Dreams Creator Beta announced

Media Molecule has finally announced the long-awaited Beta release for Dreams!

On their Twitch live stream earlier today, they mentioned anyone who had previously signed up to the Mm Newsletter (and fulfilled certain requirements) would be invited to download an access code. After this, they will roll out further access from the 4th January. The Beta is billed as a 'Creator' Beta, so specifically for people who want to play around with the creative tools.

You can read more about the Dreams Beta on Media Molecules FAQ below:

https://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/dreams_creator_beta_faq

World Building with Kareem

The latest Dreams stream featuring Kareem from Wednesday 28th is below if you missed it.

You can watch the video on YouTube here. Or on Twitch here.

Sculpting an impressive environment in about an hour!

If you follow Media Molecule on Twitter you may have seen their poll asking fans what kind of world they would like to see Kareem build live. 'High Fantasy' won out.

Basically no assets were created ahead of time, so although this video doesn't show off many new features, I still loved seeing how potentially easy it is to create something that looks so cool and original in so little time! Apparently, the environment will be included when the game releases.

Early Dreams Stream with Shuhei Yoshida

It's an old video (From July 2016) but I thought I'd post it now because... why not! The video features Alex, Dave, and Kareem of Media Molecule sitting and talking with Shuhei Yoshida, who is a godfather-like figure at Sony Computer Entertainment.

Dreams PS4 - Exclusive In-development Gameplay with Shuhei Yoshida!

 

The video starts with some time-lapsed sculpting, including a very arty and impressive head that looks like it's carved out of stone, and then seemingly in complete contrast, we see some kind of energy being made out of moving lights! The video moves on to show Shuhei play through a game. The levels and characters here look to be those that will feature in the story mode which will be included with Dreams on release. The video rounds up with the guys creating a level.

What I find amazing about this video is to see how far along in development the game was over two years ago! It feels as though Mm must have applied painstaking attention to detail on the finishing touches of Dreams. Hope it will be worth the wait.

Dreams Stream scheduled for 28th Nov at 5pm GMT

Check out the below tweet from Mm confirming a live stream of Kareem (Art Director) creating an environment that will be playable in the open beta 'later this year'.

Vote for the type of environment you want Kareem to create

The Tweet includes a poll to vote on what kind of level Kareem should create. Options are; Dystopian, Alien World, High Fantasy or Surrealism. I would be most tempted by Alien or High Fantasy, but then I might pick Surrealism just to see what whacky stuff he can come up with.

Kareem will be returning to the Mm sofa on Wednesday 28th November at 5PM GMT for another session of World Building, creating a world YOU'LL be able to interact with during the #DreamsPS4 beta later this year! Read more here: https://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/kareems_dreams_stream_world_building_for_beta …

7:54 am - 20 Nov 2018

LittleBigPlanet in DreamsPS4

Media Molecule recreate LBP in Dreams on PS4

Some hard-core LBP nostalgia in this recent video from Mm. Who remembers playing these games on PS3 or PS4?

From the description:

LittleBigPlanet, our first game as Media Molecule, turns 10 years old this month. To honour the occasion, we created The Garden in #DreamsPS4! Check out the single player here, and watch a FOUR player playthrough in our full video!

Realtime Concept Art - Dreams PS4

Emilie Stabell, an Artist at Media Molecule working on Dreams has posted the below video showcasing concept art made within Dreams. Enjoy!

Realtime Concept Art - Dreams PS4 from Emilie Stabell on Vimeo.

Beautiful Environment Design

Awesome to see a video demonstrating some of the weather effects available through the creation tools in Dreams. I'm not sure how the ground snow was created, but it really works to change up the scene. Also, the odd tree house on a hill is completely transformed in the stormy rain vs the summer weather.

LittleBigPlanet 3 for PS3 and PS4 - Player Content

Dreams isn't out yet, so I thought it would be nice to look back at some player made levels from LittleBigPlanet 3!

The LBP series is in every sense a precursor to Dreams. The levels and games created by the community from the latest installment LBP3 (first released on PS3 and then later the PS4) could give is a rough idea of the kinds of levels players might create in Dreams.

Will player made content from Dreams surpass player made content from LBP3?

It's amazing to see the variety of content that people have been able to make given the 2D constraints of the LittleBigPlanet level editor. I say 2D, although by the third installment I believe players had 16 layers available to play with. Along with a set of tools that had been fine-tuned over the previous two installments, players had fairly ample creative freedom in LBP. Dreams promises to give even more of course, which is what makes it so exciting.

Dreams Halloween Spooktacular Stream

Watch Media Molecule's Halloween Spooktacular | #DreamsPS4 from Media_Molecule on www.twitch.tv

The October Halloween themed Dreams Stream is up on twitch!

The creepy wolf / dragon / demon thing is very cool, always fun to watch something original being sculpted from start to finish. I can't tell if the blanket art style within Dreams lends itself particularly well to these kinds of cartoon creepy levels and creations, or perhaps it's just that this is what Media Molecule tend to veer towards when making things. When the game is in the hands of the general public it will be interesting to see if the majority of player content has the same vibe.

We also get to see our first (correct me if I'm wrong) animated quadruped in this video. The animation on the skeletal horse looks great! Very promising for the potential scope of what can be made in the game.

Everyone in the studio seems to be having a great time. I wonder if for players it will in general be more fun to create or play levels?!

Media Molecule October Newsletter

Mm released their October newsletter recently. They had the below to say about Halloween... I am excited for virtual pumpkin carving!

Halloween

It's Halloween and we're Media Molecule, so of COURSE we're going to get involved in the festivities! We'll be hosting our last livestream for this month on 26th October 2018 at 5PM BST. We'll be getting spooktacular in Dreams with pumpkin carving, ghoulish creations and who knows what else!

Still no word on the Beta

What is missing from the newsletter of course, and what many fans would have been hoping for, is some mention of the long-awaited open Beta testing that Media Molecule have said will begin this year. I guess we're all used enough to waiting now...

Game Informer Make A Bizarre Game With Media Molecule's Dreams

How difficult will it be to create your first game in Dreams?

We've been treated to lots of lovely videos from Game Informer over the past week or so as the team visited the Media Molecule offices to run some exclusive content on Dreams. In this video, Javy Gwaltney, Elise Favis, and Ben Hanson speak to Jeff Cork and Leo Vader about some of the stuff they created in-game.

No disrespect to the good people at Game Informer, but it's easy to see why Mm have been a little 'protective' so far when it comes to handing over the creation tools to the uninitiated. We've seen designers at Mm make all sorts of amazing things, but there aren't many videos showing what will inevitably be the opening few hours of gameplay for 99% of players... and that is to flail about helplessly drawing smiley faces in the sculpting tool, or to sit studiously copying tutorials on how to program logic. I would say this is not the best marketing material for most players (although some will obviously dig it). The hope is that the open Beta test planned for later this year will result in enough interesting content produced by genuine players, that can, in turn, be collated and showcased in an impactful way prior to the games full launch.

Why isn't Media Molecule's Dreams Out Yet? Game Informer

Media Molecule Creative Directors discuss Dreams Development

In this interview from Ben Hanson at Game Informer, Siobhan Reddy and Mark Healey talk about the unique challenges faced in developing Dreams. I love these two, they always seem so well humored. It can't be an easy job being at the helm of a studio doing something which is very risky. Siobhan describes developing Dreams as 'the ultimate Jam'. When pressed about the delay in the release, Mark reassures us that 'No one wants to get it out there more than we do.'

Diversity of Art Style in Dreams

The below images were posted on Twitter by Jon Eckersley of Media Molecule (originally shared with Game Informer). In the post, he talks about how a lot of people expect that only a certain 'painterly' style can be achieved when making art in Dreams. Jon wants to demonstrate the different possibilities with these images, which are very different in colour and tone. You can imagine both belonging to completely different games, it's amazing to think they're both from the same place!

Dreams Level Design

The moonlit cabin is more typical of the game art already released, it has that 'painterly' style mentioned by Jon. The cabin itself is rendered quite real (in its proportions for example) however the surrounding forest and starry sky are very surreal.

The below interior, although I wouldn't say it was 'hyper-real' as the assets have a very slight cartoony edge, it is very realistic in contrast to the art that has already been released. In the Twitter post comments, Jon mentions he used up 100% of the asset thermometer to create this. The posters are incredibly cool and the dusty hue of the lighting makes it look like an image out of a magazine.

Alex Evans Interview - 229 Questions About Dreams Answered!

This fun video from Ben Hanson at Game Informer sees Alex answer a barrage of sometimes silly, sometimes serious questions about Dreams. I'm glad Alex admits to joking after he says the Beta will launch on the 31st December to satisfy the promise of a 2018 release... I hope it's a little earlier than that.

Media Molecule's Dreams - 229 Rapid-Fire Questions

Dreams Stream - Made by the Molecules

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Dreams created by the Mm Team

You can view it here

New Dreams Stream: Made By The Molecules | #DreamsPS4

Dreams Stream - Games made by the Media Molecule team!

What did you think?

So much cool stuff on display in this month's video. It's great to see the variety of different ways people approach making games, and how the system looks robust enough to keep everyone happy in their own little creative niches. The big test once the game is released will be how the software links players to other players - we think collaboration will likely elicit even more impressive and powerful games from Dreams than the examples in this video.

We've added a new page to the site. 'The story of Dreams on PS4' talks about the wonderful people who have worked on the game. https://ift.tt/2x0hTp3

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In case you missed it > Sculpting With Kareem | #DreamsPS4

The recent Dreams Stream from Media Molecule:

Who else can't wait to see Dreams on their shelf?

Take yours to the checkout now!

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#dreams #ps4 #gaming

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Gothic Novel Game Jam | #DreamsPS4

The latest Dreams Stream is here

Dreams Editorial on Polygon

Anticipation continues to build for the game...

The guys over at Polygon have written a piece on Dreams.

In the post, Samit Sarkar talks about his hands on experience with Dreams at a demo event, and goes into detail about the options available to players for creating cutscenes.

But no — it’s all right in there for you to handle yourself. Michael Pulst, a producer on Dreams at Sony Interactive Entertainment America, later showed me during a demo of the game’s creation tools that it’s possible for players to manipulate the camera like a filmmaker and direct characters in a scene.

- Samit Sarkar of Polygon.com

Dreams - Gameplay Demo | PlayStation Live from E3 2018

Dreams video content

In case anyone missed the dreams content on show at this years E3 conference, here is a lovely gameplay walkthrough!



Seeing how quick and easy it is to create a character, animate it, and then assign complex rules such as health and damage allocation is really exciting!

Dreams on PS4 gameplay:

Dreams on PS4 home

Dreams Screenshots

Some cool images from dreams.mediamolecule.com below:

So far I think MediaMolecule have managed to show off a fair bit of variety in the content they have released, what is really impressive to me though is you see the same ethereal style throughout it all...

Looks like a cutscene maybe

Impressive environment design 

I hope the game will be more than just a glorified platform generator

Featuring some of the characters Mm have championed throughout the build up

Still no release date for Dreams

The wait continues...

From dreams.mediamolecule.com

Still no release date... I can't wait!

DreamsOnPS4

DreamsOnPS4 is a blog / site for great curated Dreams content!