Dreams to Games

[amaSenpai]

Hello there,

I have a ton of weird dreams that could be turned into stories or games with a smidge of work. I'm sure you have had some of these as well!

So I thought I'd put them here for discussion, idea bouncing, and dream sharing. Feel free to add your own or reply to somebody else.

Let's go!

 

[NeoFantasy]

I have this idea for an atmospheric horror game that's based on scaring the player without using jumpscares, the plot I want to keep to myself (for now) but it will take place in a dream and have a good end, a bad end and a true end (which isn't necisarly the best ending) I've done some work on it but I'm waiting for spring break to really get started. If I do ever complete it it will be the first game I will realese to the public.

 

[amaSenpai]

(Not to double post, but I wanted the topic and first entry to be separate)

A dream I had a few weeks ago:

I was an older brother in a family of four children. I'm not sure where the parents where, but it was implied that they had died some time ago. We were a sibling family of four blondes -- me the oldest with the oldest sister a year or two younger than me. The youngest two were maybe 7 or 8, could have been a set of girl/boy twins.

We were getting by in the family home, until I walk downstairs to find the oldest sister had murdered the twins. And I was next.

She chased me around the house. I had to hide and outmaneuver her to stay alive. As I kept running, I would get snippets of why she had to murder us. It turned out we were lovers that reincarnated each cycle to find one another again. But this time we had reincarnated as siblings.

She remembered out love, but I had not. So she wanted to reset the timeline to start over. The only way to live was to somehow get out of the house.

But almost everything was sealed off...

Tell me what you think!

 

[amaSenpai]

I have this idea for an atmospheric horror game that's based on scaring the player without using jumpscares, the plot I want to keep to myself (for now) but it will take place in a dream and have a good end, a bad end and a true end (which isn't necisarly the best ending) I've done some work on it but I'm waiting for spring break to really get started. If I do ever complete it it will be the first game I will realese to the public.

That sounds like a wonderful idea! Getting rid of all jumpscares will have the game rely on great atmosphere and immersion. But if you do it right players may Wait for that jump that will never actually come! Nerve racking.

 

[NeoFantasy]

That sounds very interesting, I like the concept of reincarnation a lot and I'm getting a total Yuno vibe from the sister character.

Thanks! In a way I knd of want the player to wait for a jumpscare even though one may never come because I find horror games have become so predictable lately to the point that they're not even scary anymore, they focus too much on the scares and not enough on the atmosphere.

 

[amaSenpai]

A dream setting:

A bit hard to remember, but I was in a colorful alternate version of Japan. There were three areas. Two were connected and you could walk to them. One was bursting full of shops, almost so much it was a maze. Some shops were melded together with one side of the wall lined with tiny trinkets and they clashed against their neighbor whose shelves were filled with snacks and foods. Half the shops doubled as tiny homes. I remember the sense of being hurried -- you could only get to some places by walking through a certain set of shops. I'm sure there were secrets only the inhabitants knew.

You could walk downward far enough into the old housing district, which was much closer to an older Japan. Only a few buildings this time. Everything was quiet. There was a set of lanterns lighting up the spiral path down. It was laid out like a cul de sac down a hill. A building situated randomly down the spiral until you reached the "square" at the bottom.

The third area was a floating island. From the housing district there was a tall set of stairs leading up. It led up to a very high tech train station. The trains were sleek like a bullet train, but the distance wasn't that far. The train took you to the floating island, which was absolutely COLORFUL.

Huge trees, all in bloom. Imagine vibrant sakura trees, but in cool (blues/greens) colors. Aside from the colors, all I can remember was that the fashion and people were cute and robotic.

What do you think? Maybe someone with background art talent can make it come alive.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

I was an older brother in a family of four children.

   Wait, so you dreamed yourself as a different person? I didn't know dreams could do that, I'm curious to know what you can remember if anything about your perception of yourself in the dream. Seems that not being yourself would be a pretty clear giveaway that something was wrong; even in the haze of a dream.

   As for the dream itself... so you were murdered to be reincarnated as someone other than your lover's brother, but why did she have to murder the twins? That just seems sad.

   I don't remember very many of my dreams unfortunately, it's been years since I've woken up able to remember dreaming. Very interesting topic just the same.

 

[amaSenpai]

Wait, so you dreamed yourself as a different person? I didn't know dreams could do that, I'm curious to know what you can remember if anything about your perception of yourself in the dream. Seems that not being yourself would be a pretty clear giveaway that something was wrong; even in the haze of a dream.

As for the dream itself... so you were murdered to be reincarnated as someone other than your lover's brother, but why did she have to murder the twins? That just seems sad.

I don't remember very many of my dreams unfortunately, it's been years since I've woken up able to remember dreaming. Very interesting topic just the same.

I've had a couple of dreams where I'm not "me". While it seems weird, I always get this feeling that it's always been that way. Sometimes I'm a boy, sometimes I'm me -- but my past or personality have changed.

My dream self rationalizes away the parts that don't make sense. I also tend to mix the POV where it's not quite first person or third person.

I think the house I was in may have been a closed space, which is why everyone had to die. I was so certain that if I could get out of the house, I would be safe.

I used to be really interested in lucid dreaming as a kid. I think that made me much more aware of my dreams (though I can't always control them). The best I can do is if the dream seems familiar. I think the sibling reincarnation dream felt that way, too. If something goes TOO wrong I can sometimes reset or rewind a bit to try another option.

 

[amaSenpai]

Side show freaks type of place. People playing in streets in very Jim Henson strange masks and body parts. It was a European town with disfigured people. Huge noses, lurch like hands and deep voices beckoning you in further.

Passed a man in a box like room, playing cello with saw. He had on a bear head. Instrument 'bow' saw broke and a small bear creature was prodding him to continue. The kept playing so I clapped. The ringleader came by and was upset I had clapped. I was supposed to be horrified. So the player struck the his tiny bear through with the broken saw.

Ringleader said oops like it was an accident and said they could invoke "dead dear" to bring them back to life. I perked up, intending to receive someone who had been dead for longer.... Woke up.

Don't watch labyrinth before bed!

 

[stupid enough to like FF13]

Dumb story, probably, but kinda relevant.

Yesterday, an idea occurred to me about a negative status effect. It seemed like an interesting idea, but I wasn't sure about including it since I already had eight status effects neatly divided among four cure spell/items. So I figured I'd think about it today.

Except then I had a dream last night that included a fictional character from another work that I find...interesting...quite related to the status effect idea.

So I took that as a sign and threw the status effect in. (And I even found a good enemy to give the status effect to!)

 

[amaSenpai]

That sounds interesting! What kind of status effect was it?

 

[Hoppy]

I already had dreams for the sequel of my game that I'm working on right now despite the first game only being 40% complete.

 

[amaSenpai]

I already had dreams for the sequel of my game that I'm working on right now despite the first game only being 40% complete.

That's amazing! The story must be really fun then. It's exciting to have ideas pouring out, I hope to see your game one day.

 

[Rukiri]

Well in one of my dreams I killed off the human population and set off into space looking for planets to conquer, well long story short I ended up destroying creation and time including heaven & hell.

It'd be fun to do, but do you really want to play god?  I mean you can do that with the Sims lol..

 

[amaSenpai]

Well in one of my dreams I killed off the human population and set off into space looking for planets to conquer, well long story short I ended up destroying creation and time including heaven & hell.

It'd be fun to do, but do you really want to play god? I mean you can do that with the Sims lol..

You question this, but in Katamari, you do just that. And that game is amazing.

 

[amaSenpai]

A slight nightmare:


I was driving up a mountain at night. I could barely see the path, so when a dark swirl of smoke rose from the road I swerved into the mountain and crashed. The THING had disappeared, but I could see my destination not too far away. I headed towards a cabin to meet someone -- a man I was to interview. 


He was wealthy and handsome, but he had a ton of weird habits. He lived away from everyone so he wouldn't be bothered. We exchanged greetings but he seemed... Worried. Like something was after him. He excused himself for one reason or another and retreated to his room. I felt uneasy.


I started to look around the living area I was in. In drawers I found some strange things, trinkets that probably didn't belong to him (does a bachelor keep a set of earrings that is missing one of the pair?). And things that just seemed out of place (he owns a lot of duct tape. It's in drawers and under the couch and more).


I moved to another room to snoop some more. Then I feel it. A strange noise and the swirl of smoke that really looked more like a liquidy sludge rose from the floor where I had just left. It felt wrong. I couldn't let it see me. 


I shut the door quietly and locked it. I felt the windy noise the creature made come closer to the door. It rattled, but went no further. When I felt it was gone I could look around the room to find more clues of what was happening... Was that thing after?


I woke up before I figured it out.

 

[mogwai]

I keep a dream journal that's really more of a blog. Never did my dreams into games, but I've done sketches and comics.


I could turn my dream journal into a game some day, but it would be wildly inappropriate.

 

[Strashiner]

I had a dream of being God.


Isnt that fun?

 

[amaSenpai]

I had a dream of being God.


Isnt that fun?

What did you do? Mess around with the world, or were you stuck trying to make sure nobody did anything stupid?


I had a dream I was back in the military, but I had on a mish-mash of different uniforms so I was running around hoping nobody noticed. I remember hiding from people and trying to find a hairtie to get my hair up. Really annoying when I woke up.

 

[FlareBlitzed]

It's weird one can dream hugely unnatural events with super high definition resolution...but with a pencil and paper, struggle to draw a stickman. :3