The Dream Machine‘s episodic structure has been… sporadic. Chapters one and two came out in January 2011, with the rest promised soon after. Chapter 3 appeared in November 2011, taking longer than expected. Which was nothing compared to chapter 4, which finally appeared in August 2013. It was quite a wait, and rather a short entry. It’s been slightly over a year since, and now we have Chapter 5 – the biggest part of the game yet. Here’s wot I think.>

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Cockroach certainly never intended to take nearly five years to finish hand-made point-n-click The Dream Machine. What was intended to be six chapters over a few months has become essentially one a year. But with each one better than the last, and the fifth chapter due to appear before the end of the year (apparently to be as long as the first four put together), now is the perfect time to play through in preparation.

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The Dream Machine‘s first chapter was so lovely that, in a fit of something or other, I vowed to wait until the whole thing was out before playing any more. Well. Whatever reason I had for that decision, I hope it was worth it. Four years later, the end is drawing near-ish. The fifth chapter of six will arrive on November 14th, developers Cockroach have announced.

“Why’s it taking so long?” seems a silly question to ask about a game made from clay, cardboard, paint, and odds and ends by two people, but Cockroach’s answer is that this one is “bigger than all the previous chapters put together.” Crumbs.

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Hand-crafted point-and-click The Dream Machine is taking Swedish indie devs a lot longer to make than they’d planned. So it’s a shame that this extended development is really the series’ only weakness. As Chapter 4 finally appears, almost two years after Chapter 3, the story of Victor and Alicia is pretty hard to have remembered this far on. But it’s worth remembering, because this continues to be an absolutely superb experience. Here’s wot I think:>

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Well here’s a spot of good news. The fantastic The Dream Machine series has awoken from its almost two year coma! I cannot believe it was as long ago as November 2011 that the third chapter appeared, but post time stamps never lie. Chapter 4 is due to appear on the 1st August, with promises of an enhanced look – and more importantly, a continuation of the intriguing claymation-n-cardboard adventure series.

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The Indie Royale returns with The Stuffing Bundle, which makes me think of stockings brimming with gifts rather than breadcrumbs and sage shoved inside a carcass cavity. My headline-dominating opinion is that the three released chapters of The Dream Machine are the stand-out content and on this very site you can read what John and I said about the game in the dwindling days of 2011. The remainder of the stocking is filled with Children of the Nile, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Puzzle Agent 2 and Adventure Apes and the Mayan Mystery. As I write this, minimum price is £2.99.

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