The “Somnia” project is a concept for a narrative puzzle game that explores the user interface as an active element of storytelling and interaction. The action unfolds through stages of sleep, during which the player explores the environment and collects fragments of repressed memories. When the dream system recognises that these fragments could form a complete truth, it creates defence mechanisms composed of the memories themselves to prevent them from being connected.

Each being takes control of a specific part of the interface and alters the game experience by relocating text, disrupting navigation, manipulating the flow of time, hiding information or otherwise interfering with conventional interaction. Rather than functioning as traditional adversaries, these beings represent the dream’s defence mechanisms, whose purpose is to prevent the reconstruction of memories and preserve the dream.

As the player approaches the truth, the system’s resistance grows stronger because waking up means the end of the dream. Seemingly safe and familiar environments gradually transform into unstable and illogical spaces, while the boundary between the game world and the interface disappears. Changes in display and interaction become an integral part of the experience, shaping tension and emotional impact as strongly as the story itself.

The project examines how interface elements can become an expressive storytelling medium rather than merely a means of conveying information.