Dreams of Reality 2

BLink · May 30, 2014

Dreams Of Reality 2

-Strange Encounters Within-

Dreams of Reality 2 is a sequel to the game Dreams of Reality. Originally planned as an April Fools mod, it grew into a more serious and larger-scale production as development went on.

Unlike the silly and minute-long precedent, this mod focuses more on elements of mystery and atmosphere rather than cheap horror gimmicks. With many peculiar ASM hacks, 7 separate ending paths (with variations of some endings), along with hidden trinkets here and there, it's an adventure of challenge and observation.

- No unfair jumpscares.
- No overly-horrible endings. (for the most part)
- No Ballos.

-=Why I did what I did and why I didn't do what I didn't do=-

This mod is my singe greatest project I have ever completed as of the games launch, but, I would like to state that this mod is made without much rhyme and reason to it. Yes, it is orderly, but not very uniform outside of the level design itself. I made this mod because I wanted to make it. I see it as in it's current state as not perfect, but close to it. All the elements included in the game that you wish to ask question about, I will simply reply, "It's because I wanted to do that". That's it. I have been wanting to do something like this for a long time, make something worthwhile myself, and now I have finally done that. I put my best foot forward and made something I can call special and meaningful to, and for, myself.

To put it simply, I made this game for myself, to achieve something. A goal I have now passed and can look back as something I put my full effort into.
If you enjoy the content in this game, then that's just fine. If you didn't then that's still just fine with me.

Screenies: (so you will actually try the thing)

Download the game here and be sure to give feedback of your experience! (hey, it's 90% of why I made the game originally)

Also: The mod's plot (what little there is) Is fairly poorly written. I've started to grow sick of the project, so the true ending has been slightly rushed so that I can move on to other stuff. (this is what happens when you combine a mini-mod with over ambition and a sprinkle of ASM and a hard worker).

As soon as everyone discovers everything about everything in this game (It shouldn't take /that/ long for all you smart people), I'll release the source code to my custom hacks. Take it as a free gift for all you modders out there.

Yinga · May 30, 2014

cat said:
notice that i deleted my message because dunc is always right

*cough*Metroid*cough*
But that's for some other time...

I've actually been anticipating this for some time, at least since Enlightened released that trailer on his channel about a week ago.
Well, best to try it out, I'll post feedback, once I've gotten a chance to really settle in.

Spirit · May 30, 2014

I played through a bit of it. I'm probably never going to again.
Here's what I have though:

*warning spoilers*

Keeping this for Dreams of Reality 2.

http://prntscr.com/3nwqgt WOW
Let's start.

ESC? oh, escape. duh

http://prntscr.com/3nwqn0 IT'S LIKE IT KNOWS

"Do you have this game running in fullscreen?"
>No
"Good,"
WHAT

http://prntscr.com/3nwqsy
http://prntscr.com/3nwqto
http://prntscr.com/3nwqua
It's like...it knows...
Also it wants me to post it in the thread.
...fudge.

http://prntscr.com/3nwqz1
IT'S LIKE IT KNOWS

http://prntscr.com/3nwr10
we can do that in other ways ehehe...like Mario Kart 8...eheh...

...
this game speaks to me on an ethereal level.

THIS GAME BREAKS PRIVACY RULES

...this game is like a senpai...wow. "Felt felt felt"
;w;

http://prntscr.com/3nwra8
Typos for the win

Dreams of Reality 2 sounds like a horror game. Ouch.

http://prntscr.com/3nwril
Probably not really fun, huh.

AND NOW IT LEAVES ME ALONE
GAME-SENPAI WHY

...find all 7? Nah how about 1 being recorded here and then the rest found privately?

"You approach the mansion" bro this is a horror game fudge

"the mooon looks absolutely beautiful" GOD DAMN IT GAME-SENPAI YOU'RE CHEATING ON ME

And now we play.

Which door...LEFT!

...wait they're the same. Fudge.

I FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR
WHAT

parkour skills for the win

...I'm...cut off?
http://prntscr.com/3nwsdb
MUST BE SECRET ENTRANCE

...I fell through the floor again...

...and then a maze. Wow. Confusion to the max.

Bad jumpscares for the win.

Fudge man. Keep dying.

Gotta advoid the drop.

...so I could have advoided the mansion. Huh.

...there's a cavern underneath...

I can't seem to reach it. Back to the Mansion.

JESUS
THE WALL APPEARED ON IT'S OWN
THANKS WALL

zzzZZZZZZZZ
THE SONIC.EXE ENDING
FUCK FUCK
I'M SWEARING ENDLESSLY NOW
JESUS THAT WAS JUST
SURPRISING

Oh right I'm doing this.
Well I jumped over the hole...

Three ways to go...
http://prntscr.com/3nwtyd
Let's go up first.

Now through the door.

There's more up, actually. Not through the door. More up.

http://prntscr.com/3nwuim
Well this isn't bad, no totally not.

*ragequits*
Oh my god oh my god oh my god
nope done with that shit.

As I've said, I hate you forever Bombchu.
>jkjkjk

BLink · May 30, 2014

Spiritga said:
I played through a bit of it. I'm probably never going to again.
Here's what I have though:

*warning spoilers*

Keeping this for Dreams of Reality 2.

http://prntscr.com/3nwqgt WOW
Let's start.

ESC? oh, escape. duh

http://prntscr.com/3nwqn0 IT'S LIKE IT KNOWS

"Do you have this game running in fullscreen?"
>No
"Good,"
WHAT

http://prntscr.com/3nwqsy
http://prntscr.com/3nwqto
http://prntscr.com/3nwqua
It's like...it knows...
Also it wants me to post it in the thread.
...fudge.

http://prntscr.com/3nwqz1
IT'S LIKE IT KNOWS

http://prntscr.com/3nwr10
we can do that in other ways ehehe...like Mario Kart 8...eheh...

...
this game speaks to me on an ethereal level.

THIS GAME BREAKS PRIVACY RULES

...this game is like a senpai...wow. "Felt felt felt"
;w;

http://prntscr.com/3nwra8
Typos for the win

Dreams of Reality 2 sounds like a horror game. Ouch.

http://prntscr.com/3nwril
Probably not really fun, huh.

AND NOW IT LEAVES ME ALONE
GAME-SENPAI WHY

...find all 7? Nah how about 1 being recorded here and then the rest found privately?

"You approach the mansion" bro this is a horror game fudge

"the mooon looks absolutely beautiful" GOD DAMN IT GAME-SENPAI YOU'RE CHEATING ON ME

And now we play.

Which door...LEFT!

...wait they're the same. Fudge.

I FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR
WHAT

parkour skills for the win

...I'm...cut off?
http://prntscr.com/3nwsdb
MUST BE SECRET ENTRANCE

...I fell through the floor again...

...and then a maze. Wow. Confusion to the max.

Bad jumpscares for the win.

Fudge man. Keep dying.

Gotta advoid the drop.

...so I could have advoided the mansion. Huh.

...there's a cavern underneath...

I can't seem to reach it. Back to the Mansion.

JESUS
THE WALL APPEARED ON IT'S OWN
THANKS WALL

zzzZZZZZZZZ
THE SONIC.EXE ENDING
FUCK FUCK
I'M SWEARING ENDLESSLY NOW
JESUS THAT WAS JUST
SURPRISING

Oh right I'm doing this.
Well I jumped over the hole...

Three ways to go...
http://prntscr.com/3nwtyd
Let's go up first.

Now through the door.

There's more up, actually. Not through the door. More up.

http://prntscr.com/3nwuim
Well this isn't bad, no totally not.

*ragequits*
Oh my god oh my god oh my god
nope done with that shit.

As I've said, I hate you forever Bombchu.
>jkjkjk

thank you thank you thank you thank you

this is EXACTLY what I wanted to see from the fruits of my labor.

Spirit · May 30, 2014

I think you're lying to me.
Anyways I plan on playing it again but by livestreaming it
cause
you know
strength in numbers and whatnot.

~~

LIVESTREAMING RIGHT NOW
http://www.livestream.com/spurspurstream

Haha I lied, Bombchu had to go to bed so...^~^;

duncathan · May 30, 2014

he's not gonna be able to see it bro, work on your timing

Spirit · May 30, 2014

I know bro, I just shut it down. Maybe tomorrow.

JonSpider · May 30, 2014

So, I think I'll be streaming the half-official Jenn Edition version of this sometime at 12PM PST. Might as well give a notice. I have nothing else to do here for Summer Vacation.

Goerge Bobicles · May 30, 2014

MY FACE!!!

this is really creepy, but this is probably one of the best mods I've ever played.

Polar✪ · May 30, 2014

Spoilerss

Eh, sonic.exe isn't really very scary. Kinda silly for you to use sonic-related things at all.

Also

I mashed the jump and shoot buttons with Toroko as hard as I could, but I couldn't stop it...is it possible to stop it, or is the game lying to me?

HaydenStudios · May 30, 2014

Very fun mod, Bombchu. I really enjoyed it. It had a creepy and intentionally nonsensical style that made for quite an amusing experience. Heavily inspired by SONIC.EXE, I can tell. It gave you a surprise every few minutes at longest, and never hesitated to punish curiosity with a gruesome death.

I liked that wrapping effect you had for that ramp downstairs. It might have helped look more convincing if you had Quote spawn just one more tile to the left, though, since in its current state you can see Quote when he respawns at the left side, which cheapens the illusion just a bit. I really liked the false sense of caution you instilled in the player on the path for the demon Curly, what with those unstable looking platforms that you have to regularly walk on, and the gun in the Curly boss fight that doesn't actually hurt you.

I like what you did there with the demon Sonic killing you in the cave. It's cool how it gets redder as he approaches you. It would've been cool if Quote got redder as well. I'm actually surprised you didn't do this, seeing as how you went to the trouble to do something much like this in SS with the mushroom cavern with Sue getting darker. Also, nice touch with the demon Sonic appearing at the main menu after getting killed by him under those circumstances.

I also really liked that room where it's actually possible to escape from the demon Sonic. I like how the fact that you're getting chased by demon Sonic makes you tense and more prone to messing up on some of the tedious jumps. Those double doors that lead you to the room where demon Sonic chases you and you escape. Was it on purpose that the sides of the doors that they transport you to are switched around?

I'm wondering the same thing as PolarStarGames as far as the Toroko boss is concerned. I'm a pretty good button masher, but I still wasn't able to save myself even after three tries.

Anyway, here are a few typos I found:
- "WARNING: Dreams or Reality 2..."
- "I can tell that you are eager, or nervious..."
- "But... Robot's don't have souls..."

So let's see. You say there are 7 endings. What exactly counts as an ending? A place where it tells you it's the end, a situation where you're faced with a jumpscare at the end, a situation where you have a dramatic death, or any situation in which you die? I'm guessing the first three are valid, but I'm not sure about the last. Here are the endings I've found:

1. Getting killed by demon Sonic in the cave
2. Encountering George Bobicles
3. Letting the Demon Curly head touch you and get greeted by that little jumpscare
4. Defeat the Curly boss and make it out
5. Getting telekinetically sacrificed by Toroko via some demonic ritual
6. Getting killed by demon Sonic when it's possible to escape from him? This probably isn't one

I am aware there's some stuff I've missed. I never figured out the significance of the save point that appears in the fireplace, or the shadow Quote that appears on one of the upper levels that you follow most of the way back down. I also never did figure out how to reach that door at the top left corner of the mansion. I probably won't invest the time necessary to figure this all out.

Overall, great work Bombchu, this pretty much lived up to my expectations. How long exactly did it take you to make this?

JonSpider · May 30, 2014

Just to let you know, I'm going to be streaming in about half an hour. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

http://www.livestream.com/spidersstreams?t=171482

Edit: About to stream right now

Aar · May 30, 2014

I'll probably be streaming this after everyone else
I won't be watching any of the streams, I wanna play it blind

BLink · May 30, 2014

HaydenStudios said:
Very fun mod, Bombchu. I really enjoyed it. It had a creepy and intentionally nonsensical style that made for quite an amusing experience. Heavily inspired by SONIC.EXE, I can tell. It gave you a surprise every few minutes at longest, and never hesitated to punish curiosity with a gruesome death.

Thank you! (for the record I haven't played Sonic.exe)

I liked that wrapping effect you had for that ramp downstairs. It might have helped look more convincing if you had Quote spawn just one more tile to the left, though, since in its current state you can see Quote when he respawns at the left side, which cheapens the illusion just a bit. I really liked the false sense of caution you instilled in the player on the path for the demon Curly, what with those unstable looking platforms that you have to regularly walk on, and the gun in the Curly boss fight that doesn't actually hurt you.

I didn't notice that, also curly does shoot bullets....rarely.

I like what you did there with the demon Sonic killing you in the cave. It's cool how it gets redder as he approaches you. It would've been cool if Quote got redder as well. I'm actually surprised you didn't do this, seeing as how you went to the trouble to do something much like this in SS with the mushroom cavern with Sue getting darker. Also, nice touch with the demon Sonic appearing at the main menu after getting killed by him under those circumstances.

I was lazy. (I was trying to get the WAV to work properly instead)

I also really liked that room where it's actually possible to escape from the demon Sonic. I like how the fact that you're getting chased by demon Sonic makes you tense and more prone to messing up on some of the tedious jumps. Those double doors that lead you to the room where demon Sonic chases you and you escape. Was it on purpose that the sides of the doors that they transport you to are switched around?

~~Yeah, it was for the last door to catch you off guard.~~

No, it wasn't.

I'm wondering the same thing as PolarStarGames as far as the Toroko boss is concerned. I'm a pretty good button masher, but I still wasn't able to save myself even after three tries.

No, it was so I can laugh at them during streams and keep the player tense instead of them being like "oh well I died".

Anyway, here are a few typos I found:
- "WARNING: Dreams or Reality 2..."
- "I can tell that you are eager, or nervious..."
- "But... Robot's don't have souls..."

I'll fix that one all the bugs are discovered.

So let's see. You say there are 7 endings. What exactly counts as an ending? A place where it tells you it's the end, a situation where you're faced with a jumpscare at the end, a situation where you have a dramatic death, or any situation in which you die? I'm guessing the first three are valid, but I'm not sure about the last. Here are the endings I've found:

1. Getting killed by demon Sonic in the cave
2. Encountering George Bobicles
3. Letting the Demon Curly head touch you and get greeted by that little jumpscare
4. Defeat the Curly boss and make it out
5. Getting telekinetically sacrificed by Toroko via some demonic ritual
6. Getting killed by demon Sonic when it's possible to escape from him? This probably isn't one

Actually more (if you include minor variations it's 13 endings)

1 yep
2 yep
3 nope
4 yep
5 yep
6 nope

you've found the easiest endings, (and the easiest variations of the endings at that).

I am aware there's some stuff I've missed. I never figured out the significance of the save point that appears in the fireplace, or the shadow Quote that appears on one of the upper levels that you follow most of the way back down. I also never did figure out how to reach that door at the top left corner of the mansion. I probably won't invest the time necessary to figure this all out.

Oh you have no idea.... *grins*

actually everything you discovered only took about 2 weeks to make, (the boss I finally got around to finishing after a month and Toroko part came on later)

it's the rest of the game that has most the good stuff

aww, you really should finish it, or at least find the true ending.

Overall, great work Bombchu, this pretty much lived up to my expectations. How long exactly did it take you to make this?

Thank you very much, (It didn't quite live up to mine)

It took three months (approx 350 hours, and a lot of good music while working) I started on it the beginning of march (the 7th I think?)

Me and my over-ambition

I am officially done with this outside of fixing bugs.

JonSpider · May 30, 2014

Oi....I...don't really know what to think of this experiment.

I can understand the whole feeling of emptiness with the lack of music and other things, but most of the time in my little stream of it, fiddling about trying to find the next ending or so, it just felt like a bore. Sometimes things just got a bit -too- empty. At least give some environmental or maybe mood-setting music.

The other problem was finding the other, harder endings in general. I spent a good few minutes checking around stuff in the mansion before I found a bookshelf that lead to the endless staircase. I'm sorry I didn't notice that the few pixels on this 'booshelf' was a slightly different color than that of the dozens of other booshelfs in the place.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Booster until you told me, much less the path to it in a place that is confirmed to have pits with instant-death spikes in it and seemingly no escape unless you go in this one specific pit and find out you can hold the wall to your right to phase through.

There was no indication of such a path being there. Yes, I know it and the booshelf were supposed to be hidden, I suppose, but even then, you need to give hits to the player that they're there. Otherwise you're just really stuck with the choice of having to press down on everything in the hope of finding something different in this really desolate and flat mansion.

Despite my problems with the design of the place and the lack of save points to make getting through such things as beating Sonic's little obstacle course or retracing my steps to get the blessing of flight, I can at least appreciate the little bouts of spectacle here and there you did with the NPC's, but that's really all I can give. Things are a bit too few and far between that I wasn't really engaged or at least intrigued or entertained.

The main reason for me stopping before I beat the game 100% was the lack of a reset feature or save points. No save points at all in this place. And admittedly, you won't need them for the easiest endings I suppose. It's just when you go for the harder ones does this become noticeable. I have to look for the pit with the blessing of flight, go through a booster challenge, go get the White Cross after unskippable mini-cutscenes, go through the endless staircase once again, go through the mini-maze, then try to get past the duck room and pray to not die.

Getting to the Duck Room itself took me three minutes at my fastest time. It doesn't sound bad, but when you mess up and have to do everything all over again, it gets grating. Fast.

The worst part is, because apparently you did not test this enough, when I entered the door to apparently leave the Duck Room, the game crashed. You needed to test this more, Bombchu. I ended up quitting right there because that was the last straw.

BLink · May 30, 2014

JonSpider said:
Oi....I...don't really know what to think of this experiment.

I can understand the whole feeling of emptiness with the lack of music and other things, but most of the time in my little stream of it, fiddling about trying to find the next ending or so, it just felt like a bore. Sometimes things just got a bit -too- empty. At least give some environmental or maybe mood-setting music.

The other problem was finding the other, harder endings in general. I spent a good few minutes checking around stuff in the mansion before I found a bookshelf that lead to the endless staircase. I'm sorry I didn't notice that the few pixels on this 'booshelf' was a slightly different color than that of the dozens of other booshelfs in the place.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Booster until you told me, much less the path to it in a place that is confirmed to have pits with instant-death spikes in it and seemingly no escape unless you go in this one specific pit and find out you can hold the wall to your right to phase through.

There was no indication of such a path being there. Yes, I know it and the booshelf were supposed to be hidden, I suppose, but even then, you need to give hits to the player that they're there. Otherwise you're just really stuck with the choice of having to press down on everything in the hope of finding something different in this really desolate and flat mansion.

Despite my problems with the design of the place and the lack of save points to make getting through such things as beating Sonic's little obstacle course or retracing my steps to get the blessing of flight, I can at least appreciate the little bouts of spectacle here and there you did with the NPC's, but that's really all I can give. Things are a bit too few and far between that I wasn't really engaged or at least intrigued or entertained.

The main reason for me stopping before I beat the game 100% was the lack of a reset feature or save points. No save points at all in this place. And admittedly, you won't need them for the easiest endings I suppose. It's just when you go for the harder ones does this become noticeable. I have to look for the pit with the blessing of flight, go through a booster challenge, go get the White Cross after unskippable mini-cutscenes, go through the endless staircase once again, go through the mini-maze, then try to get past the duck room and pray to not die.

Getting to the Duck Room itself took me three minutes at my fastest time. It doesn't sound bad, but when you mess up and have to do everything all over again, it gets grating. Fast.

The worst part is, because apparently you did not test this enough, when I entered the door to apparently leave the Duck Room, the game crashed. You needed to test this more, Bombchu. I ended up quitting right there because that was the last straw.

yeah...

I'm gonna take down the link until I fix the bugs.

E: mod works now, get it in the OP

Polar✪ · May 31, 2014

Downloaded the updated version.

You clip through the floor in the very first room.

Tpcool · May 31, 2014

Just posting some very (very) scattered reactions to my first time playing. Probably won't be of any use.

First playthrough, begin. Nice atmosphere with the moon, it looks really nice. Going to the left... still going to the left... oh jeez haha wow that's funny! OK trying again. Oh wow it's him on the title screen now haha how did he get up there. In the mansion... oof shoulda jumped ok nin this cave looking structure what now. what the heck, it's goerge??? oh umm ok let's try again. Jumping over the cracked blocks and going through the first set of doors... wow here's some platoforming ok let's do this. ah, these last set of blocks appear to be transparent, i bet i'll go right through them if i try to- oh wait no they're not transparent it just lost its black color ok let's go through the door. oh WOW a room of quotes what do they make creepy faces when i search that's weird. trying to align all of the quotes to the exit door for some reason oh cool a save disk- oh no message ok i bet that's nothing to worry about. oh jeez there's a quote under me. ok edge-jumping over that spike and oh good the floor doesn't crumble i'm alive and well next door. ok room with curly uh what ok fight time wow that was easy. (took me a good ten seconds to realize that I had control as she was malfunctioning.) oh jeez pffhaha what's going on oh man ok just leave the room oh fine ok i'm dead alright. let's go into the last pair of doors in the mansion. neat rooms oh man it's sonic again run fast fast fast ok found my way into the toroko painting sounds good. OH JEEZ PRESS BUTTONS OH MAN oh great i'm dead was i supposed to move too? ok trying the bookshelf now. ok stuck in an infinite loop going back now. trying the only pair of doors i haven't went to yet... bookshelves as far as the eye can see. ok a shadow quote? no way over there... going back. ok shadow quote again well now what. (After much experimentation...) Killed Curly woo what now. Leaving the mansion... that's it? Feels like something's missing.

I enjoyed what was available, but I have to experiment some more. I think there was a lot of stuff that I missed. So far, however, I'd say that this is a very unique mod (the only one of its kind) that is a breath of fresh air compared to the amount of conventional mods available. To be honest though, the downsides are plentiful. Feels very empty and lifeless, and a lot of the time it's hard for me to remember where I wanted to try again or go to next due to how similar everything looked. Very little variation in graphics and aesthetics until some sort of ending occurs, I found. I actually didn't mind the lack of music for the chunk of the game, because the ambiance sorta fit and it made it that much sweeter when another song came on. To end on a high note, I found the assembly and the bulk of the action in the game to be quite impressive and hilarious.

X-Calibar · May 31, 2014

Was looking forward to trying this :

Log :

I'm going to ignore the spelling issues and focus on the experience

Oooh, that's a hellava full moon. <3
I'm tempted to go left, but let's roleplay. I've come all this way for the mansion, no turning back now!

..............................................
dude

...next went left ... har har roflcopter runs you over

*Reads thread*
Oh, it's not supposed to fall through the floor soon as you enter?
Maybe there's hope...

BLink · May 31, 2014

Was looking forward to trying this :

Log :

I'm going to ignore the spelling issues and focus on the experience

Oooh, that's a hellava full moon. <3
I'm tempted to go left, but let's roleplay. I've come all this way for the mansion, no turning back now!

..............................................
dude

...next went left ... har har roflcopter runs you over

*Reads thread*
Oh, it's not supposed to fall through the floor soon as you enter?
Maybe there's hope...

are you saying that the pxa file deleted itself?

E: SON OF A JAKLE!

E:E: it's fixed now....This just isn't my day... -_-