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Dreams interview: Media Molecule explains what it is, hints at VR support

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
I think this interview is worth surfacing from the other thread - I think it clarifies some of the questions a lot of people had after the reveal at E3.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/18/media-molecule-dreams-is-for-youtubers-and-twitch-streamers/

"The main confusion I've seen reading on the net does seem to be that people are like, 'Is it a movie maker? Is it a game maker? What is it?' The communities will probably define that. But it's absolutely a game. We are making games with it. What you will choose to make with it, what the community will choose to make with it -- that's the cool thing. We don't know."

In a way, Healey says that Dreams embodies the spirit of game jams: sessions where different artists and developers come together to brainstorm the creation of a game within a 24-hour time limit. "That sort of collaboration and that live aspect to it is really catered for in Dreams," says Healey. "So if you're a specialist; if you're someone who thinks, 'Well, I'm not just going to sculpt,' you're going to find people to team up with and make something. Or, if you're more of an auteur, you can sit there."

"You can be a game director," adds Evans. "You don't have to do anything. Because it's all live, connected online. ... We're pushing collaboration as much as we can. So if you want to be in your bedroom on your own for three days and work on your magnum opus, that's cool. That's legit. But actually, it's a much more welcoming world if you can go in and it's like, 'Hey! This dude over here is building skyscrapers.'"

On VR support:

Evans and Healey weren't quite so cagey when I asked them if Dreams would be a Morpheus VR launch title. Though the pair wouldn't outright confirm it, Healey admits, "It's an obvious thing to do." Adds Evans: "Let's just say Anton Mikhailov, who helped build the first-ever Morpheus prototype, is at Molecule now. ... So I'll leave it at that."

Healey says that players "can go from experience to experience in a very dream-like way."..."You might be an FPS [first-person shooter] guy, so FPS is your entry. But as you're playing the FPS, you open the door and it's a fucking desert and you're in Journey. You walk out and then you're walking through the desert and then you see ... a spaceship and you climb into it. ... It sounds mad, but when you've framed it all as dream-like, actually you just get into it. The same way that when you're in an actual dream in real life, you don't question the fact that you walk out your house and you're in the middle of the beach. ... You know what I mean? That feeling."

As for more traditional gameplay modes, Evans says that players can expect to see those bundled into the final product. Both he and Healey referenced the bubbles shown off at the end of this year's E3 demo as a tease of what that "game-like content" could be. "At Media Molecule, we're game makers so we're making games with it. So there will be Media Molecule content there. The scope of that is to be announced. But it will be there and it will be good," Evans says.

Some of those bubbles (via Stampy):

veXPXXs.gif


There's a lot more at http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/18/media-molecule-dreams-is-for-youtubers-and-twitch-streamers/, including talk of a beta.

Bonus explanation from Shu Yoshida:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2oEbmyujIE

It's a huge project. It's a next-gen creation platform by Media Molecule. You can slice and dice that project from many different angles. It's a huge project in terms of what it can do. We decided in order for people to understand what it is, it's going to take some time to digest. We cannot throw everything at the same time. So we strategised to use this E3 to pick some interesting things - show some pretty graphics and show some creation, realtime creation and the flexibility to animate or add music - and to get people to think about what it is and want to know more. At Paris Game Show we're going to show a lot more, the whole scope of the project.

It's much more flexible [than LittleBigPlanet]. In LittleBigPlanet you basically pretty much made new levels of action game but with Dreams, you don't have to make a game. You can make a game, of any kind, but you don't have to - if you're a painter, you can just create virtual painterly looking drawings, or you can just animate a character, or you can take from other people's creations. The basic concept is making creations more intuitive and put in the hands of people who are not trained to use complex 3D packages but allow an artistic person to create art as they do in real life. We are envisaging artists, musicians, will contribute something that they are really good at and share it with lots of people, a community of creators. And anyone can take anyone's creations and mash up and create grander large projects, including games.
 

Skux

Member
I imagine it'll follow the same template of LBP - premade levels arranged in a loose single player/co-op campaign, then the full creation features as a separate mode.
 
So you'll be playing a game, like a shooter set in a war-torn country, and bam! You see a polar bear. You approach that shit and get sent to a world of sliding cuddly bears.

That sounds insane.
 
So basically if you suck, you'll make dolls or movies at best.

If you're good, you make gaems.

This is going to utterly destroy my life.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
So you'll be playing a game, like a shooter set in a war-torn country, and bam! You see a polar bear. You approach that shit and get sent to a world of sliding cuddly bears.

That sounds insane.

I'm guessing the creator of one 'dream' can mark where/how the player transitions to another.

And can maybe specify to send the player to specific dream, or a random one.

So you can say 'this doorway is the transition to dream xyz'. Or 'when the player falls down this pit, transition to dream abc'.

Will be interesting to see though.
 
That description of slipping between those different things sounds awesome.
Hopefully they'll play one. I'm guessing the second half of that trailer was supposed to imply/show this as that part looked quite interesting.

Hold the fuck up, Anton Mikhailov is at MM now!?
Son.

Well then, looks like Morpheus is gonna be great in this... hype!
 
I like the idea, not sold on the execution though. Particularly using the DS4 to paint. Doesn't seem intuitive at all and gives me bad flashbacks to the Sixaxis controls with the DS3. Like they made this thing for Move but we don't speak about Move anymore. It actually seems like the sort of thing that would benefit from a precise Kinect.
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
Cool, but I really want to see the full interface for creation. How it all comes together.
 
I like the idea, not sold on the execution though. Particularly using the DS4 to paint. Doesn't seem intuitive at all and gives me bad flashbacks to the Sixaxis controls with the DS3. Like they made this thing for Move but we don't speak about Move anymore.

I think it's pretty obvious Move is the preferred optional input.

But optional. You can still make it withp DS4.
 

Stike

Member
Sounds fun. Project Spark++? Which I guess was LBP++ itself

I imagine it'll follow the same template of LBP - premade levels arranged in a loose single player/co-op campaign, then the full creation features as a separate mode.

You are not thinking big enough.

It is rather a content creation platform - you can create literally anything and share this as an asset for others to use. Or create something collaborating with online friends.

This has the chance to be really big. BIG.

I, for one, can't wait to do with it what I am best at:
I will visualize my actual dreams. I dream a lot, and most of them are like movies, and this platform could make it possible to share them as detailed as possible with people.

So excited!
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
If they do bring Morpheus support there'll probably have to be VR specific dreams with limits on what you can do with camera motion and speed, to avoid sickness.
 

orioto

Good Art™
I wonder how far you can go with their visual tool. Do you use existing assets and modify them or can you draw/modelize things..
 
You are not thinking big enough.

It is rather a content creation platform - you can create literally anything and share this as an asset for others to use. Or create something collaborating with online friends.

This has the chance to be really big. BIG.

I, for one, can't wait to do with it what I am best at:
I will visualize my actual dreams. I dream a lot, and most of them are like movies, and this platform could make it possible to share them as detailed as possible with people.

So excited!

Yep, this is bigger than anything we have seen so far and we can virtually create anything to unleash the creativity of people and collaborate to create new experiences of different arts like Music, Movies, Games etc., Cant wait for Paris game show.
 

GnawtyDog

Banned
It's a creation tool. If MM labels the "game" that - it stops being a game in most consumer minds - it's not your typical gaming genre - as a matter of fact, what ships is not a game (but an engine to create games). Their idea is that you can have fun with that creation tool and build games, and play said games thus being a "game". It's however tricky to market a creation tool as a game. MM will continue to face this question until they admit to what it really is.

As my understanding so far is.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
I wonder how far you can go with their visual tool. Do you use existing assets and modify them or can you draw/modelize things..

In what they've shown so far, they stressed that everything was made on a PS4 in the game - no premade assets that they've 'cheated' to bring into the game from an external package. That's one big difference with LBP - there was a more limited kind of 2D sculpting, but lots of premade things provided by MM, created in regular 3D packages outside of the game.

You can see the sculpting in Dreams in the E3 presentation and also, I guess, in the demo they did at the PS Meeting back in 2013.

They've said that you can pull things others have made and modify them for use in your own creation.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
I wonder how far you can go with their visual tool. Do you use existing assets and modify them or can you draw/modelize things..
Orioto, make me some amazing dreams with that godlike artsyle...in VR. I don't even.
 

Alienous

Member
NQHKSVE.gif


Seemed like a puppeteer game from both demonstrations. I find it hard to believe that you can make anything, "including games", without a logic/design interface ruining the idea of visualizing 'dreams'. Those seem like two distinctly unique endeavours.
 
Sounds really interesting and I can't wait to see more... Seems like it may be a bit of a hard sell to the mainstream though? It's a bit too early to tell now - but it sounds like it has heaps of potential. Media Molecule never seem to disappoint, so I have high hopes.
 

fade_

Member
It's a creation tool. If MM labels the "game" that - it stops being a game in most consumer minds - it's not your typical gaming genre - as a matter of fact, what ships is not a game (but an engine to create games). Their idea is that you can have fun with that creation tool and build games, and play said games thus being a "game". It's however tricky to market a creation tool as a game. MM will continue to face this question until they admit to what it really is.

As my understanding so far is.

I'm assuming they will couple it with alot of MM made levels that you can run through in a story mode that demonstrates all the features of the tool they want you to see first hand a la LBP.
 
So you'll be playing a game, like a shooter set in a war-torn country, and bam! You see a polar bear. You approach that shit and get sent to a world of sliding cuddly bears.

That sounds insane.

Yeah it does...

I mean this sounds like it could be like a true generational leap up from LBP...It sounds even more ambitious than No Man's Sky to be honest, which is quite a feate.
 
You are not thinking big enough.

It is rather a content creation platform - you can create literally anything and share this as an asset for others to use. Or create something collaborating with online friends.

This has the chance to be really big. BIG.

I, for one, can't wait to do with it what I am best at:
I will visualize my actual dreams. I dream a lot, and most of them are like movies, and this platform could make it possible to share them as detailed as possible with people.

So excited!
Is that not what Project Spark was, or was supposed to be? I haven't played it so I'm just going on what I read.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
It's a creation tool. If MM labels the "game" that - it stops being a game in most consumer minds - it's not your typical gaming genre - as a matter of fact, what ships is not a game (but an engine to create games). Their idea is that you can have fun with that creation tool and build games, and play said games thus being a "game". It's however tricky to market a creation tool as a game. MM will continue to face this question until they admit to what it really is.

As my understanding so far is.

I'm assuming they will couple it with alot of MM made levels that you can run through in a story mode that demonstrates all the features of the tool they want you to see first hand a la LBP.

That's addressed in one of the last quotes in the OP I think:

As for more traditional gameplay modes, Evans says that players can expect to see those bundled into the final product. Both he and Healey referenced the bubbles shown off at the end of this year's E3 demo as a tease of what that "game-like content" could be. "At Media Molecule, we're game makers so we're making games with it. So there will be Media Molecule content there. The scope of that is to be announced. But it will be there and it will be good," Evans says.

There will be a Media Molecule crafted game to play out of the box, made with this - ala the story mode in the LBP games.
 

Walpurgis

Banned
It's a creation tool. If MM labels the "game" that - it stops being a game in most consumer minds - it's not your typical gaming genre - as a matter of fact, what ships is not a game (but an engine to create games). Their idea is that you can have fun with that creation tool and build games, and play said games thus being a "game". It's however tricky to market a creation tool as a game. MM will continue to face this question until they admit to what it really is.

As my understanding so far is.

In a sense, it is a regular game. Think of it like this. Uncharted 4 has a single player mode with content made by the developers and a multiplayer mode (relying on other players). Dreams will have a single player mode with content made by the developers and a multiplayer mode where you can create content or play other people's content (relying on other players). It is just like Little Big Planet.

That said, there is a possibility the title will be released in beta, as Healey says the studio wants to get it out "as soon as possible because we want the community to be really foundational in what it becomes."
Sounds like we will be getting a beta and from the way they talk, the beta should be a lot earlier than most console games. I would become a prostitute to get in.

Since this has Morpheus, it could be a killer app. Imagine the trailer but imagine it in first person where you yourself are in that world.
Healey says that players "can go from experience to experience in a very dream-like way."..."You might be an FPS [first-person shooter] guy, so FPS is your entry. But as you're playing the FPS, you open the door and it's a fucking desert and you're in Journey. You walk out and then you're walking through the desert and then you see ... a spaceship and you climb into it. ... It sounds mad, but when you've framed it all as dream-like, actually you just get into it. The same way that when you're in an actual dream in real life, you don't question the fact that you walk out your house and you're in the middle of the beach. ... You know what I mean? That feeling."
Seriously, imagine this with Morpheus.

edit: Just noticed Atoi from Tearaway in one of the bubbles in the OP. I guess she makes a cameo in the story mode.

Also, I called it.
I think it will be a popular game on Twitch and YouTube.
:)
 
Seemed like a puppeteer game from both demonstrations. I find it hard to believe that you can make anything, "including games", without a logic/design interface ruining the idea of visualizing 'dreams'. Those seem like two distinctly unique endeavours.

I'm just as clueless as you on this game, but my faith in Marcus Healey & Alex Evans ( & the Mm genius) will make me say this to you.

"You will be ashamed of your words & dreams."

Jest aside, I'm taking that bet. There will be a logic system in this, beyond basic puppeteering.
 
The biggest differences between this and LBP and other games of its ilk is the interconnectivity. I'm assuming that if you allow it, an activator will appear in the levels you play, or the levels you create. Maybe at random, or maybe on purpose, but that activator will stand out, and when messed with, transports you to the next realm.

So if I make a fighter where you are P1 as a weird expy of Guile vs Ryu, you might start the first round and win, but hey, what is that skull on the floor? Pick that up and throw it at Ryu to activate a Mortal Kombat clip that someone made, which probably has an activator in it as well.

I'm just guessing, but it'd be pretty safe to say you can interact with these activators, like playing the piano or whatnot, to start the next section.

That in itself is a huge difference between the usual create-a-game titles. You are actively switching between these worlds in a seamless manner, and being able to interact with all of them in some way.

The bonus to being able to alter stuff made from others means levels can be churned out at a faster pace, and I'm betting they'll have filters ala LBP, but maybe through the pause menu.

You can probably make some pretty fucked up, nightmare-ish fueled things with this, some of which would force the player to actually participate in running (or spooking) something. Man I cannot wait to see what happens with this title.
 

ThePicard

Banned
''its a game and cut scene creator''

Thats not to hard to say is it! The blasé and apple-esque way of describing it is just annoying.

However dont get me wrong it looks great and I cant wait to play it, though I expect some tools will be better and some will be worse then project spark.
 

Ricky_R

Member
It sounds awesome on paper... I'm not sure how well it'll translate to an actual video game though.

Regardless, I won't be there, unfortunately. I appreciate MM's ideas, but they don't really appeal to me that much.
 
''its a game and cut scene creator''

Thats not to hard to say is it! The blasé and apple-esque way of describing it is just annoying.

However dont get me wrong it looks great and I cant wait to play it, though I expect some tools will be better and some will be worse then project spark.
If it was that easy we could have said the same tbing with lbp
 

KORNdoggy

Member
knowing more about what this game actually is may have bumped this up to game of show for me. it was made out to be something quite arty, but it's basically the creative tools seen in LBP taken to the next stage. this will be awesome.
 
I still don't see how you can manage all-axis by moving the Dualshock around.

they use 2 Move controller, maybe one is used to rotate them around like in the other video I posted with Anton Mikailov showing their 3d sculpting too tech demo

edit: it really didn't look that different with some Zbrush 3d model video I've seen.
 
The biggest differences between this and LBP and other games of its ilk is the interconnectivity. I'm assuming that if you allow it, an activator will appear in the levels you play, or the levels you create. Maybe at random, or maybe on purpose, but that activator will stand out, and when messed with, transports you to the next realm.

So if I make a fighter where you are P1 as a weird expy of Guile vs Ryu, you might start the first round and win, but hey, what is that skull on the floor? Pick that up and throw it at Ryu to activate a Mortal Kombat clip that someone made, which probably has an activator in it as well.

I'm just guessing, but it'd be pretty safe to say you can interact with these activators, like playing the piano or whatnot, to start the next section.

That in itself is a huge difference between the usual create-a-game titles. You are actively switching between these worlds in a seamless manner, and being able to interact with all of them in some way.

The bonus to being able to alter stuff made from others means levels can be churned out at a faster pace, and I'm betting they'll have filters ala LBP, but maybe through the pause menu.

You can probably make some pretty fucked up, nightmare-ish fueled things with this, some of which would force the player to actually participate in running (or spooking) something. Man I cannot wait to see what happens with this title.
This seriously might be a Game of the Year candidate. can't wait for Paris now.

MM team is really brilliant, I've been waiting on this since PS meeting, think it'll be worth the wait.
 
This makes the whole thing much more appealing. A VR app in which I can sculpt and create trippy experiences and share them with others, hells yeah!
 

Percy

Banned
Seemed pretty much impossible to discern anything about the game and how it plays from what was shown, but the implications are very interesting at least. If they can make it work as well as they did LBP then it could be really good, but I honestly feel like I know nothing here at present tbh.
 
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