Dream Chronicles

Lore & Background

The Dream Chronicles series is set in a fairy world where fairies were created from mortals after a meteorite struck the Crystal of Dreams at the Ancient Place. The fairies established a hierarchy, assigning duties over oceans, air, weather, and dreams, under a Fairy Lord and a Dream Librarian. After a second astrological event, fairies spread across the world, leaving behind structures that help others understand their ways. The Fairy Lord later vanished, and the Dream Librarian sought a replacement with mortal roots, while Lilith, the Fairy Lord's daughter, seized power after her father vanished, capturing a fairy named Fidget and placing mortals under a dream spell.

Reader's Guide

The first trilogy, Faye's Journey, follows a mortal woman named Faye who wakes from a dream spell cast by Lilith on the Village of Wish. Faye discovers her in-laws are fairies, learns that arranged marriages are the norm in the Fairy Realm, and that Fidget—her husband—was betrothed to Lilith. Faye embarks on quests to rescue Fidget and her daughter Lyra, encountering a talking plant named Herbert, an inventor named Merrow, and navigating locations such as Lilith's mansion, a forgotten fairy prison, the Ancients' Place, and the Eternal Maze. The series was inspired by the work of Antonio Gaudi and the Art Nouveau movement. Its cancellation by PlayFirst left the second trilogy, Lyra's Destiny, unfinished, and KatGames moved on to other projects.

Did You Know?

• The Dream Chronicles series was inspired largely by the work of Antonio Gaudi and the Art Nouveau movement.
• The first game in the series was released in June 2007 after negotiations between KatGames and PlayFirst.
• Players can learn the backstory of the fairy world by solving 15 Dream Jewels' secrets in Dream Chronicles 2.

Development & Creative Partnerships

In 2005, Miguel Angel Tartaj, serving as both CEO and lead game designer at KatGames, began pitching his game concept to prospective partners. The following year, at the Casual Connect Amsterdam event, Tartaj crossed paths with Kenny Dinkin, PlayFirst's Creative Director, and Craig Bocks, their Director of Publishing. Negotiations between the two companies ultimately led to a publishing agreement, and Dream Chronicles hit PC and Mac shelves in June 2007. After the initial title proved successful, KatGames committed its resources to building out the broader series. The creative division was split between the two partners: KatGames handled core design, concept art, and gameplay mechanics, while PlayFirst took responsibility for visual effects, musical scoring, narrative development, and marketing. Aesthetically, the series drew heavy inspiration from the architectural and decorative legacy of Antoni Gaudí and the broader Art Nouveau movement, giving the hidden-object and puzzle gameplay a distinctly ornate visual identity.

Planned Ambitions & the Series' Abrupt End

The Dream Chronicles franchise was originally conceived as a sweeping narrative spanning two complete trilogies. The first, Faye's Journey, and the second, Lyra's Destiny, were each meant to contain three individual titles, together forming two interlocking core stories across the series. In practice, however, only five games ever reached players before the project was shelved. PlayFirst, the publisher and rights holder, made the strategic decision to cancel further development and distribution of the series on PC and Mac platforms. The company chose to redirect its energy toward the rapidly expanding mobile gaming market, a shift that effectively ended the Dream Chronicles line. KatGames, the developer behind the series, subsequently pivoted to other projects and has not returned to the franchise. The unfulfilled second trilogy, Lyra's Destiny, remains a notable gap in the narrative, leaving the broader fairy mythology and the fate of its characters unresolved for fans who followed the first five installments.

The Fairy World & Its Ancient History

The lore of Dream Chronicles roots its fairy civilization in a singular cosmic event. Long ago, a meteor struck a field of magic crystals at a location known as the Ancients' Place, and from that collision the first fairies were born out of mortal substance. Over thousands of years, these beings established a rigid hierarchy, each assigned to oversee a specific domain of the natural world—oceans, air, weather, or the dreams of sleeping humans. A single Fairy Lord governed all, while a Dream Librarian meticulously recorded every decision, action, and utterance of the fairy realm. The first volumes of fairy knowledge were produced using a device called the Print Stones Machine, and later editions were stored deep within the Dream Library. When three stars aligned and fell from the sky, the fairies interpreted it as a celestial command to abandon the Ancients' Place and spread across the world. Mortals are strictly forbidden from entering that sacred site; any who do are trapped there permanently to prevent the leakage of fairy history. Centuries of arranged marriages have kept the fairy bloodline inbred, and those rare fairies who chose to live among mortals are generally shunned by their own kind.

Faye's Journey – The First Trilogy's Narrative Arc

The first three games—Dream Chronicles, Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze, and Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child—collectively narrate the tale of Faye, a mortal woman drawn into the fairy world. The story ignites when Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, blankets the entire Village of Wish in a sleep spell and abducts a fairy named Fidget. Before his capture, Fidget channels his last power to break the spell on his wife and leaves a trail of clues in his diary. Waking alone, Faye discovers that her in-laws are all fairies and that the Fairy Realm operates through arranged marriages in which romantic love was virtually unknown—until Fidget's parents, Aeval and Tangle, shattered that convention. Fidget had been betrothed to Lilith, who sought to amplify her own power through the union. His parents instead raised him among mortals so he could marry for love. Faye's quest to rescue her husband carries her far from home, where she meets Herbert, a talking carnivorous plant and Fidget's mother's best friend, and must navigate a realm in crisis: the Fairy Lord has vanished, and the Dream Librarian struggles to keep the fairy world from collapsing.