Dreams is a game creation system developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 and released on February 14th, 2020. Dreams allows players to create content in form of games, mechanics, assets and art and play and view content created by other players, similar to Media Molecule's previous series LittleBigPlanet.

History

On February 20th, 2013, British video game company Media Molecule presented a tech demo for their then-unnamed game that was revealed at PlayStation Meeting 2013.^[25] During the presentation, a PlayStation Move controller was used to sculpt scenery and record movements of on-screen characters (shown below, left). On July 21st, 2014, Media Molecule uploaded a promotional video based on "rendering error" that occurred during the development of the project (shown below, right).^[26]

Epilepsy warning: video contains flashy lights

On June 15th, 2015, the game was officially announced during Sony's Press Conference at E3 2015 under the name Dreams (shown below, left). On October 27th, 2015, during Paris Games Week 2015, Dreams gameplay was shown during the Sony Press Conference PGW 2015 (shown below, right).

Starting on September 30th, 2015, Media Molecule has been livestreaming Dreams on Twitch^[2] and YouTube^[3] to demonstrate the interactive capabilities of the game. Between December 7th, 2017 and December 9th, 2017, during The Game Awards 2017 and PlayStation Experience 2017, a new trailer for Dreams was revealed (shown below, left), with a panel at PlayStation Experience hosted by Tim Schafer. (shown below, right)

On May 21st, 2018, a 25-minute gameplay video of Dreams was uploaded by the official PlayStation YouTube channel (shown below, left), with a blog post being posted on PlayStation's official blog on the same day.^[4] On June 11th, 2018, Dreams appeared at the E3 2018 during the PlayStation Press Conference, used as transitions/shorts between the segments of the showcase.^[5] Following the show, a live concert that used only the audio and animation tools of the game was performed (shown below, right).

On October 2nd, 2018, Game Informer has announced Dreams as the choice for their November 2018 Magazine cover,^[10] also announcing a month-long coverage, which involved highlighting new exclusive details on the game’s story mode, tools, and much much more throughout October 2018.^[11]

On December 18th, 2018, Media Molecule announced^[12] the start of a Creator Beta. The Beta went from December 19th, 2018 through February 5th, 2019.^[13][14][15] On February 20th, 2019, Media Molecule announced "Creator Early Access" which started on April 16th, 2019 as a limited-release Early Access program which lasted until December 7th, 2019.^[16][17][18] On December 10th, 2019, during PlayStation's State of Play broadcast, it was announced that Dreams will be released on February 14th, 2020. On February 14th, 2020, the game was officially released.^[27]

On July 22, 2020, Media Molecule released a new update adding PlayStation VR support^[32] with new feature set, tools and tutorials/guides alongside a new Interactive Showcase to demonstrate Dream's Capabilities in VR.^[33]

Gameplay

In Dreams, players control a creature called an "imp" which is used to interact with the game's world. With the imp, players create new items and characters and manipulate objects by grabbing and pulling them.

Dreams' levels are separated by different segments known as "dreams," which are areas that can be navigated (depending on the level's genre) using the imp and the abilities of characters that can be possessed. Items collected by players can be used to alter and modify the state of the game's world.

Players can create their own levels in the game and add their own work, which includes objects, models, music, animation, etc. to the community. They can also use tools to build upon pre-built objects both from Story Mode and the Community.^[1]

Reception

Prior to the release, multiple gaming and mainstream media outlets reported on the game, including articles by GameSpot,^[6] Digital Trends,^[7] and The Guardian.^[8]

As of February 26th, 2020, the game maintained an 89 critic rating on Metacritic^[19] with 59 reviews and 9.0 user score with over 940 ratings while OpenCritic's Rating is Mighty.^[31] The game received 9 out of 10 score or higher from GameSpot,^[20] IGN,^[21] Destructoid^[22] and other gaming media.

Impact

Following the release of the game, multiple prominent YouTubers, including VideoGameDunkey ^[23] and PewDiePie, ^[24] released the videos of their gameplay (shown below, left and right).

On Twitch, the game peaked on February 16th with 43,800 simultaneous viewers.^[28]

Fandom

During the beta testing and early access phases and after the release, numerous "meme" games were created and added by players. For example, on February 15th, 2020, Twitter^[29] user @GameOverGreggy tweeted about Joker Dance game created by Mystical_Vortex_.^[30] The tweet received over 1,500 retweets and 8,800 likes (shown below).

Outta the way Cyberpunk and TLOU2, there’s a new GOTY contender inside #DreamsPS4! #MadeInDreams pic.twitter.com/NBbjUePaqR

— Greg Miller (@GameOverGreggy) February 15, 2020

Search Interest

External References