# MAJOR DEMO UPDATE \<3 - WiP: Don't Wake Me Up (with demo)

**URL:** <https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862>\
**Category:** Works In Progress\
**Tags:** gender-choice, science-fiction\
**Created:** [July 6, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862 "2016-07-06T00:10:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Baudelaire\_Welch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/baudelaire_welch/32/16423_2.png) [@Baudelaire\_Welch](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Baudelaire_Welch)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/1 "2016-07-06T00:10:33Z")

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**MARCH 2020 UPDATE!!**  
Hello friends, having started furiously writing again now I’m stuck inside for a while, I’ve decided it’s time to upload the second chapter of DWMU onto the end of the demo. It’s a game with about 6 major chapters, so it’s quite a substantial amount of the game, and a hefty 50,000 word section!  
Join Len and Asterius to get a hint of the game’s actual romance, romping through a leechy swamp and fighting some liches \<3  
[https://dashingdon.com/go/5409](https://dashingdon.com/go/5409)  
I hope it brings some joy into your lives everyone! This is still stuff I haven’t gone back and edited since I first wrote it in 2016, so please give it a bit of a critique x I know there’s a lot of stuff that needs a little bit of updating and modernising.

**(Don’t) Wake Me Up**  **2020 Update!!!**

 ![Screenshot 2020-01-04 00.52.46](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/original/3X/6/1/619425256d5d9b4c7bb6e6a94387afd606f9e83f.png)

Hello again to anyone who remembers it, and hello for the first time to the rest!  
Don’t Wake Me Up, the satirical virtual reality dreamworld is going back online! Asterius, the Ultimate Top Hat, Em and Orion are here for more fun, and Len is back for a lot more misery.  
I’m working seriously on Don’t Wake Me Up again. Get ready for it to be actually finished, and to prove I’m serious it has a first-ever-attempt-at-pixel-art banner now. For anyone who didn’t get there the first time, here is the first chapter:

[https://dashingdon.com/go/667](https://dashingdon.com/go/667)  
This demo is unedited from when I first worked on it, and there is a lot that seems dated to me now, but here it is if you would like your memory jogged!

TLDR I’ve had incredibly bad health and have developed a debilitating physical disability (EDS), but am back to trying to gradually work on it, and am hoping to study a masters in computer science and anthropology (cybernetics!) next year, and have even written a paper on narrative technologies!  
**ORIGNAL POST (2016):**

**Premise:** You and your flighty friend Asterius are trapped in a malfunctioning virtual reality and must seek a way to return to the real world! The only catch is that you have no memories between you… except for those from every video game you’ve ever played. Armed with nothing more than puns, pop culture references and a healthy dose of sarcasm, will you be able to struggle through this muddled game world back to reality?

Adventure through virtual worlds alongside a delusional gamer, an actual emo vampire (who really wishes he wasn’t an emo vampire), a poet from outer space, and a dashing princess in shining armor, among others!

* * *

Brief summary aside, I’ll admit that this is mostly a satire of the trapped-in-a-video-game genre. For about two thirds, it’s a light-hearted comedy story, rife with meta-humour. But I can assure you, it’s anything but light-hearted by the end.

For well over a year, I’ve been working on this game. Originally, I intended not to get involved with the forums until the very latest stages of the process. My work ethic has always been that you never show anything until you’re 100% finished with a project. But I’ve recently read that CoG prefers to have some advance notice for incoming games! Therefore I’ve decided to upload the first chapter as a demo for people to play here.

So please, play the demo! Discuss the game! I’ll try my hardest to get it finished soon. If anyone would like to test a more advanced version later down the line, please send me a message. Also, the code is messy. Hardened CoG authors would probably feel some writhing revulsion looking at how messy the code is. Once I used ‘spaghetti’ as a label just because I was hungry.

Also, I would love to answer any questions/queries/rants/squeeing you might have. I’m furiously refreshing this page so I’ll be here. You can call me Isabella if you want.

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**Author:** ![Knightstrike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/knightstrike/32/10122_2.png) [@Knightstrike](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Knightstrike)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/2 "2016-07-06T00:29:04Z")

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Parodies are great, but if you plan for this project of yours to be a hosted game then might be best to take out the names of the actual games.

You might get sued for copyright infringement. Most companies are very protective of their creations/products.

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**Author:** ![FairyGodfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/fairygodfeather/32/16709_2.png) [@FairyGodfeather](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/FairyGodfeather)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/3 "2016-07-06T00:30:35Z")

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> [@Knightstrike](#):
>
> Parodies are great, but if you plan for this project of yours to be a hosted game then might be best to take out the names of the actual games.

Parody is considered fair use. I don’t think there’s an issue with mentioning names either.

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**Author:** ![Baudelaire\_Welch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/baudelaire_welch/32/16423_2.png) [@Baudelaire\_Welch](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Baudelaire_Welch)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/4 "2016-07-06T00:34:38Z")

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Thanks for the advice, I was considering such a thing, too. The actual game names are few and far between (allusions are often funnier), and I’ve tried hard only to talk about games in a positive light. All games mentioned are great games! I’ve seen quite a few instances of other games referenced in CoG games (e.g. Dragon Age mentioned in choice of robots), so I believed that as long as you don’t make too big a deal of any one game that mentioning it is okay?

Basically whatever CoG’s policy is for that, I’ll go with it.

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**Author:** ![Baudelaire\_Welch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/baudelaire_welch/32/16423_2.png) [@Baudelaire\_Welch](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Baudelaire_Welch)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/5 "2016-07-06T00:38:53Z")

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I’m happy to hear that! I was a little unsure about it before.

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**Author:** ![Knightstrike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/knightstrike/32/10122_2.png) [@Knightstrike](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Knightstrike)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/6 "2016-07-06T00:42:32Z")

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Parodies and satires are now fair use and can supplant copyright issues, but companies can still issue you cease and decease letters if they want to and take you to court if you resist. You’ll win, but troublesome right?

Just a head’s up. And great game!

I do love the blend of RPGs and other genre in this very humorous game. Why not add some RTS/Strategy games, music games and maybe sports games in the mix?

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**Author:** ![Baudelaire\_Welch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/baudelaire_welch/32/16423_2.png) [@Baudelaire\_Welch](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Baudelaire_Welch)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/7 "2016-07-06T00:53:36Z")

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Each chapter in DWMU is inspired by a different game genre, so you might see some of those further down the line 😉 Although I’m probably unfairly biased towards RPGs, so the RPG elements came first. Love my RPGs best. The chapter I’m proudest of so far was a point and click style level. I’m still not entirely sure how I managed to get point and click/inventory based gameplay to work with choicescript but it happened somehow.

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**Author:** ![Dark\_Stalker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/dark_stalker/32/3196_2.png) [@Dark\_Stalker](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Dark_Stalker)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/8 "2016-07-06T01:21:59Z")

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Hunting rats  
Perhaps you played the same game…  
he crushes another mid sentence.

Asterius was female for me. ( sorry about the vague line but I can’t copy paste/screenshot right now)

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**Author:** ![Baudelaire\_Welch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/baudelaire_welch/32/16423_2.png) [@Baudelaire\_Welch](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Baudelaire_Welch)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/10 "2016-07-06T01:24:31Z")

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Thanks, that happens sometimes. Appreciate it, I’ll fix it. And I know the exact line, don’t worry. I ought to remember my own Baldur’s Gate references

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**Author:** ![Teru](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/teru/32/30054_2.png) [@Teru](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Teru)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/11 "2016-07-06T01:26:21Z")

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My favorite line so far:

“IT’S HIGH NOON!”

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**Author:** ![Dark\_Stalker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/dark_stalker/32/3196_2.png) [@Dark\_Stalker](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Dark_Stalker)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/12 "2016-07-06T01:57:06Z")

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_PRAISE THE TOP HAT!_  
Why does no one recognize it as weapon?  
Kinda wish we could do both quests so we could get Asterius and I a weapon.

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**Author:** ![Jeffrey\_Foster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/jeffrey_foster/32/21611_2.png) [@Jeffrey\_Foster](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Jeffrey_Foster)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/13 "2016-07-06T02:00:56Z")

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i was personally scared it was a rip off (like they said in the game) so i picked the gun

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**Author:** ![Jeffrey\_Foster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/jeffrey_foster/32/21611_2.png) [@Jeffrey\_Foster](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Jeffrey_Foster)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:01am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/14 "2016-07-06T02:01:39Z")

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i loved the demo and i laughed when i asked “do vampires poop”

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**Author:** ![Dark\_Stalker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/dark_stalker/32/3196_2.png) [@Dark\_Stalker](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Dark_Stalker)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/15 "2016-07-06T02:03:14Z")

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It’s magic. It even helps without your input. I trusted it since the MC felt something. It’s even referenced as the Top Hat from God in the stats screen.

Is the female mc supposed to be able to ask “what the hell are these names” too?

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**Author:** ![FairyGodfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/fairygodfeather/32/16709_2.png) [@FairyGodfeather](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/FairyGodfeather)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:14am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/16 "2016-07-06T02:14:45Z")

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The game is really good and fun.

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**Author:** ![Harley\_Robin\_Evans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/harley_robin_evans/32/86044_2.png) [@Harley\_Robin\_Evans](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Harley_Robin_Evans)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/17 "2016-07-06T02:20:29Z")

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Seems good so far can’t wait for more

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**Author:** ![Noctis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/noctis/32/203220_2.png) [@Noctis](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Noctis)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/18 "2016-07-06T02:24:54Z")

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I loved it \<3 It’s both amusing and indulges my inner video game nerd. Also, the Top Hat is God o.o I’m still not sure what it does but any prospect of using magic is so up my alley x3 I can’t wait to see the completion of this game ^.^

I’m not sure but I think I found a bug though. I went to the tower, then went to the dungeon, and when we survived the tower scene ended up repeating?

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**Author:** ![Arcania](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/arcania/32/89710_2.png) [@Arcania](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Arcania)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/19 "2016-07-06T02:33:36Z")

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Curious, I noticed the goal is for us to leave this virtual reality, is there a means for our MC’s to _want_ to stay in this virutal world and not leave? Or is there a pressing reason to leave?

I haven’t gotten through the demo completely yet, but I can definitely say it caught my attention and held it. Refreshing and entertaining. Keep it up.

Top Hat = ❣

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**Author:** ![Terriermon50](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/terriermon50/32/15101_2.png) [@Terriermon50](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Terriermon50)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:42am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/20 "2016-07-06T02:42:03Z")

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This has been one of the more funny WIPs I’ve played thus far. I give this the award of _Best Stats Screen EVER_. It’s hilarious and I want to play more of it.

Also, this is obligatory, but who cares:  
[![](https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-12-2016/VnupGq.gif) ](https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-12-2016/VnupGq.gif)

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**Author:** ![RenaB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/renab/32/10268_2.png) [@RenaB](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/RenaB)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862/21 "2016-07-06T02:47:22Z")

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I love it so far! I enjoy the humor of it all and the concept. Especially the tiny, extremely entertaining portions like the ‘loading screen’ (and attempting to double jump was my favorite- because that’s exactly what I’d do if I ever found myself stuck in a video game). I also love the characters you’ve created, and am really excited to see where you go on from here. Good luck and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!

[Next page](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/major-demo-update-3-wip-dont-wake-me-up-with-demo/18862.md?page=2)