Journey into Dreams - The Start of Something Special
After almost seven long years , Dreams is out on PlayStation 4 after a period of Early Access. The game allows for robust creation of art assets, levels, animations, music, and particularly games in a way that hasn’t been seen before in other titles, at least to this extreme. Being that there is so many creations being added at any given time, sharing fun dreams seems important to the growth of the community and how other players might interact with the game. Please join me in this Journey into Dreams as I explore the many creations that caught my attention.
Anyone familiar with the work of Media Molecule, especially the Little Big Planet series, will feel right at home with Dreams. After a brief and stellar tutorial of the controls and starting systems, dreamers are free to dive right in, either creating or playing.
I’ll get right out there and say that I do not have it in me to create and it all seems daunting to me personally. However, we are not here today to talk about creating ourselves, we are here to check out some of the amazing creations other people have done. Using the In Dreams link, one can easily add any given creation to their playlist. Simply click the Dream’s title in this post to learn more.
Created by: Sumasshv
Genre: Arena Fighter
To start us off, I played this creation called Battle Tops and while it was fun, it was also pretty frustrating. Everything looked smooth and the music was good, but the controls and systems were not explained well. After four quick rounds, I was able to wrap my head around the controls and this also meant I didn’t die in the first 3 seconds of every round. This Dream was fun but also kind of ran its course too quickly. I also only played myself with three A.I opponents. I think this would be more fun with more players but if only for a little in between games. Brief and fun enough but Battle Tops could use more work. At the same time, it’s a good place to start to help set expectations of what’s to come. I would like to check on this in the future to see if Sumasshv adds more levels as there are only two currently.
Created by: Man Chicken Turtle & Phreakerz
Genre: Platforming Puzzler
This was the second level I randomly came across and hot damn Pip Gemwalker is a fun time! To break it down to its basics, Pip Gemwalker is basically mimicking Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. This Dream starts off easy where players collect the gems, the end point of the level unlocks, and the level is beat upon reaching that goal. Pip Gemwalker was not only funny in its opening moments but it also had this intro cutscence that was short and to the point and incredibly well done!
So far the game consists of seven levels, each ramping up in difficulty and each teaching players a new mechanic. The tutorials for each mechanic are well thought out and overall it seems incredibly ambitious. This was the one game were my son saw what I was playing and was immediately drawn in, telling me where to go next. He genuinely laughed aloud and felt accomplished as we finished levels. To top it all off, the music accompanying the game suits it, giving a sense of a bumbling adventure and for Pip Gemwalker I couldn’t ask for more. If you couldn’t tell, I really enjoyed this Dream and I hope the creators continue to develop it.
Created by: Jimmyjules153
Genre: Bullet hell, Sci-Fi shooter
Okay I want to just say I suck at these types of games. Geometry Wars was never my strong suit and to be honest I couldn’t really give you anymore examples because I generally stay away from this genre, but I wanted to try whatever Dreams threw at me.
In Blade Gunner, players move side to side and shoot enemies with a spaceship, picking up shields and bombs along the way. With every enemy defeated, money is earned and upon death upgrades can be purchased that prolong survivability. The controls are solid, the music was bass thumping, and the upgrade system is well implemented. If you are into these types of games, this is one to keep an eye on!
Created by: Quorra__ISO & davel138
Genre: Horror
This is one I immediately sought out in my Journey into Dreams. I saw it pop up on Reddit a few months ago while Dreams was in its early access stage. Now with the full release, I wanted to check it out and holy crap! This is less of a game and more of an interactive diagram based off of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shinning but the creation is detailed and stunning to behold.
Dreamers start off in the almost central location of the Overlook in the space where we see Jack writing his novel in the film. The attention to detail in this diagram is unreal, especially to think that it was made from the ground up. You can find things like Danny’s tricycle, the bat Wendy used against Jack, and the thing that really caught me off guard. . . Room 237. Complete with a creepy ass bathroom and someone in the bath that you can only see while looking in a mirror. Then, of course, all the lights turn off to add to the effect of being stuck in a room with the spirit of Room 237. Upon leaving the room, players can find the twins at the end of the hall.
Great, now I’m even more freaked out, but as you approach them they turn around a corner and disappear. This recreation also has the Gold Room and the maze, but the Gold Room is pretty empty at the moment. The maze is complete with Jack in the middle with a hatchet chasing anyone who dares enter! The whole time the audio from the film during the ending chase plays with Jack screaming for Danny.
As you can probably tell, I may be a little biased when it comes to the Overlook, but I love this Dream! Not to mention that the whole time you are in the main area, the main theme of the movie is playing sending chills down my spine. I hope they keep adding onto this because I would love to revisit it.
Created by the_burgervan & VitaminG_90
Genre: Platformer
This was another great game to find in the Dreams universe. Super Great Job, Human has the same feeling to it like Super Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie. The goal is simple, collect the motherboards and get to the end. There’s this great start up too that looks like an NES cartridge with nice chill music through the whole thing. The concept I think really works with the whole Dream mixing basically the internals of a computer with the outside world. Things like cap locks buttons make these letter platforms bigger and smaller, and we have pieces of RAM working as seesaws that builds off the themes at play.
There is one glaring issue, even though I think most of the platforming is mostly solid, and that’s these swinging points where Dreamers need to use the motion controls from the DualShock 4 to connect to different points in between hovering. It just doesn’t have the desired effect and it rarely works. Other then that, the controls are on point and when I did die it felt like it was my fault and not an issue to do with the game itself. This is one I would like to keep checking o to see what they do with it, like fixing the motion control stuff.
That’s all for this Journey into Dreams! Even early on there are a couple of really cool, ambitious ideas and games that really stood out. It’s crazy to think that Dreams has only been out in early access for a couple of months and had its full release less then a week ago. It is something to be said that if these are the games we are getting out of the passionate creative people in just a few months, I think they will really start to push what they can get out of Dreams in another week, let alone another year.
I hope we see some genuinely good indie devs come from Dreams. Some people really have the drive and potential and I will for sure be checking back at least every week or so to see some new and interesting ideas.
I should mention that in this article I wrote only about the games in Dreams, but there are a ton of projects that are not games, kind of like the Overlook Hotel project. There is everything from just diagrams from famous movies and games, to people making what I can only describe really as music videos. If I do this again, I think I would open my mind to some of those passion projects.
In short, if you have even the slightest inkling to check out Dreams, do it.
Yes, it’s less of a game and more of a creation tool but there is a place for people like me who just want to play those creations and I think more than anything the things we see come out of Dreams over the next couple of years will blow players away. The other thing to keep in mind is that Media Molecule has said their PSVR update is close to being done; when that is out, I really think it will be a game changer.
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