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Article in Newsletter:
http://www.thegamecreators.com/data/newsletter/newsletter_issue_73.html#6


OFFICIAL DEMO RELEASE


Dream finally has an Official Demo, 5.5 levels long! When will the actual game be released? No one knows, but my guess is this year, sooner rather than later. More on that later, Demo time!


For those of you who have not noticed the thread called Dream that has been around here for a year and a half, or the many threads that came before, here is a link:
Jul 2006 - Sep 2006 Verse
Nov 2006 - Feb 2007 Fabel Nux: Verse
Apr 2007 - Dec 2008 -Dream-
These threads contain a long development history, which should provide an interesting read.


What is Dream?
Dream is a 3D puzzle adventure game. It features cartoon style graphics, as well as a mature and surreal storyline. There is humor laced throughout the game, though most prominently at the beginning. The game comnatains 19 level, 16 of which are done and the other 3 are nearly so. Aside from that a large number of cut scenes still must be made, as the story has many possible ways of being played out. And that's it. Dream is still only in production because I am very busy.


Will I sell Dream?
Well that's the plan. Sometime after Dream is finished and officially tested and advertised, it will be sold. Right now the price will range from $15-20 US. I'm gauging a 3-6 hour game first time through, with a good amount of replay value to unlock all the cutscenes for various ways the story could play out. I was at a point planning on unlockables, and that has narrowed down to being able to unlock a special version of the opening to Block Verse by completing all the rising levels in one try.

Here it is, the official Dream demo. The demo is outdated now, but the puzzles are the same still, and the visuals are not that different now, just better. If you are wondering, yes you can turn the graphics higher or lower than the standard.

---Enjoy the Demo---

[This link does not download properly in Firefox, see bottom of post]

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WOOOOOOT!!!!


Thanks for those Dev links, btw. I didn't know about your previous work.


*Bounces leg in anticipation as download bar slowly fills up*


[EDIT]

Just started it and tested it out.

Watched the intro, was fantastic.
Got to Options screen, tried to change resolution to 1024x768x32, noticed the NOTE about resolution change only taking effect after Dream is restarted, so I went back to Title screen and Quit.
Got "RUNTIME ERROR: Error 9"

Not really bothered by that since I was intending to quit anyway, but just letting you know.

Running on Vista Home Premium, ran in Compatability Mode for Windows XP SP2


[EDIT2]

Okay, loaded it back up and the resolution did change, thankfully.

Played through it all. Was surprisingly short, though. Was hoping to have a little bit more to play, but that's entirely up to you, of course.

I don't know if it's because I'm using Vista or what, but there were some odd "outlines" on some of the geometry. Such as the light coming out of the door, there was a yellow outline to the tip of the light. As was there a square outline around the eye in the village.


Great game, though!!! The music perfectly matches the style you've chosen for this game and was very hypnotizing in a way.



The one and only,

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Ok, that was awesome.

The music and sound effects were great. I liked the camera movement and the menu. (Yeah, the menu)

I'm actually trying to decide what I liked more: the game itself or that credit sequence

Brilliant work, man. You've got a buyer in this guy for sure.

Spoiler in the code block

+ Code Snippet

I have to admit I jumped a little when the eye popped open. You didn't tell me it would be a scary game :(

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Yaaay!!! [downloading]

Edit:
I managed to beat the demo, and this is what I have to say:
That was an AWESOME, EPIC and truly FABULOUS experience!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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I'm running Vista Business 32bit. No working for me
When it tries to open it gives me an error
"System Error: ERROR 164. Could not set a display mode of 640x480x16"

I've set my display settings to 16bit and checked the "Run 640x480" compatibility, among many other random compatibility settings. Still get the same error.

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nice demo. no ill issues at 1024x768x32 (didn't see a higher res option. see sig for specs).

would suggest some slight tweaking to the speed at which (some of) the cut-scenes play (the ones without the spacebar prompt) to allow for slow-poke readers like myself (who also like to "take in" everything on the screen before/after reading the dialogue). i remember one or 2 instances of some longer dialogue screens where i said "rats! what was that?" (or something a little less tactfull) when it moved on.

and,

dunno what time zone "collegeland" belongs to but, where i'm at, you have about 11 hours to have the final release completed

thanks much for the demo. happy new year!

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Hehe, "Key? I hate key! KEY IS STUPID!"

Great demo Bizar Guy!

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I can't download it properly.

It's just downloading a blank file that I can't run.

='0 It looks so much like John was supposed to.

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Download goes 5.2kb/s, but I guess it'll be more than worth the wait. I'm sad I probably still remember the clue to most of the levels from my earlier clash with the great puzzles, but I'll go through tthe game nonetheless. I know what's hidden in there.

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Yeah, I wasn't able to download it using firefox, I used IE to download the game. Strange.

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Firefox is working for me so far, it just doesn't have a file extension. I assume it's zip but we'll see.

@Bizar - I'm a fan of cartoon shading, and I'll make sure to be both honestly critical and critically honest This is one of the few games I was looking forward to all these years.

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I wrote a massive post, and then accidentally refreshed the page.

Needless to say, I addressed everyone, and it took 30 minutes or more to write, and I don't feel like doing it again.

But I'm glad people like the demo, very glad.

For the suggestions, I've taken note of all of them and people should expect to see changes in the final game to solve most of them.

About the issues mentioned, Dream should run in Vista, as it is in the most recent version of DBC which is build to work with Vista, and on top of that I've tested the game on many vista machines. I'm not entirely sure what the issue is then, but I'll look into it.

And I've tried downloading the game in IE, Fireforx, and Chrome now that I know the issue. Only Firefox can't see that it's a zip file, for some reason. I'm adding the download to the actual first post to make up for this.

Again, great to have this kind of response. I also really want to emphasize that this demo is a very small portion of the game, and that the amount of content that comes after was pretty staggering for me to make. Though there are two endings to the game, the ways of reaching those endings require me to have two or three possible ways for everything after this to happen (which is why making the cut scenes I have left is still pretty staggering). And the demo does not include rising levels. I think that is the only thing I regret not adding, is the first rising level. Rising levels are where you have to reach the top of the level before drowning.

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Yup, it's a bummer you didn't have rising levels in this one. Those were fun too - especially the later one.

In any case, I'm impressed . It's even better than I remember. A two thumbs up from me.

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Yeah, it's truly a masterpiece. I especially like all the little details, such as the dust that appears when running,
the way blockdude(I can't remember his name) bounces when jumping down,
the stop motion-esque animation(you've added some more frames since the last demo, right?).
And you've done a great job with the menu. I can expect to see more things happen there in the final build, right?

The cut-scenes are awesome too, and so are the credits. There's just one thing that I want to see in the credits(this is a stupid request, so disregard if you want to)...
Let blockdude pull off some dance moves while the text scolls, that would be great! I don't know, but the music kinda made me expect that he would dance...

Dream is a fantastic game, 10/10!!!

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@ Bizar Guy
I finally got round to playing it after downloading through IE.

I was impressed, but didn't understand the half of it. xD

It's good and even if I don't get the story, it's fun.

(Although I did manage to get myself stuck on level 1 because I didn't understand the controls so I had to restart.)

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It's better than the last Demo. I see this improving with every Demo Release. The level design is superb.

You know how to left people on suspense , don't you?

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this is a great demo.
It ran smoothy on my computer.
I didn't see any problems related to vista.
(am use vista home premium with uac switched off)

however in the last level could walk on air,
this only happens if the level is played more than once. (see attachment) other than that the demo is great example of what DBC can do.
you get three thumbs up from me.(even though I don't have 3 thumbs)

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Dude, that was awesome!

Very well done. I loved the credits too.

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19th post

@Jeku, have you tried it yet? I look forward to you crit and comments.

Thanks! It should be, I've worked a whole lot on it since then.


...Thank you. While I've gotten many compliments, I can't recall my work being called a masterpiece before. I'm honored. Kel certainly would look pretty cool dancing in the credits, but unfortunately I no longer have the computer I used to model him, and thus no saves of the model with the texturing or the bone rig. However I may be able to use the current animations to make him kind of dance, we'll see what happens. And don't worry about not knowing his name, it's only mentioned a few times in the game, and none at all in the demo.


Well if you HAD understood the story after what little information you get in the demo, I'd applaud you. This is the type of story that you learn through completion and fully understand through replay. There's a reason for everything in the game, it's similar to FLCL like that. And don't worry about getting stuck on level one, each level is designed to teach you certain skills you'll use later, and the first one teaches you the most basic. It's essentially a tutorial where all I have to do is explain the controls, and the level does the rest to make you understand them.


Thank you! And yes, I'd say I do.

@cyril, Good catch! Isn't a problem in the final game though, it seems you made your way past the artificial ending I made and into the rest of the level, which while I removed the camera, model, and story triggers from, still has all the collisions. I'll make sue I fix this for the version of the demo that comes out with the final game (same levels, just with any updates I make)

@Xenocythe, thanks!


And here everyone, is an update on the progress with level 19.


Also, so people know I just made an account for my brother. His forum name is Machine Maker or something. He's had FPSC for a while, but he's started to get interested in coding so I thought it might be useful for him to get an account. He is NOT me, heck I don't even know if he'll actually use the account. But if he does, I'm hoping he can find all sorts of useful help and such here, and maybe even eventually start posting his own projects.

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This is pretty awesome. I was astounded by the sheer amount of stuff- effects and sweet little touches in the game. Obviously a lot of work has gone into it.

Pressing the windows key led to problems. Quite long load and unload times. Pressing escape to skip cutscenes when space is used elsewhere seemed a bit counterintuitive. Apart from that super stuff.

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This is the first time I actually downloaded this, and I am REALLY impressed!

This game sure has the quality to be sold, and I would happily buy it!

Bugs: After completing the demo (when the credits show up), if you select the last unlocked level (the one with that black and white house across the bridge), you can walk through the house and walk around on nothing behind the house... That is a bit weird, and I assume that will be the case when repeating the level in the full version too.

So check that one out.

All in all:

TheComet

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May I say spectacular? This has come a long way since you first started your puzzle projects. Just goes to show what hard work and commitment can do. This is a great piece of art and story telling.

My only suggestion is a window mode :p But seeing it's in DBC, not sure that can be done.

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Great job!

Excellent demo!

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Thank you all very much!


Yeah, in the full game that's the inside of the building. I didn't include it in the demo, and it seems that the trigger isn't set to work twice.

Actually DBC does have that ability. I'll see about putting it into the options menu.


I'm sorry all for the lack of updates for the last month, I've been rather busy now that I"m back in college, but also because I've started a web comic for real. It should be out at the latest by march 1st, with a weekly update. I'm pretty happy with it, but it is taking up some of my free time, as is painting and GF. In high school that didn't take so much time, but in college I practically live with her, which does. I want to say I'm going to jump in and do long programming sessions, but I'm not. I just don't have the time. But I will be working on it. Here is the schedule I'll try to keep.

Feb 8- 19th level completed

Feb 15- 18th level completed

Feb 22- 2nd arc concluding cut scene completed

And I'll go on from there. I might not make all of it with the web comic as well, but we'll see.


Oh, and Dream has a mention in the Newsletter!

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DREAM IS NOT DEAD!!!

Ok, no more schedules, I'm proud enough to be meeting my deadlines with college work. But I do have updates!

To get back into coding, I've gone back through the oldest sections of the code and super optimized them, as well as improved the readability of the code. I've redone a lot of the rising lava level, much improving the puzzle and difficulty curve to test your puzzeling skillz more than your ability to become frustrated. I've also started adding the in-level events to it, which include seeing the top of the volcano. A big note you'll all like is that I've greatly reduced the starting load time, as well as the majority of in-game load times. The exit time now also takes a second rather than a minute.

Night now I'm working on adjusting story presentation and labeling the beginning of each of the three acts. I'm really pushing to keep the story engaging all the way through, and make it feel like a cohesive story. This includes finishing he 19th level. I'll try and have screens of newer stuff soon.

And on a final note, I'm thinking I've found a better medium than pencil to depict parts of the story. It involves photoshop and a lot less time on my part. It will look more painted I think, and in a style much more what I want to use more with these types of games later.

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Uhm, interesting web comic.
Nice to hear that you're still working on Dream, keep it up!

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Webcomic will makes a lot more sense after that page, I figured I might as well take it off the thread now.

I've been REALLLLY sick lately. Like for weeks. Heck I was sick the last time I posted. But I have been working, and there are a lot of updates behind the scenes to the engine and a number of speed boosts. I've also made the blocks squish a little the way Kel does when he hits the ground. It looks pretty nice.

Here are some screens of things:

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Nice volcano scene, it looks a lot better now than the last time I saw it!

It's the small details that does it!

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Good game, I had fun! Demo was kind of short and easy, but that's because it's a demo I suppose...

I might actually get this if I can scrounge enough money too. And figure out how to pay online. Etc.

The tower was kind of glitchy when I went back to it though...

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how on earth did I miss this?

Just played the demo - I'm very impressed at the level of polish, it all fits wonderfully within the style. The cartoony graphics are wonderfully fitting, and they contrast well with the greyscale/black and red colour scheme shown in the cinematic in the final level.

The only thing I'm not sure about it the length: playing this demo took less than 20 minutes, but it's 5 levels out of 20 or so (ie. a quarter of the game) so the full game would be a bit short (for the price you're charging) if they're all this length. BUT, since you've said

I'd be willing to pay that kind of money for that kind of length So when it's done, you'll have another customer.

Edit: looking through those older threads, I was struck by the fact that movement and camera control were, at one stage in Dream's life, a problem. (Was the camera hindering gameplay, should it be manual, did the player turn too slowly, did he have to he immobilised after throwing a block to stop him walking under it etc). What struck me most was that none of those problems even occured to me while I was playing this demo - they simply did not apply, since you've got this so polished and playable. Therefore: well done!

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Thanks guys! Yes, the first 5 levels are pretty easy and short, but every level builds off the last, and it's entirely possible to spend up to 30 minutes to an hour on each of the last few levels. luckily, none of my testers yet have felt like giving up in the middle of one of these levels yet (or if they did restarted later and could solve it). Me, having totally memorized the most efficient paths through every level cannot run through the game in an hour. And things take a good deal longer when you have to solve the puzzles a first time. And then there is incentive to play through a second time if you're interested in the story (which has some pretty dramatic effects on the games presentation). The 18th level is the final puzzle level, and it's very difficult to design because it has to outdo all the other levels in difficulty while still being solvable through logical reasoning and not have multiple paths to the door. I still don't want to say much about it until it's nearly finished, but I will give a hint. It starts out above ground, and ends in a cavern.

I guess I should give some updates, though at this point I'm really not doing much visual. If I ever plan to finish, I can't be going around doing too much to them anymore. I have gotten rid of the health bar. You don't see it in the demo, but in later levels you can get hurt until you end up restarting a level. However, it occurred to me, with there being different colors surrounding the screen when you were hurt, and having the idle position look more and more hurt, the game felt a lot more polished without a health bar. I've also been fiddling with the loading, so that overall the load times are faster. My computer was broken for a while in the last few weeks, but I was able to fix it and have been coding here and there on Dream. I haven't power coded in a while, I'll tell you all if I do though, I'd love to get a lot of progress done.

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Good to hear about the length - it sounds like the whole thing is very much a "complete" game, rather than, say, a tech demo. The idea that the story is complex enough to warrant a second playthrough is also a plus

I think taking out the health bar was probably a good thing: from looking at screens of Dream's previous incarnations, I always thought it looked a little tacked-on, partly because it didn't fit too well with the visual style, and partly because it's not the kind of thing you'd expect in a puzzle game. And since you only have 3 "hearts", so to speak, it shouldn't be a problem if you take it out and indicate health in a less obvious way.

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That was my thinking too on the health.

Ok, I've done bunches of work on Dream! In redoing some of the code, I ended up breaking a lot of the code. I've fixed all the errors I've caused though, and now have a good understanding of how my code works again. I've also done a ton to make the animations more intresting, like a breathing effect and a talking animation, as well as some other things. These aren't say new frames, but ways I'm manipulating the model. I've also been working on animating running into energy beams and falling in lava. I've also changed the way falling in lava works, so rqather than killing you, it decreases you health by one, just like the energy beams. This becomes especially important with the designs for level 18.

And level 18 is epic.

In puzzle sense and maybe otherwise for me too. But yes, I'm working on Dream a good amount again. Maybe I'll have a vid to show soon...


Maybe.

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I luv Dream, I've been following this since the beginning and you've impressed me all the way. I can't wait till it's completely finished.

Good luck.

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Yay!

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Level 18 is epic? But, how is it different from the rest of the game, then?

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Progress is being made, and I've got a good pace going on Dream right now. Right now I'll just focus on lv 17, and the rising levels. For one, I've redone all the rising level cameras, making them more useful and with better views. I'm also adding to the lava effect, making the lava seem to cling to the sides of the shaft, moving up and down. I've also modeled the volcano, though it's not done, and I still need to add rising seem so there's always a lot of motion on screen like the other rising levels. The volcano will also appear to erupt a bit once I'm done with the level.





Much more is being worked on, it will be covered better once I release a new vid. Dreams is going up another standard visually, though I'm just about done. After this update the game should feel pretty living and breathing.

Level 18 takes place in multiple environments, is the largest non rising puzzle in the game in both height and length, reveals the most about the story, and has a lot of scenes incorporated into it. not regarding all the events in the level before the end, there are four possible combinations of how the end of the level will turn out, all having major impacts on the story. The puzzle also does some stuff I think is very cool. Oh yes, and as you get farther in the level, the epic music that plays in the game opening gets louder and louder.

I've begun actually building level 18, and it's cool to say the least. It's going to take a while to finish, and a lot of play testing until I'm satisfied that it is that best of all the levels, as I think it should be. Also putting together all the scenes will take time. If I had the time to code like I did in high school, I could be done in a few weeks. As it is, we'll see. Now withstanding, I've got finals, papers, labs, and tests to deal with. I wanna finish most of the stuff over the summer (dare I say if I could treat this like a job I'd finish in ample time), but it seems I'm expected to get a part time job. That was hard enough in last years economy, I shudder to think how it will be this year.

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agreed

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Level 18 sounds like something that I'd pay for on itself, having played some of the other levels. If its near as mind-boggling as that desert level, it'll be fun

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Bizar Guy, this looks awesome!

I haven't downloaded the demo yet (I will soon), but I can tell just from looking at the screen shots and reading everyone's positive feedback that I'd love it. I'm a big fan of cartoon shading as well, so that satisfies my need for great visual style.

How are you developing this? DBPro? How are you doing the cartoon shading (sorry if I seem like a newbie)? I'm really curious to learn how to do that.

Anyhoo, I'm pretty sure you'll have another buyer once this game is complete. Keep up the excellent work!