Editing Dream: Land of Giants

|released=Cancelled

''Dream'' began development sometime in 1995 by the same development team as ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest|Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest]]''. The game was an isometric RPG for the Super Nintendo titled ''Dream: Land of Giants'', and it utilized the Silicon Graphics technology of the ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong Country (series)|Donkey Kong Country]]'' games but to a more advanced level.<ref name="retrogamer">"The Making of Banjo-Kazooie", Retro Gamer issue 36 (March 2007), pages 18–25</ref> The team decided upon the codename ''Dream'' because they wanted the game to have a fantastical, magical feel to it.<ref name="rrevealed">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w72kj20YNA0 Rare Revealed: A Rare Look at Dream] on YouTube</ref> ''Dream'' was inspired by Japanese RPGs and LucasArts adventure games, and the team wanted to combine those games into one with a "Rare flavour".<ref name="retrogamer"/> The

As development progressed, ''Dream: Land of Giants'' became too large to fit on a Super Nintendo cartridge, and the Nintendo 64's introduction made the Silicon Graphics technology obsolete. Therefore, the team decided to port the game to the Nintendo 64.<ref name="retrogamer"/> Following this transition, the team gradually dropped fantasy-related elements as they did not want the game to become "too childish".<ref name="rrevealed"/> ''Dream'' was gradually being developed into a much larger RPG, featuring pirates rather than giants. [[Captain Blackeye]] was planned as the main antagonist in the Nintendo 64 version.

The Nintendo 64 version of ''Dream'' ran into a number of difficulties. According to engineer [[Paul Machacek]], the team spent a lot of time writing level editors and creating environments, but they "couldn't quite get a hook of a game". [[Steve Mayles]] deemed Edson as out-of-place among the cast of pirates and "too generic" and nondescript to begin with, so the team experimented with replacing the boy with an animal protagonist.<ref name="rrevealed"/> The team tried recycling existing designs for non-playable characters, including "a dopey dog, a rabbit that looked like a man, and a bear." They gave the bear, who would eventually be named [[Banjo]], a backpack for storing his adventuring items and had him become the new protagonist. The game was too ambitious for Nintendo 64 hardware, as it lacked the processing power to maintain the environments at a steady framerate; taking inspiration from ''[[conkerwiki:Twelve Tales: Conker 64|Twelve Tales: Conker 64]]'', a recently developed title of the time, the team decided to recreate a different 3D platformer game that would become ''Banjo-Kazooie''.

[[File:Edison artwork.png|thumb|150px|Edson, the main protagonist]]

*'''[[Edson]]''' - The main character for the SNES version. He got himself in trouble with a crew of pirates lead by Captain Blackeye.

*'''[[Madeleine]]''' - Edson's girlfriend

*'''[[Banjo]]''' - He would have originally been a secondary character.

*'''[[Captain Blackeye]]''' - The infamous captain of a pirate crew and main antagonist of the game. He later appeared as a character in ''[[Banjo-Tooie]]'' at [[Jolly's|Jolly's Bar]] in [[Jolly Roger's Lagoon]]. He repeats the words "Once, I had a dream...", which may be a reference to his original role.

*'''Grim Jim''' - One of Blackeye's crew members

*'''Flintlock Jock''' - A member of Captain Blackeye's band of pirates

*'''Cockeye''' - A "good pirate and a bit of a mad professor", as Grant Kirkhope would put it.

*'''Big Belly''' - An obese pirate who was part of Captain Blackeye's crew on the ''Mudplugger. ''He likes to eat and drink a lot.

*'''A strange, unintelligent rabbit''' - This character was going to be a secondary character in the SNES version, but he was later put under consideration for the main protagonist, when Edson was considered "too generic" and was scrapped.

*'''Piccolo''' - Piccolo would have been Banjo's girlfriend, and her name would match her musical instrument.

*'''[[Grunty]]/The Giant''' - Gruntilda was originally meant to be a giant in the N64 version, before becoming a wicked witch

*'''Dinger''' - A dog who was one of the secondary characters that was under consideration for being the main protagonist when Edson was scrapped. At the beginning of ''Land of Giants'', he was a companion of Edson.

*'''[[Tiptup]]''' - He was also going to be a secondary character, much like Banjo was.

*'''Ella''' - Edson's girly and princess-ish younger sister, who was originally going to have a high pitched voice. Her original name may have been Leela Burns.

*'''[[Kazooie]]''' - Not originally scheduled to appear as a character in this one, but she appeared as a baby bird in a nest found and looked after by Ella, who first found the nest along with her egg and parents. The mother hatched Kazooie and the chick said her first word, "Bweee!!!" because she first appeared as a baby breegull.

*[[Stomponadon]] - Similar to his appearance in ''[[Banjo-Tooie]]'', he stomped on players causing health loss. The clear aim was to avoid him. The threat of attack from Stomponadon in ''Land of Giants'' was signalled by the camera shaking and leaves falling.

 

===Artwork===

Piccolo drawing Dream.jpg|Piccolo