Dream Diary

Yume Nikki is a highly experimental Psychological Horror game released in 2004 by the anonymous developer “Kikiyama”. It's a peculiar project in that it lacks any sorts of objectives, dialogue, no or progression; players are simply given an avatar–– "Madotsuki"––and a surreal dream world to wander around in, serving less as a game and more as a massive interactive art piece built within the confines of a PC game. 

It may seem pointless— why play a game with nothing to do in it? But like an art gallery, the true allure comes from interpretation. This piano prelude serves to interpret not just the world of Madotsuki’s dreams, but to interpret the very nature and behavior of dreams themselves. Thoughts will begin, intensify, and quickly lose themselves in the haze. Memories of melodies past will repeat themselves in fashions never truly complete or concrete. Individual notes will sound pure before quickly drowning in the sea of liquid consciousness, a state where the brain perceives dreams as reality while still acknowledging the nagging feeling that one isn’t truly present. Much of it may be familiar, but none of it is truly real.