''Dreams'' is a
game creation system
A game creation system (GCS) is a consumer-targeted game engine and a set of specialized design tools (and sometimes a light scripting language), engineered for the rapid iteration of user-derived video games. Examples include Novashell and Pie i ...
video game developed by
Media Molecule
Media Molecule Ltd. is a British video game developer based in Guildford, Guildford, Surrey. Founded in 2006 by Mark Healey, Alex Evans, David Smith, and Kareem Ettouney, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired the firm in 2010. It became part of S ...
and published by
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game industry, video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is ma ...
for the
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
in February 2020. Players can create and play
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
in the forms of games, audiovisual experiences and game assets, which can be shared or remixed to be used in other players' creations.
''Dreams'' includes several games developed using the game itself by Media Molecule, including ''Art's Dream'', ''Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale'', and several
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
mini-games.
Gameplay
In ''Dreams'', players control an "imp", which is used to interact with the game's world and interface like a
mouse cursor
In human–computer interaction, a cursor is an indicator used to show the current position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device. The mouse cursor is also called a point ...
, create new items and characters, and manipulate objects by grabbing and pulling them.
Players move the imp by moving and rotating the
DualShock 4
The DualShock (originally Dual Shock; trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK; with the PlayStation 5 version named DualSense) is a line of gamepads with vibration-feedback and analog controls developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the Pla ...
or
PlayStation Move
is a motion game controller developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Initially released in 2010 for use with the PlayStation 3 home video game console, its compatibility was later expanded to its successor, the PlayStation 4 in 2013, its Pla ...
controllers.
The imp is customizable, and can possess characters featured in a dream, allowing players to take direct control of these characters.
''Dreams'' consists of six main sections: DreamSurfing, DreamShaping, Highlights, Profile, Community Jam, and Homespace. It also features a game made in Dreams by Media Molecule known as ''Art's Dream''.
DreamSurfing
DreamSurfing can be thought of as the traditional "play" section where a player can browse "Dreams" that have been made and published to the "Dreamiverse" by other players, or as the game calls them, "Dreamers". These Dreams can be for example games to play, audiovisual experiences, and showcases of Elements such as sculptures and art to view and music to listen to.
Many Dreams contain collectable "Prize Bubbles" which unlock Elements for players to use in their own creations, functioning similarly to Prize Bubbles in the ''
LittleBigPlanet
''LittleBigPlanet'' (stylized as ''LittleBIGPlanet''; abbreviated ''LBP'') is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the series ...
'' series.
DreamSurfing is divided into playlists of different kinds of Dreams, such as "Mm Picks", "New Trending Dreams", and "New Recommendations For You". At the top of the page there are banners with ''Dreams''-related news and videos. ''Art's Dream'' can be found in this section. Players can give feedback on a Dream by giving it a
"thumbs up" or leaving a comment. There is an option called "Autosurf" that presents the user with random Dreams to play within a playlist.
DreamShaping
DreamShaping is the "create" section where players can create and publish games, audio-visual experiences and showcases known as "Dreams", as well as "Scenes", the connected environments and levels that make up Dreams,
"Elements", the various assets that make up Scenes,
and "Collections", sortable groups of Dreams, Scenes, Elements and other Collections.
Edit Mode
"Edit Mode" is the editor for scenes and elements. In Edit Mode, there are several modes available for creation.
Each mode has many tools which can be used to manipulate Scenes and Elements. In Assembly Mode, users can quickly search the Dreamiverse for pre-made Elements and stamp them in their Scene.
In Assembly Mode and Sound Mode, there are also many "Gadgets" available which can be used for logic, animation, lighting, sound, global settings, and more. Gadgets can be linked to other Gadgets and items such as sculptures using wires. In ''Dreams'', Gadgets essentially form the gaming logic and
game mechanics
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shap ...
. Users can publish their creations online to the "Dreamiverse" for others to play or experience, and optionally they can make it re-mixable which allows other creators to use it in their creations, build upon it or tweak it.
Cooperative multiplayer
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
is featured in the game, allowing players to create and manipulate their creations together.
Community Jam
Community Jam is a themed contest, where creators create content based on a theme, for example "Spring Season" and "Pirates", and others vote on their favourites.
The winners and runners-up get a badge on their creation's page. There is a new Community Jam with a new theme every few weeks, for example "Spring Season" and "Pirates".
Plot
Outside the user-generated creations, ''Dreams'' itself takes place in the Dreamiverse, a surreal universe made out of dreams and ideas. The Dreamiverse is presided by the Dream Queen, a being who helps the player learn about each aspect of ''Dreams''. New players use the Dream Queen's Homespace before unlocking their own. The Dreamiverse is also inhabited by the Architect and Designer, two experts who teach the player about DreamShaping through in-game tutorials, and Imps, the player-controlled creatures who manipulate objects and possess characters. Every creation in ''Dreams'' exists in the Dreamiverse, and the term "Dreamiverse" also refers to the catalogue of creations available for players to browse and use in their own creations.
''Art's Dream''
Media Molecule's creation ''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."
''Art's Dream'' follows three connected stories: The Dream Gardens, The Blues City, and The Meridian Forest. Each story has a different genre as well as different characters, visuals, music and gameplay. They each relate to different parts of Art's mind and connect to the past, present and future respectively. All three stories converge at the end of the game. Throughout ''Art's Dream'', the Imp is used to interact with the world and possess characters. The game also has many prize bubbles to be collected, letting players make their own creations with the elements used in ''Art's Dream''.
Development
''Dreams'' has similarities 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 director
A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...
s;
Mark Healey and Kareem Ettouney are
creative director
A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...
and
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
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
Siobhan Reddy is the studio director of Media Molecule, a video game development studio based in Guildford in the United Kingdom, most famous for their debut title ''LittleBigPlanet''.
Biography
Reddy was born in South Africa, but grew up in Ca ...
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
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
art-style and implement the
PlayStation Move
is a motion game controller developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Initially released in 2010 for use with the PlayStation 3 home video game console, its compatibility was later expanded to its successor, the PlayStation 4 in 2013, its Pla ...
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".
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.
In an 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".
Release
At
Gamescom 2012
Gamescom (stylized as gamescom) is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 2018, it has been organised by ''game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche'' (English: Associa ...
, 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 players creating an in-game band.
A teaser for the game was released in July 2014.
The game was officially announced at
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game industry, video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is ma ...
's press conference at
E3 2015
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3 2015) was the 21st E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It took place from June 16 to June 18, 2015, with 52,200 total attendees.
Major exhibit ...
.
A
beta
Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
for the game was originally set to be released in 2016, however, it was delayed to 2017 and then to 2018.
The beta ran from 19 December 2018 until 4 February 2019. The game was made available via
early access
Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...
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
The PlayStation VR (PS VR, known by its code name Project Morpheus during development) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016.
It is fully functional with the PlayStation 4 an ...
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.
The game's engine is called the Bubblebath Engine.
Reception
''Dreams'' received "generally favorable reviews" according to
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, a
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
.
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
compared it to
Newgrounds
Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. It hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
I ...
, a website historically hosting
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...
based media "oddities".
Awards
References
External links
*
{{Media Molecule
2020 video games
Media Molecule
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Sony Interactive Entertainment games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 4-only games
PlayStation VR games
Virtual reality games
PlayStation Move-compatible games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Puzzle video games
Video games about dreams
Video games with user-generated gameplay content
Programming games
Video game development software
Software developer communities
Internet properties established in 2020
British Academy Games Award for Technical Achievement winners
Game Developers Choice Award winners
Interactive Achievement Award winners