Neverending Nightmares dev launches Kickstarter for Devastated Dreams

Neverending Nightmares developer Matt Gilgenbach has launched a Kickstarter for his latest vaguely autobiographical psychological horror game Devastated Dreams.

It's only semi-autobiographical as Devastated Dreams stars a pregnant woman and Gilgenbach is neither pregnant nor a woman, but he is expecting his first child at the moment. Furthermore, Devastated Dreams is heavily steeped in Filipino folklore, an inspiration that came to Gilgenbach after visiting his wife's homeland of the Philippines where he stayed in a village with no running water or electricity. Things got spooky.

They would have been spookier with monsters, of course, but therein lies the magic of video games where Gilgenbach's macabre imagination can run wild.

Like Neverending Nightmares before it, Devastated Dreams won't feature any combat, but it will have monsters; particularly gruesome ones at that. Called aswang in Filipino folklore, these creatures come in many forms, but they all prey on young or unborn children. The setting will be equally creepy to match as it's set in Western Visayas, a region of the Philippines ravaged by super typhoon Yolanda (known as Haiyan internationally). The mummy-filled Kabayan caves will also make an appearance.

Unlike Neverending Nightmares, Devastated Dreams will feature a more coherent plot as players take the role of a young Filipino woman named Angel as she experiences a series of dreams set in the rural Philippines. In some of these dreams she'll be pregnant while in others she won't, so it will be up to the player to interpret what's actually going on with this troubled woman.

Gilgenbach noted that the team at his studio, Infinitap Games, is exactly the same as it was when Neverending Nightmares shipped.

Furthermore, you can experience a whiff of Gilgenbach's spooky successor to Neverending Nightmares right now as he came equipped with a playable demo of Devastated Dreams' early build.

Prospective players can reserve Devestated Dreams on PC, Mac or Linux for $10. Infinitap is looking for an oddly specific $115,896 as its minimum goal. "Based on recent sales and promotions and our predicted sales over the development of Devastated Dreams, we came up with the minimum budget possible," the developer explained. "We didn't want to ask for a penny more than we needed!"

Having launched mere hours ago Infinitap has already raised $9,223 towards it goal and has until 16th August to make the rest.