Recurring Dreams

Recurring Dreams tells the tale of a young lucid dreamer named Rath, who's trapped in the dreamworld unable to wake up. There he finds a strange power that lets him connect with other dreamers, and he ventures forth to help them with their innermost anxieties while searching for his own path to awakening. Wielding the powers of lucidity, Rath faces off with their recurring nightmares to inspire courage and hope within them. Will he find his way back to reality, or will he be trapped in the dreamworld forever? Find out by playing!

Origins Of The Dreamworld:

Before the dawn of dreams, three gods were born that gave shape to all of dreamworld: Morpheus, the god of dreams, Phantasos, the god of the surreal, and Phobetor, the god of nightmares. Morpheus, with his powerful imagination, he created the dreamworld, an everchanging realm of mysticism. Phantasos, with his great foresight, he filled the dreamworld with prophetic and helpful artifacts to aid dreamers. Phobetor, feeling the dreamworld was too great a paradise, he filled it with monsters to bring terror to dreamers. Satisfied with their contributions, the three gods went their separate ways within the dreamworld. Since then, each god, for better or worse, has appeared to various dreamers across all of time. It is said that they sometimes had relations with dreamers, and their descendants are known as lucid dreamers, beings able to manipulate dreams. This is the tale of one such lucid dreamer.

The Powers Of Lucidity:

The dreamworld is a magical place where the laws of reality do not apply if you know how to bend them to your will. To do so, you must wield the powers of awareness, intelligence, and mastery. Without awareness, you will only go with the natural flow of the dream. Without intelligence, you will be limited in what you can do. Without mastery, you will have trouble achieving the things you want. Sometimes, you will find yourself wielding a unique ability within a dream. The very concept of these abilities will become stronger the more you use them. You can also express your thoughts in a dream in a way that it takes shape. Call forth the power within you, and you will master your dreams.

What Shapes A Dream:

Dreams are essentially windows into our minds. They often seem so random and strange, but their inspiration can be broken down into three basic categories. First, a dream is largely influenced by the dreamer themselves. A dream may feature people they know, places they've seen, and/or have events based on what's on their mind. The second category is the surroundings within the dream. If they dream of a certain place, their mind will recreate things that typically happen there. For instance, if they dream of a school, they will likely dream about having a class to attend. Lastly, a dream is largely formed by the events happening in the dream. Something like a nightmare might happen if the dreamer is struggling with something in their life. They might not even realize what's bothering them on a conscious level.

Updated October 20th, 2023

II. Designing The Game

Recurring Dreams went through a lot of changes throughout its development as I grew as a developer and refined my ideas for the game. Over time, I greatly improved the graphics and focused the scope down to what it is today. My journey began around 2014 when I first started teaching myself to use Gamemaker Studio. I already had experience with various coding languages at this point, and found Gamemaker Studio to be very easy to learn and adapt to. While the game has been in development for about 10 years since then, keep in mind that I accomplished what I have in my free time while working a fulltime job to pay off my college debt and other bills. A large portion of this time was spent refining my skills as an artist and game programmer.

Improvements to the hub stage, character sprites, and UI elements

Vision And Learning:

While 2014 was when I started using Gamemaker Studio, I already had many notebooks that I had been writing out ideas and dreams over the years. My earliest inspiration for the game came to me in a dream, where I was battling inside a ruined castle wielding various ice powers. I vividly recall summoning an ice dragon and how cool it was. I thought to myself, it would be really fun to have a game with various elemental powers. At the time, I was still in high school, so I wasn't too experienced in coding yet. I did mess around trying to make it in Warcraft 3's custom map editor, but found it to be a bit too difficult at the time to complete my vision of what it should be. I named this project Sinryu's World, as Sinryuko was a name I created for my first MMORPG character in Runescape.

About a year after graduating college, I read all my old notebooks and started thinking on what I'd want to develop a game about. One of the driving factors in making a game about dreams was an analysis I did on games I had played, what I felt was good and bad about them, and ideas I had on ways to fix the bad stuff. While I won't go too into detail on them, I feel that the dreamworld is an ultimate setting where anything can happen. It isn't limited to the logic of a set theme since it can encompass everything and anything. However, I did want there to be some impact to the story where dreams would affect reality. Often, people get upset if they watch or play something and the ending reveals it all was just a dream that didn't change anything. In 2010, the movie Inception came out, and this too was a big inspiration for my game idea. I thought if I could explain that a dreamer was connecting to other dreamers and help them with their inner traumas, then I've created a world where dreams affect reality. In 2014, I started my game project, a sidescrolling action platformer RPG named Dreamers' World, and I based the hub stage for this new project off of the castle in Sinryu's World. Sidescrolling felt very important to me as I wanted an element of flight that I often would achieve during my own lucid dreams. I knew making a game like this was going to be a long journey, but I believed it would be a fun endeavor to take on.

Early artwork of the castle that became the hub stage, which was largely inspired by the castles of Super Mario Bros.

As I was just starting to learn Gamemaker Studio, there was a lot of ideas I would rework and change as I was developing it. I experimented around and tried out many ideas, often tweaking graphics, coding, and designs until I found what I felt was right. I reworked my main character sprites three times before I was satified with the sizing and style. The hub stage went through a few different evolutions as I was figuring out what perspective I wanted. I largely kept to a vision of maintaining an ant farm style of stage design. I wanted there to be some depth to it but not too much. Dialog portraits also evolved a lot as I got better at digital art. The thing that helped me the most for portraits was that I started using Design Doll to pose characters, which guided my shading methods greatly. From there, I built a bunch of sprite templates that I could tweak and reuse for different characters which streamlined the process. Each of my dialog characters feature 32 different emotion poses, so I felt making templates would be the best way to handle this amount of work. Coding changes largely came as I learned how to be more efficient in my coding as well as when Gamemaker Studio grew as an engine and added features. Around 2018, I got my first smartphone and I pushed myself to export my game to Android. This really helped me refine the code as it needed to be more efficient to run smoothly there. Two designs of my game drastically changed over time, which were the stages and abilities.

Changes to the dialog designs as my skills improved. The first version was a quick placeholder, but I did improve a lot over time as well

Refining The Scope:

For stages, I was originally thinking I'd combine dreamers, locations, and events to create a stage. I felt this would create a lot of variety, but ultimately this would of been a daunting task to create effectively. I refined this down to having primary stages and minigames. Each primary stage would feature one dreamer in one location suffering from a nightmare event as I felt this was the most important dream to intervene in. I still wanted some variety to the game, which is where minigames came in. Taking inspiration from Inception, I placed beds inside the primary stages where the player could enter a dream within a dream. Upon entering, the player would be in a new dream where accomplishing some goal could reward them with more power in their primary dream. I was quite happy with how this played out, and later on I even made the minigames unlockable and selectable from the hub world with different rewards.

For abilities, they initially were going to each have a passive and active form, which could be combined to make different styles of powers (inspired by The Binding of Isaac's combat system). I ended up dropping this system because I felt it was a bit too many combinations for what I envisioned, but later on I came up with a way to revive it partially. My issue originally was that I was trying to have every single power be combinable with every other power. I think at the time, I had plans of 25 powers which was way too many (would of yielded 625 combinations). First, I reduced the total powers down to 13 total (1 starting power, 10 stage powers, 1 secret power, and 1 final power). I decided that each of these powers would have 5 forms (Idea, Hypothesis, Conclusion, Theory, and Law) representing different stages of knowledge. Idea is the very basic attack form of a power, and Hypothesis adds something to that basic attack. Conclusion lets you use a charged attack, and Theory adds something to that charged attack. Law lets you use a supercharged attack which has a long duration and stacks additional castings for more benefits (at first, I had Law giving a constant buff/familiar instead but found it was too good/less interesting). In addition, each of the powers would feature attacks falling into the Ranged or Melee categories. These powers were at first only obtainable once, but I later instead turned them into droppable items with randomly rolled modifiers. This is where I revived that old idea of different styles by having a randomly rolled projectile type for Ranged attacks only. Projectile types include Straight, Wavy, Arcing, Homing, Boomerang, Juggling, Orbital, and Random. There's also around 40 other modifiers that buff other features related to your stats and abilities. Items also come in the form of your clothing which give you more customization to your build. I felt this system was a lot more fun and added a lot of replayability to the game.

Recent Developments:

My game has come a long way since then, and I've released and updated various demos on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and HTML5. I formed my own company called Dream Portal Games, LLC, and I sought out an intellectual property lawyer. After talking it over, I found that Dreamers' World wasn't a very good name as too many other games start with the word Dream or its variants. I came up with the name Recurring Dreams as I felt this was a better representation of the gameplay (revisiting dreamers repeating nightmares), and I got it registered as a trademark with USPTO. I also registered my company logo for Dream Portal Games. This was around 2020, and I had 1 primary stage done with 2 minigames (items with modifiers weren't in the game at this point, but added later). After that, I built my own website (which you are viewing now) to showcase my game company and game. Continuing development of my game, I added in the item system I described above as well as another primary stage and minigame. I came up with a better intro for the game, explaining some world lore about the dream gods which I largely based on Greek dream gods. This also helped me flesh out the remainder of the story as I had some ideas before but nothing written out. As of now, every stage, major character, nightmare, and minigame is already planned out on paper. My current goal for the game is to work on developing the space stage, Frog Empire Invasion. The demo is complete with 2 primary stages and 3 minigames to play, and I do not plan on adding any more to it at this time. All future additions will be added in to the full release of the game, which I may release as an Early Access if I feel it's a sizeable game around the halfway point (at least double the demo's content).

Updated October 20th, 2023

III. Meet The Characters

There are many different characters to meet in Recurring Dreams. Each character you come across has a story to tell. Stages feature a central dreamer which you can learn more about as you conquer their nightmares and converse with them. Minigames sometimes feature characters to can speak with as well. There's also story characters and side characters to meet. If you find someone or something you can interact with, give a try. You never know what you might learn from talking with them.

Story Characters:

The main character of Recurring Dreams that the player controls is named Rath. Early on, the player meets Conscience, which guides the player along and offers advice. While there are other story characters, the remaining will not be listed due to spoilers.

Rath, The Lucid Dreamer:

Rath is a young man that grew up with a fond appreciation for his dreams. Not only does he remember his dreams, but he is also a lucid dreamer, able to control himself and his dreams. He finds himself trapped in the dreamworld he loves, but feels a connection to other dreamers that are in distress. He seeks to help them with their worries while figuring out what to do with his own predicament.

Conscience, The Guide:

Conscience says he's the embodiment of Rath's mind. He watches out for Rath as he journeys through the dreamworld, often offering advice and warning him of great dangers ahead. Rath finds it a little strange that he never met Conscience before becoming trapped in the dreamworld. He wonders if this whole ordeal has made him more in touch with his mind.

Stage Characters:

Each stage that the player visits features a primary dreamer that is having a nightmare. Your first encounter with one of these is actually in the tutorial stage where you meet Rath's friend, Matt. After completing the tutorial, there are four dreamers, including Matt, you can meet by visiting their dreams. Further into the game, six additional stages with new dreamers are also available. Below lists half of the dreamers you'll meet as the remaining are still under development.

Matt, The Game Developer:

Matt is Rath's childhood friend that is developing a video game about dreams. Like Rath, he has a strong memory for his dreams and often experiences lucid dreams. He decided to go into game design after graduating from college. After years of improving his skills and refining his ideas, he comes up with his game Recurring Dreams. It tells the tale of his dear friend Rath. Rath find him in his dreams way out in outer space, and they are swarmed by alien ships! Will they be able to protect Earth? You'll have to play the full release to find out!

Sensei, The Karate Instructor:

Sensei is Rath's martial arts instructor. He has studied Shōrin-ryū and Washin-ryū Karate his entire life under various masters. He manages his own karate dojo where he teaches students of all ages self-defense and discipline. While he is well-loved by the community and seen as a role model by many, much of his private life remains a mystery. Rath meets him in his dreams way up in the clouds. There seems to be a carnival going on there. Why does this strange setting trouble him so? Play the demo now to find out!

Mia, The Swordswoman:

Mia is a girl that Rath met at a martial arts tournament. She studies Niten Ichi-ryu Kenjutsu, which is the two sword style created by the legendary swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi. Rath only got to see her compete once, but remembers her well because of how fierce her moves were. In his dreams, he meets her again at a tournament in his hometown. Who wins the tournament, and who is organizing it? You'll have to play the full release to find out!

Catastrophe, The Feline Friend:

Catastrophe is a stray cat that Rath met while walking outdoors. While people seemed to be taking care of him, Rath noticed his water bowl was often empty, so he'd split his own water with him. They quickly became good friends, and Rath was always sure to visit him to see how he was doing. In his mind, Catastrophe believes he is the king of all cats, destined to lead them to happiness. When Rath meets him in the dreamworld, he's surprised to find his friend with so much influence there. Having not seen Rath in some time, Catastrophe realizes it's his turn to help his friend in his time of need. What will they encounter together? Play the demo now to find out!

Zyaire, The Engineer:

Zyaire is a friend of Matt and Rath that went to college with Matt. He studied electrical engineering and loves building cool gadgets in his spare time. Always open to learning new things and expanding his knowledge. Rath finds him in his dreams deep within sunken ruins studying some ancient machinery. What dangers lurk below for them? You'll have to play the full release to find out!

Minigame Characters:

Many of the minigames that the player visits feature a character that plays a part in the game. You can find minigames by travelling deeper into the dreamworld when sleeping in a bed. Each minigame is unique and must be found to be unlocked. Below lists some of the minigame characters you'll meet, but there are more to come as many are still under development.

Tick-Tock, The Quick Clock:

Tick-Tock the Quick Clock is a living clock that loves to race. He is one of many figments of imagination Rath meets in the dreamworld. He manages the Race Against The Clock mini-game, which can be found by sleeping in a bed in the dreamworld. If you are able to defeat him in a race, he'll reward you with something special for the remainder of your dream.

Henry Testa, The Game Show Host:

Henry Testa is a cool dog and game show host. He is one of many figments of imagination Rath meets in the dreamworld. He manages the Testa Time mini-game, which can be found by sleeping in a bed in the dreamworld. If you are able to correctly answer two out of three of his questions, he'll reward you with something special for the remainder of your dream.

Side Characters:

While exploring the dreamworld, the player will sometimes find characters that aren't essential to the gameplay, but they perhaps offer interesting stories or information. These side characters do not have any impact on progression, but they expand upon the lore and storytelling of the dreamworld. Currently there's only one so far in the game, but there are plans to add a lot more to the game in the late stages of development.

Compendium of Dreams:

The Compendium Of Dreams is a mysterious diary you can sometimes find in the dreamworld. It seems to be a collection of dreams from all sorts of dreamers. There's no telling what kind of story you might read if you find it. Be on the lookout for it while exploring the dreamworld and you just might find it floating around someplace.

Updated October 20th, 2023

IV. Game Menus

There are many menus within Recurring Dreams, and each of them serve an important purpose. Each menu is designed to display important controls to make navigating the menus easier for users. The menus went through a variety of changes while the game was being developed. One key aspect that I kept throughout all the menus is a centered GUI that displays nicely for all resolutions and control schemes. To accomplish this, I designed all the menus to fit within the base resolution of 640px x 480px. Some menus feature artwork that extends beyond this (mainly the dialog portraits), but the important information is always readable/accessible by the user.

Samples of some important menus within Recurring Dreams

Startup Menus:

The first menus the player encounters when launching the game are the startup menus. These menus let the player access file creation/loading/deletion as well as some minor things like game credits, privacy policy, and the developer website. For the first menu, I wanted a cutscene that introduced the story and cycled on and off when the player leaves the screen unattended. For many years, I had a cutscene that was all about Rath, which included a rough 2000 frame animation of him having lucid dreams and using his powers. This was cut when I made a better introduction explaining the dream gods, and was replaced by some simple particle effects representing the gods. I'd like to rework this particle animation later on to make it look more like a proper animation, but for now I'm keeping it simple.

Wireframe for the Start Menu in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important startup menus from the game. These are any menu that appears prior to selecting your save file and loading into the game. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some menus have quite a lot packed into them, so each video will cover everything inside.

Start Menu:

The first menu the player comes across when launching the game. Here they have access to file selection, the game's credits, the developer website, and the privacy policy. Pressing no buttons on this menu for a set time will replay the introduction animation.

File Select:

The menu that allows the player to manage their save files. Here they can create a new file, load a saved file, delete a saved file, or return to the start menu. It also lets the player view at a glance their progress on each save file.

File Deletion:

The submenu that allows players to delete a save file. Here they can confirm that they want to delete the selected save file or cancel the deletion (exiting the submenu). This menu was designed to be small to easily tell which file you are deleting.

File Naming:

The menu that allows players to name their save file's main character. The default name is set to Rath as that is the name I believed was fitting for my character. Special characters and spaces are allowed to enable the player to be as creative as possible. The maximum length is based on the width of the characters chosen, so it can be quite long if desired.

File Game Mode:

The menu that allows the player to set their save file's game mode. Dream Mode is recommended for most players on their first playthrough. Nightmare Mode is for players really seeking a challenge. By default, Nightmare Mode is locked until you beat the game. There is a secret code that can be used to unlock it early. The hint is that it is my gamertag (a name I've used in many games and some social media).

Gameplay Menus:

After selecting a save file to load, the player enters the game and can access the gameplay menus. These menus allow the player to manage their equipment, stats, abilities, settings, and location, as well as view their stage scores and talk with NPCs. The most important of these menus is the Pause Menu, which ties a lot of these menus together giving the player quick access to many functions. Originally, I had this menu split up into 3 pages that would cycle left and right similar to Mega Man Zero, but decided to instead have submenus that appear from pressing buttons in the Pause Menu as well as the Quit button. I believe that having Pause and Quit buttons make for much easier access to navigating the menus. While Pause lets you access the player info and settings, Quit lets you return to the hub or exit the game. In addition, completing or failing a stage brings up the Score Menu (a.k.a. Self-Confidence). Doing better in a stage gives you a better score, which offers bonuses to the next stage you do. Lastly, another common menu is the Dialog screen, which appears when you interact with an NPC to talk with them. Dialog important to the story only appears once per playthrough and cannot be skipped, but there are other conversations that can be repeatably played and are skippable. While many of these menus went through different changes as the game was being developed, my goal was always to keep everything well-labeled with button hints displayed so the player can instantly know how to do things.

Wireframe for the Pause Menu in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay menus within the game. These are any menu that appears after selecting your save file and loading into the game. Menus not shown here are ones unique to specific areas of the game, which are listed under those stages (for example, the hub stage has a few). Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some menus have quite a lot packed into them, so each video will cover everything inside.

Pause Menu:

The menu that allows the player to manage and view their character as well as access the options, item, and quit menus. Here you can see your score title and portrait, player name, life and mana bar, level, stars, attribute points, life coins, current location, rescue timer, asleep timer, current time, equips, and stats distributed. In addition, you can redistribute stats, change equips, and show/hide equip details. There is a description bar at the bottom of this menu that gives info and button hints for navigating this complex menu.

Options Menu:

The submenu that allows the player to manage and view their settings. Here you can access gameplay, window, controls, and volume sections. Gameplay features options that affect the game such as show/hide damage/lifebars, auto-spending attribute points, etc. Window allows modifying the display settings such as touchscreen buttons, interpolation mode, widescreen mode, etc. Controls lets you customize the key bindings for keyboard and gamepad (touchscreen buttons are not remappable but are moveable to a degree). Volume enabled adjusting the audio levels of the game including the background music, game SFX, menu SFX, or touchscreen SFX.

Item Menu:

Various submenus that allow the player to manage and view their items. Each item type has its own item menu. Here you can mark items with favorite star (for favoriting), fusion puzzle piece (for fusing), or salvage trash can (for selling). You can fuse any 3 items of the same type once you have collected 2 thought tablets times the highest item rarity involved. In addition, a few hundred stars are required to fuse items as well based on fusion result rarity. You can obtain stars from collecting them in stages as well as by salvaging items. Matching 3 of the same modifiers when fusing results in that modifier carrying over and having a higher quality roll. Each item type has a total of 37 item slots (equipped item not shown in the item menu).

Quit Menu:

The submenu that allows the player to reboot the game, exit the current dream (when possible), or return to the pause menu. While this menu is a submenu that overlays the pause menu, it is accessed through the quit button. Some dreams such as the tutorial and hub stage cannot be exited, and they will instead restart if you try to. It is recommended that players use either the reboot or wake up button prior to quitting as these save game progress. Stage progress is not kept, but both collectables and character progress are saved (major milestones are saved while reached but minor things like gaining XP might not save unless you use these features). On Windows, hitting reboot and then pressing the quit button will close the game.

Score Menu:

The menu that allows the player to view their stage score. In game, this menu is called Self-Confidence as doing better in a stage rewards the player with minor benefits. The score menu only appears for primary stages (not minigames). Score is based on 6 factors including hits taken, blackouts (deaths), enemies defeated, stars collected, mission completion (beating the nightmare before the timer runs out), and task efficiency (time). You receive a score whether you succeed or fail a dream. You can avoid a failing score by waking up from the dream before losing your last life coin. Returning to the hub stage always sets your life coins to 3 if you have less than that. Also, entering a minigame pauses the primary dream timer, so it's recommended to do them any chance you get as this will not affect the time score.

Dialog Menu:

The menu that allows the player to speak with characters within the game. Each character you meet has dialog unique to that character. Talking with them can offer interesting information or insights into that character. Some conversations happen automatically as you enter certain areas. Story dialog is unskippable and only plays one time (but you can still tap continue to rush through it if desired). Repeatable dialog can be skipped altogether with a leave button (these can be randomly replayed by talking with the character again). Some dialogs feature multiple choices, which gives the player different options to steer the conversation how they choose.

Updated October 20th, 2023

V. Prologue Stages

The prologue of Recurring Dreams features a tutorial, a hub stage, and four primary stages. Each of these are designed to introduce elements of the game in a simple manner. The prologue's primary stages are intended to be easier than the later stages so the player can get used to their abilties. Each of these stages features an apparel upgrade which further enhances what the player can do. The order in which players tackle the primary stages is up to them, but they may find some stages are easier using certain abilities. Completing these stages is required to proceed in the story.

Tutorial Stage: The Dream World:

A dream where Rath wakes up at his friend Matt's house. Awakening his lucid powers, Rath is visited by his Conscience that explains that this dream is actually his last memory of reality. This stage was inspired by various realistic dreams I've had where it seemed like I woke up to reality but was still in a dream. Meeting Matt near the end of the tutorial offers a interesting encounter as he's developing the very game you are playing. My goals for the tutorial were to introduce the player to the controls, some basic gameplay objects, and the story. Things like controls were designed so the player cannot proceed until they demostrate using them, which are shown on screen in different ways. As for the gameplay objects, these are more passively placed such that the player can see them and try them out if they like but it's not crucial to proceeding. The story is told both through the conversations with Conscience and Matt as well as what happens as the player completes the tutorial stage.

Gameplay screenshot of The Dream World tutorial stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear in the tutorial stage. These objects serve as introductory examples of mechanics that appear later in the game. Some of which will reappear as they are, while others may have different designs but function similarly. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them.

Punching Bag:

The first attackable object the player comes across in the game. While most enemies can hurt the player, this one is harmless. It serves the purpose of teaching the player how to use their attacks to deal damage.

Blockade:

An obstacle that prevents the player from moving past it. These appear when there is something important the player must accomplish to proceed. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to guide the player.

Stationary Block:

A passthrough platform that the player can stand on and jump down through. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and seem to make traversal easier. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Idea Star:

A collectable star pickup that restores the player's mana and acts as a currency in the dreamworld. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and are also dropped by enemies. The idea for these came from a dream I had where I flew into outer space and ate a bunch of different shapes.

Temporary Block:

A breakable passthrough platform that the player can stand on and jump down through, but it only lasts for a short amount of time. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and seem to make traversal easier. It's possible that these were originally Stationary Blocks that deteriorated for some reason over time. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Moving Block:

A moving passthrough platform that the player and stand on and jump down through. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and seem to make traversal easier. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Spring Pad:

A platform that launches the player vertically when they walk over it. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and seem to make traversal easier. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Crate:

A destroyable climbable container that sometimes has pickups or even an item inside. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and can reward the player if they are lucky. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Speed Ring:

A ring that causes a burst of speed in one direction when the player moves through it. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and seem to make traversal easier. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Phasing Block:

A phasing passthrough platform that the player can stand on and jump down through, but it only works while lit up and opaque. These appear all throughout the dreamworld and seem to make traversal easier. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player.

Hub Stage: The Between Dream:

A dream space that Conscience brings Rath to after he completes a dream. Here the player can select stages, talk to Conscience for advice, adjust the game difficulty, and exchange idea stars for attribute points. This stage was inspired by a dream I had where I was in a castle controlling ice elemental powers. The idea is essentially that the hub is a temple made by the dream god Phantasos, who foresees the future and makes it to aid the player. The same can be said about many of the strange helpful objects the player encounters in the game. Selecting a primary stage also connects the player to The Interdream Highway, which is a throwback to falling down the tree trunk near the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (one of my favorite games). There's a lot of speculation about that trippy scene and some believe that Link dies there. My game is a bit open to interpretation similarly since the game takes place in a dream. Rath and Conscience believe they are in a coma, but there's not really any way to know for sure.

Gameplay screenshot of The Between Dream hub stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear throughout the primary stages as well as ones unique to the hub stage. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some of these videos may spoil locations of some collectables within the demo stages and minigames, but the remaining collectables will still be a secret. Being that the demo stages are meant to be introductory, their collectables are intended to be easy to find. Later stages will feature more complex stage designs with trickier secrets to uncover.

Kick Symbol:

A mysterious destroyable symbol that appears in The Interdream Highway. They seem to depict various concepts. I designed these to be reminiscent of the symbols shown when falling down the tree trunk in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these to aid the player, but it's not very clear what purpose they serve. Perhaps if the player had a way to jump off of them, they could go up instead of down...

Kicking Bag:

An unkillable attackable object that helps the player measure their damage output. There are two of these placed in the hub stage, which can be used with the Level Modifier Machine to see if you are ready to fight harder enemies. Increasing the difficulty will adjust the health on these kicking bags, which gives the player a rough idea of how many hits it could take to down an enemy of the same difficulty. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, placed these in the hub to aid the player.

Awareness Cube:

A red cube pickup that restores the player's health. They can appear in minor (base 10% HP restored) or major (base 50% HP restored) sizes. They are named Awareness Cubes because your health bar is actually a representation of your awareness. Losing your awareness means you no longer are in control of your dream, which is why you black out if you run out of HP.

Life Coin:

A coin pickup that grants the player additional checkpoint returns if they black out. The player always seems to find a couple life coins at the hub stage if they are below 3 coins. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, created these coins and the checkpoint flags to aid the player.

Rainbow Orb:

A colorful orb pickup that grants the player temporary invulnerability to all damage. Touching the orb puts the player in a state of true lucidity, where they know that the dream cannot affect them. This feeling tends to wear off quickly, but can be very powerful if used wisely. I designed this item similar to the star in Super Mario Bros., but it was also due to many dreams I've had where I became so lucid that I was invincible.

Checkpoint Flag:

A revival system that consumes the player's life coins in exchange for returning them to the last flag triggered. The flag does not need to be touched directly to activate. It triggers once the player moves past it regardless of whether they are touching it, far above it, or far below it. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, created this system and life coins to aid the player.

Thought Tablet:

A collectable tablet item that grants the player a new thought spell the first time they defeat a nightmare in their domain. These tablets are formed from the unique energy released when a nightmare is defeated within their domain. Defeating the same nightmare multiple times does not give new thought tablets as you already absorbed that tablet's power. In addition, possessing multiple tablets allows the player to fuse their items together. More powerful fusions become possible as the player acquires more unique tablets.

Dream Bed:

An interactable bed that the player can sleep in to access a minigame dream. The bed seems to randomly appear within the dreamworld and can lead the player to a dream within a dream. It can only be used once as the player feels fully rested after using it. This object was largely inspired by the movie Inception, which after seeing I started having dreams where I would sleep in beds to enter dreams within dream (and waking up would return me to the first dream).

Apparel Upgrades:

A collectable clothing upgrade that grants the player new movement abilities. Four of these upgrades exist within the prologue stages of the game. The dream amulet grants aerial jumping. The dream boots grant aerial kicking. The dream pajamas grant aerial dashing. The dream hat grants aerial hovering. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, created these items to aid the player. I designed these upgrades to both give a visual feel that the player is getting more powerful as well as to slowly introduce new platforming mechanics to the player.

HP Upgrade:

A collectable HP upgrade that increases the player's base HP by 10 (base 120 HP). Twelve of these upgrades exists with one hidden inside each primary stage. Increasing your base HP also increases the amount of max HP you receive from points in Awareness. Awareness points can be acquired from distributed attribute points as well as from equipped bonuses.

MP Upgrade:

A collectable MP upgrade that increases the player's base MP by 10 (base 80 MP). Twelve of these upgrades exists with one hidden inside each minigame stage. Increasing your base MP also increases the amount of max MP you receive from points in Stamina. Stamina points can be acquired from equipped bonuses.

Apparel Items:

Collectable clothing items that grant the player various equipped bonuses. Items can drop in 5 different rarities: Idea, Hypothesis, Conclusion, Theory, and Law. Higher rarities have more bonuses, up to a maximum of 8 bonus modifiers. All items also feature a primary stat that is based on the item's level. Higher difficulties drop higher level items. Higher rarity items also have higher stat ranges for bonus modifiers. Each apparel item type has three unique modifiers that can appear only on that item type.

Concept Items:

Collectable weapon items that grant the player various equipped bonuses. Items can drop in 5 different rarities: Idea, Hypothesis, Conclusion, Theory, and Law. Higher rarities have more bonuses, up to a maximum of 8 bonus modifiers. All items also feature a primary stat that is based on the item's level. Higher difficulties drop higher level items. Higher rarity items also have higher stat ranges for bonus modifiers. While not every concept has projectiles, the ones that do can roll with varying trajectory types, spread, number of projectiles, etc. Melee type concepts also have unique modifiers that can roll for them as well.

Mount Items:

Rideable mounts are items that grant the player bonus attacks and can sometimes modify how the player moves. Mounts can be found by successfully beating a minigame after sleeping in a Dream Bed during a primary stage. They cannot be destroyed, but they disappear when the player leaves the primary stage (returning to the hub stage). They can be dismounted at any time as well as remounted. There are also some stages that may feature a rideable mount within the stage for progression as well.

Dream Portal Machine:

A mysterious machine that allows travel into the minds of many dreamers as well as dreams previously visited. Interacting with this machine allows the player to select the stage they wish to access. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, created this machine to aid the player. Originally, I designed this machine allowing the player to choose 3 words (encounter, location, occurrence) to shape their dream, which is why it has 3 screens to it. Later I cut that out but kept the design of the machine and even turned it into my company logo.

Star Exchange Machine:

A mysterious machine that collects used idea stars in exchange for attribute points. Within the dreamworld, attribute points are essentially the power of the mind. This machine refines the used idea stars into raw mind power for the player, which they can distribute as Awareness, Intelligence, or Mastery. However, increasing your brainpower becomes more and more difficult, so subsequent uses cost more and more stars. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, created this machine to aid the player.

Level Modifier Machine:

A mysterious machine that allows the player to increase the danger of the dreams entered through the Dream Portal Machine, which also increases their rewards. It seems to pump some kind of energy into the dream that empowers it. It is said that the god of the surreal, Phantasos, created this machine to aid the player. In Nightmare Mode, this machine seems to have been tampered with, such that it's always increasing the danger periodically.

Stage #1: Kitty's Eldritch Catastrophe:

A dream featuring Catastrophe, the Feline Friend, that depicts a cat paradise that is spoiled by eldritch horrors. Catastrophe feels helpless as his friends are turned against him. This stage was inspired by my own love of cats as well as a few different wild dreams that I had. The idea for Catastrophe came from a dream where my white cat Little Kitty (I didn't name him) had inverted colors turning him black. He was inside my room and used magic to teach me a shadow language which I used to transform shadows around the room into glyphs. Reading the glyphs caused far off disasters to occur. The eldritch theme also stems from a dream I had where I coughed up a hairball that had tiny tentacles coming out of it. I was at a party and some of the guests approached my hairball and were drawn into eating it. They became eldritch mind slaves that I could command and spread the eldritch influence, which I used to take control of everyone there. The enemy designs were largely inspired by things cats might enjoy/fear and eldritch monsters.

Gameplay screenshot of the Kitty's Eldritch Catastrophe prologue stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear in Kitty's Eldritch Catastrophe. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some of these videos may spoil strategies for dealing with different enemies. If you are struggling with a certain enemy, feel free to take a look, and you'll maybe learn how to deal with it.

Autopitcher:

A cat toy enemy that throws balls where it senses motion. While fun for kitties, it can be quite dangerous if the ball isn't dodged. It always winds up when firing, so a good strategy is to use your dash or move out of the line of fire.

Catillithid:

A cat enemy that's been infected by eldritch powers. Like normal cats, they love to run around and pounce on their prey. They often cough up eldritch hairballs, which when destroyed can cause a dangerous explosion.

Elder Brain:

An eldritch brain enemy that attacks with its psychic powers. It floats around like a jellyfish in the air, and unleashes its mind spike attack with dark electricity forming around it. The mind spike locks onto nearby targets and slowly moves towards them. Be sure to dash through it if it catches up to you.

Eldritch Hairball:

An eldritch hairball enemy that been coughed up by a Catillithid. These nasty hairballs explode when defeated, sending out a volley of things that the Catillithid ate. Defeat them with caution and dodge the projectile trajectories afterwards.

Kicker Bell:

A kickable toy object found on Lucky Cat Statues and sometimes on walls. Once the player acquires the Dream Boots, they can use either the Aerial Jump Kick or the Aerial Drop Kick to launch themselves vertically off of these bells. Kicking off these bells may help the player reach areas they couldn't otherwise explore.

Eyefly:

An eldritch eyeball enemy that flies around annoyingly. If they spot something of interest, they tend to fly right towards it. Otherwise, they will mostly fly around aimlessly.

Mouse:

A regular house mouse enemy that scurries around. They are rather small so they can be difficult to hit with some attacks. Sometimes they'll take a pause from running around and stand on their hind legs to look around.

Large Slime:

An eldritch slime enemy that hops around leaving slime all over walls and the floor. It can split itself into two if it's in danger. Defeating the smaller pieces of it will finish it off.

Striped Ball:

A cat toy ball enemy that rolls around from left to right. Hitting it with a charged attack with knock it up into the air. Be careful it doesn't run you over as it's quite a large ball.

Teleporting Tentacle:

An eldritch tentacle enemy that appears and disappears through a rift in space. It's not clear what foul creature is attached to it on the other side of the rift, but once it finds a prey it continually pursues it. If you see it appear near you, it's wise to move away or try to hit it first.

Tentacle Rift:

An eldritch rift structure that is made up of multiple Teleporting Tentacles. It seems by combining the rifts of the tentacles, the eldritch forces can let even larger monsters such as Catillithids and Elder Brains to invade. Try to defeat them quickly as they appear before they can summon more monsters.

The One That Howls:

An eldritch dog nightmare that has no eyes but possess many tentacle tails and has mastery over rifts. It uses its various howls both as sonar and to give orders to its forces. Listen carefully to it and you may be able to figure out what it's about to attack with. You'll need to dodge its attacks well to be able to defeat it.

Stage #2: Cloud Towers Carnival:

A dream featuring Sensei, the Karate Instructor, that depicts a carnival in the clouds full of suspicious clowns. Sensei was at a carnival when he received the worst news of his life, which is why he doesn't like clowns. This stage was inspired by various things in my life. I study martial arts and have met many people through this journey, and I've seen quite a few diagnosed with cancer. They're all very strong people, but I know how hard it must be for them to have to go through that. While I don't have fears of clowns, I was a bit spooked by them as a child after watching Killer Klowns From Outer Space when I was around 8 years old (my grandpa loved watching action/horror movies). I always felt it was a bit of an irrational thing to be afraid of, but I thought it could make for an interesting enemy theme and make sense in that people struggling with things aren't in a laughing mood. Comedy is often about timing, so receiving bad news beforehand could make clowns feel more like mockery. I've had a few dreams take place in the clouds, and felt it could be a fun area to design around. The boss here was inspired by a photo I took of a face shaped cloud.

Gameplay screenshot of the Cloud Towers Carnival prologue stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear in Cloud Towers Carnival. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some of these videos may spoil strategies for dealing with different enemies. If you are struggling with a certain enemy, feel free to take a look, and you'll maybe learn how to deal with it.

Cloud Giant:

A giant enemy that lives in the clouds and likes to throw hammers at invaders. It seems to have a strange alliance with the clowns that have appeared in the clouds as well. These giants are quite large and tanky, but it's still possible to sneak by them if you dash well or utilize your surrounding to avoid them.

Large Clown Balloon:

A clown balloon enemy that menacingly moves towards its target. Defeating it unleashes two Medium Clown Balloons, and defeating those unleash two Small Clown Balloons. Rip them to shreds before they reach you to make use of the confetti of rewards they likely hold.

Clown Passenger:

A panicky clown enemy that has lost its Clown Car. They tend to run around frantically while waving their arms in the air. Don't let them touch you, or you'll be slapped around.

Clown Car:

A clown car enemy that contains multiple Clown Passengers. Be careful not to hit it too hard or its doors might swing open ejecting one of its passengers. If you knock out all the passengers, the car will drift forward til it crashes.

Evil Cloud:

An evil cloud enemy that pretends to be a regular cloud. If you get too close to it, it wakes up and will chase you around while trying to bite you. Look out for its eyelid when it's sleeping to try to spot it before you get too close.

Jack-In-The-Box:

A toy enemy that often hides inside its safe little box. It occasionally springs out of the box to throw a dangerous bouncing metal spring at its target. Dodge its spring and attack it before it retreats back into its box.

Killer Clown:

A clown enemy that fires off a gatling laser pistol. Its pistol is quite dangerous, making this clown quite confident in itself. Be careful not to get too close to it when it draws its gun. Knocking it off its feet with a powerful attack is the best way to prevent it from firing.

Fireworks Launcher:

A firework launching enemy that cycles between firing in three directions. Touching a live rocket is quite dangerous, but you can destroy these projectiles before they reach you. While the rockets burst into a pretty explosion, the explosion itself doesn't harm you in the dreamworld (we don't recommend touching actual firework explosions as that can be deadly).

Thunderbird:

An electric bird enemy that calls down lightning to strike below it. It drops the lightning every time it caws, so be weary of moving below it. They tend to fly left and right without much care to their surroundings.

Wind Elemental:

A sentient tornado enemy that flies left and right while bobbing up and down. Be careful if you ignore it, as it might turn around and come back from behind. Even though it's made of wind, regular attacks still affect it.

Circus Tent:

A circus tent structure that houses various performers such as Killer Clowns and Clown Cars. Inside they are putting on a show, but, as acts finish, the performers exit the tent looking for something new to occupy their time with. Be sure to destroy it quickly when you find one, or you might have an entire circus on your hands.

King Cloud Clown:

A sentient clown cloud nightmare that seems to be in charge of the circus in the clouds. It's looking to get some laughs by causing misfortune to any that cross its path. Wielding it's control over the clouds, wind, and lightning, it can be quite the dangerous foe. Dodge its attacks well to overcome this nightmare.

Stage #3: Frog Empire Invasion:

- Under Development

Stage #4: Tourney Back Home:

- Under Development

Updated October 20th, 2023

VI. Interlude Stages

The interlude of Recurring Dreams features a hub stage and six primary stages. At this point, the player is more experienced with how to play, so these stages feature more difficult challenges and more complex gameplay. The order in which players tackle the primary stages is up to them, but they may find some stages are easier using certain abilities. Completing these stages is required to proceed in the story.

Hub Stage: The Between Nightmare:

- Under Development

Stage #5: Madman's Dark Uprising:

- Under Development

Stage #6: Forbidden Forest Folly:

- Under Development

Stage #7: Hot Desert Journey:

- Under Development

Stage #8: Desolate Frozen Wasteland:

- Under Development

Stage #9: Solar Liberation Front:

- Under Development

Stage #10: Sudden Underwater Escapade:

- Under Development

Updated October 20th, 2023

VII. Epilogue Stages

The epilogue of Recurring Dreams features a final stage and a secret stage. These stages are the hardest levels in the game, putting everything the player has learned to the test. While the final stage can only be reached after finishing every primary stage, the secret stage can actually be accessed after the player has acquired a few upgrades. Beating these stages will reward the player with some powerful abilties. Completing the final stage also concludes the story arc for the player. The player is then free to continue to enjoy the stages, minigames, and upgrading their character to their hearts content.

Stage #11: The Nightmare Realm:

- Under Development

Stage #12: The Void Space:

- Under Development

Updated October 20th, 2023

VIII. Minigame Stages

The minigames of Recurring Dreams feature twelve different stages. These stages are intended to give the player different ways to upgrade their character. Finding and beating a minigame during a primary stage unlockes the minigame for future use and grants the player a mount they can use for the remainder of the stage. Unlocked minigames can be accessed from the Dream Portal Machine within the Hub stages. Each unlocked minigame features ways to acquire unique rewards such as item drops and idea stars.

Minigame #1: Colosseum Of Nightmares:

A dream featuring denizens of the nightmare realm that come to spectate battles at the colosseum. The player is given a choice here to take on Enemy Rush or Boss Rush by grabbing the appropriate token. This minigame was inspired by various games that have arena modes where you can refight enemies or bosses. While many games just do one mode with bosses every few stages, I felt this could be improved on by instead having two modes. In addition, the difficulty and rewards increase for each successful round completion. This lets the player challenge themselves to see how high they can climb. Boss Rush is a bit more challenging but has guaranteed drop rates after each completion, whereas Enemy Rush monsters just have a chance to drop loot.

Gameplay screenshot of the Colosseum Of Nightmares minigame stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear in Colosseum Of Nightmares. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some of these videos may spoil strategies for successfully beating the minigame. If you are struggling with the minigame, feel free to take a look, and you'll maybe learn how to deal with it.

Enemy Rush:

Grabbing the Crossed Swords Icon in the Colosseum Of Nightmares starts this game mode, where the player is pitted against waves of regular enemies. Each wave features enemies from random stages in the game. Enemies can drop loot just like in the primary stages here, so it can be a good way to farm experience and equipment. Each subsequent wave increases in difficulty and rewards.

Boss Rush:

Grabbing the Skull And Swords Icon in the Colosseum Of Nightmares starts this game mode, where the player is pitted against waves of bosses. Each wave features a boss from a different stage in the game. Bosses have a guaranteed item and star drop similar to the primary stages here, so it can be a good way to farm experience and equipment. Each subsequent wave increases in difficulty and rewards.

Minigame #2: Race Against The Clock:

A dream featuring Tick-Tock, the Quick Clock, who challenges the player to a race. Not only is it a race against time, but literally a race against a clock. This minigame was inspired by various games that have racing modes where you have to speed through obstacles in a stage. Successful completions keep track of the player's best time. There's various pickups throughout the stage for the player to collect, which can be used to upgrade your abilities. While there's currently only one racetrack, I hope to add more tracks in the future to mix things up. I might also expand the dialog that Tick-Tock has as you beat certain times to give some extra incentive to getting better. Beating the stage under a certain time limit also rewards an item to the player (not available in the demo).

Gameplay screenshot of the Race Against The Clock minigame stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear in Race Against The Clock. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some of these videos may spoil strategies for successfully beating the minigame. If you are struggling with the minigame, feel free to take a look, and you'll maybe learn how to deal with it.

Clock Racetrack:

This racetrack features the inner workings of a clock. Your platforming skills are tested here as you try to use your moves in the best way to reach the goal as fast as possible. Tick-Tock, the Quick Clock knows the racetrack very well and consistently completes it in 54 seconds. You'll have to be faster than that to claim the win. If you really impress him, he might even throw in an extra reward (not available in the demo).

Minigame #3: Henry Testa Time:

A dream featuring Henry Testa, the Game Show Host, who invites the player to answer trivia questions for prizes. The questions cover a wide range of topics and are all multiple choice with three possible responses. Picking the correct answer rewards the player, with each subsequent correct answer increasing the rewards up to a certain maximum. Choosing the wrong answer gives no rewards for that question and reduces the bonus reward multiplier (from getting multiple correct in a row). This minigame was inspired by a supervisor's dog at a job I had. The dog's name was Henry Testa, and he was blind. I came up with a character based on him that had shades on and thought he looked like a game show host. Due to his last name Testa, I thought the perfect minigame would be some kind of test, so Henry Testa Time was born. Answering ten questions correct in a row also rewards an item to the player (not available in the demo).

Gameplay screenshot of the Henry Testa Time minigame stage in Recurring Dreams

Below you'll find short videos of different important gameplay elements that appear in Henry Testa Time. Watching the videos may help you understand how to interact with them. Some of these videos may spoil strategies for successfully beating the minigame. If you are struggling with the minigame, feel free to take a look, and you'll maybe learn how to deal with it.

Quiz Show:

This trivia game features multiple choice questions with three possible responses. The questions cover various topics such as the game, math, physics, history, language, literature, etc. Answering multiple questions in a row correctly increases the rewards. Ten correct in a row grants a grand prize item to the player (not available in the demo).

Minigame #4: Freshwater Fishing Reservoir:

- Under Development

Minigame #5: Destroy The Targets:

- Under Development

Minigame #6: Flurry's Maze O' Treasure:

- Under Development

Minigame #7: Smash Boom-Boom Bad:

- Under Development

Minigame #8: Balloon Breaker Bonanza:

- Under Development

Minigame #9: Raging Rocket Rider:

- Under Development

Minigame #10: Fields of Plenty:

- Under Development

Minigame #11: Battle Of The Frogs:

- Under Development

Minigame #12: Trial Of Dreams:

- Under Development