Projected Dreams Preview

Recently, I had the privilege of trying out the demo for Projected Dreams ahead of time! If you haven't heard of it, this 90s-inspired puzzle title has you playing with the shadows of a little girl's toys to pass through levels and unravel her imaginative story.

The gameplay premise is quite simple: you take toys from around the room and carefully stack or place them with each other until the shadow matches the outline on the wall. I got to play through the demo twice because my first run was deleted due to me changing PC, and in both my playthroughs, I used different items in order to get the shadows right. I was happy to see there's no correct toy placement, offering tons of room for creative problem-solving.

Every time you succeed, the shadow comes to life in the form of a new toy that will appear in the girl's bedroom, becoming yet another tool for you to use. Additionally, every time you finish a level, there will be a little tale playing on the wall through shadows that shows us what she is imagining; so, for example, she ends up saving her teddy bear friend from danger. It's not very in-depth — it doesn't have sound or movement — but it's cute, and I looked forward to seeing what else she was going to do.

Although the game would've been fine just having to play around with the shadows, a new mechanic is introduced later on that allows you to grab the toys and resize them to fit in even better; this opened more possibilities for some of them that had particularly odd shapes and made it easier to stack them together. It feels like you're playing Jenga, but instead of taking them out, you're trying to stack them just right to fill in the outline!

The graphics are nice and simple, keeping it colourful like rooms back in the 90s, and although I do appreciate that there's so much vividness in the sound design, some of them can be a bit squeaky and might become a bit stressful to those sensitive to noise. Thankfully, you can adjust the settings easily, even before beginning the game, so it really shouldn't be much of a problem.

Lastly, throughout the game, there are tons of references to the 90s. From how clicking on items causes a random animation (reminiscent of Pajama Sam and Putt-Putt titles) to the toys found in the room, such as the Moon Shoes, there are plenty of nostalgia-inducing easter eggs.

Overall, Projected Dreams is a love letter to our childhood and everything that made it great, including the shadow puppets. The gameplay is simple yet entertaining, and I hope to see even more levels (and maybe even mechanics) when the full game releases! Check out the demo going live soon to try out the game for yourself!