Sick Dreams

Kickstarter Campaign Launched August 4, 2016!

Click here to check it out!

"It started when there were nights where I had trouble falling asleep."

Sick Dreams is a scrolling shooter that follows the lucid dreams of someone struggling to cope with an undiagnosed condition.

About the game:

Taking inspiration from the team's experiences with anxiety and depression, Secret Cards is proud to present their first commercial project, Sick Dreams. Sick Dreams follows the story of a young individual as they describe their dreams and reflect on their waking life. In their dreams, they struggle with the difficulties they face in life, not yet knowing that they have an undiagnosed condition. The gameplay is a Shoot 'Em Up style Bullet Hell with Visual Novel aspects to tell the narrative. The player must guide the protagonist through their dreams, allowing the protagonist to come to terms with reality.

Summary

Sick Dreams is a bullet hell visual novel that follows the story of a young individual as they describe their dreams and reflect on their waking life. In their dreams, they struggle with the difficulties they face in life, not yet knowing that they have an undiagnosed condition.

Gameplay

The gameplay is a Shoot 'Em Up styled Bullet Hell with Visual Novel Aspects to tell the narrative. The player must guide the protagonist through their dreams, allowing the protagonist to come to terms with reality. Upgrades can be bought with Lucidity as the player progresses.

Features:

• Shoot-em-Up and Bullethell gameplay
• Visual Novel Narrative
• 3 Endings
• Ambient, atmospheric electronic music
• Abstract, stream of consciousness art
• Story recap in case players miss anything during the action
• Endurance and time attack bonus levels that are unlocked by beating main story levels
• Where else can you play as a screaming, disembodied jackal head that breathes fire?

Developer Quote:

"We took inspiration from our experiences with anxiety and depression. Each member of the team grapples with these conditions on a daily basis. What we want to do is take our combined experiences and tell that story through our game. Life can get completely derailed by these illnesses. We want to tell people that it's going to be okay."

Programming/Writing: Eight8Diamonds

Our team is lead by Eight8Diamonds Having worked with Gamemaker for over ten years and being completely dedicated to making games, Eight8Diamonds is our project lead, programmer, and head of development. Sick Dreams is Eight8Diamond's first commercial game project.

Art: LovesickJackal

Lovesick Jackal is our lead artist, character designer, and director of aesthetics. Sick Dreams is LovesickJackal's first commercial game project.

GUI: MysteryCorgi

MysteryCorgi is our head of marketing, assistant GUI artist, and financial adviser. MysteryCorgi is passionate about visual novels and while working as a freelancer has helped produce over ten visual novel projects since 2011. Such projects include That Cheap and Sacred Thing, Culina, A More Beautiful World, and Purrfectly Ever After. MysteryCorgi also works with Afterthought Studios.

Music: Khoven

Khoven is a freelance music composer who was hired on to the project. Khoven specializes in ambient, atmospheric electronic music. Sick Dreams is Khoven's first commercial game project.

Press Kit

Check out our website: deckofsecret.cards

Follow us on Twitter: @SecretCardsDev

Like what we do? Support us on Patreon!

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about the game, please reach out to us! We'd love to hear what you have to say.

Our email is: deckofsecretcards@gmail.com

CONTENT WARNING

We at Secret Cards want our players to have a pleasant experience with our games. Therefore we feel it is in the best interest of both us and our players to post a content warning for our game.

Sick Dreams features the following themes and content, which some viewers may find disturbing:

• Abandonment
• Abusive Relationships
• Alchohol
• Anxiety
• Blood
• Body Horror
• Drugs
• Claustrophobia
• Death
• Depression
• Disembodied Parts
• Flashing Lights
• Gaslighting
• Strong Language
• Suicide

Because the game features such themes as mental illness and death as well as references to alcohol. drugs, violence, and strong language, we recommend that players be 15 years of age or older when playing this game.