Sato started his art career in photography and writing music in the 1980s, before turning to digital graphic design and computer art by the 1990s. LSD: Dream Emulator was conceived by Osamu Sato, a Japanese multimedia artist. There is a humanoid figure, also known as the Gray or Shadow Man, that may appear in some dreams that, if touched by the player, prevents them from using the flashback option and undoes any progress made from that dream. After a number of in-game days, a 'flashback' option appears on the main menu which allows the player to experience an abbreviated version of the last dream they played. Sometimes when starting a new dream, a video is played instead of a playable dream. This results in the environments becoming more surreal and psychedelic over time. As a player plays through more and more dreams, the game adds more variety to the dreams by changing textures more often. The graph rates dreams in relation to being an 'Upper', 'Downer', 'Static', or 'Dynamic' dream. ДЄfter each dream, one day passes in the game, and the dream the player just experienced is marked on a graph. Each dream ends after ten minutes in which the character wakes up, or ends early if the player interacts with certain objects or dies. While the environments are static, the default textures are sometimes swapped and they may also be populated with random objects, animals, and characters roaming about to add variety. LSD has a set of several static and defined environments to explore including a Japanese village, a field, a city, houses, and a factory, among others. By walking into any object or walking through certain tunnels, the player will be transported to another setting. The player begins each dream in a random area in which they can begin exploring. The game is played in levels or 'dreams' lasting up to ten minutes. Gameplay takes place in a first-person perspective in a 3D environment with the player's control limited to moving frontward and backward, turning, strafing, running, and looking behind. LSD: Dream Emulator is an exploration game that has been described as a 'playable dream' in which the player explores surrealistic environments without any overarching goals. This in-game screenshot shows rabbit and bear non-playable characters wandering around such a location. The game features a variety of surreal locations. Critics have praised its whimsical qualities, with it being cited as one of the most experimental video games of all time.

The game was also released on the Japanese PlayStation Store in 2010. LSD quickly fell into obscurity, but in years since has experienced a resurgence in popularity due to its eccentricity being an engaging point of discussion for humor blogs and Let's Play commentators. The game received a limited release in Japan on October 22, 1998, alongside a soundtrack and a book composed of excerpts from the dream diary. The game's concept is based on a dream diary kept by an Asmik Ace employee for over a decade. The game was conceived by Japanese artist Osamu Sato, who rejected the idea of games, and wanted to use the PlayStation as a medium for creating contemporary art. The player can only move and touch objects that will warp them to another setting. In LSD, the player explores surreal environments without any objective. LSD: Dream Emulator is an exploration game developed and published by Asmik Ace Entertainment for the PlayStation.

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