Sony teams up with LittleBigPlanet dev Media Molecule for a game creation engine for Playstation 4 owners known as Dreams. As its title suggests players can take their dreams out of their heads and into the world with this unique and very user-friendly creator tool with no prior game development experience required being limited only by their imagination.

Dreams is a 2020 game creation tool, it is developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is currently available exclusively on Playstation 4.

Editor’s Note: This review may contain near complete or complete spoilers for Dreams’ story mode.

A game dev tool anyone can use is here in Dreams.

Game design tools with a user-friendly hook are nothing new, for example RPG Maker is a fan-favorite that has existed for several years now. I have a friend who uses it for his personal game project. However, the difference between those and Dreams is that something like RPG Maker could take several weeks or months to create an incredible game whereas in the former you can create something amazing within minutes to mere hours with no experience whatsoever.

Nearly if not anything can be created in Dreams.

THE GOOD: Announced back in 2013 Dreams captured the eyes of millions of would-be and professional game designers. While a couple of betas launched Media Molecule was very careful to ensure that Dreams was user ready before it’s release. After going gold Dreams became an instant hit with players from all walks of life and game development experience giving the software a try. From Bob’s Burgers & Simpsons to Batman & Kingdom Hearts possibly every licensed product has some kind of fan project on Dreams. Some of them are very well-made professionally looking pieces of fan dedication while others are obvious gags and such. Regardless of how you choose to use Dreams you can create pretty much anything you desire (within reason) and the only real hurdles are your dedication, time, and effort. In fact one Dreams user got a job at Media Molecule for his use of the software and another is getting a ton of attention for his fan-made Avatar: the Last Airbender game which he says he’s trying to get Viacom’s blessings for continued development without a potential DMCA take down.

Get inspired by other creators’ creations in Dreams.

Dreams does contain a story mode of sorts, but it’s more so an interactive showcase of the ultimate potential of the game and its creation tools. It’s only about 3 hours or so, and it’s a story about a retired jazz musician named Art trying to make up with his old band mates. It’s mainly just a tech demo showing off the possibilities within the Dreams software, but for three hours of your time it’s a cool resource for inspiration in the creative space.

K

Fan projects have become a big hit in Dreams.

THE BAD: Dreams won’t be for everybody especially those who realize their own lack of ability to create. But for those looking to just tinker around with the creation tools knowing this or explore user creations there’s a ton of value for them.

Live out your game designer wishes for only $40.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: If you’re looking for super easy to learn user-friendly game dev tools then Dreams is hard to top with its entry price and with plans to not only release new creation tools but give Dreams users the ability to actually sell their titles on the Playstation Store the ease of access is just almost too good to be true. While it may be a bit tougher to create fan projects citing copyright infringement artists looking to get their original works out there have never had a more viable option than Dreams.