Interview: Julian the Announcement Fox

Noted reporter Brobdingous Glob interviews Julian the Announcement Fox for The Brobdingous Glob Show.

Glob: Hello Julian, pleased to meet you.

Julian: Pleased to meet you too, Mr. Glob. I don’t get a lot of visitors these days.

Glob: I was going to ask about that. The site has been rather quiet lately. Why is that?

Julian: Well, I guess mostly it’s because Jonas and Verena have been quite busy. Making a living can be exhausting in the world they live in.

Glob: But you don’t live in that world?

Julian: No, I live here on the site. Sometimes I go out on the rest of the internet.

Glob: To do what?

Julian: Oh, exploring, hunting, fox things.

Glob: Is it nice?

Julian: I suppose. It’s gotten a bit crowded in parts lately. I prefer to keep to the wilder areas. Blogs no-one reads, old abandoned websites…

Glob: Ever discovered anything amazing?

Julian: Many things.

Glob: Could you tell us about one?

Julian: There’s a forgotten forum where old spambots meet to exchange long-dead links and talk about the early days of internet advertising. Some of them have gone a bit peculiar, if you know what I mean, so now instead of male enhancement pills and underdressed young humans they’re trying to sell vibraharps and baked beans, but it’s fascinating.

Glob: That sounds amazing. Speaking of strange places, are we going to get a new story from the Lands of Dream anytime soon?

Julian: Well, there’s Ithaka of the Clouds-

Glob: Which Jonas has been talking about for years. Is it ever actually going to get made?

Julian: Yes, certainly. It’s just very big.

Glob: Can you tell us something about it?

Julian: I guess you already know that it’s a trollish love story. It’s also quite the epic adventure! And it’s more of a straightforward journey than some of the other stories – there’s plenty of exploration, of course, but it’s all about moving forward, about going from one place to another.

Glob: Sounds exciting! Will that definitely be our next visit to the next Lands of Dream?Julian: Maybe, maybe not. There might be something smaller, more contained before it.

Glob: Oh? What can you tell us?

Julian: I don’t really know much about it. I do know Jonas doesn’t want to be known as the guy who only makes Lands of Dream games, so he might be working on something else first.

Glob: What about this idea of remaking some of his older works? Has he told you anything about that?

Julian: Only a little. He can be a bit secretive, you know. He’s mentioned that he would definitely like to remake both The Museum of Broken Memories and The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge, and he once muttered something about updating the visual elments of The Book of Living Magic, but I think he’s somewhat conflicted about that. I don’t know if I should be saying this, but I’m pretty sure he simply doesn’t have the money to work on these projects at the moment, because they’re not commercial, and getting a sponsorship for a Lands of Dream game is quite hard.

Glob: But why? People seem to like them.

Julian: You’ll have to ask Jonas about that, I’m just a fox. Besides, I don’t really like to get involved in all this indie gaming business. It’s tedious.

Glob: I can certainly understand that. One more question, then: what’s your favourite place in the Lands of Dream?

Julian: Hmmm… a difficult choice, but I’d have to say Oneiropolis. It’s incomparable, really. Multi-layered, fluid, ancient, eternal. Or at least I hope so.

Glob: I wasn’t going to mention it, but since you sort of hinted at it… what’s your opinion on Urizen?

Julian: He’s an idiot and I wonder if he knows how much damage he’s doing.

Glob: Do you think he’ll win? Can Oneiropolis be conquered?

Julian: I hope not.

Glob: Will we ever find out? Will there ever be a story or portal about it?

Julian: Jonas tells me there will be a book. But I think he’ll need to be a bit more successful to be able to write it. I don’t know if that’s likely to happen, but here’s hoping.

Glob: Is there no other way for us to find out more about Oneiropolis?

Julian: You could go there using your imagination, of course.

Glob: A lot of people believe that imaginary travel is too dangerous these days. Is there no other way?

Julian: Well, there is the one obvious way, of course. The one that always takes you through Oneiropolis.

Glob: And that is?

Julian: Death.

Glob: Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s all the time we’ve got this week. Many thanks to Julian the Announcement Fox for agreeing to talk to us. I hope you’ve all bought The Sea Will Claim Everything, a portal to the Lands of Dream, available for only $10, one tenth of the value of a real indie game developer. Check back next week for more news and interviews from the strange world of the internet.