CGDD - Project: Wake Up

Introduction

You’re trapped in a dream. Not a fleeting fantasy, but the same cold, dimly lit memory of a childhood bedroom, night after night. Your goal is simple: reach the light. Wake up. Escape.

But this is a lucid dream. And here, you can control it. You will get unimaginable abilities and power!

Over ten relentless nights, the loop tightens. Each brief awakening drips with clues about who you are and what you’re fleeing from. The line between the suffocating dream and your hollow reality blurs.

Will you master the dream, or will it master you? Will you wake up only to find yourself still asleep?

Wake Up is a first-person psychological thriller that turns introspection into gameplay. Uncover a deeply personal story not through words, but through the decaying environment and the very mechanics at your fingertips. The clock is ticking. The dream is calling. And it’s waiting for you to slip up.

Team members

Xuchu (Adela) Zhang, co28

xz5002@nyu.edu

Runjie (Jerry) Lin, co28

rl5595@nyu.edu

Development Highlights

The Dream as a Tool and a Trap: Pioneering the “Lucid Nightmare” concept. Your ability to record, rewind, and manipulate the dreamscape is your core mechanic for solving puzzles, yet the control destabilizes your sanity, turning your greatest power into your greatest threat.
A Story Told Without Many Words: Experience a deeply personal, psychological narrative through environmental storytelling and gameplay mechanics. The decaying childhood bedroom, the sterile office upon waking, and the very glitches in your control are the only pieces of a mystery you must solve about yourself.
Ten Nights, One Unraveling Truth: Each of the ten cycles follows a “Dream Puzzle” to “Waking Clue” structure. The challenge and surrealism of the nightly dream evolve, while the brief waking moments in mundane adult life provide quiet fragments to piece together the full story.
A Visceral, Stylized Dread: Sound design is paramount in the game. Sound may be both a helper in building atmosphere and clues.
Two Layers of Reality: Solve intricate spatial puzzles by switching between worlds. Objects and paths exist differently, forcing you to think and record actions across two intertwined worlds to progress.

References

INSIDE

INSIDE is a dark, atmospheric puzzle-platformer that follows a lone boy through a haunting, oppressive world.

With minimal dialogue and striking visual storytelling, it delivers an unforgettable and unsettling experience.

Mirror's Edge

Mirror’s Edge is a first-person action-adventure game centered on fluid parkour movement across a sleek, futuristic city.

Its fast-paced gameplay and distinctive minimalist style create an immersive and adrenaline-filled experience.