Perchance to dream

by anne-ogborn

co-authored: @aquasheep3000, @lonerabbit, @nikolaus, @blueloveth, @hankworx

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.79

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.71

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.81

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.70

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★1.93

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.39

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.15

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.35

To die.
To sleep.
Perchance to dream -

Ay, there's the rub!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.

You wake up. You are dead. You float up out of your lifeless body and see you are a ghost. Welcome to Perchance to Dream, an interactive text-adventure where you must dig deeper and deeper into dreams of dreams of dreams to find your long lost lover and say goodbye, something that haunts you even in death. Well fear not, dear player, Perchance to Dream is filled with active dreamers, slumbering peacefully just waiting for you to haunt their dreams. Take back the life that was stolen from you; fulfill your destiny; or just you know troll around in a bunch of rando's dreams. You're a ghost. Do what you want. And who knows, if you go deep enough, you just might meet your lover in the dream world and make up for lost time...

Written in (SWI-Prolog)

http://swi-prolog.org

Python, Javascript, HTML, CSS.

Sources at

https://github.com/SWI-PrologTeamLudumDare32/LudumDare48

Hamlet cover image source courtesy Sir Laurence Olivier

Listen to the soundtrack.

Play on your phone

Play it on the web (link below).

===

- Re-added Teeth on a Date dream, which had been accidentally left out at the last-minute.
- Fixed some dream exits, which caused the game to stop
- Attempted fix for First Kiss Dream

Comments19

wizard sino26 Apr 2021, 13:51

Fun! I got something of a early MSPA feel from the writing? like jailbreak and suchforth.

isthatyounoah26 Apr 2021, 17:18

Some cool feelings and setup, would love to see more weight to my choices or surprise endings

Anne Ogbornauthor26 Apr 2021, 21:27

thanks - we've been working the last few hours, there's lots more content imported and sound and a bunch of broken stuff fixed

Tush4r27 Apr 2021, 12:41

The game might not have cool graphics but the gameplay is decent and it's awesome.

Skye S27 Apr 2021, 13:14

First of all, hat off to the legends who made a jam game in prolog.
The occasional burst of music can be a bit shocking but was never unwelcome. The splotch graphics are a tad off, maybe this game would have worked better with only the text?
I love the writing of this. Theme-wise it is one of the canonical ideas for this jam but the best rendition of that idea that I have seen yet. Great job!

Drew Long27 Apr 2021, 13:21

Some text changes to fast! I can't read so fast! :smile:

Aquasheep300027 Apr 2021, 15:06

@drew-long I understand. We kept it short so the transitions wouldn't take too long for short text, and we ran out of time to make it variable. Definitely a top-priority for a post-jam edition we hope to work on.

intrepidhero29 Apr 2021, 12:06

Hahahaha! This was awesome. I think every scene made me laugh out loud. The timing of the transitions was a little odd. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I needed to wait or click the other choice. Maybe have the buttons disappear or grey out after clicking while the next paragraph is displayed. I was ok with the speed of the text but a fade in and then a "continue" button is probably more accessible. Also needs more Sir Olivier. ;-)

It loads fast and looks slick. Very well done!

DivFord29 Apr 2021, 12:12

Going deeper and deeper into dreams is a good idea. Normally I'd complain that buttons didn't always work, or that the text disappeared too quickly, but to be honest, it kind of feels right for a dream. That feeling of being slightly confused and out of control is very dreamlike.

cdunham1 May 2021, 05:04

This game is a trip lol I was utterly confused the entire time I played it. Seemed like I was jumping between different realities where nothing ever made any sense. Fun to read random stuff for a bit, though none of it seemed that cohesive. The text flew by too fast more than a few times, so I couldn't even read all the text anyway. Cool, unique experience for this jam.

Aquasheep30001 May 2021, 16:50

@intrepidhero Thank you for the feedback! Happy to hear you had a good and chaotic time.

Aquasheep30001 May 2021, 16:53

@cdunham and @divford The dreams are definitely random as intended and we had some surprises with the buttons not working (fixed a couple so far). As for the speed, we did not reach variable speed in time for the jam, but it would help in the future. We're glad you both enjoyed it for the chaotic trip it is.

OldDog3 May 2021, 09:07

nice game idea, I hope I have enough time to finish this game :smile:

Alessandra4 May 2021, 22:29

Really love the storyline and evolving plots. Was also funny! Great job with the soundtrack although I had some issues getting it to play at the outset. It might be cool to add more abstract floating graphics in a future build that are relevant to the current question/options.

sorlok4 May 2021, 23:16

Never thought I'd see a game in Prolog. The core interface was good, but for some reason the text would re-wrap sometimes (words jumping up or down 1 line). In addition, it would be great to have a font size slider in-game. Some of the very big blocks of text faded out too fast. But overall those are minor interface issues. I like the general writing and the concept, and it certainly fit the theme. Good job!

Neowedge9 May 2021, 12:19

Good story, but texts dissappear too much quickly! I recommend not hide them automatically. Anyway, congrats!

blobo11 May 2021, 20:52

You gotta love a good ol' text based adventure. I like the misty puffs of steam rising around the edges of the screen. The music is a nice touch too! I really liked the story, though some of the buttons didn't seem to work. Nice game!

ditam12 May 2021, 11:35

A very interesting concept with clearly a lot of content. I liked the non-literal take on the theme too. Sadly the glitched out buttons kept me from exploring too much of it. Audio also didn't seem to work for me in the HTML5 build. (I can see in the dev console that the request for `main.mp3` returns a 500 error.)

Probably the first ever game I saw written in Prolog, so extra kudos for that!

NoobDude16 May 2021, 11:45

I have not played a text adventure game in a while, really niceley done too, it could be improved as some of the time my actions were not registered.