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Perhaps animated that appear in lists but can't be attacked (sort of like the glitch after killing animated sometimes)? Waiting for them to get to a certain area might make them attackable (and thus, actually have some point).

I think the references are a bit too strong in most of these ideas, perhaps because themes and works based around dreams are more rare than those based around vaguely asian themed areas, or aliens or such.

hmm...

Digital incorporations - more matrix or internet like stuff, implications that the dream is partially digitally based - would be cool. However, they'd really clash with traditional dream stuff. Maybe if it was intentional (finding out the "dream" in the end was really a computer based attack on the mind or something, with the images slowly falling apart to more digital based animated...)... maybe then it would work? I don't know.

As for upside down - nah, have them walk sideways (vertical up and down the screen). That will really screw with people (and perhaps the mouse click targeting system too, sadly). As for the extra space (due to the landscape nature of the game screen), it can be filled by multiple "hallways" going across sideways (either you'd reach each one by different places on other screens, sort of like ledges now have multiple levels of walkability in each screen, or finishing going up one hallway would start you in another one [perhaps in a confusing sequence - starting at opposite ends of the halls sometimes, and not going through each hall linearly] until you'd gone through them all).

Other wacky surreal things:
- Using buffs might spawn animated "associated" with the buffs (sort of like you've brought up the thought of something, so thus it appears in the dreamscape). Keen Aye might make an OMG spawn nearby, for example (or a Mask - from the eye look).

- A greeco-roman pool/fountain thing that you walk through, possibly transporting you places, possibly washing off buffs or debuffs.*

*- One possible specific debuff could be an attack which morphed the subject somewhat (either with a Sweetheart style persistent animation, or something else). Make them have a donkey's head, make them look like a frightening animated for a second...

- Marshall. Marshall and other NPC's as enemies. You'd approach them and click on them with the normal gears animation stuff (and they'd talk to you beforehand and all), and then they'd morph into a scary animated. Because everyone's had dreams sort of like that, right (not with NPC's necessarily, but)?

- Pieces of environment that talk to you. Chests talk or emote when you open them, flowers talk randomly (maybe have NPC's be stuff like flowers, or random ponies, or clouds).

- Escher-esque stairs. Spread over a couple squares of the map, it would be neatly subtle, but still cool and disorienting (you keep climbing up, but you are going in circles - really easy to do with the engine, I'd guess).

- Escher-esque everything, actually. Stuff like this. Also, stuff like this.

- Chess themes are pretty good, as a reference to Caroll and other things too.

- Buildings that fade into the outdoors. Or you go into a doorway and it is the outdoors, with no sign of the door back out.

- Upside down birds.

- Chests with nothing in them.

- Animated which suddenly appear/disappear (used in moderation).

- synth/classical music, surreal backgrounds, obviously

- Giant books you walk onto.

- Dragons of some kind. They appear in dreams a lot. Maybe formed from telephone cords or spaghetti, or desk lamps.

- A golden ram that is one of your missions (like Stoocie - bringing it out of dream to someone else so they can profit from the gold).

- Fish that leap out of the water and fly around, morphing into birds.

- A random extra rr4 buff applied in the first battle.

- "Empty" dark or light areas with very clear landmarks. Just great expanses of light or dark.

- Fitting in everything listed above (or large parts of it), merged together with hard to distinguish borders.

Stuff fading out upon approach would be cool. Doing it to chests (well, the artwork of chests) would be awesome. Having things also fade into view, so the world changes from one thing to another - maybe have a place that looks like the Barton Bar, except when you get close to something, all the developer NPCs fade out and animated fade in to attack, or something like that - would be cool too.

- Winged pigs are fairly common in dreamish things (due to the idiom).
- Perhaps have a dreamy, surreal moon in the distance - and in one screen, you can attack it and bring it down (for a loot quest item - but animated would spring up to protect the moon). If the view of the moon is ever blocked for a screen or two, when it shows up again it's in a different place or a different color or something, just to mess with people (but that wouldn't work in places where you could just go around whatever screen would block the moon, and you'd see the transition).

EDIT:

So hey, we forgot yet another major influence for dream scapes. Salvador Dali. A Dali/Escher landscape with Caroll and Oz and a couple other sundry references thrown in would work great.

Anyway, my idea of a rough map.
Legend:
Red arrows indicate which way is "up" on the two Escher-esque staircases. Black arrows indicate connections between stairs and various regions of the map. Dashed arrows indicate that the path goes under one of the stairs.

You are warped in at A, through standing in a similar pool [I'd say more of an indoor bath to fit with the house on the hill, and smaller than one screen across, so upon getting to dream it's like it expanded hugely] in wherever you get to the instance from - Hive Portal style (so standing and clicking and choosing difficulty). The pool in the earlier area removes all buffs and all debuffs. When you walk around a bit here (the same amount/area that would trigger animated in single-screen instances), you get an individual random buff.

This pool (the blue rectangle, although I figure that you guys are smart enough to figure that out) is fed by a waterfall, because we can't ignore that reference. The blue arrow indicates the direction the water flows "down" to the waterfall itself. You can't walk on this, I'd think, because it would be pretty pointless. It's mainly decoration. I forgot to show that this waterfall would flow over the stairs to the right of the pool, and under the stairs above the pool (or vice versa - either way would probably be just as strange).

Anyway, you can go right or down to get to places where you can climb onto the red (in the map - just to distinguish it, not necessarily red in the actual instance) staircase via ramps or strange stairs. You can go "up" (or should I use cardinal directions to avoid confusing these with going up and down stairs? gah - you can go "north") to go under the staircase into a garden (perhaps "inspired" by a potted plant or something in the room with the bath in the house on the hill [wow, prepositions]).

The garden is a high walled garden with all sorts of odd stuff. Holes in the walls with improbable scenes, NPC's walking around lost... and turning into animated. Doors which emote. Birdfish - a lot of the strange stuff that would fit into a garden, especially those of the fading in and out variety. There's some chests here, and some significant NPC's at C. I'm thinking you could also talk to them from the other staircase, but they'd say different words - weird.

Chests at B, too, maybe with some semi-significant animated or animated swarm. Maybe the chests turn into OMGs (and their bigger relatives) when you click on one, and then when you kill the OMGs they morph back into chests you can safely open.

Maybe have some quick light flying animated that will give you a heal when you attack them. Or maybe have that with the player-mirror idea people have. Stand in front of a mirror and a duplicate of you will form. Hit the duplicate with an attack weapon and you'll be healed slightly - and they will die.

Anyway, you can get to the second staircase from a path branching off of the first one. You can go either "up" or "down" the pathway (starting north or west from the starting point on the staircase). You face the two main challanges of the instance in one of two orders in doing this - killing the moon (which then disappears from all other scenes) and facing a mob of animated, and killing the boss (probably a sort of odd dragon). The boss, along with certain other animated in the instance, can add visual-changing debuffs (persistant animation debuffs) and rather nasty debuffs and such that can only be washed off in the pool (perhaps one of the animated near the pool uses a fear effect that can also only be cleared by the pool - so if you are fear'd into the pool, it is removed - and if you fight only in the pool, you're entirely safe). The pieces of the moon can be used to get the bridle for the golden sheep, as noted above (from an NPC probably at C).

Sprinkle in some buildings (with odd architecture, strange interior/exterior blends, etc.), some weird creatures, surreal backgrounds, more Escher, Pimpin' cat, disorienting ring effects, animated which spawn when you use certain rings (or certain types of rings - they'd spawn when you used the rings in the area bounded by the yellow box), animated which grow every time you hit them until they die (within limits), strange animated, etc. and it should be a pretty strange instance.