Dreamview Weekly Roundup #74

Roll up, roll up! The semantic circus that is the Dreamview Weekly Roundup has once again pulled into town, as it does every Friday, with some delightful made-in-Dreams attractions in tow.

Marvel at the incredible displays of Dreamer artistry! Applaud the creative concepts that shimmer and dance under the spotlights! Boo, hiss and throw rotten tomatoes at the pathetic, jester-like writer tying themselves in knots trying to make you laugh!

R.I.F.7 (Spot The Difference)#

by KabarudonphaN18 and xMorpheuus

Estimated playtime: Replayable

This brilliant genre mash-up is one our favourite creations made for the recent Alternate Realities jam. It’s a spot-the-difference game with a story-based justification: the world is splitting into separate realities, and the only way to fix the destabilisation is to jump between each to identify the seven points of difference between them. A normally quite casual puzzle-book exercise becomes a thrilling first-person shooter, the creators placing a weapon in your hands with which you can scan and zap spacetime anomalies into submission. The cherry on top is the choice of modes: Challenge Mode adds a timer and randomises the differences for each run (boasting more than a million possibilities), while Arcade Mode emphasises leaderboard competition. There’s even a third Secret Mode, apparently - if your eyes are keen enough to spy what that’s all about, do send your letters to the usual address.

Sons of the Svn#

Estimated playtime: 30+ mins

by Cryshly

The creator of the delightfully delinquent Untitled Imp Game is back - this time, with a very different creation. Sons of the Svn is a companion game made to promote an anime series of the same title that Cryshly is working on; it sees you controlling a hero flying through space at supersonic velocity, dodge-rolling, blasting through asteroid fields and even facing off against laser-mounted bosses on your mission to reach the Sun (wonderfully, the distance left is measured in km in real-time on screen). The responsiveness of your fireballs leaves a little to be desired, but what Cryshly really nails here through clever audiovisual design is the sheer sense of speed and the pin-sharp movement - something that’s augmented by the face-rippling boosts earned through destroying meteorites.

The WOBBLES-Character Showcase#

by Pencilcase80

Estimated playtime: N/A

Big-nosed, sad-eyed, surprisingly flexible: in many ways, we feel a sort of kinship with these odd creatures. Their creator gives them little context or explanation - nevertheless, here they are, their dumpy little bodies performing ‘gymnastics’ as we waggle our controller around in the air, and happily changing colour upon request as we press buttons. Sweetest of all is the way they seem to be psychically linked together; if one jumps, the other follows suit soon after, emitting a squeak of solidarity. They’re remixable, so here’s hoping they’re adopted for a project or two (they’d surely be perfect for a couch co-op game). Just don’t split them up, eh? They come as a pair.

Pier at Dusk#

by born666hell

Estimated playtime: 5 mins

Burgeoning level designers making use of Dreams’ in-built tools and coMmunity-made asset pool to swiftly and easily bring their vision to life? File this one under “things you absolutely love to see”. Born666hell is clearly a fan of the aesthetic of early PlayStation games, and their commitment to the pixellation filter in the Grade & Effects tab serves three purposes. Firstly, it helps achieve that retro look. Secondly, it does an excellent job of visually standardising assets with different art styles so that they all feel equally at home in a scene. And thirdly, it adds an undeniable strangeness and unreality to born666hell’s beautifully lit scenes. In Pier at Dusk, lamplight stretches and stutters as we move across the boardwalk; the lights along the edge of a hotel glimmer and bend, pixels warping before our eyes. It’s a real skill to put levels together like this - kudos to the creator for finding a process that’s allowing them to quickly hone their talent, and produce digital locales that linger long in the memory.

Jaffa’s Line Drawings#

by jaffakree

Estimated playtime: N/A

Not everyone’s a dab hand with a pencil (last time we tried using one, HR said we’d “endangered the lives of several colleagues” and banned us from the office for a month). Fortunately, jaffakree’s populated and curated this attractively-presented collection of flat, opaque, single-colour line drawings for anybody’s use. If you’re looking for an easy, low-thermo way to decorate your scenes or build a user interface, chances are, you’ll find something of use here. From bursts and bubbles, to looping arrows, ribbons, windows, vines and more, Jaffa’s got you covered - and it won’t even cost anyone their eye.

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!(si apre in una nuova scheda)