With so many games releasing and being delayed all throughout 2020, sometimes it's nice to take a look back on titles from earlier in the year that you might have missed. That coupled with being able to experience so many games from your backlog during quarantine means it might just be the perfect time to check out Little Big Planet developer Media Molecule's Dreams, which released back in February. The game, which focuses on players being able to create and experience all sorts of worlds, now has a free demo. The trial version is limited, only letting you see a handful of selected levels made by other players alongside a short version of the dev's own world, meant to showcase the extent of what players can create in Dreams. If you're interested, the demo is now live on the PlayStation Store.

Source

 

[Deleted User]

hurray

 

[kingtut]

I know what I'm doing this weekend. I will probably buy it for 30 dollars. That's a steal.

 

[x65943]

I wonder if they are trying to get some good press after nintendo forced them to pull all their content

 

[eriol33]

is it actually fun to create games with a gamepad? I feel this "game" has so much potential in PC.

 

[gcop]

I think this game is gonna end a staple component of all PlayStations (from now on)

 

[mightymuffy]

Arrrgh what was it fukkin called now - no I'm not cheating, and don't tell me , but WHATEVER it was called on Xbox One before it got binned, this is a far better 'game' than that ...but destined to go the same route eventually... like @eriol33 says it's hampered being on a console, and more suited to a PC for sure: I marvel at what we can actually do on it, but the time it takes you to get to even about 2% of what you want to achieve, often due to the wonky controls, well everyone but a tiny smidgen of gamers simply give up on it. LBP was bad enough for this, but this is another level.
Get it out on PC Sony - create the stuff you want on there, then import your stuff easily over to console to play/show off!

 

[Lazyboss]

This game is so underpriced, got it from day 1 and I couldn't play anything else after that, it takes time to learn but it's worth it.

 

[isoboy]

Imagine you're holding a big mug with your left hand and a paintbrush in your right hand, painting it. That's what it's like sculpting and painting with the MOVE controllers. Creating with the DS4 can be compared to lifting bricks with both of your hands and placing them down to make a concrete wall. The two control options aren't comparable at all. They're both great for different things. Music is probably best done with DS4. The game is a full on editor and you can get the basics down fairly quickly but it's DEEP. It's an incredible thing that will only get better on PS5. I recommend anyone buy this just to boot it up once a week to check out some crazy contraptions.

 

[Cyan]

I tried the demo yesterday.
It has only 6 playable "dreams" (games)
Not the one I would have provided. there were better one to show the game's potential.
(who picked them?)

one of them is the official first story mode from the developer, but it's not even the full one !
they limited it to the beginning


They said they will change the free demo regularly (no idea how long to wait, nor how much games they will allow).
Seeing every Thursday they are streaming on twitch to show 15-20 games created by players, I thought they would have put these games in a "weekly" demo.
Maybe they will do that later?


I personnaly have difficulty creating anything, I'm not sure it's the gamepad's fault (I also have the moves controller).
I'm just bad at doing anything, and still make lot of try and error. I don't know all the available tools to pick directly the good one.
Though, there are a lot of integrated tutorials, and I didn't follow them yet, so I can only blame myself

I thought Moves would be better, but gamepad movement detection is as time better, moves are more for sculpting.
Lot of players asked for a disabled movement mode (stick mode), but I find it less practical.

There is already some kind of realtime PC integration interface (with indreams.me). one of the feature (in the alpha!) was to send audio files to the game! they will probably add more features.


it's true that having a PC would feel easier, as I'm used to 3D CG tools.
it's also missing an orthographic mode, which for me is easier to position elements properly.

But there are very very good creators out there, doing just fine with provided tools and gamepad input.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Dreams looks amazing, don't even need a trial to tell that much. If only it wasn't PS4 exclusive, I would be all over it.

is it actually fun to create games with a gamepad? I feel this "game" has so much potential in PC.

It makes use of motion controls I believe, and seems pretty intuitive to navigate. There are so many options you can tweak though, it's tough to wrap your head around. It's surprisingly powerful for something with zero code involved (as far as I know)

 

[isoboy]

it's true that having a PC would feel easier, as I'm used to 3D CG tools.
it's also missing an orthographic mode, which for me is easier to position elements properly.

I'm also familiar with 3ds max and the moves are ten times better AND more fun than either m&k or a wacom tablet and that's a fact. But you gotta get used to them. I will never go back to a traditional 3d package after having used the moves for sculpting. As far as accurate placement - use the grid?

 

[Cyan]

I use the grid too, I just have some hard time positioning things on that grid sometime, it rotates when I don't want to, or with big objects it can be hard to position/resize anyway. Especially negative/invisible objects. For example, my stargate project, if I want to move the invisible object to make the "gate" hollow (it's a cylinder, with another negative one at its center) I can't grab its center ! you can only grab colliding faces. so I have to resize the invisible one which deform the shapes to an oval. working with negative share after they are placed is hard for me.
Or, it's just me not being used to it because I didn't practice enough.

But, I admit that being used to 3DS max and doing things with vertex and the option to choose any center (for mirror for example) or very complete aligning option! in dreams you can't align with centers (or can you?). I know the trick/shortcut to align a face to another objet's face (when resizing for example), but not center to center. and it's missing some visible gizmo when doing it to make it easier.
I just have bad habits and I didn't do anything "from heart" yet. I think doing something more like a painting from memory to have a dreamy effect, even if not perfect, is just enough to convey the feeling and make good games. I shouldn't try perfection right away, and just learn tools instead little by little.

Another thing I'm really bad at it's the thermometer. I create 4 cubes and it's already high %, while other people can make city landscape at 1% !
I should follow the move's sculpting tutorial to make a face.

It's surprisingly powerful for something with zero code involved (as far as I know)

the "coding" part is all about logic chipsets linked together.
There are very good and talented logic developers making ready to use elements for your own games.
You don't need to reinvent everything if you know how and were to look. sometime it can be hard to find what you want though, it depends if it's named and tagged properly.

ready to use level generators, or Item menus logic, etc.

For example, you only have 256 variables for your games (to save scores, remember grabbed object, etc.), but some users found how to expand that by storing more data in one variable. you can also expand max HP value past the maximum value a variable can hold. all are already thought by different people.

unfortunately, not everything is public, some released games are private, you can only play and can't see their content or logic behind them. you can't learn from them but still be amazed and wonder how it's done!
Best ice effect was displayed this Thursday! skip to 21:40!

there are also dedicated people helping others.
I recommend Tapgiles, and his tuto channel, and his game GUI tool description. he is full time dedicated to the game (it's like its job)

If you want help on your scene, make it public (or add tapgiles as colab) and go to his channel to ask him fix/help you, ask questions and get answers, etc.

 

[mightymuffy]

I'm also familiar with 3ds max and the moves are ten times better AND more fun than either m&k or a wacom tablet and that's a fact.

That's just... well, let's just put it down as your opinion ehh? ...Maybe you're right for your own personal experience, but I suspect you're in the minority there, so the use of the word fact is, well, questionable.
Either setup like Cyan says is just not ideal in my opinion - and surely the option to actually have it on the PC as well isn't a bad thing? (Sony are moving into this territory anyway with Horizon ZD and more, so I suspect Dreams may get ported over too...cross play included natch = win win)
Then again it wouldn't surprise me to see 'teh PC master race' crowd slag it off as childish or something anyway - maybe I should just practice with the Move (ugh) or DS4 more!!

 

[isoboy]

I should've been more specific. What I mean is navigation - the act of "dragging yourself around the scene" like a rock climber is way more intuitive, as far as tools go I guess I could go either way. WHEN you get the hang of it (moves). You can zip around a scene without problems. It just becomes something that feels natural. I don't know. FACTS. And I'm ALL about the pc master race. I really hate the subpar 30fps experience on consoles and yeah, I'm not particularly fond of Dreams running at 30. In fact, this game is the single thing that's holding me back from shelving a ps5 to hack it at a later date. It's quite hilarous. I've bought the playstation since 95 and I was ready to ditch it. I still am if we don't see fairly big improvements when it's running on ps5.

 

[Bimmel]

What did Nintendo say when users tried to replicate Mario and Zelda?

"In your Dreams!"

 

[Tweaker_Modding]

i dunno why i read this i bought the game back when it was in early access

 

[depaul]

I've tried the demo it's absolutely fantastic with the art guy. Media molecule knows how to make games both appealing to kids and adults.

 

[Pluupy]

I'd rather it be on PC. I can't stand doing long-term designs in games with a controller.

 

[Cyan]

Even if you don't create anything (lack of imagination, or tools and input controller not appealing to you), you still have access to plenty of artistic and creative games, scenes, movies, audio, custscene, demoscenes, etc.
Sometime you find full featured games with hours of gameplay (one of them is a really beautiful ARPG)
I enjoy trying and seeing other's creativity. Maybe I enjoy it even more when I know where they come from, which tool they have at their disposal and what they manage to turn them into!

Media Molecule is working on another "story mode" (Art's dream being the first one). They release theme packs (ancient temple, garden, house, etc.) full of ready to use elements for your own dreams, so you don't always have to create from scratch.
there are also template (3D plateformer, FPS, rolling ball, etc.) so you just need to build a level around existing elements, like you'd do with Mario maker, or RPG maker, trackmania, etc.
PSVR support is also long awaited, and they rarely talk or answer questions about that, probably NDA... but it's coming "soonTM"

And if you don't have the game, and you find the current demo too short and lacking more playable levels (I do !), you can always check the official Twitch streams from MediaMolecule devs.
every tuesday (tutorial/talks) and thursday (user creation of the week) at 5PM GMT
The team is really open minded, fun and friendly, answering user questions.
currently, they are doing confinement streams, which has some issues (not worse than usual haha)