A dream of a shovel and screens

I keep dreaming of non-existent games ._.

The setup (skippable intro)

It was a three-dream deal that night - one scene shifting into another. But the middle dream was the longest, and the most involved. And i really liked it! But first...
All started from a recurring theme that started appearing in my dreams a year ago or so. It starts with it being stated as a fact that i own a house. Just like that. It's not even consistent what house it is - it's kind of randomly generated every time. Pieces of that imaginary house get reused, so some of them appear similar, or even familiar. But it's never a real actual place, giving the impression that it must be "my house". If it was a real place, i'd have a chance to notice that it can't be mine, since i don't own that thing in real life.

So in this specific dream, it was implied that i was away for a while and missed my home. Which home? Both of them, somehow - which brought in flashbacks of this specific version of "my house in a dream". Dream narration had to elaborate on my troubled relation to that house, that is - i haven't visited it in a long time. So i went there, mostly to make sure my neighbors are keeping an eye on it. The dream struggled to keep the narrative up though. At one moment i was going there with my partner, a bottle of wine and home made cake, not to arrive empty handed. Then i was going there alone. And without skipping a beat, i wasn't going to visit the neighbors, but to check on the house itself.

And the final version was that it was dark already - not night, rather just something around 5PM in late november - so i was carrying a shovel for self-defense. Yup, a shovel.

The middle dream

The next dream started unannounced, by shifting the narrative away from the first one. I was walking there in the dark evening, armed with a shovel. I noticed a woman (early 20's or so, i'm gonna keep calling her "girl" as she never introduced herself in the dream) apparently going in the same direction but keeping her distance. With no thought behind it, i asked her if she's going to the same street - and here the dream conveniently glossed over the address that we both knew, but wasn't specified in the dream - and she confirmed, adding that she's scared to go there alone at night. I shared that i'm scared as well, that's what the shovel was for, and she seemed to believe that.

At that point the first dream was already over. I was no longer myself, walking to a house that i owned (in a dream only, of course), but to an apartment block. I was now some guy, an unspecified horror game protagonist - and the dream couldn't decide if i look closer to Leon from Resident Evils, or either Harry or James from Silent Hills. The girl was there of course, as the most important character of the dream, as it developed. But there was also a hostile hooded guy in that apartment block, that we somehow evaded and tried to avoid. So there was already a possible explanation of our - mine and the girl's - fears of going there unarmed or alone.

It wasn't stated directly, but heavily implied that i can't just confront the hooded guy directly. He was the kind of horror game moving obstacle that can't be stopped - only avoided or temporarily neutralized. At best i could keep him at a shovel length distance and, hehe, shove him away. Shove him through a doorway and lock the door from my side, to buy some time. Fortunately he wasn't running after me or anything - just walking.

The girl was nervous and never left my side. And as it turned out, it was an important mechanic of the game that this dream made up for me to play. We were making progress, moving towards the apartment that she needed to reach from memory but couldn't remember neither the floor nor its number. It was a game of hot and cold, with the protagonist's goal completely irrelevant until he made sure the girl reached her destination. So nice of him/me!

But as we moved closer and closer to the right place, the screens appeared. All rectangular surfaces - especially doors and doorways around us - changed into screens playing random scenes and making both audio and visual noise, all at the same time. I haven't focused on what's on the screens, but it was implied that a lot of them showed disturbing imagery, or complete nonsense. I focused on the girl, who was overwhelmed it and couldn't move, also stopping me in place. I - as the protagonist of the game - was not even considering to leave her alone. And there was an unseen timer to this, with the hooded guy slowly making its way around to where we were. The immediate problem to be solved was to calm down the girl.

And the more it think about it, the more i love the concept. It's not a horror where i was supposed to shoot a monster or sneak around to make progress. I was stuck in one place because of the protagonist's decision to help a stranger. I looked away from the screens and focused on the girl, that's how it was supposed to play out. By talking to her, i could help her calm down, and as she did, the screens slowly dimmed, and eventually disappeared. I wasn't seeing any kind of game interface for dialog choices, so it's up for interpretation - but the idea was to be empathetic, listen to her, and help her focus on something different than what made her upset. Or help her go through it. Whatever seemed more appropriate and effective at the moment. I love how in one of such moments, she shared how all the screaming screens remind her of that time she was in Tokyo with a friend (female friend - as dialogues in the dream were in Polish, which makes clear distinction between "kolega" and "koleżanka"). I, as the game's protagonist, replied that "i was also there with my wife, and she was also overwhelmed by noises everywhere". Which kind of happend to me and my partner in real life, which shows how much the dream was being inspired by my experiences.

After several "help the girl" sequences in different parts of the apartment block, and several close encounters with the hooded guy (each ending with shoving him through a doorway and locking the door), the protagonist was convinced he knows what apartment they were heading for. The girl had no idea how did he come to that conclusion. At that point, it was no longer first-person experience for me. And i assumend that if i made different dialogue choices, i might have witnessed the thought process behind guessing the apartment number. But even without it, the explanation was due to happen soon. They were in front of it - and the dream didn't really make it clear which number was it, but i'd guess it could be either 402 or 201. No idea why it feels correct to me.

So they were in front of it, but the girl stopped a few steps away from the door. Not with another panic attack, and the screens did not appear. It was not another time to calm her down. She asked, having decided that she needs to know, how did the guy with a shovel know the right number. Must have been a lot of dialogue options available in UI that i could not see in a dream, and i personally guessed that the reason was because he was going to the same apartment. But he did not say it. He avoided the answer. I assume that if the UI showed such an option to pick, the guy would say something else instead.

The hooded man caught up to them and offered his own explanation. Unsurprisingly, the protagonist was suspected of killing some woman (i think the dream said it was his wife, but i personally think it's way better for the story if it wasn't someone with such a close relation to him), and probably some major piece of evidence was somewhere in that apartment. But unlike in a certain classic horror game, the shovel man knew what he did. He had no memory loss, and even though he also saw the screaming screens, he had no trauma od deep regrets. He just wasn't going to admit it to anyone. What's unclear is if he knew the girl he was escorting this evening, or not. At this point it was clear he's not above lying. But how would he know her? Well... As the hooded man explained - she was the only witness of the crime, but due to the shock she was unable to testify and identify the killer.

So in the end, the good ending would depend on how well the player has helped her overcome the trauma throughout the game. Do a half-assed job and the door would change to a screaming screen, making her unable to go or speak. Be a good, empathetic, caring guy through your journey together, and she'd look at you and say "he did it". The good ending is when you don't get away with it.

The disconnected finale

All that about different endings i had to make up, as the dream only showed the plot up to the reveal. The rest, i was going through in my head in sort of a dream-in-a-dream segment. There, i was sitting behind a booth with my partner's prints and stickers at a convention while some drama was happening around. I was aware that something was going on, but wasn't paying attention, still clinging to the story of the middle dream. Fittingly, people around me were like the screaming screens from it. Eventually they got quieter and i was more or less done with the story of the shovel guy, his victim, his witness, and the hooded detective trailing them. That's when i said "Sorry hon, i was playing a game in my head. What did i miss? How can i help?"

And that was the end of this trio of dreams. With another non-existent game i'd love to play in the middle of them.

I'll just leave some notes on my headcanons and dream behind-the-scenes to finish it off:

• First things first, the shovel is definitely not random. It was the weapon of choice of my OC - the original "Ecter", who i just completely appropriated my current nickname from. Ecter's story also included a murder from the past, but - once again, unlike a certain horror game - it was not his wife :T
• Shovel guy in this dream's game probably wasn't even afraid of someone in the dark, but was specifically suspecting someone to be investigating the murder and tailing him.
• But i don't think he recognized the witness. He most probably could only connect the dots at the end, when he figured out they're looking for the same apratment.
• After waking up i near immediately thought about accessibility options for the game, given the recurring mechanic of being surrounded by flashing screens. So...
  • At that moment i thought that the best way to do it would be to give a disclaimer at the start saying that "This game is definitely not suitable with photosensitive people. Please ask someone to play through it with you without showing you the screen."
  • Not a good solution, for sure! But on the other hand, at that moment my reasoning behind it was that the screaming screens were supposed to be overwhelming for the player, and giving everyone an option to reduce the visual effects would work against it. But then, you can also just mute the audio during such moments and rely on subtitles, so... I'm not convinced what'd work better. Now with a clearer mind, i think i'd probably decide to give an option to reduce the flashing.
  • But still, the idea of playing the game for a friend with disability, given the main mechanic in the game itself, fits so well thematically! I like the idea, but forcing it on players would be kind of a dick move! Definitely a suggested way to do it, but not a requirement.
• Either way, i thought that screaming screens scenes should not be jump scares. I imagined there being TV static noise growing louder as you approached the next screens spot. That'd also give you a chance to "close your eyes" (note below) before they start flashing.
  • And i like the anticipation of it happening again and having to follow the noise rather than avoid it - because that's how you make progress in the game. Like having to go throught the Witch in Left4Dead.
• Just as i was closing my eyes during screaming screens moments, i think there should be a "close your eyes" button in the game. Leaving only subtitles and dialog choices visible. With maybe only minor flickering on the edges to monitor the progress even with closed eyes.

Oh, and by the way: It's impossible that i'd ever turn it into a real game. I'm not a gamedev ._. It'd be neat if it was real, but, uhh, most of games that my dreams make up, i can't create myself :/