About the Dreamworld…
Contents
Introduction
The story of Dreamworld starts in Groningen, The Netherlands. In early September 2009, the Hanze University of Groningen starts the specializationcourse ‘Gaming and Development’. Out of around 25 students, four are picked out to contest in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup. In just 20 weeks, they have to design and develop a game, addressing the theme of the Imagine Cup: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today”.
In the first few weeks, the team brainstormed about the game that was to be develloped. What kind of genre would it have to be? How would it address the Imagine Cup theme? How do we translate such a heavy subject to a game that is fun to play, but also includes the serious note? All these questions were asked and the team thought hard about them.
Terraminor & Dreamworld
The first serious idea was to create a RTS-game that simulates a small globe. This globe would be populated by cute creatures, to give the game some allure. These creatures would live in familys or tribes, all on their own piece of land. However, some groups of creatures would have tough problems, taken from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The ultimate goal of the game was to, as leader of a tribe, solve all of the problems for every tribe. This meant that as a tribe with less problems, representing a developped, Western nation, needed to help tribes with more problems, representing Third World country’s, to overcome all of the issues. Although the team thought of this as a really cool idea and the game was coming more together with every teammeeting, it became obvious that it would be too much work. Therefore, the team decided to abandon the idea and think of a new one.
Thus, the first concept for Dreamworld was born. Game components such as Morwir as a gameleader/questgiver, MDG’s as separate ‘quests’ and a dreamworld were discussed and the team decided to go with the new ideas. Within a week the puzzleworld’s gameplay was invented and described, a backgroundstory was written and the premise of the game was set.
The Game
As said above, Dreamworlds gameplay, story and premise were made within a week. The game uses 3-D puzzling as the primary gameplay element. This technique has not been used much in games so far, giving Dreamworld a fairly unique gameplay. The player needs to solve puzzles which are present in a parallel dimension, called the Dreamworld. Here, the massive problems of the village are represented by rotatable object and animals, called elements. Each element is able to rotate in every direction from a single centerpoint. Some elements are grouped, allowing for more diversity and challenge in the puzzles.
When the player solves a puzzle, he is transported back into the real world. Here, for each puzzle the player has solved, something has changed in the village. For example, when the player completes the first puzzle (‘Dude, where’s my cow?’), the villagers are able to produce food and livestock. Famine and hunger are eradicated from the village.
Everytime the player solves a puzzle, the village becomes a more pleasant place to be. It transforms from a desolate and decaying village to a happy and green village. More on this concept can be read further on this page, under Graphic style.
Background story
In Dreamworld, the player crawls into the skin of Tubbles, a young Kowaalaa. Tubbles is the son of a CEO of a huge diamond mining corporation, known on the planet simply as ‘TDMC’, The Diamond Mining Corporation. TDMC is in charge of nearly all the diamondmines on planet Wurbble and many Kowaalaa’s work for the company. However, TDMC does not treat her employees right. Mountainvillages where diamond has been found or being mined are drained from their resources and fall to great poverty. Disease strikes many villagers, children are unable to get an education and many women are oppressed.
Therefore, a group of Kowaalaa’s have founded an organisation to help these villages, called WVHO, Wurbble Village Help Organisation. Many of the villages are primitive, cut off from the outside world. They are usually led by wise old medicine men, who have the power to create magic potions. The organisation uses airships to reach these villages and supply them with resources such as food, water and medicine. Tubbles mother works on one of these ships and spends 8 months per year away from home.
Thanks to his parental situation, Tubbles has learned at a young age to take care of himself. He goes out exploring the house and property, but his parents have forbidden him to venture out of the gates. Obviously, Tubbles protested, but to satisfy his parents, he agreed. However, one day, he decided to sneak out when an airship came to pick up his mother.
He hid himself in a small chamber with a few crates in it in the lower part of the ship, and waited untill they departed. A few moments later, he found himself in the air and away from the safety of his house. He lies down, trying to get some sleep.
After a couple of hours sleep, Tubbles is awoken by violent swinging of the ship. He hears thunderstorms outside and people yelling on the deck. Suddenly, the floor of the chamber opens and Tubbles falls to the ground, followed by the crates in the room. They have parachutes attached and soon Tubbles is unable to see them. He keeps on falling, watching the ground below him coming closer. When he is about 20 meters from the ground, he closes his eyes and waits for the impact.
When he wakes up, he lies in a bed. The bed stands in a round chamber, the walls painted with weird symbols. He gets up and walks out of the room, into another one. Here, every wall is covered with planks, which are filled with bottles. Some small, some large. A large kettle stands in the corner. The fire burning under it is small, but keeps the house warm. As Tubbles walks up to the kettle, he notices a purple vapor coming from it. He looks into the kettle and sees a weird, purple liquid, bubbling and boiling. Suddenly, he hears a voice behind him.
Morwir
‘I see you are awake, Tubbles…’
Frightened, Tubbles turns around and looks at the person standing in front of him. It is an old Kowaalaa with long, white hair, a big beard and a cane. He stares at Tubbles with empty, pure white eyes.
‘Yes, I know your name is Tubbles. I also know you are the son of Gierling, the president of TDMC. Do you know what the Corporation does?’
Tubbles nodds his head, saying he only sees the diamonds they mine.
The old man sits down and offers Tubbles a seat. ‘I see’, he says. ‘Then this will be fun for you. My name is Morwir, I am the medicineman of Carbwir, the village you are in right now. I saw you falling from the sky last night and quickly made sure you landed softly. I also made sure you wouldn’t know I was there. I brought you to my home, here in Carbwir. Tell me, Tubbles, why did you go on that ship?’
‘To see more of the world than just the gates of my house…’, Tubbles replies.
‘And how does it suit you so far?’
‘Painfull’
Morwir grins. ‘You know, the company of your father has brought great wealth to himself and our planet, Tubbles.
But it comes at a price. The mines are incredibly dirty and dangerous places. The pollution they cause, desolates the areas around them. Many villages, like mine, went from beautifull, happy, flower-filled places to deserted villages, with the people who work in the mines and their families as the only inhabitants. An organisation has been created to help these villages, but they can’t help us nearly enough. They need to bring back the former glory of our villages by entering ancient grounds. Grounds of which only the wisest Kowaalaa’s of the planet know about. Grounds on which you shall soon walk, Tubbles.’
Morwir walks up to the kettle and fills a small cup with the fluid. ‘This’, he says, ‘is a potion I made to bring people to those grounds. Upon drinking this potion, the person drinking it is transported to another dimension. In this dimension, time never passed. It is the same as it was when all began, long ago. Technology hasn’t been developped there, neither have people ever lived there. The dimension only consists of a extremely basic environment, which adjusts its form to the goal of the one being there. It represents problems which scientists think about for hundreds of years by arranging itself in elements, forming an elaborate puzzle. It forces the one who wants to solve the problem to use their head, in stead of any other means to solve it.’
Morwir throws the potion on the floor and with a loud bang and smoke, an image appears in front of them. The image shows a couple of blocks in different colors, floating around a centerpoint.
‘That is the Dreamworld, Tubbles, and I want you to enter it, to solve the massive problems my village and other villages have. Unless you would like to go home, off course.’
Tubbles stares at Morwir and agrees to enter the Dreamworld…
Technical stuff
At this moment, all three members and the fish are working hard to meet the deadline both the schoolproject as well as the deadline set by the Imagine Cup. Let us hope Microsoft is ready to play a game which packs some real fury!