Dreamview Weekly Roundup #45

The calendar has flipped over to Friday, the birds are singing in the trees, and the cats are sitting just below the birds, thinking horrible little thoughts. All this can only mean one thing: it’s time for the Dreamview Weekly Roundup, featuring five fine-feathered Dreams creations just begging to be gobbled up.

We’re just saying, maybe if someone actually took the time to teach these creatures to read, they might prefer a content-based diet like the rest of us. Not to say that bird blood is on your hands, but oops we already typed it. Anyway - get your whiskers around these fluffy morsels.

Paint Job#

by busterwackycrash

Last year’s One-Screen Jam was truly the gift that keeps on giving. How this top-25% entry escaped our notice, we’ll never know: Paint Job is a rare gem that somehow manages to encapsulate both the agony and the ecstasy of painting in a neatly-designed arcade game. While the animation, sound design and haptics of the rollers you fling convey the satisfying sensations of slapping colour down on something, the central mechanic of Paint Job represents the teeth-gritting anxiety of having to work precisely. You must use each of your throws to paint protective walls around you in order to deflect bouncing hazards - but hazards can replicate into multiple smaller, more erratic hazards. The difficulty ramps up throughout 30 levels, with more potential power-ups added to your roster, as you try to survive in an oddly serene bullet-hell of your own creation. Neat, unique, and surprisingly deep.

The Quest For Self-Confidence#

by Todu

By now, you may recognise Todu’s standout art style: it’s a kind of 2D-slash-3D block colour aesthetic, created solely using Dreams’ text gadgets. In innovative puzzler The Path Of Illusions, it facilitated a mechanic that hid or revealed information to the player depending on where they stood. But it has narrative uses, too: Todu’s recently started creating what we’d call “playable infographics”. The Quest For Self-Confidence is their most polished effort so far, showing a surprising evolution of this simple art style through smart camera movements and special effects. Often funny and sometimes quietly devastating, this is an on-the-nose but always earnest look at the anxieties of daily life through a gamified lens - building to an ending that plays with theme and form to elicit a bitter chuckle.

Mifune#

by ZIIQ

This one had us rubbing our eyes in disbelief like a cartoon idiot. That’s straight-up just a human right there. How’d you trap this poor samurai in our videogame, ZIIQ? Oh - turns out it’s actually a frighteningly accurate portrayal of celebrated Seven Samurai star Toshiro Mifune, from the wrinkles in his forehead, to the subtle 5 o’clock shadow, right down to the flyaways escaping from his pulled-back hair. If we saw this in a cutscene for a multi-million dollar triple-A videogame, we’d be impressed - but the fact that this was hand-carved and painted using Dreams’ sculpting tools has left us in awe. You’ve got to see this one for yourself, folks; make sure to check out the frankly mystifying levels of detail in a few different lights and filters by playing around with button combinations.

Wingsuit World#

by TheLOSToneNL

An oldie, but a goodie. Originally released back in the beta days of 2019, this Twin Brothers production flew back onto our radar via our curation’s recent ‘Above & Below” playlist. We are long-time wingsuit sim-enjoyers (if you haven’t played GrizzlyGames’ Superflight(在新分頁開啟), you really must - it’s one of our favourite examples of the genre) and so it’s little wonder we find this adrenaline-fuelled score-chaser compelling. It’s attention-to-detail and sheer imagination that really makes this interpretation soar, though. Austria is the sole map, but flying through it is a sight-seeing experience as well as a challenge: you’ll skim cliff faces to rack up points, dive into waterfalls and even attempt to swoop through a moving train on your quest to pop score-boosting balloons. All this, AND there’s the option to play in VR - a breathtaking experience that we’d recommend all virtual reality aficionados strap in for.

No Music#

by Desk_Drawer

You’re telling us a desk drew this cartoon? Said desk’s grasp of the rules of comedy are nearly as excellent as the one it apparently has on its controller. This characterful and efficient animated short tells the surprising tale of what happens when you try to call the Fun Police on a Certified Party Bee. Spoiler: nothing good! Apart from the hilarious hand-drawn expressions that result - Desk_Drawer’s depiction of how a furious bee might press a button is particularly amusing. Incidentally, if anyone figures out how we can convince our own desk to grow arms and produce high-quality jokes, send your letters to the usual address.

Want an easy way to view all of these creations in one convenient collection? Check out the playable edition of this week's Dreamview Weekly Roundup right here in Dreams!