Dream Chronicles, first released in 2007, is a series of adventure, hidden object and puzzle casual games. It was created by Miguel Angel Tartaj for KatGames and published by PlayFirst. It is also the name of the first game in the series.
The Dream Chronicles series was intended to include two trilogies, Faye's Journey and Lyra's Destiny, with three games each and two core stories, but only the first five games were released when the distributor and rights holder PlayFirst canceled, releasing and distributing their games on PC/Mac platforms to focus on its growing mobile gaming market. The developer, KatGames, has since moved on to other projects.
Development
In 2005, Miguel Tartaj, the CEO and lead game designer of KatGames, pitched his game concept to two potential partners. Subsequently, Tartaj met PlayFirst's Creative Director, Kenny Dinkin, and Director of Publishing, Craig Bocks, during Casual Connect Amsterdam in the following year. Following negotiations, KatGames reached an agreement with PlayFirst, which resulted in the June 2007 release of Dream Chronicles.
After the success of the original Dream Chronicles, KatGames devoted its time to making the Dream Chronicles series. KatGames team designed the concepts, artworks, and gameplay while partners worked on visual effects, music, story, and marketing. Dream Chronicles was inspired largely by the work of Antonio Gaudi and the Art Nouveau movement.
Story Backstory Players can have a full deep look at the fairy world in the Dream Chronicles series by solving 15 Dream Jewels' secrets in Dream Chronicles 2. Those secrets also reveal where the story in the first Dream Chronicles begins.
Long ago, the first fairies were created from mortals when a meteor collided with a field of magic crystals. This occurred at the Ancients' Place, where fairies have since lived for thousands of years. There, they created a hierarchy, assigning each fairy to an area of the Earth: some to the oceans, some to the air, some to the weather, and some to dreams. The Fairy Lord directed everything and selected a Dream Librarian to record everything the fairies did, said, and decided. The first fairies used the Print Stones Machine to create the first volumes of fairy knowledge and history. These volumes were overseen by the Dream Librarian, who has later editions of the same volumes deep in the bowels of the Dream Library. New works and observations are created constantly.
Many years after the creation of the fairies, there was another spectacular astrological event. Three stars aligned in the heavens and then fell from the sky. The fairies took that as a sign that it was time to leave the Ancients' Place and spread out all over the world to run the realm in the ways they had determined. That was when some fairies assumed control over the dreams of mortals. With their sudden exodus, they left behind many structures that now help others understand the Way of the Ancient Fairies. Finally, after seeing a sign from the heavens, the fairies left the Ancients' Place. They still return to meditate upon their fairy origins. No mortals may enter this sacred place. Any who do enter cannot be allowed to leave, lest they divulge fairy information or history. Fairies have inbred for centuries, due to their system of arranged marriages. Few have gone out into the mortal world to live as mortals, and those who have are generally shunned. Once they infiltrated the Mortal World, fairies put their hands into everything. Their specialties and assigned duties were to watch over natural forces, such as wind and fire, tides and growth, and all matters plant-related. Initially, they did just that under the Fairy Lord's guidance and watchful eye. The Dream Librarian documented those natural events.
The Fairy Lord embarked on one of his usual quests, in one of his many disguises, during which he routinely checked on fairy functions and took care of problems within the realm. After paying a visit to the Fairies of the Deep, he vanished. For a long time, the Dream Librarian admitted to no one that the Fairy Lord was missing. She filled in diligently, making decisions, mediating disputes, and continuing to chronicle all fairy matters, but the tasks are too great, even for a fairy as learned as she. Deep down, she believes the Fairy Lord is gone, and that she must find a replacement desperately. None of the existing fairies can become Fairy Lord. Their baggage is too great, and their scope too limited. The Dream Librarian seeks someone with roots similar to those of the original Fairy Lord, who began as a mortal and became a fairy. Meanwhile, Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, took advantage of the Fairy Lord's disappearance by capturing a fairy named Fidget and putting the mortals of Wish under a dream spell.
Faye's Journey Dream Chronicles, Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze and Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child belong to the first trilogy of the series named Faye's Journey, telling the story of a mortal woman named Faye, who is the only person able to wake up from a dream spell placed on her town by a Fairy Queen, and who embarks on several dangerous quests to save her husband and daughter.
Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, casts a sleep spell upon the entire Village of Wish, causing every mortal there to fall into a magical sleep and allowing her to abduct a fairy named Fidget who was living there. Before his abduction, Fidget, using his remaining power, removes the sleep spell from Faye - his wife and the story’s heroine - and leaves a path for her to follow in his diary. Waking up from the dream, Faye starts to discover her in-law family's secret: they are all fairies. She also learns that all marriages are arranged in the Fairy Realm and that the concept of love was unknown there until Fidget's parents Aeval and Tangle fell in love. Fidget was betrothed to Lilith, but his parents chose to raise him in the Mortal Realm so he too could marry for love. Lilith, however, believes that her marriage to Fidget will strengthen her own powers as the Fairy Queen of Dreams: and ever since Fidget married Faye, Lilith has been crafting a plan to steal Fidget away. Faye meets a talking carnivorous plant named Herbert who, according to Fidget, is his mother's best friend. Leaving the comfort of her in-law's family and her hometown Village of Wish, Faye ventures outside on a lonely quest to save her husband, but she quickly becomes lost when the moon rises. Luckily, a sign guides her to Lilith's mansion, where Faye thinks Lilith is keeping her husband. She finds and reunites with Fidget momentarily, but Lilith appears and separates the couple a second time, bringing Fidget with her and casting another sleep spell upon Faye.
Lilith, having abducted Fidget again, sends Faye to a forgotten fairy prison from which no mortal has ever escaped. Waking up from Lilith's dream spell, Faye receives a diary from Aeval, her mother-in-law and the Fairy Queen of Flora, who then communicates through her plants to help Faye find a way out. Escaping from the prison, Faye explores the Ancients' Place, the fairy's birthplace, where they used to dwell. Looking at the nearest crystal ball, Aeval informs Faye that Lyra is no longer sleeping in her bed, and it is assumed that Lilith has taken her hostage. Aeval tells Faye to hurry, as Fidget's hope of being rescued is fading, and he may succumb to marrying Lilith. Faye meets and asks for help from an old friend of Aeval's named Merrow, an inventor who lives in the Mortal Realm. Arriving at Merrow's cottage, Faye discovers him to be a talking plant living in a secret lab. Merrow agrees to take Faye to the Tower of Dreams where, according to him, Fidget and Lyra are being held hostage by Lilith. Growing beside the Tower is a strange tree, but Merrow declares that "it's not important". Faye enters the enormous tower, a thing that no mortal had done before. She enters without Merrow's help as there are no plants inside for him to communicate through. Reaching the sixth and top floor, Faye finds a bed there, reminding her much of the bedroom in her own home. Exhausted and overwhelmed by nightmares, Faye just wants to have a nap, but as soon as she touches the bed, Aeval warns Faye that Merrow is a traitor, and she must escape from the tower. Faye jumps from the tower window and is caught by Aeval's vines. Aeval then leads Faye to the Eternal Tree, the tree she ignored at Merrow’s advice, beneath which Fidget, and Lyra are trapped. Faye enters the tree and finds a sleeping Fidget, and Lyra's favourite teddy bear. Aeval tells Faye to find a root potion from the Eternal Maze that will awaken Fidget. After Faye emerges from the Eternal Maze with the potion, the teddy bear vanishes. Faye gives the potion to Fidget, and they are finally reunited, but they must now find their missing daughter.
Faye is living in a tree house as Brenna, having lost all her memories of her previous adventures. Images of a strange man, a little girl, and an evil woman often appear in her dreams and frustrate Brenna. One day, waking up from a dream like this, Brenna finds a crystal ball in which a man - just like in her dreams - appears to urge her to find a girl named Lyra. Bewildered, Brenna listens to the strange man's advice and she says she can trust him. Brenna is led to a strange house owned by an herbalist through a magical nexus gateway. After concocting a memory recovery potion, Brenna finally remembers everything: herself Faye, her husband Fidget, her missing daughter Lyra, and her rival Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams. Faye quickly goes to rescue her daughter, following clues left to her by someone unknown. She learns that Lilith is hiding in a retreat beneath the sea. As Faye feels closer to Lyra, she knows that she must continue. After going under the sea, traveling through many strange rooms and two labyrinths, Faye arrives at Lilith's retreat and meets her. Faye demands to know where Lyra is. Lilith calmly tells Faye that the Dream Librarian has abducted Lyra, believing her to be the Chosen Child of prophecy. This prophecy states that a half-fairy, half-mortal child will replace the missing Fairy Lord. Lilith reveals that she has been the one guiding Faye all along and that she refuses to accept Lyra as her Fairy Lord. Suddenly, Lilith offers to help Faye bring Lyra back. Aware that Lilith has her own "selfish interests at heart", Faye still accepts her help. Going back to the Enchanted Tree, Faye takes Lyra's teddy bear and brings Lyra back to her home in Wish. Faye's family is finally reunited. A new life has already opened for them. Faye says these fairy adventures will haunt her dreams forever. One thing she didn't know is that Lilith was pregnant and no one knows exactly what Lilith is up to.
Lyra's Destiny Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air, Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water and Dream Chronicles: The Book of Fire belong to the second trilogy of the series named Lyra's Destiny, telling the story of a young mortal girl named Lyra who embarks on many unforeseen quests, just like her mother Faye used to do, to reveal and to accept her unique destiny: become the new Fairy Lord.