This a brief talk about the Dream World - what its purpose is, how it functions, what i want the world to portray and its potential look/feel with inspirational images. I will go into detail more on specific things; this is just a brief over view of the Dream World. I am looking a lot into the Rule of Rose for its use of symbolism and (not very obvious) underlining themes and external stories. Someone has created a web page based on the plot and theories (many of which work very well) in the game. You can access it here. I read through a lot of the contents of this web page and it has proven very inspirational. From reading it and thinking it over, a few aspects of my idea for The Dream World have changed/altered. In the rule of Rose, there are no definite answers - only suggestion and interpretation, which i find to be a powerful tool to make the player really think and observe the game they are playing.
This is the simple structure of how the game/dream world works (remember that it is episodic. please see my prev posts on more information):
- Each chapter begins with a page or two of the current story
- You uncover pages in the area by solving puzzles and finding them scattered in the area
- You discover certain objects/information that link to who you were and the place you are currently in - many is up to interpretation
- By finding all the pages in the area and answering Dodgers questions, you move onto the next chapter
- By answering Dodgers questions, which are multiple choice, it leads to multiple endings when finally meeting the Judge - the over all ending is similar, however.
Keeping with what i have learned from the website i have just mentioned about Rule of Rose, i want to use a lot if symbolism and use of interpretation in the game. Jennifer in the Rule of Rose is also in her own 'dream world', reliving her time at the orphanage in her own mind and overcoming issues presented in order to be at peace. An example of interpretation, suggestion and symbolism would be The Mermaid Princess Story, which is about sexual abuse Jennifer witness happen to one of the other orphans. The final chapters boss's room (a mermaid) resembles that of the headmasters bedroom - this is suggestive. After the boss fight, you witness the headmaster talking to one of the other orphan girls, interrogating her as to"who made the mess" in his room whist pawing her. When you see this scene, even though Jenifer is standing in the room, it is done at such an angle that it looks like Jenifer originally saw it in reality by peeping through a key hole (theory of this can be found here). Things like this are slight and can easily be over looked. But when found, really add to the depth of the story and each storybook's underlying themes.
So, i was thinking that perhaps when Rose does go onto see the Judge, The Judge is also created from her perception of what the Judge would be and everything that follows is how she imagined crossing over and going to the afterlife would be like? Maybe that's perhaps a bit too deep and doesn't make a lot of sense, but Rose is an adventurous girl that loves discovering new things. She could have wanted to be an archaeologist or some type of explorer? Which would mean having some reading material on various discoveries including Ancient Egypt which she could have a serious love and interest in? I don't know, i am still playing around with that idea.
Here are some inspirational images that help to illustrate the style, theme and mood i want the dream world to be like.
I also went around Norwich for some inspiration for architecture! Here are some of the photos i took that day that i could use for the dream world:
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