Imagine having the ability to create literally everything that crosses your mind. To animate, interact and play with your creation and then share it with the rest of the community. This is Dreams for PlayStation 4, the latest title from Media Molecule.
But can a game that creates games be considered a game itself?
The most attentive and faithful readers will remember that I have already talked about Dreams during the test ofearly access started last May in an article that also includes an introductory guide to creation.
I therefore consider it superfluous to dwell again on the description of the elements of Dreams. I would rather like to sum up the product and write a reflection on its nature.
Traveling through dreams (exploring player creations)
The undisputed star of the game is precisely the "dream", the element or set of elements that the player can create and share with the rest of the community.
The experience is divided into two parts: the Journey between Dreams and Dream Creation. In the role of our alter-ego, a nice sprite, we can visit all the works created by the community.
The number of content available it was already huge a year ago, imagine now. The quality of many of these works, whether they are simple interactive videos, music or real games, is something astonishing.
Especially if we consider that they were made with a tool sold for just under € 40.
I stressed the search bar to analyze the variety of dreams. There hasn't been a keyword that hasn't led me to creations based on a particular work. The tagging system, as well as the indexing works really well, it feels like doing a Google search.
I found games or game elements faithfully reproduced to their original counterparts. Like the introduction of the first Metal Gear Solid or levels of Crash Bandicoot, Sonic and even Kojima's PT. Entire scenes from movies, TV shows and anime have also been recreated such as the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks or an entire fight against an angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
If I keep listing everything that has been recreated, I will probably never finish. However Dreams is also home to new creations, completely disconnected from the "pop culture" context.
In short, the real purpose of the Media Molecule "title" is to materialize the player's imagination and this is how it should be used. Not for anything else these creations are the ones I appreciated the most.
Your experience in the Journey Between Dreams will surely go like this: first you will look for any dream themed games and movies and then, sated, you will let yourself be carried away among more original creations.
After traveling for hours you will feel the need to start creating something too, at least so it was for me.
Small gem: the entire “main story”, Il Sogno di Art was created with the same editor that Dreams puts in the hands of the players.
The Dream Creation (how the player became a programmer)
The Dreams editor is an extremely powerful yet easily accessible tool. As already specified, it is possible not only to create anything like in a 3D modeling program, but also to animate it, control it in order to create skits, interactive experiences or even games with lots of music, sound effects and dialogues.
In the editor we can create content from scratch or remix creations of other users. We can also choose whether to create entire dreams or simply single game constructs. A bit like it happened in the dear and old Spore by Maxis, we find the editors of Game Scene, Story Scene, Exhibition Scene, Characters, Sculpture, Device, Music, Sound Effect, Instrument, of Vehicle, Effect Animation and Dreams.
As a user who knows the basics of different engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine, I can only see several similarities in the mechanics of event management. In a nutshell: programming.
Why yes, Dreams is a game in which the player programs, albeit through extremely simplified tools (very similar to the Unreal blueprint) whose use is explained in a truly exhaustive way. give great tutorials, divided by themes.
Within a few hours, anyone will be able to become familiar with this powerful tool.
The editor has been optimized for the Dualshock 4 and while I find it to be a pretty good control system I can't help but recommend the purchase of two PlayStation Moves.
Especially if we want to specialize in body sculpting.
The Social Network of Dreams
Completed our work we can share it online to make it dream for other players, also choosing whether to make it available for further modifications. We can choose a name accompanied by a tag and keywords. A system that, as I have already explained to you, works really well.
A bit like in any social network, the quality of work is rewarded with gods likes and followers. Also playing and creating dreams level up your dreamer profile with some statistics (game, design, art, animation, audio and management) outlining even if we are more creators or dreamers.
It does not end here, however, the Media Molecule community has a good and continuous organization: periodically there are small thematic events complete with competitions to reward the most determined creatives.
Dreams: a taste of what it means to be game designes
There are many examples of titles that can give vent to our imagination: Little Big Planet and Mario Maker are just a few. However, no one can make us truly experience being a game designer like this product does.
What do I mean? Dreams is the clear example of how the result of a creation may be different based on the time dedicated to it.
Some dreams come true in an afternoon, others even in weeks or months.
Some of these dreams may very well be stand alone games for the commitment and determination employed by its creator. After all, it's not that different from making a game (or an animated movie).
And who knows if in the future Media Molecule decides to allow users to make these dreams come true. In fact, we have known for some months that the plans of the software house are willing to do migrate users' dreams to other platforms.
How and when all of this will happen is still unclear.
Dreams is only at the beginning of a long journey that could lead to a turning point in the medium: a point of contact between creator and player, a new way of conceiving the medium. A bet the outcome of which depends on the response of users and the management of the community by Media Molecule.
Meanwhile, I continue to create and travel from one dream to another, letting myself be carried away by the current. And shipwreck is sweet to me in this sea.
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