What does it mean to manifest something? Why do we do it? Action is the most important part of realizing a dream, after all. Sometimes though, we find ourselves in situations where we’ve done all we can and the rest is up to the universe. Or maybe the thing we’re hoping to manifest isn’t so tangible.  

Dreamscape is about manifestation, the act of putting intentions towards making things happen. The dreamscape world borrows those mindless daily interactions you have with your phone to send a little energy to those blurry, lofty, big hairy audacious, or small meaningful overlooked life aspirations that feel a little out of your control right now. In the app you can collect elements over time to build up your world and attract random creatures to represent the energy you’ve put into the dreamscape and thus your dreams.

The app’s visual style draws inspiration from surrealism and science fiction. Kurt Vonnegut’s novels often take us to an alien perspective of looking at human life with fascination. Taking that lens, human life can be so endearing and whimsical. It’s also deeply inspired by the idea of dreams and daydreams in general, pulling in absurd elements to create delight and surprise. After all, daydreaming and visualization are important ways to bring the potential we have within our imagination into reality. Some aspects of this don’t always make sense. 

The game aspect of the app is inspired by passive games found on the phone like Neko Atsume. It intentionally avoids trying to get you to stay in game and favours subtle and quick interactions. 

Dreamscape was really fun and challenging to create as its visual style differs from what’s out there so references were hard to find. Using Origami as a prototyping tool pushed each interaction to a level of polish and thought that’s not possible just within Figma.