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The DreamAid
The DreamAid is a fictional piece of technology within Lucid Reality. It is a foundational pillar of the game, effectively allowing the entirety of the games narrative and action to occur in the first place.
Creating a Brief
To help me bring the DreamAid to life, I want to create a brief that outlines everything that the DreamAid needs to be, from the ground up.
Dream Aid:
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Wearable hardware that stimulates the senses as you sleep.
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Features a headset with a screen and speakers
Medical Modulator Unit (MMU):
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Additional hardware for Dream Aid designed to administer medication to assist in sleep.
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Medication is administered as an inhalant, and is inhaled via a mask.
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Modulator Units have variety of presets for many different medicines, which control the rate of administration, the concentration, and overall dosage.
Dream Aid Capsules:
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Medical capsules that can be inserted into the modulator unit, which pulls medicine from it.
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Medicines come in liquid form
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Can only be purchased/prescribed by licensed professionals
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Underground drug rings sell these illegally, often put illegal substances within capsules
With a brief quickly created, the next step is to begin moodboarding to gain a better understanding of the different visual components that will go into assembling the DreamAid.
Moodboarding
The bulk of the DreamAid hardware will be taken up by the VR headset. The headset has the simple goal of shining lights through your eyelids to elicit specific neurological responses, so it does not have to look super high-tech as it is not so.
VR headsets generally look quite simplistic in nature, but often times present large, rounded shapes that elicit minimalist and futurist aesthetics. I really enjoy the lighting effects that the Playstation headset has, so I will definitely carry that concept over into my design.
The next moodboard to create was on showcasing different medical equipment. the DreamAid is a medical device, so it needs to reflect actual medical equipment in real life.
The tubes and interfaces are the parts that I want to utilise the most - the tubes and wires all connote something unsettling. We associate that sort of imagery with hospitals, and we all know that hospitals are anything but comfortable.
The medical interfaces showcasing different readings are a definite carry over here, the DreamAid will need some sort of means of showing dosage level and brain activity.
The next step was to moodboard the vials of Dream Serum that would be inserted into the DreamAid to administer medication. I personally don't quite like a lot of these designs, as they make something simple a bit too complicated for my liking. I much prefer the more simplistic look to the real world glass vials than the super-futuristic metallic designs.
I do really enjoy how most sci-fi takes on vials implement a form of glow to the design, emphasising that the contents are of importance and have qualities outside conventional understanding.
Another moodboard I made is comprised mostly of Simon Stalenhag's work from the collection 'The Electric State', a world in which people have become addicted to VR technology.
I want to try and replicate this sort of imagery in some artwork if I have the time, showcasing the juxtaposition between the bleakness of reality against the blissful ignorance of a dreamstate.
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