Infinite Level’s Next Game - What Hides in Dreams
Time to wake up.
About time, huh? After over a year since The Future Project's release, almost exactly a year since The Future Project's All's Eye update, and several months after canceling a different game, I finally have a new game in active development and well on its way to an eventual release. And don't worry, this one is very safe from the threat of cancellation. It's coming along very nicely and I am quite invested in it right now. For my next game, I am creating a first person psychological horror game titled What Hides in Dreams. In it you play as an unnamed writer who finds himself trapped in a literal nightmare. He finds a note written by his past self that says that there is no escaping the dream this time, unless they go through each door and face the horrors on the other side of all of them. This nightmare world looks very much like his regular home, but open any door and you'll be greeted with a path to...something. An old house, a rotting prison, and a lonesome castle are just a few of the places these doors lead to. As for what's waiting inside these places? Well...best not to think about it. As the game progresses you'll learn more about who the protagonist is, what kind of life they live, and ultimately shape them into a new person by the end of the game.
If you watched the trailer (and I highly recommend you do), then you might recall the phrase “death leaves scars.” What's that about? This is What Hides in Dreams' game defining feature, where any death incurred during play affects the narrative of the game. So, if a monster manages to get its hands on you, you won't just be sent back to your last checkpoint and given a chance to try again. You will return to the dream house, the level you were in will be locked off, and the story will reflect your failure. This is meant to heighten the stakes of every monster encounter, increasing the tension as you stealth your way past nightmare creatures, all while hunting for items and solving puzzles. Nothing's scarier than real consequences in a game, am I right? Death leaving scars works the other way around too, where killing a monster can affect the game's story in different ways. You read that right, you can flip the script and kill the monster yourself if you find a means to do so, but it won't always come easy and there are consequences for these actions as well.
A perfectly normal home…for now.
Alongside death leaving scars, each monster found in the game has a unique quirk that is exclusive to that monster. As I wanted to keep the monsters mysterious, I didn't show them much in the trailer. But to give you some examples of special monster behaviors you can come across, one is almost completely silent, another always knows where you are and steadily makes her towards you, while another will attempt to lure you into a trap...and more! Some of the unique behaviors are subtle, and others will be so dramatically different that it completely changes how you interact with a level. With these unique monster traits, pseudo-permadeath mechanics, and of course a creepy atmosphere, What Hides in Dreams aims to keep players on edge using classic horror game frights, a somber tale of a desperate creative, and the very game mechanics that make up this psychological horror adventure.
So, that's the game in a nutshell. How about a little backstory, shall we? The idea for What Hides in Dreams has existed in my head for over a decade now, though it wasn't always called What Hides in Dreams and the exact game design has changed a lot over the years. For starters, it used to be a lot more linear with a very set series of events. But now, you can tackle levels in almost any order you wish. For another example of how the idea has changed over the years, monster encounters used to be a lot more bombastic and scripted, but have since shifted into being more symbolic and quiet. However, one of the few constants over time has been this idea of pseudo-permadeath. If you play a lot of horror games, then you'll have certainly noticed that the sting of death doesn't really hold the same weight after it's happened numerous times. And to be fair to those games, that's often fine since they have different goals in mind, but it does mean that if you die a lot then a lot of the tension of the game is at risk of disappearing. From the start I knew I wanted to have real consequences for player death in order to maintain fear and dread. The exact form this mechanic would take has changed a lot over the years, but I always knew I wanted there. Death and the results of it feel very underexplored in video games, and horror feels like the perfect place to explore death in video games. I'm excited to finally take a stab at it and see where the idea goes.
Let's turn to the monsters and some of the things that inspired them. Each of the monsters found in the game are meant to be representative of some person or idea in the main character's life. Let's take the tall, skinny figure seen in the castle during the trailer's climax (pictured above). You don't get a great look at him in the trailer for the purpose of keeping him and other monsters mysterious and scary, but I'm willing to share a few details here to illustrate how the monsters tie into the narrative. This monster is called The Silent, and for today's fun fact, this monster was actually inspired by a real nightmare I once had myself, complete with its appearance, how it moves, and the basic setting of the nightmare. This monster, as the name implies, is very quiet and hard to hear coming, which calls for a careful, quiet approach to exploration. But his silence doesn't stop at his gameplay gimmick. He is actually the manifestation of the player character's own fear of being unheard, no matter how much they try to speak out. This, as you can imagine, can be particularly frightful for a writer when their job revolves around communicating their ideas in the hopes that others will understand. It's ironic too, because The Silent's mouth is, well...unnaturally large. And weirdly, there doesn't seem to be anything in his mouth. It's just void. That's a bit creepy. Judging from the monster's presence in this nightmare, it would seem our protagonist believes he isn't heard by the people around him. How does he tackle that, though? That depends on what happens. If you get killed by the monster, then our protagonist may forever be unable to fully express himself. But if you can escape or kill the monster, he may finally feel free to speak his true mind...but at what cost? And that is just one monster. Every monster in this game was approached with a similar philosophy. What is their role in the protagonist's life? How do I visualize that? What traits do they have as a result? These questions (and evidently, my cruel subconscious during sleep) all shape the creatures found in What Hides in Dreams.
This game is being made in Unreal Engine, just like The Future Project before it. The time spent on the years of development for The Future Project has been very helpful for the development of What Hides in Dreams. A lot of lessons were learned during the first person metroidvania's development, and I'm taking those lessons both technical and design and applying them to What Hides in Dreams. In addition, I am also making heavy use of Horror Engine, a starter project for Unreal Engine specifically designed for horror games. This package did a lot to help kickstart the game's development and allow me to focus on the parts of the game that matter most. Without it, you wouldn't be hearing about this game for a while yet. It's helped me cut down on a lot of the things I would have had to do myself before even making my first level. As for the game's scope, this will be smaller than my last game. The gameplay systems are simpler overall, each level is self contained as opposed to being designed around things achieved in another level, and many elements are able to be repurposed across multiple levels. In exchange, the game experience will be tighter, there will be a stronger narrative, and each level will have a level of detail that isn't found in my previous works.
That will do for an introductory look! If you're new here, I normally do dev blogs on the first of the month. This one got delayed simply due to timing, but on December 1st we'll be back on track. I've got a few calls to action that I want to throw out there, which I know goes against conventional marketing wisdom but I have a lot of stuff that I want you to know about. The most important thing is to wishlist What Hides in Dreams on Steam. Doing so not only helps my ego, but when the game does release you'll receive a notification of its release. While What Hides in Dreams has been coming along nicely, it's still far too early to say when this game will release, so for now all you'll get is the nebulous “eventually”. Next, now that I've formally announced What Hides in Dreams I'll have a wealth of new stuff to talk about in future dev blogs, so if you're interested in learning more than check back here on the first of each month to see new info on the game. Sometimes dev blogs cover content in the game, other times they go over technical details, and of course plenty focus on the game's current development progress. You're also always free to follow me at the various socials (linked below) where you can see me occasionally post WIP screenshots, funny bugs, or sometimes other thoughts that have nothing to do with game development. Finally, I want to give a quick shoutout to Cleiton Venâncio, who is responsible for the excellent artwork you see on the game's Steam page and other areas like the trailer's thumbnail. And that should be everything! Sleep well.
Until next time!
-Lance T.
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