Dreamview Weekly Roundup #95

It’s been a rainy April ‘round these parts, but the strange garden that is the Dreamiverse continues to grow. New sprouts of ideas are popping their heads out of the dirt: this week, we’ve been delighted to see Dreams creators lending a hand, spreading their wings and… fashioning angle grinders? Fell apart a bit at the end there, didn’t it - but Dreams is not your common-or-garden-variety garden.

Anyway, for your consideration this Friday: five creations freshly plucked from the wilds of the Dreamiverse. We suppose you might call them “outstanding in their field”.

Lend A Hand#

By RJSmith86

Simple, sweet and thoughtfully crafted, Lend A Hand takes the concept of ‘paying it forward’ and builds a delightful game around it. You’ll play many different roles in this adventure across in a delightfully plasticky toytown; completing a favour for a stranger then grants you control of that character - each of whom first sends off their helper with an adorable little wave - so that they can keep the chain of kindness going. Each role presents a distinct challenge, so you’ll start as a chap buying a replacement ice cream cone for a kid, but soon find yourself picking up dropped groceries or sticking an arm through a grate to retrieve a lost item. It’s a thoroughly satisfying experience from start to full-circle finish - and a welcome reminder that, actually, joy doesn’t have to be very complicated at all.

Wide Birth#

By talc33

The creator of ultra-slick, super-techy arcade shooter GAIA HAWK is producing some curious new growths as of late. BACK COMPAT was a fascinating surrealist sprout, a fleshy speaker wired into its own self. In Wide Birth, talc33 continues exploring the soft meat hidden beneath clinical surfaces. Stranded on a floating length of zeros and ones, a robot sits on what’s left of its torso, hacked off at the waist with its innards open to the elements. Even the colours play up the contrast of organic and inorganic materials; the grey, manufactured world is shot through with veins of raw red and pink. A more vulnerable side to talc33’s visual approach, perhaps - we’re keen to see even more layers peeled back.

Speed Create #29-Tools#

By InfiniDreams

It’s a rare day when you happen across an element you’ve never seen before in the Dreamiverse. Trees? Oh, we’ve got plenty of trees. Loads of rubber ducks, as well. And more fireworks than is probably advisable, you little pyromaniacs. But one of InfiniDreams’ recent Speed Create jams - a series in which participants have a limited period of time in which to make something according to a set theme - has gifted us some genuine novelties. Tools, it seems, are an uncommon treasure in the bric-a-brac galaxy that is Dreams; this handy collection boasts a variety of swiftly sculpted gizmos that are the first of their kind. Incredible, really, that Dreams would contain multiple cursed Furbys, yet not a single soldering iron or angle grinder. Thank goodness InfiniDreams is here to provide some solid, dependable, non-haunted assets for us all to use in our creations.

SCRIPTURE#

By CatAstropheYT

Could this be the definitive album - the Rosetta Stone, even - of one of the Dreamiverse’s most prolific musicians? We certainly think so. With ten accomplished tracks, spanning genres from electronica to lo-fi to rock and beyond, SCRIPTURE feels like a celebration of the many musical languages CatAstropheYT speaks. Referential drumbeats and wandering basslines tell stories, as the album presents a symbol alongside each tune. The eponymous track is a particular highlight, with a wailing theremin creating a grandiose and eerie atmosphere worthy of the album’s title. If ‘scripture’ is the sacred act of putting words to paper, or notes to the air - perhaps anything you believe in out into the world - then this is a fitting tribute to the holy process of self-expression.

We and the Wild Lights#

By dp3193

One of our favourite feelings in the world is stumbling across fresh talent in the Dreamiverse. We and the Wild Lights (excellent title, by the way) might be a fairly typical 3D indie platformer, its rolling green fields, mountain ranges and mysterious caped hero putting us in mind of Sky: Children of the Light and The Pathless. But some of the hidden details are much more surprising - in particular, the stunning hand-drawn animation for the ‘glide’ ability, a set of white linework wings in a similar style to the accent animation in Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse or Need For Speed: Unbound. Cleverly, dp3193’s created plenty of high landmarks to spring from, and challenges involving floating through rings, to really allow players to spread their wings. There’s a beautiful reward at the end for those who collect all the scattered sparks of light in this single-scene open world - but really, the sensation that we’ve encountered a creator whose talent might really allow them to soar is reward enough.

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!(otworzy się w nowej zakładce)