NOTE: The following was significantly cut from our final playable demo—we are only developing stage 3 for the demo, and only with broken vine and sleep pickup mechanics
MOE (a human of our target demographic’s age) is getting ready for a good night’s sleep. As they rest their head on a pillow, we are launched into the world of sleep - or rather, the world of that person’s brain. ELLE appears, a spirit in the brain that is in charge of supporting Moe's nighttime brain functions. Elle must venture through the three stages of sleep, taking care of the most essential brain functions, and make sure they can get to a point of good dreams.
Ella starts at Sleep Stage 1, a brief period before the more complicated sleep stages, when Moe is still not quite asleep. Ella sees another ghostly apparition—could it be...a sheep?—that beckons them deeper into the darkness. Ella follows. As seconds pass, Elle gets dimmer, and the sheep the sheep encourages Elle to reach a glowing Zzz. When Elle does, they absorb it and glow a little more—the sheep and the environment responds positively—clearly the orb is helping Moe's sleep. (If Elle idles and allows their light to go out, we see Moe stir and go back to sleep, bringing us back to stage 1).
The sheep dashes far ahead, out of view, and Elle follows deeper into the brain.
Ella enters Stage 2, a space illuminated by many of these Zzz's and filled with neuron vines that glow and charge. Ella ventures through the stage, they do their best to collect Zzz's and keep up Moe's sleep quality. Ella doggedly journeys deeper into the sleep stages, soon encountering neural networks they must navigate through without getting shocked by neural transmissions.
In Stage 3, the deepest part of sleep, Elle must help the brain clear out neurotoxin foes and repair broken neuron vines. At the end of the stage, Elle must shake awake the gradually comatose world so that they can launch into Moe's REM dream state.
In the REM stage, Elle finds themselves in a spacious, sunny, wonderful dream world where they must bounce on clouds and synthesize memories Moe's brain wants to keep. They arrive at the dream sheep, rejuvenated from Elle's collected Zzz's and synthesized memories.
In the demo version, the player eventually wakes up, and gets ready for a new day.
In the full game, at the end of the state, the spirit finds themself back in another stage of sleep, ready to repeat the cycle once more.
Synopsis: A tutorial stage where the player is familiarized with the game mechanics / controls, and introduced to the biological sleep world.
Description: The tutorial stage of the game
Introductory material: The player fades in from black at the start of the level. Title: Stage 1. They are led by the sheep through a small tutorial where they learn about the behavior of Zzz pickups and their effect on sleep quality health.
Mission objectives: The player should get familiarized with their primary controls (left/right movement, jumping) and health mechanics. The avatar’s goal is to reach the sheep, which keeps running screen right.
Physical Characteristics:** Dark, eerie; this is a generally neutral stage at the very start of sleep. The only light source that is consistent at this point should come from the avatar, the sheep, and the Zzz's.