There Was A Dream is a single-player adventure game for PC features farming, crafting, combat, puzzle elements, and sandbox exploration. Embark on an adventure at your own pace, where your actions shape the world. Turn the dream into a nightmare and vice versa at your will. Explore these parallel dimensions characterized by different situations, missions, npcs and gameplay.
In development for 3 years by a team of two people in their first experience, the game has been published since the end of 2018 in a prototype version on Itch.io and thanks to the feedback collected we are improving it more and more. We are introducing a concrete story, new character design, new urban assets, improved graphics and a new way of living in a dream in this version that we call BETA. Read on to learn more
We will release the game for Windows via Steam. We plan to translate the game into the main languages over time.
We are young and full of ideas. Albeit being a small team, we want to remain independent to create original games without constraints. We strongly believe in the world we have created.
To continue developing There Was a Dream as we have envisioned it, we need to achieve our funding goal. The game is currently 80% developed.
Supported so far with funds allocated by ourselves, we ask your support to carry out this project in the best possible way.
There Was A Dream is set in a lucid dream. You have been chosen by the Entity, a dark force that travels between the dimension of dreams. It has given you the power to manipulate dreams and now you will have to manage the balance between dream and nightmare.
We are developing the game with a lot of things to do.
Keep the villages safe from monsters, exploring the underground and fight the Entity and its minions. Free the citizens, restore peace and help the dream police, to gain experience and upgrade your equipment.
Wander around the world. The game allows you to accept trade and delivery missions, which involve searching for or crafting items. Sometimes, you’ll need to take control of your kitten. Use his feline senses to find objects hidden from view.
Side Quests. NPCs will be asking for your help. Chase away an angry animal or retrieve an object carried away by the wind. Quests may also involve looking for someone missing by investigating the reported areas.
You can approach animals that populate the world by sneaking around or moving around in the bushes. You can also choose to attack them, stun them with a jet of water, or feed them to get different resources. Some animals are more aggressive than others, so stay alert at all times.
As a secondary activity, you can purchase, customize and train a horse on an obstacle course to increase its endurance. By crafting a fishing rod, you can hunt for fishes. Go to the farm to grow your vegetable garden, collect eggs, or get milk from cows.
You can move around on horseback, by car, boat or train. Being inside a dream, you can also move around through other fantastic ways by unlocking the right skills.
Having been chosen by the Entity to manipulate this area of the oneiric dimension, you will have to manage the balance between dream and nightmare.
The Entity is always looking for a way to infect other dreamers. You can decide whether or not to help the inhabitants. How you will decide to help strangers and the way you will interact with the NPCs and animals, will affect the game world.
Nightmare Setting. Nightmares will take over and many stores will close. People in crisis litter the streets, black mud and flames everywhere, monsters in the countryside. You can explore, fight, and live this dark moment and give Entity complete freedom, or you can restore the dream and return to the lively and cheerful everyday world.
Your main weapon is a water gun. Powered by a source of pure water, it shoots continuous or pulse water jets. By helping the community your rank at the Dreampol increases. Increasing your rank allows you to create your favorite combination of colors, barrels, tanks, and plug-ins to shoot a few but devastating shots.
As a secondary weapon, you have colorful water balloons. Choose whether to launch small and fast, or large and powerful.
Inspired by the Italian countryside, the game world is vast and varied. There are hills, fields, rivers and lakes. The game world is crossed by a road that connects all the key points. The river to the north divides the map in two and flows between the mountain and the sea. In addition to various places to explore, each area has its own town with a unique structure.
During your adventure, you will find yourself visiting some places more frequently. However, you will spend a lot of time in your tent which can be positioned anywhere and anytime you want. It will contain everything you buy to improve it, from the crafting station to your trusted steed.
In There Was A Dream, you won’t be fighting this battle by yourself. The balance depends on everyone and many will help you on your way.
Our dream concept is inspired by reality, by how most of us actually dream during sleep. It is not an Alice in Wonderland-like world, but as in common dreams, we mix what we know for real with fantastic and bizarre elements. To give you the most beautiful game set in a dream, we worked a lot on ideas and concepts. Here are some extracts we designed to give life to the magical world of There Was A Dream.
The soundtrack of the game was composed by Michał Ratkowski. It is a mix of melancholy music and epic melodies, to highlight the duality dream/nightmare. Here are some extracts.
Here are the video devlogs made so far. They show a mix of gameplay,mechanics, places and landscapes.
During development, the game received positive criticism from some online magazines and blogs, through dedicated articles.
“Between the echo of an attentive and refined epicity, and a narrative incipit that could certainly tempt those who love to get lost in exploration, the premises set the bar of expectations far above the standards of the indie panorama.” – Ecleto “Sir” Mucciacciuoli, Monkeybit
“We are only in alpha yet the amount of things already done is huge. From crafting to hunting, from questing to building one’s own home, from just exploring to character customization. In short, a lot of meat on the fire and well cooked, which only needs some work on the performance, so as to make this game even more surprising. But if this is just an alpha, what will await us in the final version?” – DannyDSC IlVideogioco
“The sheer amount of things you can do in There Was A Dream is astounding. It has character customization, house building, crafting, survival mechanics, personalized horse, rescue missions… The list goes on and that isn’t even touching on the gorgeous setting it’s in.” – Julia Couture Indiegames+
“There Was A Dream will put you in the magical dream world that you don’t want to get out!” – BlackFox GuruGamer
“Dreams do not stop being a pretty nightmare of the mind” – David Vigón Rodríguez Uvejuegos
“There Was A Dream is a unique passion project turned community simulator. Started over two years ago by a couple, known as Keydare Project, this game is both beautiful and bizarre..” – Kati Baker Indie Hive
“A dream or a nightmare? The adorable There Was a Dream lets you guess […] The adventure game There Was a Dream introduces you to an open world that can be a fairy tale at one point and a horrible horror at the other.” – Šárka Tmějová Games.cz
Keydare Project consists of people who love video games since their childhood. In 2016, they began to think about making a video game. In 2017 they begin their journey into the gaming world with There Was A Dream.
Say hello to our team!
Here is a brief chronology of the There Was A Dream project to date, to show you the dedication and perseverance on which we base our way of working
Questions? Want more info? Follow us!
Website – Discord – Twitter – Youtube – Facebook – Instagram – Indie DB
We do not see any particular problems in continuing the development of the game on a practical level. We do not need external help or special technologies. To continue developing this game and sustain the costs of starting a company, we must reach the minimum goal of €3.000. To provide the gaming experience we have in mind and add some extras to the game, we need you to smash as many stretch goals as possible.