Turbo Pudding
In Lullalotl, every ripple you make wakes a sleepy friend who starts to sing. Leave the pond for an hour or more, though, and by the time you’re back, one of those friends may have had a dream. It’s Friday, so let’s leaf through the Dream Book, where all those dreams end up.
The picture at the top is one of Pip’s two dreams: “Pip sailed a leaf boat across a sea of clouds.” The boat is a curled green leaf with a pink sail on a twig mast, and in the game it bobs gently on the clouds.
How a dream arrives
If you’ve been away for at least an hour, a dream is the very first thing you see when you come back. Glim, the old firefly granny who keeps the glow jar, tells you about it: “While you were away, Pip had a dream…” The first note of the lullaby rings softly, the postcard opens, and one button waits underneath: “Into the Dream Book!” Only after that comes the usual welcome back from Drizzle, the sleepy rain cloud.
Every friend has exactly two dreams, and a dream only comes from a friend you’ve already met. The game picks one you haven’t seen yet, and no more than three arrive in a single day. Dreams have no power at all, and there’s no shop where you could buy one. They’re just for keeping.
Pip, Bloop and a very big bubble
Pip, the green frog-bunny, also dreams that “every raindrop was a tiny drum.” Rain falls into a dark pond, and every splash sends out a ring and a little gold note while Pip sings along from a lily pad. Bloop, the round blue whale calf, dreams big, of course: “Bloop blew a bubble as big as the Moon.” Look closely, and the Moon is sitting inside the bubble, singing, while Bloop gazes up at it.
A clock where every hour is bedtime
Tik & Tok, the duckling-mouse twins who share one lily pad, found the most sensible clock in the valley. Where the numbers should be, it has twelve little crescent moons, so whatever the time, it’s time for bed. The hands keep turning, and the twins sit under the clock looking very pleased about it. In their other dream, two Moons dance a slow waltz over the hills.
Leap takes to the sky
Leap is part flying squirrel, part tree frog, and the dreams follow suit. In one, Leap hops from star to star across the night along a dotted trail. In the other, Leap finds a lily pad that can fly. It has two white wings with lilac edges that flap very fast, and it drifts through a pink and blue sky high above the clouds, with Leap on top, delighted.
Echo never sings alone
Echo, the lavender friend with cat ears and a little snail shell, always answers twice in the pond. Asleep, Echo goes further. One dream is a canyon at sunset that sings back every song. The other is “a whole choir of Echos, all singing at once”: eighteen of them in three rows on a hill. Each one opens its mouth on its own beat, so the choir is never quite in step.
Soft landings
Dozy, the kitten in a nightcap, dreams about exactly what you’d expect: a pillow made of clouds. The Moon up in the corner is fast asleep too. Puff, the chick crossed with a dandelion, finally puts all that sneezing to good use and floats over the valley on its own seeds, three of them, like tiny parachutes. In Puff’s other dream, it snows dandelion fluff, soft and warm.
Lanterns, rainbows and a picnic
Twinkle, the shy firefly-mouse, lights a lantern for every friend in the valley, six of them strung across the night sky, and leads a parade of twenty-six fireflies. Prism, the fox kit with dragonfly wings, paints a rainbow bridge and rides on its tip as it grows. And Bun, the bear cub baker, throws a picnic on a pink checked blanket for Pip, Bloop, Twinkle and Echo, with three mooncakes.
Where the dreams live
The Dream Book opens from the Dreams button on the pond map, and its top line keeps count, something like “7 of 23.” Each dream sits there as a small still card. Tap one, and it opens big and starts moving again. Cards you don’t have yet show a moon, three question marks and a hint: “Come back after a nap,” or, for a friend you haven’t met, “Wake them in pond 7.” Three of the cards are special. Two open with the stars you collect, and the last waits until the very end. What’s on them, we’ll leave to the game.
The first two ponds are free to play in your browser at lullalotl.com, and Pip and Bloop, with four dreams between them, live right there. The full game, all ten ponds, is $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on its Lullalotl page.
