Project Dream

Project Dream
Provisional title screen
Developer(s) Rare
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Designer(s) Gregg Mayles
Artist(s) Steve Mayles
Ed Bryan
Composer(s) David Wise
Grant Kirkhope
Platform(s) Super NES, Nintendo 64
Release Released as Banjo-Kazooie in 1998
Genre(s) Action role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Project Dream (provisionally titled Dream: Land of Giants) is a cancelled action role-playing game. Developed by Rare, the game was aimed for release on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and later the Nintendo 64.[1] The initial plot of the game revolved around a young boy, Edison, who has caused trouble with pirates led by Captain Blackeye. Project Dream was redeveloped as Banjo-Kazooie and released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998.

Synopsis

A screenshot of gameplay from the Nintendo 64 version. Until its "Rare Revealed" video was released in 2016,[2] this was the only screenshot of the game to be shown to the public.

Details regarding the game's storyline are scarce, and there were few screenshots released of the game for several years. The story revolved around a boy named Edison, his dog named Dinger and his parrot named Billy, who wielded a wooden sword.[3] Edison had caused trouble for a group of pirates, who were the main antagonists of the game. The pirates, led by their leader, Captain Blackeye and his pet cockatoo named Cocktail and his doberman named Ripper, wanted to capture Edison, though the main base of the story is unclear.[4] It is assumed that the remainder of the story follows Edison's adventure trying to end his troubles with the pirates.

Characters

There were a few main characters in the story who survived inclusion into Banjo-Kazooie, excluding Edison. The characters of Project Dream did include Banjo the bear himself, who had been a secondary character in the game before Rare removed Edison and replaced Banjo as the main character. Captain Blackeye was removed when Rare redeveloped Project Dream into Banjo-Kazooie, although Blackeye himself makes an appearance in Banjo-Tooie, and even makes reference to his original use as a character, claiming he had a dream in which a bear that looked like Banjo took the spotlight from him.

There were also a few outlining minor characters in the game. Edison's girlfriend Madeleine and her pet pig named Swedish are the characters specified by Grant Kirkhope.[5] Other characters specified by Kirkhope are Bully,[6] Big Belly, and Cockeye,[7] for which he composed musical themes.[8] Timmy the rabbit was later changed to the main character when Edison was removed. Tooty eventually appeared in Banjo-Kazooie, and a dog named Dinger was a secondary character. Gruntilda was initially a giant in the game and later changed into the main antagonist of Banjo-Kazooie, and Tiptup the Turtle was going to be another secondary character. Kazooie was not to be featured as a main character in Project Dream; she was initially going to appear as a baby bird found by a girl named Ella. Ella is Edison's younger sister, who has pets named Banana Split the monkey and Meme the cat, and has a rabbit friend named Timmy.

Development

Development of the game began after the release and success of Rare's SNES title, Donkey Kong Country. On 22 December 2015, Rare uploaded a video to its YouTube channel where key developers of the game gave interviews and revealed beta gameplay footage of both the SNES and Nintendo 64 builds publicly for the first time. The project was originally tentatively titled Dream: Land of Giants. The story was initially to have a fairy tale fantasy theme and then turned into a pirate themed plot. Tim Stamper, Rare's founder who had previously directed Donkey Kong Country, took overall control of the project, now called Project Dream.

One specified reason why Project Dream was not completed was that it was considered too large to be a SNES game, and was later converted to the Nintendo 64 to become a large 3D role-playing video game. Initially, Project Dream was to feature an unconventional terrain system, but performance issues on the Nintendo 64 led to the abandonment of that approach.[9] That technical setback, along with concerns about the project's overall direction, led to its transformation into what became Banjo-Kazooie.

Various minor art assets and concepts from Project Dream survived this transformation. For example, the trolls from the Nintendo 64 version of Project Dream became the ghosts in Banjo Kazooie; and a troll from the Super NES version of Project Dream became a doorknocker at the top of Grunty's tower in Banjo Kazooie.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Rare Revealed: A Rare Look at Dream. Rare Ltd. December 22, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2017 – via YouTube.
  2. ↑ Rare Revealed: Five Things You Didn't Know About Banjo-Kazooie. Rare Ltd. March 17, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2017 – via YouTube.
  3. ↑ "The Making of Banjo-Kazooie", Retro Gamer, pp. 19–25, 29 March 2007
  4. ↑ "Captain Blackeye". Grant Kirkhope. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  5. ↑ "Madeleine". Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  6. ↑ "Bully - Project Dream". Grant Kirkhope. Archived from the original on December 12, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Cockeye". Grant Kirkhope. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  8. ↑ Kirkhope, Grant. "Dream: The Game that Never Was". Grant Kirkhope. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Project Dream (Grant Kirkhope)". Grant Kirkhope Music. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
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