Finally Awake (somnogame)

Finally Awake
Media
The cover art of Finally Awake, showing three characters combining human and animal features and carrying different objects. They are standing on railroad tracks with a dense forest behind them.

Official cover art of Finally Awake.

Developer

Moodoo

Publisher

Zhupao

Director

Samuel Domian

Platform

Reverie

Release date

November 27th 2048

Finally Awake is a 2048 multiplayer somnogame developed by Moodoo and published by Zhupao on November 27th 2048. Written and directed by Samuel Domian, Finally Awake was the launch title of the Reverie console and has been credited with the popularisation of somnogames.

Combining a roleplaying game (RPG) with elements of social deduction, Finally Awake tasks players with completing various puzzle rooms to reach the Demiurge, the being responsible for creating the game world. One team of players is secretly given the task to sabotage the others and turn the shared dream into a nightmare.

Finally Awake was a critical and commercial success upon release, with particular praise for its pioneering use of subjective dream logic. A recent update to the game added an artificial intelligence (AI) gamemaster called Mekhane, which was well-received by fans.

Table of contents

  1. Setting
  2. Gameplay
    1. Teams
    2. Tracks
    3. Throne Room
    4. Roles and abilities
      1. Fantasies
      2. Fears
    5. Masks
  3. 2049 tournament
  4. Controversy
  5. See also
  6. References

Setting

Finally Awake is set in a fantastical land that is being dreamed into existence by the Demiurge, a powerful being that is sleeping in the Throne Room. The objective of the game is to reach the Throne Room and keep the Demiurge asleep in order to safeguard the land, or wake it up if the dream has turned into a nightmare.

Gameplay

The role of the Demiurge serves as the gamemaster and can be assumed by Moodoo staff or a custom artificial intelligence (AI) called Mekhane. Samuel Domian was known for organising sessions of Finally Awake where he acted as the Demiurge, which were some of the most popular and widely spectated games. After Domian’s departure as creative director, Moodoo launched Mekhane in May 2049 as a generative AI system trained on dream imaging data. [1] Mekhane was well-received by players, with some claiming that Moodoo has “recaptured the magic of Domian’s finest games.”

Teams

When the game starts, players are randomly and secretly assigned to two different teams: Fantasies and Fears, with Fantasies typically outnumbering Fears by two to three players. Fantasies can only see their own team affiliation while Fears are aware of each other’s identities. The main objective of each team is to complete a series of puzzle rooms known as Tracks while losing as few members as possible.

Tracks

Tracks are puzzle rooms that players have to collaboratively solve before progressing. They obey dream logic and often contain one or more deadly elements, which can eliminate players who can then choose to spectate or wake up. [2] Once a Track has been started, progression to the next Track is blocked until all remaining players have reached the end of the current Track.

Players can choose a total of three to six Tracks per game, with each Track selected from a fixed rotation. Tracks can contain environmental obstacles, interactive objects, and non-player characters (NPCs). Most elements in a Track are visible to all players, but some only appear to specific players based on their role or the Track’s puzzle. Players must complete each Track before the timer runs out at risk of elimination.

In order to catalogue Tracks by their themes and challenges, the Finally Awake community started giving them names based on French bands or songs, which Domian has called out as “immensely flattering.” [3] Example Tracks include:

  • The Supermen Lovers, a Track that sees players jumping from one airplane to another, with only half of them wearing a parachute.
  • Le Monde est Stone, a Track set in a sculpture museum, with players having to sneak through by adopting static poses to fool the guards.
  • Chicken Sonata, a Track where players run across a giant piano while being pursued by a chicken, which must be guided into playing a melody that at least two players recognise.

Throne Room

After each Track has been completed, players reach the Throne Room, which contains no challenge or puzzle. Players instead proceed to a voting round to decide whether they want to wake up the Demiurge or keep it asleep. If the Fears outnumber the Fantasies, the Demiurge is secretly switched to its Nightmare state. Otherwise, it remains in the default Dream state.

The Fantasies win if the Demiurge is kept in its Dream or awakened from its Nightmare, while the Fears win if the Demiurge is kept in its Nightmare or awakened from its Dream. In the case of a tie, players are free to eliminate each other until a majority is reached. [4]

Roles and abilities

Depending on their team, each player is randomly assigned a hidden role with a unique ability. No two players can have the same role, but not all roles might be present in a single game.

Fantasies
Name Ability
Haruspex For each eliminated player during a Track, the Haruspex will find an item that only they can see in the next Track. This item serves as a symbolic hint towards the team status of another player. For example, if a Haruspex finds a rotten carot, they could infer that the player wearing a bunny mask is a Fear.
Concubus Once per game, the Concubus can target another player, whose dream will start to feature symbolic hints that they are in love with the Concubus. If the Concubus gets eliminated, their target will be eliminated in the same manner soon after.
Tyrfing Once per Track, the Tyrfing can generate a weapon function and attach it to an item in the room. This item can now be used as a weapon by every player. Each time a player uses that weapon, they will be eliminated.
Muse Twice per Track, the Muse can remove an item’s function and attach it to another item.
Fears
Name Ability
Cochemar Twice per Track, the Cochemar can touch a player and set a timer between one and 100 seconds. When the timer reaches zero, the target is frozen in place and cannot communicate for the same duration of the initial timer.
Evil Eye If a player uses their ability while being in the Evil Eye’s range, the Evil Eye has a few seconds to change the target of that power, without the player knowing.
White Lady Once per Track, the White Lady can choose a word. When that word has been said three times in the subvocal chat, the ground and environment around the player that last said it will disappear.
Tooth Fairy For each eliminated player during a Track, the Tooth Fairy will find a corresponding animal tooth, bone, or skull in the next Track. The Tooth Fairy can eat the tooth and immediately use the ability of the player it belonged to. Each tooth can only be eaten once.

Masks

After roles are assigned, players choose an animal mask that their avatar will wear during the game. Players have started to introduce themselves using the namesake of their mask followed by a sentence alluding to their secret role. Someone claiming to be a Muse might present themselves as “a crafty little fox with tricks up their sleeve,” while a player posing as a Concubus might say they’re “a scruffy alley cat, tired of being a loner.”

2049 tournament

In September 2049, Moodoo announced the first official Finally Awake tournament to take place on the night of October 9th 2049. In the announcement video, Inès Seghir revealed that the tournament would be run by Mekhane as “a demonstration of its newfound potential.” [5] Seghir has invited several celebrities and influencers to take part in the tournament, including Earlybird, Taylor Lulashnyk, and Efrim Waite.

Controversy

A photo of Samuel Domian at the A Maze games festival in 2043. He is smiling at the camera with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and headphones around his neck.

Samuel Domian, pictured in 2043.

After the success of Finally Awake‘s initial launch, the game became notorious for the troubled status of Domian, which culminated in several public outbursts. As a result of Domian’s behaviour, players began to report that the Demiurge had become “increasingly spiteful.”

During a game that he was managing in March 2049, Domian verbally abused a player and intentionally trapped them in an endless fall for six hours, which led to calls for him to step down.

On April 11th 2049, Domian announced that he had “involuntarily departed” Moodoo and his role as creative director of Finally Awake. In an accompanying statement, Zhupao called Domian “a victim of his own circumstances,” making reference to his history of substance abuse and mental instability.

Domian’s fanbase reacted to his departure by boycotting Finally Awake and harassing Moodoo employees, which intensified when Moodoo announced the launch of Mekhane in May 2049. Domian was repeatedly criticised for refusing to intervene in the harassment campaign.

See also

References

  1. Klein, H. (May 2049). “Moodoo Unveils Nightmare-Inducing Virtual Dungeon Master.” Wired. ↩
  2. Domian, S; Seghir, I. (March 2049). “Bug Report: Players Disagree With Their Own Choices.” Game Developers Conference. ↩
  3. Taiari, A. (November 2048). “Unofficial Tracklist” Onironauts Fan Wiki. ↩
  4. Dylis, Y. (November 2048). “Gameplay of Finally Awake.” Onironauts Fan Wiki. ↩
  5. Jendresen, G. (September 2049). “Moodoo announces first ever Finally Awake tournament.” Game Informer. ↩