Dreamview Weekly Roundup #68

The end of another week in the sweltering summertime heat, and you’re parched - craving not just Nature’s second most precious resource, water, but its first most, too: #content. Well, do we at The Impsider have a solution for you.

No, seriously, an actual solution. Look closely at this webpage; how the words shimmer and wobble. That’s right, liquid lovers: we’ve melted down this edition of the Dreamview Weekly Roundup into a delicious nutrient slurry, delivering you not just hydration but recommendations for five life-giving creations you can experience in Dreams right now. So grab a straw, settle in, suppress any lingering questions and suck it down. Refreshing!

DreamsFest '22#

by beardofcats88, pinkbelt, dittatore_game, Jangulo157, methodactor, DirtyHarolds, TheOnlyRobie, ParsleyGuy_Alex, DustyFlapdragon, Eflat__Major, TjoeT1, oLiamS47o, NihTar, Mystical_ Vortex_, LOLpokemanz, StAnKHaNk, sean88, PeasAndTanks, HazedGamer420, animeboy0021, tony1979, thyon, Jimmyjules153, DissObeyGames, AutumnSatire

Estimated playtime: 3+ hours

We thought the first DreamsFest was impressive - turns out, we hadn’t seen anything yet. Returning for its second-ever year, coMmunity-made music festival DreamsFest showcases an unforgettable lineup of stage performances in a fully playable event experience - and ups the ante in almost every conceivable way. Last year’s NPC intro cutscenes were charming; this year, there’s an entire campaign with story missions and fetch quests to complete. Even the many minigames on offer are introduced as a part of the story of this tropical island. The passport has been upgraded to an ImpPhone that can take photos, tracks your activities and achievements across the festival, boasts an excellent emoji-powered map, and tracks the physical currency you can collect around the place before converting it into a delightful contactless payment account you can use to shop for new outfits. There are now several campsites containing hand-painted coMmunity tents. Even the portable toilet-slash-dressing room has transformed into a new, mysterious, much more magical concept. It’s all down to the efforts of an even larger team than last year. (Peep that credits list. Just typing all that out made us sweat.)

Then, of course, there’s the reason this astonishing overworld exists in the first place: the coMmunity-made performances. With the benefit of last summer’s stellar example to follow, the stars have truly shown out with big tunes and imaginative concepts: highlights for us at The Impsider include TheOneironaut’s terrifyingly rhythmic speaker-faced alien, Lady_Snipeshot’s exquisite vocals and cat orchestra, brandon-bhoy’s high-energy EDM set and coMmunity comedy favourite StAnKHaNk dropping undeniable bars. DreamsFest ‘22 is truly the sound of the summer, and a new high point for coMmunity-run events in Dreams.

BlackBox#

by Matneee

Estimated playtime: Replayable

If you visited Matneee’s DreamsCom ‘22 booth this year - featured on p31 of the official DreamsCom magazine - you’ll be familiar with their signature wit and the highly involved, innovative process through which they come up with their creative concepts. Sure enough, it’s borne fruit once again. BlackBox is a curious mix of Breakout and idle game, seeing you fire a cannonball into a 3D space constructed of brick walls, then sitting back and relaxing as your calculated (okay, sort of) trajectories play out until the ball runs out of bounce. Success might seem purely down to the whims of geometry and fate, but canny players can extend high scores by aiming to hit power-up bricks that afford boons such as bonus balls. An original twist on a classic - and just the sort of mechanical sideways glance we’d expect from a natural comedian(abre numa nova aba).

OUTWARD TRANSGRESSIONS#

by orionvalentine and IMpotantMINK

Estimated runtime: 35 mins

Raw, heavy, yet playful at every turn, Scarlet Lashes’ debut is a defiant supermodel strut of an album. Here are a group of musicians who appreciate that making great art is about inclusivity, about working with everything that you find beautiful or interesting, stitching together wub wub sax, wild synths (holy hell, those melodies on ‘Charlotte’s Ashes'!), strange vocal samples and driving basslines into coherence - and with style. Makes sense: Outward Transgressions is proudly queer, exploring what it is to be trans, and to intentionally form one’s own true identity. More generally, it’s a rangey, musical representation of the nuances and paradoxes that make us all individuals - it’s no accident, we suspect, that the (fabulously animated) menu screen is forever building a bionic figure, or that painted bodies in the animated music videos shift and pulse with abandon. Listening to this is like putting on the highest, spikiest, most powerful pair of stilettos in the universe. No beauty without pain. Get into it.

Those Childhood Summers#

by crazillo

Estimated playtime: 2 hours

Light as bubblegum and twice as sweet, this slice-of-life adventure is perfect for a long, hot day. You play as Sam, who’s reflecting on a happy summertime spent pottering about his small hometown, trading cards with friends, buying hotdogs and… floating around with the help of chewing gum that can bodily lift you off the ground when you blow bubbles? Yes, you’ll soon find that this rose-tinted version of Sam’s reality is different than most - but then, the power of nostalgia is a key theme throughout this tale. Crazillo conjures up long-forgotten memories through careful, thoughtful homages to much-loved ‘90s iconography, dialogue writing that feels believable and down-to-earth - as well as paying tribute to several Dreamiverse favourites.

The Biscuit Song#

by Walks-On-Sky

Estimated playtime:

Look, Walks-On-Sky. We’re sure your top-hatted, long-limbed, hollow-eyed lead character is a lovely chap (and we can’t deny he’s got great taste in jackets; that’s a powerful beige). Nevertheless, there’s something viscerally unsettling about ‘Mr Treacle’. Maybe it’s the way he moves. Maybe it’s the innocent subject matter of this Flash era-esque throwback juxtaposed with his void-like stare. Maybe it’s the way he can’t seem to keep his spoken-word poetry on beat, weaving unsteadily, uncannily across the metre as gigantic sentient wafers dive into pools and dance along in the background. Scarybiscuit, presumably you’re the expert on these matters: any ideas?

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!(abre numa nova aba)