Dreamscaper Explores Main Character’s Depression Through An Emotional Roguelike Adventure
Zack Palm
Following several years of development and a successful Kickstarter of over $50,000, Dreamscaper, an action-RPG title, will release for PC sometime in 2020. The studio behind the game, Afterburner Studios, is made up of developers who pulled away from the traditional game development scene to create an indie studio.
Dreamscaper focuses on Cassidy, a young woman struggling with depression who spends her sleeping hours battling monsters in her dreams. These monsters are reflections of her internal emotions, and over time, Cassidy makes connections and friendships with new people she meets in the real-world, affecting the powers and upgrades she receives in her dreams.
Afterburner Studios has crafted the game to be a rogue-like, and when players die in Dreamscaper, they wake up. Rather than having the game center around the replayable combat, the developers make the daytime gameplay valuable, with an emotional story.
The goal was to ensure players don’t rush through the game, but forge relationships and connections with those they casually interact with along the way. The more Cassidy spends time knowing someone, the stronger she becomes, and the daytime gameplay shows continual process outside of the roguelike combat where players start over every night.
Dreamscaper releases sometime in early 2020, but you can try the game’s demo on Steam right now.
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