Dreamview Weekly Roundup #76

Halfway through the official month of Halloween, and we’ve not really put much effort into spooking you here at the Dreamview Weekly Roundup. We’ve been slacking, honestly. We demand to speak with the manager. Oh, that’s us! Hello, you’re looking lovely today.

Right, anyway - scares. This week in Dreams, we’ve got witches, dead dreams, a cursed record player, possible starvation and an upper-middle-class English suburb. All pretty horrifying. Fill yer boots, thrillseekers!

DEAD DREAMS 2#

by SmileBasic

Estimated playtime: Replayable

For SmileBasic, there’s no such thing as a pile of shame. The sequel to DEAD DREAMS is here, once again presenting a joyful megamix of half-formed wonder. 13 more unfinished interactive projects are on display here - each one tuned into through a punchily illustrated TV interface that gives each creation a ‘game polish’ star rating - from the floppy faceballing frenzy of Super Ragdoll Sports, to zippy top-down bullet hell concept Bug Shot and beyond. Flipping from idea to idea at will is a low-stakes delight, a kind of ‘Interdimensional Cable’ concept for game demos SmileBasic’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humour about it all only adds to the freewheeling sense of fun about it all, with the creation’s description boasting that it’s ‘unfinished and full of empty promises’. Perhaps (development) hell is only a state of mind.

Buggy Racer#

Estimated playtime: Replayable

by Winter_487

Motion-controlled driving can be hard to nail when it comes to making games; it’s usually either far too sensitive, or you have to sacrifice your first-born every time you need to make a sharp left turn. Winter_487’s high-speed romp across a gloomy Northern English village, however, manages to hit the sweet spot. Tight controls, a solid handling model and careful use of controller rumble means that we’re surprised by just how natural it feels to bomb around this winding track. It’s faithfully designed too - shoutout to those classically British grey skies - although someone really ought to tell this suburbs’ architects that if you will knock great big honking holes through people’s living rooms, we absolutely will be driving through them at top speed. Other thoughtful details include the reactive dashboard messages: the creator will ping you info on the lap times to beat, and you’ll even be reprimanded for breaking the speed limit in a 30 zone. It’s just like real life!

Witch Way#

by rocky_with_a_gun

Estimated playtime: N/A

‘Tis the season to be spooky, and here’s the perfect Halloween desktop wallpaper for you. It’s always a treat when rocky_with_a_gun hops into Dreams for a spell to create something in their signature flat-colour style, and this latest tableau is no exception. Neatly assembled sculpts, precise paint strokes and careful lighting tricks conjure the charming image of a witch-in-training and her familiar lost on the moors (the wide, monochromatic surroundings subtly underlining their isolation even further). As ever, rocky_with_a_gun somehow tells an enchanting tale with very few visual elements - and a truly magical titular pun.

Ashore#

by Teh_Beef

Estimated playtime: 30+ minutes

What is it with Teh_Beef and trapping us on tiny, deceptively picturesque, voxelated islands that make us feel like right plonkers? Before this, it was corpse-platforming puzzler Para-Box; now, Ashore challenges us to survive long enough to build a raft to freedom. It might look familiar to those of us acquainted with a certain blocky mining-and-crafting game (i.e. the whole world and their mum), but the differences are distinct. This is a very small bit of land, and resources are scant; you’ll have to be ruthless about optimising your early movement and crafting, otherwise you’ll soon find general existence becomes rather tricky, let alone creating a whole mode of transport. Indeed, it often feels more like a puzzle or strategy game; desperate thought experiments lead to surprising new discoveries that end up turning the tides in our favour. Whole farming and fishing systems are hidden further along in crafting chains - but often it’s the smallest epiphanies that are most memorable, such as the moment we worked out the delightfully manual method of picking berries.

Bestiaire#

by Ragnar_VE

Estimated playtime: N/A

The sort of wild card that has us rubbing our Rounduppy little hands together in glee, Bestiaire is a singular gallery accessed via a kind of cursed turntable. While the interface is simple - you move your thumbstick to select one of six asterisked-out options - the scenes on display are anything but. A throbbing, alien amalgam of pixelated scribbles; a shiny, veined artefact that appears to be melting into itself; the face of a horned god constructed from clockwork: each artwork feels like a confrontation, sending you back to the turntable after it deems your attention held for long enough. We can’t help but imagine each track, each groove of the record, somehow creating these images in our minds through its profane vibrations.

Check out the playable edition of this week's Dreamview Weekly Roundup right here in Dreams!

Which creations caught your eye in the Dreamiverse this week, and why? Tell us about your personal picks over on the official Dreams forums(opens in new tab)!