. Going from one part of the environment to another for menial tasks like finding characters or picking up toys is less so.

Like any road trip, Dustborn is far from perfect. Nevertheless, it packs enough quirkiness and spontaneity to make it worthwhile while presenting a likeable cast, appealing aesthetic and intriguing premise.

This game was reviewed on PC.

The story focuses on Pax, an Anomal transporting a package and traveling through the American Republic, controlled by the Justice. As you explore the continent and meet different characters while posing as a punk-rock band, you must evade the Justice alongside other parties interested in the package.

While Pax has a baseball bat, her ability focuses on using Shouts and Vox to her advantage. The latter is useful when compelling people to do certain things, as seen in the trailer when Pax stops her vehicle. Each character has a unique story and powerful abilities that can provide an advantage, with dialogue choices affecting relationships. Stay tuned for more details before its release.

Red Thread Games of Dreamfall Chapters fame has something new in the works and it’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and PC. It’s a third-person action-adventure title called Dustborn and takes place in “post-infodemic” America. Check it out below.

Taking place in 2030 after an event called “The Broadcast”, players assume the role of Pax. She’s an ex-convict and outcast that has superpowers. Pax is looking to deliver a package across the country, avoiding the Puritans with your merry band of fellow super-powered outcasts. As an adventure game, players will interact with the crew and manage them in what’s essentially a road trip.

The action is all about using words against enemies as Pax discovers different Echoes and creates new words to battle foes. These words can also be used on allies, hopefully in good ways. Dustborn is currently slated to release in 2021. Stay tuned for more details and updates in the meantime.

Draugen has had quite the journey. The game was originally announced way back in 2014, but due to budget and development issues, it saw delays multiple times. It did finally came to PC last year, but the console versions again were put on the back burner. Well, now we know when console players will get their chance at the unique detective game.

As announced via a new trailer, which you can see below, the game will debut on consoles next month. The story takes you to an isolated village in 1920s Norway, where Edward Charles Harden, an American traveler, is searching for his lost sister. You will have a companion in the form of Lissie, who has dynamic dialogue options as you navigate a story with unexpected darkness at its core.

Draugen is available now on PC, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game will release on February 21st.

A story trailer of Draugen, the newest title from Red Thread Games – developers of Dreamfall Chapters – was released today. The game is slated to come out this May for PC. Draugen is set in 1923, and is a first-person psychological mystery.

The story follows Edward Charles Harden, an American traveler who has come to 1920s Norway to find his missing sister with his ward, Lissie, as he explores an environment shifting to Edward’s mood and perception. You’ll explore the scenic coastal community of rural Norway and interact through dynamic dialogue with your companion, in a story by the creative team behind The Longest Journey and The Secret World. Draugen also touts music from the award-winning composer Simon Poole. You can check out more about the game’s setting and overview over at its Steam page through here.

Draugen will be out for PC in May, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions planned for later in 2019. You can see the story trailer below.

Red Thread Games’ Dreamfall Chapters, its episodic crowd-funded adventure game series, will continue with Book Two: Rebels releasing in March. With the events having been set up in the first book, the second seems centred around the idea of Zoe and her comrades plotting rebellion. As if the episode’s name wasn’t enough of a give away. Check out the trailer above.

Dreamfall Chapters is a continuation of the highly successful The Longest Journey series which focused on two alternate worlds bleeding into each other after a delicate balance was disrupted. This led to one April Ryan rising to the occasion to restore the balance. Ryan was replaced by Zoe Castillo as a protagonist in the sequel, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and her whereabouts are still very much up in the air.

Dreamfall Chapters Book Two: Rebels will be out on PC on March 10th. Will you be picking it up? Tell us what you think of the trailer in the comments.

Red Thread Games’ Dreamfall: Chapters is finally upon us with the release of the first episode for Book One, titled Reborn. The game is now available for Steam which means Mac, Linux and PC users can get their hands on it. If you pay $35 now, you can receive the first episode along with the remaining four episodes as well.

Dreamfall: Chapters continues the story of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey as Zoë Castillo tries to recover from the catastrophic events of the second game. Things are still murky in the alternate universes of Stark and Arcadia, but all hope isn’t lost. Maybe April Ryan makes her triumphant return sooner or later?

Following a successful Kickstarter, Dreamfall: Chapters has been in development for quite a while now. Along with Steam, it will also be releasing on the PlayStation Network in the coming days so stay tuned for more information.

The first book of Red Thread Games’ Dreamfall Chapters finally has a release date. It will be out on October 21st for the PC, Mac and Linux via Steam. As part of the The Longest Journey franchise, you’ll take control of three characters and travel between three realms this time with Arcadia, Stark and Earth. Zoë Castillo from Dreamfall: The Longest Journey will be making a return.

Like the previous games, you’ll be able to make different decisions to influence the story. There will also be a new social system which lets you see the different decisions your friends make, thus letting you know about the result of each decision. Keep in mind that Book One will only feature the prologue and the two beginning chapters. There are four more books currently in development and we’ll update you on their release in the coming months.

Will you be returning to the world(s) of Dreamfall? Let us know in the comments.

Red Thread Games has been working hard on its crowd-funded adventure sequel to The Longest Journey, titled Dreamfall Chapters. Divided into five different episodes to be released over a period of several months apart, the first episode, titled Book One: Reborn has received its first gameplay trailer. Check it out above.

The game will feature three worlds this time around with two protagonists but you’ll be free to craft your own story as you go along. It appears to be a normal adventure title but with the ability to make different choices similar to Mass Effect. It will also be more interactive in the action, similar to The Walking Dead Episodes. Either way, we’re excited and looking forward to seeing more of the game.

Dreamfall Chapters Book One: Reborn will be releasing in November for Mac OS X, PC, Wii U and Linux. What are your thoughts on the trailer? Let us know in the comments.