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''Dream Chronicles'' is an adventure, hidden object and puzzle casual game series created by Miguel Tartaj for KatGames, owned and originally published by PlayFirst. It is also the name of the first game in the series. The ''Dream Chronicles'' series was supposed to be divided into two trilogies, ''Faye's Journey'' and ''Lyra's Destiny'', with three games each and two core stories. However, only the first intended five games were released eventually. First released as a digital download in June 2007, the original ''Dream Chronicles'' quickly became a casual game hit, peaking high on many major casual game charts, and proved to be one of the biggest and most innovative casual games of 2007. The original game went to won a Zeeby Award's "People’s Choice Award for the Best Hidden Object & Adventure Game of 2007" in July 2008. It also marked the birth of the "Hidden Object & Adventure" genre in casual games, which is very popular and highly demanding then. ''Faye's Journey'' trilogy continued successfully with ''Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze'' and ''Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child'', which were released in February 2008 and April 2009 respectively, enjoying the same success on casual game charts, and earned many thumb-ups from game critics and casual gamers. The second ''Lyra's Destiny'' trilogy started with ''Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air'' released in June 2010, and ended abruptly with ''Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water'' released in April 2011; though they were both criticized for not matching the standards of the ''Faye's Journey'' trilogy. As PlayFirst had initially announced and ''The Book of Waters final scenes implied, there would be a sequel called ''Dream Chronicles: The Book of Fire'' to be released. However, since November 2012, PlayFirst cancelled releasing and distributing its casual games on PC/Mac platforms in order to focus on its growing mobile gaming market. Because PlayFirst holds the rights to publish the ''Dream Chronicles'' series, that forced its developer KatGames to move on with other projects; namely ''The Cross Formula'', a ''Dream Chronicles''-alike game was released in early 2012. Partly due to that cancellation, ''The Book of Water'' was cut short its development time, thus making itself felt unfinished and awkward; it was also the last collaboration between PlayFirst and KatGames, and ''The Book of Fire'' will not be developed and released. ==Development== Over the course of 2005, Miguel Tartaj, KatGames' CEO and lead game designer, shared the game idea with two potential partners but according to him "it didn't go anywhere". Tartaj wanted to find a publisher who could provide his team with creative input and non-development support. He also needed a partner whom his team trusted and had a track record of successfully navigating the casual games market. Tartaj first met PlayFirst's creative director Kenny Dinkin and Director of Publishing Craig Bocks at Casual Connect Amsterdam in 2006. He was impressed by their dedication to creativity and innovation and could immediately sense that they shared his vision to make this unique game a reality. KatGames eventually signed an agreement to PlayFirst on what came to be known in June 2007 as ''Dream Chronicles''. Tartaj shared: "We knew that an adventure game like ''Dream Chronicles'' was going to be unique for our team and unique for the casual games industry. In a world where swapping colored gems in a match 3 game, or juggling tasks in a time management game is the norm, the iterative nature of a story-based game like ''Dream Chronicles'' was going to require a much higher degree of flexibility throughout the game's design and development process. Each new scene involved unique graphics, puzzles, and story elements, so we knew that it wouldn't all be 'figured out' up front. I prefer to work more iteratively and put pieces together to try things out as we go along. PlayFirst's willingness to accept this fact was something that I appreciated in terms of my work style. Not only being able to work this way, but to also be supported in doing it was a great advantage for my team. We truly were able to 'dream' as we went along." After the success of the original ''Dream Chronicles'', KatGames devoted their time to making the ''Dream Chronicles'' series, which is supported by PlayFirst and other third-party developers. KatGames team designed the concepts, artworks and gameplay while partners worked on visual effects, music, story and marketing. ''Dream Chronicles'' was inspired largely by the work of Antonio Gaudi and the Art Nouveau movement. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dream Chronicles (series)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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