Logline: A narcoleptic struggles to separate dream from reality as he moves through both mundane and fantastical settings trying to wake up.
Theme: Emotional and physical struggles related to an incurable disorder.
Gameplay:
Introduction - the player is woken up in bed by an alarm, reaches over to look at phone, sees that it's 8:01 in the morning, shuts off alarm, falls back asleep.
Act 1 - Player moves through a very obvious dream sequence, collecting highlighted items to 'progress' through the dream.
Act 2 - Player wakes up in bed, does not look at phone, gets up and starts to preform daily tasks (brushing teeth, cooking breakfast, etc.) only to recognize certain cues that indicate they are still dreaming.
Act 3 - Player continues through dream sequences, some taking place in very obvious dreamscapes and others in the character's familiar apartment/school/work/etc.
Act 4 - Player experiences a nightmare, putting a time limit on the item collection mechanic.
Act 5 - Player wakes up, looks at phone, sees the time is now 8:09, gets up and is now fully awake, at which point the game ends.
Rationale: I wanted to bring awareness to an aspect of narcolepsy that isn't mentioned or talked about but is equally as debilitating a symptom as cataplexy or extreme day-time sleepiness. Someone unfamiliar with the disorder could assume that sleep was the one thing narcoleptics can find solace in, but in reality, dreams and nightmares can make the sufferer fear going to sleep and often leaves them emotionally drained. It can also be disruptive in waking life when trying to recall memories and past events. I want the game to show how serious scenarios like this can be for the sufferer and how little control they have over what is happening to them.
I want to focus on environment design and modeling for my portfolio. Dreams allow me to design environments with vastly different art styles and themes to promote my versatility as an artist while still allowing me to work under one overarching theme.
Music: One or two themes that are added upon as the story progresses (Like Terry Town from Breath of the Wild) with seamless transitions between dreams. The music should give subtle hints that there is something wrong with the environments the player is going through, like an incorrect incidental note or sound distortion (Like the music design in Doki-Doki Literature Club.)
Sound: Interaction sounds, indoor and outdoor environment ambiance, possible voice cues.
Technical Info:
Project Timeline:
Pre-production - Spring and Summer 2020,
Production - Fall 2020 - Spring 2021
Style: 3D first-person
Engine: Unity
Sound Engine: Wwise
Concept art I threw together very haphazardly:
Mood board:
A couple of photos in here come from examples of googles deep dream generator. I plan to use it to create textures and images for the more 'trippy' or disorienting dreams.
**I'd also like to point out that I found a game about dreaming on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/229580/Dream/
However, the reviews were heavily mixed and I hope to learn from the mistakes of this developer to better my own game. Unfortunately it's a very clunky games in terms of controls and movements, so I wasn't able to play a lot of the game before I got violently motion sick. Lame.
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