Story Premise:
It was another sweltering summer day, and she had been sitting there for a long time. The area on her graphics tablet that should have been displaying her new artwork was blank, and the music playing on repeat in her headphones had stopped sometime earlier. Tomorrow was the deadline for her submission, the last vestige of her carefree summer vacation before leaving high school and stepping into adulthood. Pressure, uncertainty about the future, and a persistent, inexplicable sense of ‘loss’ separated her from reality like a transparent membrane.
She felt a wave of exhaustion, her forehead resting lightly on the cold tabletop. In her blurred vision, the three-dimensional pipes on the screen began to twist and stretch abnormally, emitting a faint electrical noise. She didn’t have the strength to lift her head. Before falling completely asleep, her last thought was: ‘If only I could escape into a dream where I didn’t have to face the pressures of reality.’ She didn’t wake up. Instead, she sank into a daydream woven from her own memories and cherished memories.
World Building, the Essence of the Daydream World:
She has not sunk into a traditional dream, but into a subconscious space called the ‘Echoes’. This world serves to store intense emotional experiences from her past (especially those that were not properly processed). She will become a detective who comes here, searching for clues and uncovering the truth (she is unaware that this is her own story, allowing players to better immerse themselves in the character).
- Memories are stored as collectible CDs.
- Unfulfilled desires and emotional traumas are transformed into spatial puzzles and obstacles that need to be solved or confronted.
Surface Layer: Daily
Corresponds to recent memories and daily emotions. The scene is a distorted, oddly colored home (bedroom, hallway, bathroom). The rules are relatively stable, and the puzzles are mostly based on observation and logical inconsistencies, serving as the starting point for exploration.
Middle Layer: Storage of Childhood Emotions
Corresponds to repressed adolescence and deeper emotions. The scene is a dreamlike pool-like core area where physical rules begin to crumble, and water becomes the dominant element, symbolizing emotional depth and a suffocating feeling of being submerged. The collected memory CDs are even more chaotic and illogical.
Finally: The Withered Garden of Memory.
A symbolic landscape representing the lost self-traits (curiosity, courage, determination to do something well) caused by trauma. This is where crucial emotional choices are made, choices that will reshape how we respond to core memories.
Character: ‘SHE’
Character: ‘Cutty’ (pronounce: kyoo tee)
