'Dreams' is a brand new title from the geniuses at Media Molecule. Today, I will try and summarise everything we know about the new IP from British-based Development studio.
Who are Media Molecule? Whaaa?! Media Molecule are arguably one of the most creative, unique game developers we have seen. They have a small but highly-rated portfolio of developed titles under their name, including the award-winning LittleBigPlanet and the genre-defining Tearaway. They are one of Sony's, and the industries, most respected developers for their creative flair, which has seen them foster a new genre of Play.Create.Share, made famous by themselves on PS3 with the original release of LittleBigPlanet.
They were purchased by Sony in 2010 after creating LittleBigPlanet, and continued their high metacritic streak of quality with LittleBigPlanet 2 and Tearaway for Vita, as well as assisting with other Sony projects. Currently, they are hard at work on the soon-to-be released Tearaway Unfolded for the PS4, and Dreams, their new generation Play.Create.Share title.
When was Dreams revealed? Dreams actually had a very interesting and unusual reveal. After the studio's release of LittleBigPlanet 2, Media Molecule were reported to be spending around £4.1million from 2012 on research and development. That is a very extraordinary amount for a 50-100 man studio. However, that figure is understandable as Media Molecule are one of Sony's most treasured studios, who exist to create unqiue experiences that are not only system defining, but also genre defining.
During the reveal of the PS4, on February 20th 2013, Sony livestreamed the event around the world. Media Molecule arrived to show a tech demo of their new creation engine. They talked about their goal of next-generation creativity, being able to "record your dreams" on PS4. They highlighted their new creative sculpting tool, which was instantly a far cry from the type of creation you could do - but were limited by - on LittleBigPlanet. This tool, shown in the video below, seriously impressed, and excited LBP fans around the world about the things they could and would create. Media Molecule even ended their presentation with a lovely, albeit confusing, demo of a music-sequence, created with their tech on PS4.
However, that was not the reveal of their new title Dreams. This came 2 years later at Sony's E3 2015 presentation. Greeted by a huge round of applause, Alex from MM showed off new sequences and creations, and talked about the 'dreamiverse', essentially the open-community of dreamers-alike who can create, share and get lost in the worlds that other people have created. While the presentation was short, it was very detailed and showed off snipets of creation, as well as final, polished example products. He all stated there would be much more to look forward to in Paris Games Week, which commences from October 27th.
What is Dreams? Dreams is Media Molecule's next generation of Play, Create and Share! It is not a sequel to LittleBigPlanet, but rather a spiritual-evolution of the PCS idea Media Molecule essentially founded. Dreams environments take place in a 3D space. Creation will take a whole new story in the form of sculpting. Media Molecule showed the sculpting process, a new tool that has gone through many iterations to perfect. You simply move your controller around, and press a button to sculpt, and 'unsculpt', working on and improving your work of art as you continue. Sculpting allows you to create a stylised-feel to your objects, especially characters who look very unique with this new tool. You will be able to take assets, and add them to your sculpt, for example, adding someone else's created head on your created body. However, the creation process has only wetted our appetite for more, so we look forward to seeing soon how else creation is innovated on in this title.
Asad Qizilbash explained at the conference that you can now 'literally create anything you can dream of' and gave examples such as a game, a play, music and performance all from scratch. LittleBigPlanet was described as a 'platformer' and a 'platform for games', Dreams gives me the sense that it is a 'platform for dreams' whereby MM envisage that you could create, or recreate, anything you want.
Will Dreams use logic tools like in LittleBigPlanet? Absolutely. And with this being MM's next major release, you can expect it to be far greater than any previous LBP title. Infact, Sony's former hardware r&d guy, Anton Mikhailov, who co-created PSMove and Morpheus, is currently working on Dreams' create tools. Needless to say, it will be very good and i'm excited to see how it works.
Will Dreams have a beta? While currently unannounced, it does seem likely. Alex from MM told Mashable that the team is working on a beta-trial, and to expect more details at Paris Games Week.
Can I play/watch the creations of others? Ofcourse, it is a Play, Create, Share title.
What if I suck at creating levels/sculpts? Just remember, everyone who is a master creator now in LBP sucked at one point. It is part of the learning process that is so fun. If you are a programmer, working on a new environment is scary at first, but once you've learned the program, you instantly become a good and always learn to do new things.
Media Molecule have, however, stressed the ease and quickness of creating stuff. If you're just working on a sculpt, success is learning from failure. You can rewind your mistakes, as the creation tool 'records every move you make'.
MM also explained how they are assisting in creation; You can search for an asset and borrow someone elses asset to use in your world. It's not stealing, it's collaboration, and features-like which made the LBP community so warm and welcoming. They gave an example whereby the polar bear (seen in the E3 trailer) was created by one employee for his daughter. Another employee borrowed the creation and incorporated it into a snow boarding game.
Finally, many people played LittleBigPlanet without diving into the create feature. It certainly just as fun to experience the dreams of others in the dreamiverse and experience your fellow human beings creativity.
When will Dreams release? No release date has been given by Sony or MM, and anything beyond that you may have heard is pure speculation.
For more Dreams-news and discussion, please follow me @DreamsPS4 on twitter. Also don't forget to check out Tearaway Unfolded, coming to PS4 from September 8th.
Thank you for making this thread. I'm really excited to see more of this game and I'm confident MM will offer a great experience with this.
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