Dreams (video game)
Dreams is a game creation system developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, which released on 14 February 2020. It is pre-loaded with a game developed, in Dreams, by Media Molecule, with access to other games and content created by the players. Players can create user-generated content in the form of fully-fledged games, mechanics, assets, sculptures, music, and art, which can be shared or remixed to be used in others' creations.
Gameplay
In Dreams, players control an "imp", which is used to interact with the game's world and interface like a mouse cursor, create new items and characters, and manipulate objects by grabbing and pulling them. Players move the imp by moving and rotating the DualShock 4 or PlayStation Move controllers. The imp is customizable, and can possess characters featured in a dream, allowing players to take direct control of these characters.Accessibility is a priority for Media Molecule with Dreams. The goal is to make Dreams more accessible so as many people with as many different requirements as possible are able to play. For instance, non-motion controls for controlling the imp have been introduced using the analog sticks.
Dreams consists of four main modes: Dream Surfing, Dream Shaping, Home Space Editor, and Community Jam. It also features a campaign mode known as Art's Dream, and an environment where users can create their own games for others to play, or play an expanding list of creations made by others.
Dream Surfing
Dream Surfing can be thought of as the traditional "play" section where a player can browse for example games to play, assets, sculptures and art to view, or music to listen to. "Art's Dream" can be found in this section. Players can give feedback on a creation by giving the creation a "thumbs up" or leaving a comment. There is an option called "Autosurf" that presents the user with random games to play within a custom selection of games. All content and games in this mode are made by other players, or as the in-game universe calls them, "Dreamers".Dream Shaping
Dream Shaping is the "create" section where players can create games and other assets. There are numerous tools available for creation including sculpting, painting, music tools and gadgets. Gadgets can be configured, linked to other items such as sculptures, and other gadgets using wires and essentially form the gaming logic and game mechanics. The user can publish their content online for others to play or experience, and optionally they can tag it as re-mixable which allows other creators to use it in their creations, build upon it or tweak it. Cooperative multiplayer is featured in the game, allowing players to create and manipulate their custom dreams together.Dreams levels are built up of one or more "scenes", and these scenes are connected by different gateways. Players can create their levels in the game by using either custom objects, or pre-built assets created by other people which are available in the "Dreamiverse".
Homespace Editor
The Homespace is the central hub, or playground for players. There is a limited element of Dream Shaping, where players can manipulate and personalise the Homespace by adding pre-made objects.Community Jam
Community Jam is a themed contest, where creators create content based on that theme, and others vote on their favourites. The winners and runners-up get a badge on their creation's page. The themes change every few weeks, for example "Spring Season" and "Pirates".Plot
Since Dreams is a collection of games, the vast majority of which are created by players instead of the developers, Dreams can not be considered as having a single plot since every story-based game created by players has its own separate plot. The game created by the developers called Art's Dream is the most substantial of the games available at launch, and can be considered as the main campaign of the game.The plot in Art's Dream "follows a former jazz musician Art as he dreams about his life, past and present, and realises he needs to make amends with his fellow bandmates. The journey takes him through a series of dream-like situations involving him and a whole cast of wonderful fantasy characters, such as D-Bug, a helpful little robot with an electric personality and Frances, a hammer wielding teddy bear."
Development
Dreams was developed by Media Molecule, who previously developed LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway. Similar to LittleBigPlanet, the game's main focuses are "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. The game relies heavily on the community; 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. Siobhan Reddy, studio director, 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".
At Gamescom 2012, Media Molecule announced that they were working on two different projects, with one being Tearaway. Dreams was revealed at PlayStation Meeting 2013, with Evans showing a technical demo onstage, involving three people creating an in-game band. A teaser for the game was released in July 2014. The game was officially announced at Sony Interactive Entertainment's press conference at E3 2015. A beta for the game was originally set to be released in 2016, however, it was delayed to 2017 and then to 2018. The game was made available via early access on 16 April 2019, a first for a Sony game, before being officially released on 14 February 2020. An update that added support for PlayStation VR was announced on 30 June 2020 and was released on 22 July 2020. Online multiplayer is set to be released for the game sometime post-launch.