Project Dream

Lore & Background

The plot followed a young boy, Edson, who caused trouble with pirates. The SNES version used an isometric perspective and had a fairy tale theme. After transitioning to the N64, the project became a more complex 3D RPG with a greater emphasis on the pirate theme. Eventually, Dream was scaled back to a linear platform game in the vein of Donkey Kong Country that starred Banjo the bear, who became the protagonist of Banjo-Kazooie. Dream was not completed because Rare believed it was too ambitious and different from their previous games. The game that became Conker's Bad Fur Day led them to retool it into a platformer inspired by Super Mario 64. Dream concepts were re-integrated into Banjo-Kazooie.

Reader's Guide

The game was developed by Rare's Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest team over 16 months. It was inspired by Japanese RPGs and LucasArts adventure games. The SNES version featured Edson using a wooden sword to fight trolls and his dog Dinger assisting him. The N64 version went through radical changes: Edson was replaced first by a rabbit and later by Banjo. The final version was a linear platformer bearing little resemblance to earlier versions. Development restarted four times. The soundtrack was primarily composed by Grant Kirkhope, with David Wise contributing partway through.

Did You Know?

• The antagonist Captain Blackeye has cameo appearances in Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
• Dream's pirate theme was eventually recycled in Rare's 2018 game Sea of Thieves.
• Rare released a short documentary about Dream in December 2015 on their YouTube channel.