[Game] Is This Reality?

[center]Now it is official - the game will be made!
Is This Reality?[/center]

Is This Reality? is a free indie 2-dimensional pixel art retro adventure game that is based on dreams.
The main focus of the game will be on talking with dream characters and finding clues, which leads you to solving a puzzle which leads you to another level. This game will not be based of gameplay and battle, in fact it will not include battle at all.

Story
The game starts in a math class. As always, you’re bored. The only thing you can do is sleep, and when you sleep you get fascinating dreams. You’ll meet your subconsciousness and it is going to lead you through the game. The whole game will be one single dream, and on the side note every level will be a dream. This will be accomplished by dreams within dreams, false awakenings and such. It gives the game a complicated feel. You will not have much lucid powers. It is impossible to make.

Features

  • “Is This Reality?” will be something in between Monkey Island Series and Machinarium. Dialogs will be similar like in the movie Waking Life.
  • Dynamic, non-linear story. The story will be like a maze, with a lot of ways to the exit. This is why you can finish the game in 50 hours or in 50 minutes. Maybe even less. Maybe even more, it all depends on how you solve puzzles.
  • Game based on talking, puzzles, riddles, finding clues.
  • No battle, it is an adventure game. It is not a platformer.
  • Every few levels a new dream, but you don’t wake up until the end of the game. This is because there will be dreams within dreams, scene transitions, false awakenings and such. This gives the game a complicated touch.
  • You will be lucid near the beggining of the dream, but you will choose to listen up to DCs because you find their stories interesting, and you think its just you speaking with yourself.
  • So the game is not about becoming lucid, its about exploring the dreamworld. The game will feature some information about lucid dreams so thoes who have never heard of lucid dreams get interested in it.
  • Pixel art made graphics (Google it!)
  • Will probably be made in AGS - Adventure Game Studio (If I don’t switch soon)
  • Its a game about dreams. Ofcourse its weird, trippy and foggy at the same time. Graphics will change as you go trough the game (and as your SC changes emotions).

Cheers,
Beat!

Current Supporters:
Virtual Block
Unseen_Eye
GHOSTIE11
Lucho
Blenderman
EmceeLew
TheChris
Drumm
Rubenknex
OYABIN
Spasm
CoffeeLeeT
Huse
amitruz
Kitty
madison981

If you want to be added on the “Current Supporters” list, send a PM to me with body of “/support ITR.”

I gave up on the e-mail update thingy (sorry!). If you want to receive future updates just subscribe to this thread.

If you have any suggestions about the game, just post them in this thread. Keep in mind that not everything can be made and that this is an adventure game (check out Machinarium to get what I mean), so if I refuse your suggestion, don’t be mad.

Game Mock-ups, Art, Samples, Music, WIP’s (Work in progres):

Click Here! (WIP)

People,
I’m sorry I stopped making the game for a while (week or so), and I can’t start until 27th of December, but you can expect a screenshot (or a bg) of the game around New Year.

Take your time Beat Doctor :smile: it should be made properly, but I must admit I look forward for the screenie :grin:

This sounds amazing to be honest…
But one thing I’d recommend is to get someone who’s really good at writing to write the dialogue and such, cause nothing ruins games like that more than poor dialogue.

Not saying that you’re bad at writing or anything though :razz:

Yes, I’ve thought of that earlier. I’ll probably get someone.

one word : awesome[/size] :ok:

Can’t wait! :grin:

First Graphics Tease
Click Here!
A work-in-progress graphics tease. The character, for example, is literally a half-a-minute sketch. Sky needs to be changed (too boring and repetative), I have two options, to animate the rain or to replace it with stars–

And yes, image is 2x streched and it has 11 colors at total.

The [game] at the beginning of this post is making me lose >.<

But the graphics look promising :content:

Well, I think everyone should know the thread is about a game (even before entering), and not some Inception-wannabe philosophy.

But anyways, thanks for the compliment regarding graphics :wink:.

I keep losing too >.>

But back to topic: the game looks good and I look forward for it once its complete

Loved it :eek:

Looks really cool, I think stars would be more fitting then rain.

I really like the way the image looks and more imporantly I really think it is fitting for a game like this, it works. :happy: Rain really works but yeah then I’d say you’d have to animate it, and I don’t know how much work that is so I don’t know if it’s worth the effort. Another idea for a background; skies in dreams can be really amazing. Couldn’t you just take a picture of a nice looking piece of sky and adjust the colors until you have an abstract dreamsky?
Also just a question; Are you going to use this theme throughout the game or will different levels have different themes?
Anyway great work! Keep it up!

Thanks to all for the kind words.
And thank you Blender for the suggestion, but firstly I must see a dream sky to know how it looks like. I think I’ll try to see it in my next LD. Or maybe I’ll use autosuggestion. Anyways, until I come up with a solution I’ll make the other part of the level.

Themes will change. Like I said, every few level a new dream, and dreams are always so different, right?

good point… keep it up

So how is the game coming along, buddy? I did download AGS and I played around with it for a while. It’s a really cool game-development tool, indeed.

I see the first problem is creating graphics. Your image looks really promising. Are you simply drawing in Paint with your mouse? I would love to help you with graphics (I love drawing). But mouse-drawing… Mhh, I am not that good :meh: If only I had a digital drawing board drools

You don’t need a digital drawing board (called graphic tablet) for pixel art. It would save some time, but you don’t need one actually. I don’t use one. I am working with Photoshop (sometimes layers really help), plus, there’s no transparency in Paint.

Currently I have absolutely no progress mainly because I had issues with my scanner, then I threw it away, then had an idea just to take pictures of the drawing with my cell-phone, but then there was no good contrast and I had to buy a rapidograph, and I can’t find it anywhere. And now I have a contest in the school to do (design a notebook).

I guess I have to start working on the game a bit.