By turning guns into a tool for creation, Dreams of Another isn’t your normal VR adventure.
We’ve known about Q-Games’ upcoming philosophical adventure since its announcement back in February, and Dreams of Another explores a key philosophical theme; “no creation without destruction.” Following the stories of the Man in Pajamas and the Wandering Soldier, this occurs within an ephemeral dream-like world that’s brought to life with cloud point rendering technology.
The reveal quickly captured my attention, and Q-Games explained more in a recent written Q&A. Exploring visual styles for inspiration, Dreams of Another’s director, Baiyon, began thinking about how he could relate those to ideas he’d been forming, later remembering something visual director Dylan Cuthbert had previously shared.
“As I watched [the clouds] again, an idea connected with my long-standing theme as a creator – “destruction and creation” – and suddenly the gameplay, visuals, and sound all came together in my mind at once.”
Further inspiration came from different cloud visuals found online, alongside occasionally seeing such imagery used in VJing at clubs. By being both nothing and capable of becoming anything in forming shapes, Baiyon found appeal in this duality.
“In many of those visuals, point clouds that originally formed a shape would scatter apart. I thought that if I reversed that – making the scattered points come together to form something – it might express a kind of creation through destruction, so I experimented with that idea.
“As I added sounds to the visuals and explored how they interacted, the overall
atmosphere of the work began to take shape. What I find fascinating about point clouds is that each individual point might once have belonged to a specific form, but when they scatter, they lose that identity – and then, they can become part of something entirely new.”
As a multimedia artist, Baiyon confirmed that he’s “often tried to weave my respect for different cultures” into that process. When creating music or visuals, he’s then sought to incorporate his respect for game culture into the design, and vice versa.
This time, he’s taking a different approach.
“With this project, I wanted to weave my love for games into the medium of games themselves. The inspiration that games have given me is woven throughout this title. In Dreams of Another, I see the guns in the game as a kind of symbolism. It’s not just a gun – it’s a gun in games.
“If you found it interesting that this gun can create rather than destroy, it’s likely
because you already know what guns usually represent in games. Knowing that context makes this reversal feel interesting. Since I really love games, I wanted to share a different perspective and invite everyone to engage with the “what if?” question together, exploring it through the game.”
There’s a clear philosophy at the game’s narrative core and this approach allows him to make it resonate with several themes he hopes to explore: “human contradictions, our sense of inadequacy, dreams and regrets, and what freedom means.” He’s not aiming to express such sentiments directly, instead exploring them in a more symbolic sense.
Though it’s part of the PixelJunk series, Dreams of Another doesn’t use the series name, something Cuthbert points out was also initially true with its 2016 VR game, Dead Hungry. Graphics programmer José Luis Ortiz Soto confirmed the team’s been inspired by “various” VR games that have since launched without naming any specific titles, and Dead Hungry provided useful development experience.
“The development experience of PixelJunk VR: Dead Hungry has certainly been valuable, and we were even able to base some of the actions in Dreams of Another on the food-throwing mechanics from the game,” confirmed Soto.
Since my hands-on demo during GDC’s Day of the Devs was flatscreen only, I’ve not directly seen how gameplay differs on PlayStation VR2. Lead programmer Ryuji Nishikawa confirmed that on PS VR2, you can switch from the flatscreen game’s third-person perspective to an exclusive VR-only first-person mode.
“The third-person view emphasizes the game’s concept and storytelling, allowing players to “watch” the narrative unfold while seeing their character. In contrast, the first-person mode offers heightened immersion, placing the world of point clouds directly in front of your eyes and allowing for close-up inspection of every detail,” replied Nishikawa.
Because of this, Nishikawa recommends using the DualSense controller for third-person mode and the Sense controllers for first-person mode. With performance, graphics programmer José Luis Ortiz Soto confirmed Dreams of Another uses reprojection from 60Hz to 120Hz. Playing on a standard PS5 uses 1080p resolution, which is boosted to 1440p on PS5 Pro.
However, while Dreams of Another is also coming to Steam, this VR mode is currently PlayStation VR2 exclusive. Can we ever expect Q-Games to introduce PC VR support?
“We have no plans right now, but we don’t rule anything out in the future,” stated Cuthbert.
To finish this Q&A, Baiyon discussed how people can’t always choose what they remember and what they forget. Calling this lack of clarity “a reflection of who we are,” he believes that a person’s character is “not black or white,” but something in between.
“Dreams of Another is a game that invites you to step into that hazy, undefined world. If even a small part of it lingers in your heart after experiencing it, I would be truly grateful. If it sparks your curiosity, please give it a try.”
Dreams of Another reaches PS5 and PlayStation VR2 this year.
Henry Stockdale
