A Dream About Parking Lots is a strange yet meditative little game. At its most basic the game has you trying to find your car, using your electronic keys, in ever more complicated parking lots.

Engage in a journey through Lloyd's dreams.

But the game has a deeper level which deals with existential angst. A lot of dreams are made up of themes individual to yourself. I, for instance, often dream about living in a house which leaks and is in a state of disrepair.

Our protagonist dreams of not being able to find their car and we know this as you are talking to your therapist about the meaning of it all. As such, the game works more like an experience than it does a puzzle game.

The mechanics of the game are simple; your electronic key will activate your car's headlights, giving a visual cue as to its location. Sounds simple, but the game has the familiar dream like low resolution pixel art quality and the path to your car can often be obscure and not straight forward. That said, there is a certain lack of variation in the mazes and environment.

Engage in a journey through Lloyd's dreams.

I wonder how much of this reflects the game’s developer having feelings of being lost in their lives and in their own mind. During your dialogue with the therapist, you have choices in your replies. "So, what is the worst thing that would happen if you don’t find the car?", asks the therapist. Whilst you don’t know, you have the option to reply that you were either trying to escape, just trying to get home or you just want to be someplace else.

In the end this dream-like experience is more a diversion, your choices have little actual impact on the dream world and the ending mimics dreams in that it just ends.

An interesting little game, it will take you about thirty minutes to complete, but with some more interaction between the dream world and the real world the game could have been better.

5

Charles Packer