But A Dream

Confront your nightmares

Link to a download the game

But A Dream was made by 5 designers in 10 weeks as their degree project for Futuregames. The project was built in Unreal Engine 5.0

How But A Dream came about was our fascination of horror games. Horror games always have this wonder of the unknown and feeling of the player wanting to leave the room. We didn't want to go for the Jump scare style of Horror like Five Nights at Freddy's but more towards the horror feeling. 

The feeling of uncomfortableness like Silent Hill & Resident Evil 7. These games showed the balance of fear and freight then guns blazing from Quake. 

Then why did we use dreams and shadows?

When coming up with ideas for our degree project, we remembered the fear we felt as kids when going to the toilet. The darkness, the shadows and often the tree branches from outside making it look like a hand. This feeling was mutual through the group, and you really started to reflect the feeling that Silent Hill showed in this experience.

We heard and read stories about peoples night terrors which also laid the ground work of the feeling we wanted for the player. The result became us wanting to have you play as a child and experience and hellish dream were shadows hunt you. Even as young adults, the game scared us, which was a very fun byproduct of our work.

Why night AND day?

The reason why we wanted both was the we wanted the horror of the house to speak for it self. We wanted to capture a story with the house in two different lights, the dark hell and the light safe haven. This made the house feel alive, and with the house remembering things like the door being opened, or a light being on, it created a living atmosphere through the house.

Which in turn made it even scarier and the story reflected a light in the day and darker in the night. Like the night was haunted, the day was good and comfortable. The result gave the story a real feeling of environmental story telling through which the house reflected in light, sounds and feel.

Why a flashlight to fight back the shadow monsters?

There are 3 reason why we used a flash light:

- A weapon doesn't seem fitting as a child, especially a gun

- A small lamp felt more interesting to what other games have done, and walking around with a flash light in the dark with weird sounds is very scary

- Light is always through story and history has always be described as a positive thing, light in the end of the tunnel, the warmth of the day and safety from the night creatures

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