GRcade

I wish all these videos showed how long they took to create. That pool one must be 100s of hours right?

Captain Kinopio wrote:I wish all these videos showed how long they took to create. That pool one must be 100s of hours right?

20-30 apparently.

Must be using a lot of pre-made assets then.

Captain Kinopio wrote:Must be using a lot of pre-made assets then.

I don't think he was.

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2019/02/20/dreams-creator-early-access-launches-this-spring/

Early access coming soon, I cannot wait for this game; some of the creation made by the community in just 6 weeks were incredible!

Dreams Early Access launches the 16th April. There are limited spaces and it is intended to help Media Molecule improve the product for its full launch.

Not so fussed about getting into early betas but I am keen on seeing what folks will come up with now that it will be in more hands.

Early access is out!

Anyone else bought this?

Not tried to do much yet, just sampled four of the MM stuff. Admittedly it’s all very throwaway but first impressions as mini games They’re not good. Tried half a dozen and the only one that didn’t control horribly and felt like a nugget of an idea was the hammer one. Reading the resetera thread too and seeing some Dream surfing, I think there’s going to be a lot of issues when people actually try to ‘make a game’ because even to do something very basic that doesn’t just look like an asset rip is going to involve a degree of work and skill that 99% of people don’t possess or won’t want to put in.

The saving grace I think will be if it’s just fun to create things in, which from what I’ve heard sounds like it may well be. We’ll see with time if it can stay so at the higher end of skill. From what I played as well the best stuff from MM in there at the moment are the little art pieces. A 3D model, a scene or the panel of a graphic novel. Cycling through the half dozen or so of these was quite beautiful and looked far more in reach of your average player, so I wonder if this is what the majority of people will focus on. Can’t wait to see what charming environments people let you gaze through a window at, hopefully it’ll be like having a never ending supply of art that can just be put on in the background as a real mellow mood setter.

My god, moving around a 3D space with move controllers is a nightmare. I can see why you need them for modelling but still

Captain Kinopio wrote:My god, moving around a 3D space with move controllers is a nightmare. I can see why you need them for modelling but still

Yeah. You get used to them eventually, but it's not exactly intuitive (no matter how easy Media Molecule make it look in their streams).

The creation suite really is mind boggling, there’s so much in here. It really does feel just like a game engine for £30.

The problem is your input into it though. It’s just not intuitive or comfortable enough. Mad respect to Media Molecule for somehow getting the thing to function with a Dual Shock and Move Controllers, but ultimately every creation is going to be hamstrung by them. Not in a ‘limitations lead to more creativity’ aspect but rather, just a really unpleasant obstacle to entry. The tutorials are good but even doing basic stuff feels like a chore because you never quite have the position or angle you need. Maybe all 3D modelling programs have this problem though, I’ve never used one before. I’d really like to see a time lapse of someone creating something substantial in this though.

Captain Kinopio wrote:I’d really like to see a time lapse of someone creating something substantial in this though.

You mean something playable, or just a sculpture/character/environment? There's tons of videos for the latter:


Something playable, and substantial, means lots of complicated logic. A time-lapse probably isn't the best thing for that. An in-depth look at something after it's already been made would be great for that I think.
The logic tutorials in-game aren't all that deep and so far MM haven't gone all that deep into logic in any of their streams. Maybe they're afraid of scaring people away with something that looks really complicated? Hopefully we'll see lots of community made, specific, in-depth tutorials now that early access is out.

The robot animation one is exactly what I was after thanks!

It’s difficult to know where to start really, I know 99% of what you can do in this will be totally beyond my skill level. I guess is to start with something simple or premade and just tinker with adding stuff to it until it starts to feel natural. I’m not sure I’ll spend much time creating though, unless it’s part of a group or there’s a social aspect to it. I don’t think I have the patience to persevere.

Think I’m probably not going to persevere with this, for now at least. The create side of things is just too complicated and the tutorials are not good. The video is small and gets in the way and for some reason you can’t push it to the side of the screen properly. They just dump a whole load of complicated stuff on you in less than 5 mins show you something lovely they did and then leave you to it, like that’s any kind of help. The biggest problem is that I don’t find it particularly fun to do though. So learning the ins and outs over dozens of hours to end up making something gooseberry fool anyway I just don’t think I have the patience for.

The Dream Surfing I don’t really like either, it always seems to show me the same stuff. And nothing I’ve played so far warrants sticking with beyond the initial 2 minute curiosity.

I’ll come back for the full release I guess but I struggle to see how they’re going to make a success of this. I’ve no doubt a small number of people will eventually make a handful of substantial experiences with it but for most I expect the complexity to be a huge turn off.

I was going to grab this preview version but I decided to hold off until impressions appeared. It does seem to be an incredible tool albeit one that is a bit clunky. I love being creative with relatively simple tools such as Super Mario Maker but I struggled to get into a similar position with Little Big Planet; and Dreams seems to be several steps down that line in terms of complexity.

It is undoubtedly extremely clever and has huge potential but, based on the thoughts I've seen so so far, maybe it's just too awkward for most folk? I wonder what the media will report when they "review" this.

A talented dude by the name of Disarmed is showing of his creations skills in Dreamed. View his twitter here: https://twitter.com/DISARMEDTWEETS


He says on twitter

#MadeInDreams - created a visual copy of @minecraft by @mojang, in my best attempts to emulate it within the engine I’m pretty sure I’ve finally gone insane

MATTE. - MUSIC & EQ VISUALIZATION. working on a mini passion project involving some music I’ve created w/ some of my more recent transitions with style - here’s a minimalistic EQ along with this new track I hope you like!

And this one NickSCFC posted previously but I share again for Disarmed's comments

it’s honestly mind-blowing what can be achieved within @mediamolecule upcoming creative IP - DREAMS. here’s some of the things I’ve created running realtime, in motion on this amazing platform. don’t underestimate this game!

Most of these 'realistic graphics' demos in dreams don't look half as good when you actually go in to play or experience them first hand.

That said there is some seriously impressive stuff being made. Not really games yet. Even 90%+ of the most recommended stuff is straight trash to play. You'll go in fiddle for 30 seconds, say 'huh neat' and then move on. I've only encountered 2 or 3 games I played for more than 3 minutes and even then you check out pretty quickly. Follow the reddit though and people are starting to rig up proper characters to like a PS1 level. I've seen an actual climbing mechanic, car deformation and some pretty decent animation of basic puppets. People are even starting to get characters walking in a non-gimped way.

It's all really low level stuff as far as game design is concerned but you can start to see MM aren't bullshiting when they push how much can be done in this. They've just neglected to emphasise that it takes multiple talented people and 1000s of hours to create something worthwhile playing.

Edit: This for example is pretty strawberry floating cool

A whopping big 10/10 in Official PlayStation Magazine this month.

A once-in-a-generation release that changes absolutely everything, and resets what a 'game' can be. Dreams is essential and should be on every PS4. Especially yours.

KK wrote:A whopping big 10/10 in Official PlayStation Magazine this month.

A once-in-a-generation release that changes absolutely everything, and resets what a 'game' can be. Dreams is essential and should be on every PS4. Especially yours.

...I'll wait for it to hit ps+ in a few years

Really impressive but I can't be arsed with the amount of time it would take to make anything.