I prefer to live my dreams than dreaming my life. Yes it could be great to see your "dream" game coming true. Well.. there is no secret. Make it happen
You should always write your game design ideas, it will serve you well in the future. If an idea isn''t fitting well in the game you are working on, keep it for another one. Forcing an idea into a game is never a good idea (Undead as Horde in World of WarCraft?).
I''ve had a few lucid dreams in my life time. The only real difference is the first part of the dream is set and the point I go lucid is just like daydreaming.
For some reason dreams that I remember but don''t go lucid in are much more creative and feel more real. I have come to the conclution that any modifications of the dream can come after the fact while you are awake.
AP, you''ve stumbled upon the edge of an interesting theory regarding dreaming. My favorite theory of dreams is that they are in fact entirely formulated at the moment of awakening. During sleep, the cerebral cortex (the bumpy outside that is held responsible in large part for consciousness) is mostly dormant, and the subcortical structures (thalamus, amygdala, you''ve heard all their names before) are still fairly active.
What happens (supposedly) is that a bunch of events and stimuli that are similar to sensory input are generated in various parts of the brain and shoot through these subcortical structures, but don''t pass through the cerebral cortex, which is why you''re unaware of them. When you awaken, the cortex "reboots", and it gets a big chunk of this "stimulus queue" that''s built up during REM sleep. It comes too fast to be processed in detail or put effectively into memory, and so you experience it as a quick series of impressions and weak deja vu-style memories, as the stimuli rocket through your neural network and activate various similar things.
In a lucid dream, you just get the cortex to "wake up" a little bit DURING the REM sleep phase, and so it can process the stimuli in real time (making for more memorable dreams) and in some cases it can output new patterns to the subcortical structures, which in turn shape the inputs from them. So it''s just like imagining, but without actual sensory input to remind you what''s "real", you enter a hallucinogenic state, much akin to the experience of being in a sensory deprivation chamber, and the imaginary "dream reality" is asserted as though it were real.
That''s my understanding of one theory of dreaming.
I''ve found that it can become quite easy to enduce dreams. A long time ago, I used to sleep while playing storm & rain sound effect music. I started noticing that it was always raining in my dreams.
Later on, I started creating my own sound effect music tracks. The first part of it would be about 45 minutes of rain, then it would realistically change to another theme. Anything that is constant and not too "alarming". For example, it would be hard to enduce a lazer fire-fight dream, because the sounds would probably wake you up. And sometimes the dream doesn''t follow your instructions. For example, I once made a "forest in the night" track, which had bugs and such making noises. Instead, I dreamed about a giant misquito trying to kill me.
That sounds really interesting! I''ve known for quite a while that sounds in reality can affect your dreams, and that they often incorporate themselves seamlessly. For instance, if a bright light shines into your eyes (and it doesn''t wake you), it may appear in your dream as headlights or something. I''ve never thought of trying to take advantage of this fact, though! I must try this!
Slightly more on topic, I''ve never dreamt about my games, but I''ve gotten countless ideas from dreams. For instance, there have been many occasions where I''m dreaming I''m in some city or something, and I can remember it so vividly when I wake up. I''ve gotten ideas for characters, or types of characters too. For instance, I dreamt once of a unique city geared towards tourists, but they had a brutal police force who were very kind towards tourists, but wouldn''t hesitate to slaughter locals for mild disobedience or even just getting on their nerves. I had a very clear image of what they looked like, so when I woke up I drew a few sketches so that I wouldn''t forget. The city even had a name which I can remember to this day!
It''s dreams like this that give me many of my creative ideas.
Also, there was one time I was stumped on a CS assignment for like a week, I just couldn''t figure out what was wrong with my program. One night I dreamt of the solution. I tried it the next morning, and, lo and behold, it worked!!
