More money's rolling in for Funcom, and this time it's in the form of a grant from the Norwegian Film Fund. The grant enables Funcom to establish a core technology team which will research online-only delivery methods of episodic content, as well as lay the foundation for a later pre-production phase of Dreamfall Chapters.

Dreamfall Chapters begins right where Dreamfall: The Longest Journey ended. It will be released in episodic form, and as Funcom seeks to further strengthen an already established IP through this online-only continuation, the potential for a future The Longest Journey MMO increases.

"We will be researching an online-only continuation of the epic Longest Journey saga, and we very much look forward to develop new chapters to the Dreamfall gaming community," said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. "To see the Norwegian government take such an active role in nurturing the local game development industry is impressive. In return for their trust we aim to deliver a modern adventure game with unique qualities."

The grant is part of the Norwegian government’s active endorsement of the Norwegian game development industry. Since the inception of the program in 2004 the government has supported a wide range of games, including Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.

The trial version for Dreamfall: The Longest Journey has been available for a couple of days. To add to the fun, Funcom has agreed with Valve to bring the action-adventure game to Steam (Valve's broadband platform for bringing online digital content and games to consumers).

Those who still haven't gotten immersed in Dreamfall's Stark and Arcadia (the two halves of Earth) might ask if it's worth it. Where have you been all this time?

• Dreamfall got nominated for a bunch of awards from GameSpot, GameSpy, GameTrailers, IGN, the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.
• Dreamfall won many of the awards it was nominated for. These include awards with humble names like PC Adventure Game of the Year, Xbox Adventure Game of the Year, Best Music, Best Story, PC Adventure Gamers' Choice, Editor's Choice, Best PC Adventure Game, Best of E3...

The Xbox version for the game has already been released to much critical acclaim, but making Dreamfall available on Steam will definitely give it a lot of good exposure to more gamers.

There's even a two-week promo: save 10 dollars off the regular price, making the game available for only US$ 29.99.

Gamers will now finally be able to get a taste of the critically-acclaimed Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for free, thanks to a recently announced free trial version of the Funcom title.

The free trial contains the entire English version of the game and clocks in at around 3.7GB. It gives full access to the first two chapters of the game, and when the free trial is up, players are prompted to purchase the game digitally. By following the instructions and entering payment details, a code will unlock access to the entire game.

The free trial can be downloaded through lots of hosting sites. Just click on the "Read" link below, and you'll get to one of those sites. Enjoy the demo!