Dreams

"Dreams is a space where you go to play and experience the dreams of Media Molecule and our community. It’s also a space in which to create your own dreams, whether they’re games, art, films, music or anything in-between and beyond. " - Dreams™ Website ^[1]

Dreams is a sandbox game developed by Media Molecule for the Playstation 4, originally announced at Playstation Meeting 2013. A beta trial was scheduled for release in late 2016, however it was delayed due to the enormity of the game and its development^[2].At PSX 2017 a new trailer was released with a focus on the story mode, in 2018, a very closed Creator Alpha was released privately, most likely to QA testers, then the Dreams Creator Beta in December 2018, then in April 2019, Dreams Creator Early Access^[3] was released, and finally, on February 14th, 2020, Dreams was released.

About[]

In Dreams, players will explore three interweaving narratives that make up Dreams’ central Story Mode. Each narrative has its own genre: Noir, Action Sci-fy and Horror. The story centers around a character known as "Art."

Players will control an imp that is used to interact with the game world. The imp can manipulate and interact with object and creatures within the game. The different levels in Dreams are all connected by 'doors' that act as gateways to the other dream worlds. Progression includes solving puzzles and retrieving items that can be used to alter the state of the game. Dreams allows players to create their own custom 'dreams'. They can be shared online via Dream Surfing, or in co-op play. Friends can even create new dreams together.

Dreams isn’t just about drawing, or sculpting, but also game creation, storytelling, animation, music and sound, all rolled into one whole beautiful PlayStation game. ^[4].

Development[]

Dream's is similar to Media Molecule's previous game LittleBigPlanet, the focus being "play, create, share". They aimed to merge the three aspects into one experience without separating them. Alex Evans and David Smith are the two technical directors; Mark Healey and Kareem Ettouney are creative director and art director respectively. Dreams uses a custom engine called BubbleBath that renders objects with particles called "Flecks" rather than polygons. The engine was named by the community.

In 2015, Evans said that the game would be "defined" by players instead of the developer. To help new players get into the game, a story campaign is featured to help players adapt to the gameplay mechanics. Studio director Siobhan Reddy added that the campaign is used to kickstart a community, and creation is the primary goal of the game.

According to Evans, one of Media Molecule's goals is to reinvent creativity. As a result, they re-imagined Dreams into something as simple as sketching. This led the game to feature an impressionist art-style and implement the PlayStation Move motion-based controller. Many art styles and technical solutions were attempted before arriving at the final style and solution. The team used dreams as the game's setting, as they believed that it allows players to have their own styles, and inspires players to create something "artistic" and "incredible". In a October 2019 interview, Ettouney said they plan to give creators commercial ownership of their creations and publish them elsewhere. In March 2020, creators could apply to a beta evaluation program to sell their work "off PlayStation".

Features[]

Note: this section was based off the "Gameplay Demo" video that talks about the demo of the game.

Imp[]

Players interact with the game using the customisable Imp cursor that lets you possess characters & Objects and then move them around.

Dream Rules[]

Creators of a "Dream" Level can set their own rules.

Dream Links[]

More or less Level Links, players will be able to add doors that can be set to randomise, allowing players to enter other dreams, including their friends’ dreams.

Create Objects[]

Players will be able to create their own objects and share them with other players.

Edit shared Objects[]

Players will be able to search for objects created by other players then edit them to match their own designs.

Multiplayer[]

At launch players will not be able to play together online, but an online co-op feature is planned and will be available some time after launch. This system will allow players to create and play games together. Massive multiplayer (MMO) will not be possible in Dreams.