Dreams it was an ambitious project of the company Media Molecule, which was revealed during the E3 2015 at the conference of Sony. Many viewers (as well as myself, who was covering the event in one of the front rows) were delighted and filled with doubts about the potential of this game. Dreams' proposal seemed simply impressive: to allow the player to create anything that came from their imagination. Since then, the game has been in testing for a while in Early Access. PS4, showing users everything that this gigantic dream simulator was capable of offering. And now that we can finally let our imaginations run wild with Dreams, we're blown away!
O Techlifers had access to a copy of Dreams protocols for PlayStation 4 and, after a few days playing with the game's tools and getting to know the fantastic creations of other players, we bring you a complete analysis of how the game innovates the world of electronic entertainment by putting in the user's hands a complete and intuitive simulator that lets him create, model, test and play any idea that comes to your mind!
How much does it cost to dream?
If we could describe Dreams in one word, it would be “amazing”! At its core, the whole pioneering vision of playing, creating and sharing gaming and entertainment content coined with the series Little Big Planet is at the heart of Dreams. Furthermore, it is undeniable that the cartoonish and simplistic look of the franchise Teaway it also inspired artists to create the basic environments and tools for Dreams. However, to describe this impressive creation by Media Molecule as just a game is to understate what has been achieved in this work. Dreams is much more than that.
In Dreams, you can create almost anything imaginable. Using the toolset at your disposal you can create your own levels, animations, movies, sculptures, paintings, music and much more. It may seem like a cliché to say this, but in Dreams, the limit to what can be created is really your own imagination.
We couldn't expect less from Media Molecule. When we thought about the kinds of things that were possible to be done in the games in the series Little Big Planet with the nice Sackboy, it's no wonder the giant leap in creativity the company made with Dreams. While in Little Big Planet you went through work to create a more elaborate element, in Dreams this object is probably already one of dozens of built-in tools that you can insert into your creation at any time.
Working with all the tools that Dreams offers is a learning process that lets the player's imagination run wild. Starting with a completely blank scene, you'll open the simplified menu to examine your options, and the first time around, it's natural to get lost in the face of so many possibilities. After all, where to start? Fortunately, the game comes with a number of impressively detailed tutorials, covering everything from basic actions to more complex mechanics.
Each tutorial is a complete lesson, guiding you through how to sculpt simple shapes, create music, build logic, and more. It is a highly recommended part of Dreams that the player needs to complete in order to enjoy the universe that the game offers in his hands. Using some tools is probably not as intuitive as you might think, but before you let your creativity run wild, you'll need all the help you can get.
Fortunately, with a little practice, you'll soon be navigating your way through the Dreams creation mode! Spending time learning to manipulate this box of wonders the game is all about rewards you with useful skills for creating increasingly elaborate games and scenes. It's an indescribable gratification experience to overcome some obstacles and manage to create a functional game that you can try and claim it's yours. I still haven't reached the level of being able to compose more complex music and animations, but I'm already able to create a simple scene with a detailed scenario and a character with its own gameplay mechanics!
To make the creation process more intuitive, Dreams offers different modes of control to the player: you can use the Dualshock 4 or just the buttons and analog sticks. Also, if you have the PS Move, you can also bring your creations to life with these controls. In the end, I felt more comfortable using the Dualshock 4's motion sensor and a few buttons. Something that can make the experience a little frustrating and too dense at first is the number of options in each menu, and the small text with their descriptions doesn't help. It takes a while for you to get used to the game's options and where they are located.
What's more, navigating three-dimensional space can be tricky, especially since your Imp (a small ball that serves as a cursor and that you can customize) is very prone to deflect your movement. You can center it at any time for better control, but even that goes against the fluid nature of the game. Despite minor issues, the presentation and usability of something so complex is impressive. It's not every game that manages to offer so much to the player and yet be able to teach him how to work so clearly.
Giving wings to your imagination
As impressive as the tools Dreams offers the user, part of what makes the title so special is its focus on community and collaboration. After all, what's the point of creating a fun game or creating a beautiful work if you don't have anyone to show it to? When someone posts something on Dreamiverse – an online platform that stores all user creations – it is available for everyone to enjoy and use.
For example, imagine that you are building a city and you need a pine tree to place in the central square. You can make your own version, but chances are, someone else has already made this object. That way, you just need to search among the items made available by other users, and quickly place them in your city, making the whole process faster. This object library is a valuable resource for beginning players. I myself used various objects created by other users when I tried to build a race track for my character.
Despite this, the Dreamiverse is much more than pine trees or other scenery elements. In addition to DreamShaping, where you create, there is the DreamSurfing, where you can play, listen, test, and even give feedback on thousands of community creations. With so much to see and do, Media Molecule has created categories to make it easy for you to quickly access the latest content, most popular dreams, creations your friends liked, or even developer choices. It's addictive and extremely fun to go through all the content produced by other players.
The variety and quality of what has been produced by the community so far is impressive. Whether it's highly detailed sculptures or well-crafted interactive experiences, there's an almost endless amount of creations to explore. Unfortunately, not everything will be that standard. But that's inevitable when you're working with creations made by such a large community of players.
Amazingly, so far, the largest amount of content created by other players in Dreams is related to versions of famous games from Nintendo Be Mario e Zelda. Some as good as the originals and some freaks that only serve to make the player laugh. Furthermore, Dreams' focus is not on the quality of its users' creations, but on providing a new medium through which people can express themselves.
One of the best features of this multiplayer aspect of Dreams is how positive its community is. Even on the most basic creations, you can find comments supporting and encouraging the creator, and this welcoming attitude can be seen everywhere in the community. Social features are seamlessly integrated, making the game an incredibly positive space for you to express your creativity however you want.
If you were curious about the power of Dreams' tools, Media Molecule has produced a short story called Art’s Dream, a must-play game for any Dreams player. It tells the story of a musician who has fallen out with his bandmates and takes the player on a self-reflective journey through Art's mind. It's only a few hours, but make sure you have all the hallmarks of the studio. The final sequence of the game, in which Art meets with his band to play, is impressive in its audio-visual quality.
This game certainly has a slightly darker touch than the studio's usual production, but intelligence and emotion emerge from this musical adventure. It has a little bit of everything: point n' click, platform and shooter sections, action, fantasy, science fiction, in short, a collection of mechanics to demonstrate the potential of creating Dreams! It's amazing how content made completely within the universe of Dreams can be of such superior quality to other games made by large companies.
Dreams: endless dreams
Dreams is a combination of several elements that, surprisingly, created a recipe for success: extremely powerful tools to create whatever goes through your head; a social network of weird and wonderful creations; and a friendly community ready to embrace what you share in it. It's also a beautiful example of a developer telling a great story to introduce the user to their game. What Media Molecule has accomplished is surprising, generating a concise, understandable and extremely well-organized final result.
Unfortunately, not every dream is perfect. THE Homespace, which serves as a hub for you to sketch ideas and develop your imagination before putting it into practice can seem a bit pointless. Load times are generally very fast, but performance varies from dream to dream depending on its complexity. Also, unless you are already an experienced game developer, it will take some time before you can create a high quality work of art.
Despite this, it is perfectly possible to ignore the negative points of the game when we realize that Dreams is a game that will evolve over time. Right now, there's nothing on any console that looks like Dreams. He represents Media Molecule at its best, and the studio has delivered on its promise to gamers to allow them to create whatever they want. It is absolutely one of the best games on the console as it showcases not only the power of the PS4, but the strength of an immense community of gamers who are not afraid to explore and play with their creativity.
So, what did you think of Dreams? If you were curious to put your creativity to work in this fantastic universe (or, who knows, you've already played and built some creations there), leave your opinion in the comments!
