Dream Disc '24 Dreamcast Game Jam - A Showcase of All 24 Entries!

The entry period for the first ever Dream Disc game jam —a homebrew jam for the Sega Dreamcast— came to an end on January 3rd. Organised by Cypress of PsyOp Studios, and Ross Kilgariff of Orc Face Games, the jam was created with the aim of uniting the talented developers of the Dreamcast homebrew scene behind the shared challenge of developing new software for the console in a short space of time — and boy, did they deliver! 

Although judging is still yet to take place, each entry is already available to download from the Dream Disc '24 itch.io page for free. While the majority of submissions take the form of bitesize game demos for play on the console itself, there are also VMU games and some other miscellaneous pieces of software to check out too.

As detailed in Lozz's article from October (check it out for more details on the jam), the top ten entries chosen by the judges will go on to be featured on a physical compilation disc from Orc Face Games. While we intend to talk in more detail about those chosen games on an upcoming episode of our DreamPod podcast, for now I wanted to showcase every submission here so you can learn more about them and choose your own personal favourites from the bunch! 

Junkyarder Mike Rogers also took the time to record some footage of all the Dreamcast software entries, which we have uploaded as a nice compilation to YouTube, which you can watch below. I also recommend checking out The Sega Guru's great coverage on each entry as well.

So without further ado, let's get into the entries — all 24 of them. 24 entries for Dream Disc ‘24. How fitting!

Game Entries

Each of the 20 games submitted to Dream Disc '24 is unique, with an eclectic mixture of gameplay, graphical styles, and game engines on offer — there's something here for everyone to enjoy. 

While compatibility can vary, you should be able to burn all of these games onto a CD-R, stick them on an ODE (i.e. GDEMU, MODE), or play them on an emulator like Flycast.

A-Blaster by PrOfUnD Darkness

Mashing up ideas from classic space shooters Astro Blaster (Gremlin/Sega) and Megamania (Activision), A-Blaster is the first of many entries that will be challenging your dexterity. You get a single life to shoot down nine single-screen levels’ worth of aliens invaders, as they move quickly across the top of the screen. To help overcome their barrage and be within a chance of staying in the game, you have a “warp” ability at your disposal (a feature made famous by Astro Blaster), which slows down enemy movements and lasers for a few seconds.

Download A-Blaster

Beach Box by PsyOp Studios

A complete remake of a Summer Jam 2024 entry, Beach Box is the first of two submissions to Dream Disc '24 by jam organiser Cypress, aka PsyOp Studios. This summery romp may be made up of simple shapes, but its gameplay is addictive. Taking control of a little square, the aim is to dodge larger rectangles by jumping or shifting dimensions, collecting coins as you go. It's sort of like Flappy Bird, except if Flappy Bird was actually fun. You also don’t have to give yourself carpal tunnel to play it.

It's a nice touch to see such a simple game have such a surprising range of unlockable power-ups and characters. I'm still trying to collect enough coins to get the little sock dude, Murph.

Download Beach Box

Big Drill by captkuso

Big Drill is what trendy internet pundits would call an "idle" game (wait, does that make me one of them?), in which you are in charge of a... big drill. It does what it says on the tin, really. 

Basically, the 3D blocks on screen are mined away automatically, with your resource numbers —which are listed on the right-side of the screen— increasing as you go. When your resources total specific amounts, it's time to take charge and buy upgrades for your drill. Upgrades include speeding up the drill, making it more durable, and increasing the amount of resources it collects. Pick the correct upgrades at the best time to see how deep you can drill.

For those looking to challenge themselves further, there is also a "prestige mode" to unlock, which resets any current progress and starts you again at a higher difficulty. 

Keep your eye out for a video detailing Big Drill's development coming to captkuso's YouTube channel in the next couple of weeks.

Download Big Drill

Indie Spotlight: Rizzo Island

Rizzo Island is the latest in a long line of independently developed games that have designs on a Dreamcast release, and in this spotlight we thought it would be interesting to take a quick look at this promising title and the story behind it.

The creation of Dreameater Games, Rizzo Island is much more than just an indie game - it's also an homage of sorts to the titular character Rizzo, who is based on the musician and surfer Tom Rizzo. The game's director, David Crowshaw is actually Tom Rizzo's nephew, and when Tom passed away in 2016 David wanted to do something to honour his uncle's memory. Incorporating Tom Rizzo's music into the project means that as well as starring in Rizzo Island as the main protagonist, you'll also get the opportunity to listen to the music Tom recorded, which is actually pretty good and perfectly suits the style of game.

As you can probably tell from the screens and video, Rizzo Island is a third person platformer where you control Tom as he searches the various locations looking for CDs. Along the way, he must solve puzzles and fight enemies (using his surfboard as a weapon, naturally), unlock doors and keep his energy topped up by consuming cans of soda.

Rizzo Island is built using the Quake engine, and while it may look fairly basic it actually runs really well on the Dreamcast. Controls work well - you control Tom's movement with the analogue stick and triggers; while jumping and attacking enemies are handled by the face buttons.

The demo currently only features two smallish levels (and a psychedelic hub world), but they give a good idea of what to expect when the final game is released, and from what I've seen so far I can't help but be impressed. The Dreameater Games team is fairly small but from this short demo, they've done a pretty decent job using the Quake engine in a pretty unorthodox manner. That it runs so well on Dreamcast hardware is a bonus, and the lack of a second analogue stick on the Dreamcast controller doesn't detract from proceedings at all.

As stated, this is a very early demo and as such the final game could change considerably. However from the small glimpse at Rizzo Island I've had, I will be keeping an eye on this project. Well, an eye and an ear if more of Tom Rizzo's brand of chilled out surf rock music is included.

Find out more about Rizzo Island (and grab the demo) on Itch.io, check out the project's Patreon here, and follow Dreameater Games on Twitter for progress reports and updates on the game.