Note: This game is in EARLY development. Estimated for Q4 2027 and possibly earlier. There are still some work to be done with the custom engine & new content.
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Explore a nightmare. Lose your mind. See the truth.
Awaken to a realm where dreams and reality blur beyond recognition. As the Awakened One, you must traverse a haunting world of nightmares and fragmented memories, where nothing is certain and every shadow hides unspeakable truths.
Navigate through twisted dreamscapes filled with abhorrent creatures that defy comprehension. Master brutal combat, unlock arcane abilities, and forge your path through interconnected levels where each step forward reveals deeper mysteries about the nature of existence itself.
Help tormented souls uncover their buried truths while questioning your own reality. In this dark gothic horror experience, the line between salvation and damnation rests in your ability to distinguish what is real from what is merely another layer of the endless nightmare.
Dynamic Sanity system that transforms gameplay, enemy combat and reveals hidden paths
Intense and gritty combat with parrying, backstep-lunge, rolling, and weapon variety across melee, ranged, and arcane styles
Brutal executions for each enemy and a devastating feel to eradicating foes
Deep customization with mix-and-match passive trees alongside the trait system
Rich NPC questlines exploring dark themes of trauma, identity, and survival
Built from scratch on a custom C++ engine (no Unity, no Unreal)
Hand-crafted by a solo developer with 17 years of programming experience and a dedicated art team
Madness as Mechanic
The Sanity system is the heart of Oneirium. It transforms your perception of the world, your combat capabilities, and your understanding of the story itself.
How It Works:
You begin with full Sanity. As you explore, witness horrors, defeat disturbing enemies, and uncover forbidden knowledge, your Sanity degrades. But losing your mind reveals truth.
High Sanity
The world appears "normal"
Standard enemy behavior
Full defensive stats
Hidden paths remain invisible
Medium Sanity
Subtle visual distortions begin
Enemies hint at their true forms
Defense reduced
Some hidden paths become partially visible
NPCs react differently to your troubled mind
Oneiran, the one true tongue, begins to take form in all dialogue
Low Sanity
Reality fractures completely
Enemies transform into their true forms
All hidden paths revealed, including shortcuts, secret areas, and entire new zones
Oneiran becomes fully readable, unlocking ancient mysteries
Defense significantly reduced
New dialogue options can appear
Walls shift. Colors intensify. Impossible geometry manifests.
Risk of madness: permanently altering effects if sanity goes unmanaged
Managing Sanity:
Restoration is possible through rare consumables, certain NPC quests, and specific passives and relics. But degradation is inevitable. Witnessing death, reading forbidden texts, interacting with cosmic horrors, spending time in corrupted areas, dying repeatedly... the world wants you mad.
Strategic Depth:
The system creates meaningful decisions. Do you stay sane for survivability but miss secrets? Do you embrace madness to access hidden content? Can you survive low Sanity long enough to reach your goal? Which builds work best at different Sanity levels?
Oneiran:
Scattered throughout the world is a language only the mad can read. Carved into stone, whispered by the afflicted, hidden in plain sight. As your Sanity falls, the symbols begin to make sense. Learn to decipher Oneiran through exploration and discovery, and unlock secrets the sane will never find: hidden lore, clues to powerful items, insights into characters who cannot speak their truth aloud, and prophecies about what lies ahead.
Players can work together to crack the language, creating a community mystery that extends beyond individual playthroughs.
The Thin Line Between Worlds
"In the dream, we are all gods. In waking, we are all prisoners."
The World:
Oneirium takes place in a twisted Victorian-era world suspended between reality and nightmare. This is not our history. Here, the industrial revolution awakened something ancient and malevolent. Factories produce suffering. Churches imprison secrets. And people are slowly realizing that their world is just another layer of the dream.
The name comes from "oneiric," meaning of or relating to dreams. Dreams, nightmares, and reality have collapsed into one another. No one can tell the difference anymore.
Your Role:
You are the Awakened One, once human, existing between states of consciousness. You cannot die permanently. Death throws you back, implying you are trapped in a cycle. You see things others cannot. And as your Sanity fractures, you begin to perceive the truth beneath the lies.
But truth comes at a cost. The more you see, the less of yourself remains.
Brutal. Precise. Unforgiving.
Oneirium's combat draws from the best of the genre while carving its own identity. Every enemy tells a story. Every death teaches a lesson.
Core Mechanics:
Parrying: Time blocks perfectly to deflect attacks and open enemies for devastating counters
Backstep-Lunge: Quick backward movement with an offensive window to strike back
Rolling: I-frame dodges for aggressive players who dance with death
No Stamina Bar: Every action has weight, but you have full creative freedom to define your playstyle
Three Combat Styles:
Melee: Close quarters with swords, axes, and brutal weapons. High risk, high reward.
Ranged: Bows, crossbows, and throwing weapons for calculated, tactical combat.
Arcane: Dark magic and occult powers for those who embrace the madness.
Customization:
Mix-and-match passive trees let you build your character your way. Discover rare traits that fundamentally change how you play. Each weapon type has unique movesets and synergies. Active skills complement your chosen playstyle.
Enemies and Bosses:
Every enemy in Oneirium reflects human fears, traumas, and darkest impulses given physical form. These are not mindless monsters.
Grotesque, memorable horror design
Unique boss encounters with distinct mechanics and lore
Sanity-based variations: as your mind breaks, enemies reveal their true forms
Environmental storytelling through enemy behavior and placement
Combat Philosophy:
No artificial difficulty through damage sponges or unfair mechanics. Every death is a lesson. Every enemy is conquerable through pattern recognition, timing, and build optimization. When you finally defeat a boss after twenty attempts, you will feel it.
Stories Within the Nightmare
NPCs in Oneirium are not quest dispensers. They are broken people trying to survive in a world actively hostile to their existence.
Quest Examples:
A mother searching for her lost child in a world where children disappear into fog and return... different
A woman fleeing her violent past, only to find it manifesting as monsters that hunt her
A knight, last of his battalion, losing his mind as he uncovers forbidden knowledge, forcing you to choose between truth and his sanity
A priest questioning his faith as miracles and horrors become indistinguishable
Branching Narratives:
Your choices matter through:
Sanity-based dialogue options revealing different conversation paths
Timed decisions reflecting crisis moments
Consequence chains where helping one NPC might condemn another
Multiple endings per questline: survival, madness, or bittersweet redemption
Built with ZEngine, a custom engine crafted from scratch using C++ and SDL3. Special thanks to the SDL team for decades of dedication to open-source game development, providing the foundation that makes projects like this possible.
There is still many things left to do, as this is only in it's Playtest/Demo stage. See the Kickstarter for a full list.
The target release date is Q4 of 2027
Support us on Kickstarter to bring this passion project into a full in-depth game!
You can find this on our website or discord!
Why We Need Your Help
Every asset, every sound effect, every pixel has been paid for through my own commitment to seeing this game finished.
But to complete this vision, we need your help.
With your backing, we can:
Commission additional professional art assets and animations
Refine current artwork with more frames and detail
Bring characters to life with professional voice acting (stretch goal)
Localize the game for international players (stretch goal)
Create animated cutscenes showing the brutality of this world (stretch goal)
Properly market and QA test the game to the standard you deserve
