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twintail on 25 August 2024
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So I'm trucking away at the Dreams plat (getting to level 30) and having a good time playing some random stuff people have made. Most notably, I've been spending time with my kid playing Tren, the last game MM made in Dreams. And it really got me thinking about the future of MM and how I honestly believe that future is Tren 2 and Dreams 2.0

One thing about Tren is just how fun a game it is. It's basically a game designed around train sets with levels that are either time-based (fun to a degree) and those that expect an objective to be completed (much better levels). I let my kid do explore mode for the time trials then I finish those off. For the objective ones, they do it themselves.

But Tren really does open up as you go along. After a while you're controlling helicopters, and even a ship. And I can't help but feel that exploring these concepts in a more focussed game would really be very exciting. Even going further would be adding a sim like quality to it where users can have their own city managed by a train system (even busses too), something that can even be level based itself. Adding in a first person view and allowing users to pretend they're driving the train etc I think would be a lot of fun.

But on top of this, one thing Tren has is 2 secret levels dedicated to MM's previous games: LBP and Tearaway. The LBP level is done in 2D, and is essentially a LBP level just using the Tren train structure. it looks the part too and you can even collect the bubbles. The Tearaway level is obviously not replicated gameplay wise, but the look, sound and feel is essentially Tearaway. It's incredible how accurately the game is portrayed. All courtesy of the Dreams engine.

Now, the thing about LBP is that the game and creation were the same thing. And this is true of Dreams as well. I can't help but feel that MM does not need to just let Dreams die: they can keep building upon it as an engine and use it for all their future games, with the creation aspect of their games utilising the engine (just like how LBP did).

In this sense, Dreams as an engine can continue to flourish and receive updates, but the main iterations of the engine requires gamers to buy MM's next game (whether that is a new LBP, Tearaway ,Tren or something new). So for example, Dreams is Dreams 1.0. Whatever game MM makes next can be Dreams 2.0. Whatever comes next is Dreams 3.0. in this way, MM can still continue to make core games, users can still utilize the engine but the 'fee' to continue using version upgrades it the purchase of MM's next game.

There's a lot of benefit to this I feel: the Dreams engine doesn't just fade away. MM continues to make games. The engine can be ported to PC (due to Sony's PC strategy), and that engine can evolve to becoming a means for users to really get into game design.

But coming back to the beginning of this post. There's a lot of lovely content on Dreams (and not so great stuff), that has the potential to really evolve into bigger and better games. And Tren is just a fantastic addition to MM's game lineup that I truly hope they make a sequel. I'd buy it.