No less than 4 years after its first showing at Playstation Meeting 2013 and its official announcement during E3 2015, Dreams is finally out in the open in its final state, just a few months before the arrival of Sony's Playstation 5. Now this new project is a bit different from what Media Molecule did in the past although LittleBigPlanet already featured an editor function allowing people to create their own games. This time around, Media Molecule's idea was really to provide players with a title which would let them express the artist in them, so the focus was almost exclusively on the creation aspect. It means that there is no single-player experience to enjoy aside from Art's Dream, a very nice artsy game they created in Dreams to show off the possibilities of their engine. It's a pretty cool experience to enjoy, but it's rather short and it's a shame there aren't more unique creations by the British studio. Let's hope they will continue to add such content to show creators the way and motivate them to sink their teeth into the making of real memorable creations. Because Dreams has been available in early access for a little while, you can already discover the work of the community, but nothing truly stands out at the moment. You'll either find tributes to the industry's icons (Mario, Sonic, Lara Croft, etc.) or rather awkward attempts at making small bits of games. In all honestly, it's a bit too soon to judge the potential of Media Molecule's project, but we certainly time and talent will allow those who will decide to give it a try to give birth to dreamy artistic creations. I guess we'll see...
All comments (10)
With that much time and effort going into learning how to develop games in Dreams, which is a closed platform on a single system, with no options to monetize your investment, whatever you create is not really yours, no option to use most of that acquired knowledge outside and the fact that years from now, even if it's a very long time, when Sony decides to shut down the servers, you're stuck with something that's not very helpful.
While if someone were to invest that time and effort into using either Unreal Engine, Unity or even CryEngine, not only would they have knowledge that they could use to work by themselves as indie developers, as well as work for big companies. They could also sell their games, it would be multiplatform, they would have complete control of how to monetize it, and those game engines will exist and keep evolving for decades.
This isn't an attack on the game, I have seen a lot of great creations with Dreams already even when it was in Early Access, but those points are absolutely valid. Unless I'm missing something, outside of not having to learn how to program/code games, there's no advantage to Dreams over Unreal Engine, Unity or CryEngine.
There's also an argument to be made that not everyone wants a production solution to export and monetize their work. Some people just want to create, no strings attached. I'm in the motion design/animation field and I've found that Dreams is a really good tool for animatics/prototypes. The VR component should be a huge improvement in that category too - making it similar to a Medium or Quill from Oculus.
Too bad sony ****ed up the pc modding team of little big planet, giving hopes and cease n' desist them into hell and beyond after all that work. When Dreams is dead and burried, at least MM in a leash shouldn't give no blessings to fans if their masters are still a bunch of suits.
There's also an argument to be made that not everyone wants a production solution to export and monetize their work. Some people just want to create, no strings attached. I'm in the motion design/animation field and I've found that Dreams is a really good tool for animatics/prototypes. The VR component should be a huge improvement in that category too - making it similar to a Medium or Quill from Oculus.
Albeit in Dreams case, it could reach a far bigger audience. It will depend on how well Media Molecule supports Dreams with new features and changes to things that the community end up having problems with. As well as the speed they update the game, because if it takes years to release major updates, I can see many people moving away from it if the issues they encounter are too frustrating.
I say this because I have read some people gave up on Dreams because of issues they had with it that caused them a lot of frustration, so supporting and updating the game will be essential. I hope Media Molecule succeeds, this could bring more fresh talent to the gaming industry.
While if someone were to invest that time and effort into using either Unreal Engine, Unity or even CryEngine, not only would they have knowledge that they could use to work by themselves as indie developers, as well as work for big companies. They could also sell their games, it would be multiplatform, they would have complete control of how to monetize it, and those game engines will exist and keep evolving for decades.
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Dreams looks interesting from a casual perspective, but from a more ambitious creator perspective i would say it may have some deal breaking factors. the issue remains with the long term aspects of how their time is spent with it.
i think it's best that creators should get acquainted with reading the "E.U.L.A." for any tool first. see what they like and don't like. then make their decisions on that fork in the road. I remember countless times working hard on some of my projects and then making the mistake of not reading their EULAs. that some tools are not for commercialization, patreons, or any publicity to receive funding.
For the moment Unity, UE4 and Cry Engine are the most friendly for content creation and to also be successful (or somewhat successful). even despite being a casual artist that might not care about being very successful. at least with these programs you have the option of being rewarded in the form of your choosing. for your time and efforts.
from what i read from gamers that have tried Dreams, it does have a learning curve for scripting. and that gamers do need to learn first for game making. depending on how advance your game is and it's scale. so you could very well say Dreams is 3/4ths UE4 and Unity at their current difficulty. while at the cost of paying $40 and minus the ability to collect some form of compensation be it small time or commercially.
currently as it stands an artists can take as little as 3-4 months of learning to script for UE4 or Unity and publish a demo. which can be eligible for either a patreon, kickstarter or a dev grant.