This project is a 2D point-and-click narrative game developed between April 2024 and August 2024
The game is inspired by Chinese Dreamcore, a nostalgic aesthetic and emotional trend emerging among young people in China.
With China’s rapid urban development, dramatic changes in cityscapes and lifestyles have created a strong sense of separation between past and present. As a result, nostalgia for the early 2000s—particularly around 2008 — has spread widely on the internet. This project responds to that cultural phenomenon by using interactive storytelling to revisit childhood memories while encouraging players to reflect on the present.
- Game Design: Developed the overall narrative structure, story progression, and core interaction logic
- Gameplay Mechanics: Designed puzzles and mini-game mechanics to support storytelling and player engagement
- Art Production: Created and modeled 2D/3D assets to establish a nostalgic visual atmosphere
- Programming Support: Implemented partial diary system logic, user interaction logic, and basic game functionalities (background music, scene transitions, and sound effects, etc.)
DreamTrace is a nostalgic, story-driven first-person point-and-click game. The purpose of the game is to allow players to return to the happiness of 2008, make up for childhood regrets, and ultimately realize that dissatisfaction with the present may itself become a beautiful memory in the future.
The story begins in 2023. The player feels frustrated with life and longs for the past. By accident, they travel back to 2008 through their childhood diary. Following the diary’s memories, the player revisits familiar locations such as the park, school, and home, reliving fragments of childhood happiness.
As the story unfolds, the player gradually discovers that 2023 is not the real world. In fact, they have entered a virtual reality system in 2050, where a world war has broken out. The game concludes with a critical choice: remain in the comforting virtual past, or return to reality and face the present.
Through this narrative, the game warns players not to indulge excessively in nostalgia, while reminding them to cherish the present moment.
- 2D point-and-click interaction
- Environmental storytelling through everyday spaces
- Puzzle-solving based on observation and memory
- Narrative-driven progression
- Emotional pacing focused on nostalgia and reflection
- Game Engine: Unity
- Modeling: SketchUp
- Visual Design: Photoshop
- Version Control: GitHub
Gameplay video:
https://youtu.be/uCDuJAuavXo