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7/31/2019 Brief Presentation WIP 02

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Minor Project Jonathan Pearmain

Exploring Dreams

Minor Project Brief

Dream Keeper

And erson, Rich (2012) Norn Hunting


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The Brief

Generic Name Studios is beginning development on their latestgame, Dream Keeper. It is a game aimed at school children (ages7-12). Its platform will be smartphones and tablets, to target thegrowing audience of school children who are permitted to usetheir parents technology to be kept entertained.

It is an adventure game, with emersion and exploration at itscentre. Whilst it is meant to be somewhat scary the child isvery much in the role of the hero and the bringer of happiness.

The main antagonist of the game is the Dream Keeper, who isthe operator of this realm. It is the distributor of dreams, bothhappy and nightmarish.

Your job as a character designer is to create this creature.


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The Premise

All tha t we see or seem is but a d rea m

with in a d rea m. Edgar Allan Poe

The player is a young girl, Dido, who has fallen intothe gaps between dreams. Here they meet theDream Keeper.

Fascinated by the newcomer, the Dream Keeperbecomes increasingly obsessed with keeping theplayer dreaming, while the playing is trying to wakeup and escape.

By taking the player to various dream-realms andappearing to them in a variety of guises, the Keeperis trying its hardest to keep them asleep and trappedforever, while the player is trying to find ways out.

Mc Que , Ian (2010) Red Hills


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The World

The world game is divided into four levels: the Connection

room and three dream levels, each one representing acommon dream for children. In each of the levels theplayer is trying to find a way to move closer towardswaking up. Meanwhile the Keeper has taken on a guise todeceive the player and to try and trap them in dreamsforever.

The levels have to represent a childs understanding andview of each environment. Also, as the player progressesthe end of each level, their waking conscious begins tofracture and destroy the dream, lending a new element toits design these changes also affect the Keeper, whoseguise also begins to twist and degenerate.

While this project is most certainly a Character Designbrief, the Keepers guise and style is extruded from theenvironment, making establishing the gist of hissurroundings crucial.

Malin, Emmanuel (2011) Vessels, The Path


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Level 1: The Connection RoomDreams exist as places of story, accessible to people when they sleep; their minds now free to wander.

However, if dreams exist as separate spaces that people must access someone must govern and operate theprocess of connection.

Thus the Dream Keeper. Working like a huge switchboard operator, he monitors the hive of human minds forthose falling asleep and connects them to the nights dreams.

It is this room that the player has fallen in to. It is a space not meant to visiting, not meant to be seen apurely functionally space for the Keeper to work in unseen eternity. Fascinated by this new entity, the Keeper

is intrigued and desperate to find out more about the minds he has served for so long.

Lipto n, Laurie (2009) Communication


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Level 2: The PlaygroundThe theme of something ordinary, even beloved, turning into a threat suggests that your child may be struggling with somesituation or person that is usually known and kind, but may sometimes seem inexplicably difficult and harsh This could be

anything from a playground buddy who occasionally plays unfairly to a situation at home that becomes confusing because it flipsback and forth between "normal" and "unsettling." Dr. Holloway, Gillian (2011)

This dream embodies the desire to find a friendly face or empathetic person in a strange place. Playgrounds, with their fenced inareas and friendly colours, are places of safety and to find what appears to be a contemporary in the same situation iscomforting. Having glimpsed into the newcomers mind, the Keeper enters them into a world where he can welcome thisperson to his realm.

Initially friendly and accommodating, the Keeper becomes increasingly frustrated with the players desire to wake up, to leave.He becomes more antagonist, clingy, and angry all of which begins to distort both the dream and himself.

Chan, Jason (2008) Zomb ie Playg round


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Level 3: The SchoolChildren have different kinds of monsters in their dreams, and the action involved varies When a monster is chasing the child ina dream, or yelling and threatening, we have a clue that the monster may represent not so much a situation as a person in the

child's life. Dr. Holloway, Gillian (2011)

After being told by the child-Keeper that its going to tell on them, the next dream the player finds themselves in is a school.School plays a huge part in the life of most children, containing many of their best memories, but also some of the most scary,embarrassing, and vulnerable.

The shame of having the whole class attention while being scolded, or the ultimate fear of being sent to the HeadmastersOffice is for many an extremely strong and uncomfortable memory. Here the player is confronted by the Librarian as anintimidating and terrifying Headmaster from whom they must escape.

As the dream becomes more distorted, the headmaster becomes more and more the childs fear incarnate.

Selic k, Henry (2009) Coraline


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Level 4: The BedroomThe childs dream is a reaction to an experience of the day, which has left behind it a regret, a longing or anunfulfilled desire. The dream brings about the direct unconcealed fulfillment of this wish.- Freud, 1920

The player is now one step away from escape into the awake and conscious world in fact, for a second theymight think they already are; warm and safe in their own bedroom a place where the monsters cant getthem.

But this is not their room. It is a twisted representation of all the monsters in the closet, the beasts under thebed, and the toys that come alive. This is the Keeper forcing himself into the dreamers world and embodying

all that is terrifying about it and the only way to wake up, is to overcome your fears.

Petrossian , Tony (2008) Three Da ys Gra ce Never Too Lat e


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The Dream KeeperThe Keeper is the orchestrator of this the realm, its manipulator and authority.He can traverse through dreams easily and instantaneously, leaving ripples ofdistortion dreamy or nightmarish in his wake. Hes job is to connect mindsentering the realm of sleep into appropriate dreams.

He is neither inherently good or evil delivering both wonderful and terrifyingdreams. His job is solitary, endless, and repetitive people always pass by him intransit, he has never met the creatures whose minds flow through his fingers.

To him the player is an anomaly causing much excitement and intrigue to

which he doesnt know how to react, but knows he wants it to stay. Hisapproach is rather like Lennie Small petting a mouse.

Over the course of the game he has four incarnations: his previously unseen,unbiased form; an interested child; a stern and predatory headmaster; and hisoriginal form tainted by a childs fear and anger.

The design progress must include defining some recognisable characteristicacross each of his forms that captures his identity as the Keeper.

Lim, Mike (2010) Chaos Librarian


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Visual Influences


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Deadline Requirements

Four developed 2D concepts for the Keepers four incarnations. Well presented progress and documented design decisions.

One concept taken through the character modelling pipeline. Resulting in a fully rigged character with demonstration animation.

A detailed making of to accompany the final design.

Restrictions: Poly count: Texture size: Resolution:

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