Have you ever dreamed so vividly about your game that it gave you ideas? I''m not used to remembering my dreams, but over the past week I''ve had two very intense ones about an idea I''ve been kicking around forever. The strange thing was that I wasn''t looking at a monitor, but I was clearly using camera controls to pan around. The first dream was an RTS battle on a lunar plain. I saw monocycles, silver men and walking tanks firing red and white lasers at each other. I even saw the exact shape of a destroyed tank and monocycle, and the specific animation that went into making them collapse. I came away with 3 texture ideas and model ideas that I had not even thought of. The second dream I just woke up from: My dream had labeled in block letters "India 2054" and I swear was an artistic mix of Prince of Persia and Homeworld! In an almost 30 degree view I saw a world filled with dusty gold and amber light, cloudy with emerging stars. I kept flying a long circle in some kind of aircar, passing over sandstone buildings that stood shoulder to shoulder with buildings, loading cranes and landing bays all textured like riveted metal and painted in striped colors (just like Homeworld''s ships). Above all of this was a massive battle of zipping fighters and frigates, some of them which crashed into the buildings and even a 10 lane freeway filled with teardrop shaped cars. Again, I got modeling ideas and even a bit of a prototype view of camera controls. Isn''t that weird? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

Making these dreams come true is my ultimate goal. I see short clips, as if watching a trailer for the greatest games ever created in my head. They drive me and make me attempt to achieve.

- It''s a life''s work

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-ryan@lecherousjester.com

Honestly, I''ve never dreamt about a game I''m writing or an idea for one at that. I do a _lot_ of writing (espeically poetry and short prose), and I often dream of new stories and poems. I''ve even found myself waking up in the morning wondering why I''m so tired only to turn over a find a piece of scribbled paper with a story. As soon as I read my hardly legible handwriting, I feel as if I''m in that world. I can feel what it is I''m writing. Or I''ll dream of something and it will be so strong that I must write it, otherwise my entire day is shot.

I''ve called this the Soul of Writing, or basically that feeling you get when you read something or play a game that ''has it.'' You just can''t put it down because no matter the bugs and annoyances, the thing actually has a soul, a being. It is existant and you are drawn to it. It drives you to not only play, but to want to know more about it. You need to Know it, to understand it.

The best example would be Planescape Torment or Starcraft. I think anyone who''s played these games can understand what I mean. I think you can''t write a good game until the Soul of the Game exists. As far as i''m concerned, that''s where my weakness is. My games have no soul. But that''s just me.

''Fraid to say the dreams I''ve had have never helped me except as an inspiration, and sometimes they serve as a curse.

I''ve had nightmares -- In my dream, I have written the game I''ve always wanted to write, but lacked the time/knowledge/skills/money to do so. It''s beautiful, and people love it, and... I kid you not, I wake up in tears because I realize at that moment it''s just a dream.

What little bit I remember about the game from my dream makes absolutely no sense when seen in waking light. But in dream-logic, it was elegant, beautiful, stunning.

I dunno, maybe I''m just facing my own lack of confidence in my dreams.

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- 2D/Pixel Artist - 3D Artist - Game Programmer - Ulfr Fenris
[[ Gaping Wolf Software ]] [[ GameGenesis Forums ]]

Yeah, when these dreams occur, I usually get up and write them down. They are invaluable.

there are a bunch of exercises that you can do that are supposed to help you remember your dreams. And there are always lucid ddreams, if you believe in that sort of thing. A famous author once said that he did all his composing in lucid dreams, because he had the freedom of dreaming and the control of wakefulness, and found that he could be infinitely creative without any inhibition.

Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is conscious, and can exercise control over the dream, bringing intentionality into it and shaping it as he wishes. Many lucid dreamers (Oneironauts, some arrogantly call themselves) also believe in "astral projection", which is where the dream-self can get into the waking world and wander around, free of the body. That''s hippie crap, in my opinion.

I myself view lucid dreaming as an interesting neurological phenomenon, but I have to admit that I believe it really happens. I''ve had experiences that I can only describe as lucid dreams, and have found them to be very interesting indeed. Of course, it''s impossible to prove that they were in fact lucid dreams (Cartesian infinite regression gets in the way) but whether they fit the clinical definition or not, they''re no less interesting.

quote: Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is conscious, and can exercise control over the dream, bringing intentionality into it and shaping it as he wishes.

I have semi-lucid dreams. I can control most of the things I don''t like (by removing them from my dream if they pop up), but can''t intentionally insert things I do like. Just a few weeks ago though, I woke up in the middle of a dream, thought about what I would want to happen next, fell back asleep, and had what I wanted to happen, happen.

I can vividly remember about 2-3 dreams daily, and still remember dreams I had when I was a child. Perhaps I should study lucid dreams a bit more. A bit of practice may enable me to really control my dreams.

I kept a dream journal for about a month or so, and had about two lucid experiences a week during that time. I''ve become distracted with school and such, and haven''t even remembered a dream for a few weeks now, but I''m confident that if I returned to the effort I was putting into it before, I''d be able to recapture the experience. It''s fun, but I didn''t get the religious or spiritual experience that others have claimed to get. I attribute that to my more scientific approach to the phenomenon. If you convince yourself that it''s magic, I''m sure you''ll have more exciting times.

For more information, check out the lucidity institute at their website.

quote: Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
Many lucid dreamers (Oneironauts, some arrogantly call themselves) also believe in "astral projection", which is where the dream-self can get into the waking world and wander around, free of the body.

Oneironauts? Thanks, I''ll have to steal that and put it in my game.

quote:
I''ve had experiences that I can only describe as lucid dreams, and have found them to be very interesting indeed.

I have been aware that I am dreaming, but have never been able to control it. It would be great to be able to decide to experiment in dreams as a form of ultimate prototyping.



--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

quote: I have been aware that I am dreaming, but have never been able to control it. It would be great to be able to decide to experiment in dreams as a form of ultimate prototyping.

Yeah, that''s how I went into it, but instead of wild celebrity orgies and flying and eyeball lasers and spaceships, which many people experience, I was entirely too analytical about the whole thing, and wound up in dreams that consisted primarily of me trying to do impossible things. It was like that scene in Ghost, where Patrick Swayze was in the subway trying to move that bottlecap. I''d just stand in a big empty space and try to levitate a few inches off the ground, like it was something I had to practice. My first one was the best one, because I hadn''t read anythign about lucidity, and so I just pretended to have super-powers, and I did. That was cool. After that it was all experimentation and exercises that I designed with my dream journal in mind. I''m a total square.