Day 1, Morning.
Dear Devlog,
Hopes are high. You can probably tell from the title of the game that I found a way to incorporate the "dreams" theme. It's also a reminder for myself. Every frowning donkey wants to grow up to be a smiling, honey eating, carefree bear. Anyway, I was brainstorming what I could do and I figured my first game can be a bit of a mess. It's OK if I don't have the polish as long as I create a foundation for myself so I know how to do things in the future.
Let's review our game plan before starting out.
Mechanics:
I Dream of Heroics will be split into two "phases", reality phase and dream phase. I hope to make these two drastically different in visuals so players can understand when they're "dreaming" and when they're not (or maybe I should blur those boundaries for a proper mind-bending experience...).
In the reality phase, the player will make choices that affect their dream phase. For example, players can only increase their stats and/or skills in the reality phase.
As the player drifts off into sleep, they get to make a choice. Do I dream of being an intelligent wizard? A brave knight? A crafty rogue? Their selection determines their ability to interact with the environment in the dream.
In the dream phase, the player will face various types of dreams. Each dream can be considered a mini-game with some kind of goal. (In)Completion of the dream will affect the reality phase. I want these to be more stereotypical dreams.
The first one I'll work on will be the "falling" dream. The player will fall toward the ground which (sadly or thankfully) continues to move away. I'll keep the goal here simple and just have the player try to move through as many rings as possible.
Story:
Do I look like a storywriter? No. I'm a donkey. I don't have much of an idea for the story yet. It's a little difficult to find a proper "reality phase" motivation for the "dream phase" actions. While story should never come last...it's coming last. Like I said earlier, I would rather have a silly project that gives me lots of know-how than to pump out a very polished game that lacks content.
Let's see how far this goes,
Frowning Asinus