NiTEDREAM

Dreams

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Mysterious shapes, with wands of joy and pain,
Which seize us unaware in helpless sleep,
And lead us to the houses where we keep
Our secrets hid, well barred by every chain
That we can forge and bind: the crime whose stain
Is slowly fading ’neath the tears we weep;
Dead bliss which, dead, can make our pulses leap—
Oh, cruelty! To make these live again!
They say that death is sleep, and heaven’s rest
Ends earth’s short day, as, on the last faint gleam
Of sun, our nights shut down, and we are blest.
Let this, then, be of heaven’s joy the test,
The proof if heaven be, or only seem,
That we forever choose what we will dream!

—Dreams, a poem by Helen Hunt Jackson (in the public domain)

Inspiration #1

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Nights into Dreams is a video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. Released in 1996, Nights tells the story of Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair, who enter a dream world called Nightopia. They travel through the world with the help of a character called Nights and stop the evil Wizeman and his tyrannical destruction of Nightopia.

You control Nights in the game and get to fly around Nightopia, gathering energy so you can ultimately beat Wizeman and save Nightopia and the real world. I remember playing it for the first time at the age of 6 and between the gameplay and the soundtrack, it captivated me like no other game. When I had to go home, I cried so hard because I could still hear the soundtrack in my head but I had no way of playing it again.

The idea of daydreaming, dreams at night, Nights the character, being more productive in the late hours, and the duality of darkness and light are common themes in my life and my work so it was only fitting that I develop them here too.

Welcome (back (again?))

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome.

So I had a massive revamp. Previously, this place was called Pandog Media and for 8 years, it served well enough. But after a while, I forgot why I chose that name and the logo didn't really work (even if the dog looked cute and I still have loads of stickers left).

That's when I realised that I needed to rethink the whole brand, and its purpose (again). I knew it had to house all my projects and it still had to focus on Black cultures but what about the name? I remembered a book publisher called Grand Dreams from my childhood. The name fascinated me enough to stay in my head and that lead me to “daydream” (and an episode of Care Bears where a child—who I now know had ADHD—kept getting into trouble for daydreaming) but that was naturally taken in every form.

But what about night dream? Or... nitedream? And then I thought about the SEGA Saturn game, NiGHTS into dreams and how that captivated me as a child. Everything's connected.

And now NiTEDREAM is here. It's a collection of projects with a particular focus on Black expression of creativity. But it's always going to be a work in progress. Things could change but never so much as to go through another name change (please don't let someone have used this name already; I paid good money for this domain!)

Follow NiTEDREAM on Bluesky or hit me up if you want to leave a comment or work with me on something.

Until then, sweet dreams!