PlayStation Gamers Are Now Authoring Their Own Games With 'Dreams' For PS4 (pushsquare.com) 38
dryriver explains the new buzz around "Dreams" for PS4 (now in open access). Created by the studio that made PS4's Big Little World, Dreams "is not a game. It is more of an end to end, create-your-own-3D-game toolkit that happens to run on PS4 rather than a PC... essentially an easy to use game-engine a la Unity or UnrealEngine."
Dreams lets you 3D model/sculpt, texture, animate and create game logic, allowing complete 3D games to be authored from scratch. Here is a Youtube video showing someone 3D modeling a fairly sophisticated game character and environment in Dreams. Everything from platformers to FPS games to puzzle, RPG and Minecraft type games can be created.
What is interesting about Dreams is that everything anybody creates with it becomes available and downloadable in the DreamVerse and playable by other Dreams users -- so Dreams is also a distribution tool like Steam, in that you can share your creations with others.
While PC users have long had access to 3D modeling and game authoring tools, Dreams has for the first time opened up creating console games from scratch to PS4 owners, and appears to have made the processs quicker, easier and more intuitive than, say, learning 3D Studio Max and Unity on a PC. Dreams comes with hours of tutorial walkthroughs for beginners, so in a sense it is a game engine that also teaches how to make games in the first place.
Back in January Push Square gushed that "There's simply nothing like this that's ever been done before... This is one of the most innovative, extraordinary pieces of software that we've seen on a console in quite some time..."
"And it can be browsed for hours and hours and hours. It's like when you fall into a YouTube hole, and you're clicking from recommended video to recommended video -- except here, you're jumping from minigames involving llamas to models of crustaceans to covers of The King of Wishful Thinking..."
"It's an astounding technical achievement with unprecedented ambition."
What is interesting about Dreams is that everything anybody creates with it becomes available and downloadable in the DreamVerse and playable by other Dreams users -- so Dreams is also a distribution tool like Steam, in that you can share your creations with others.
While PC users have long had access to 3D modeling and game authoring tools, Dreams has for the first time opened up creating console games from scratch to PS4 owners, and appears to have made the processs quicker, easier and more intuitive than, say, learning 3D Studio Max and Unity on a PC. Dreams comes with hours of tutorial walkthroughs for beginners, so in a sense it is a game engine that also teaches how to make games in the first place.
Back in January Push Square gushed that "There's simply nothing like this that's ever been done before... This is one of the most innovative, extraordinary pieces of software that we've seen on a console in quite some time..."
"And it can be browsed for hours and hours and hours. It's like when you fall into a YouTube hole, and you're clicking from recommended video to recommended video -- except here, you're jumping from minigames involving llamas to models of crustaceans to covers of The King of Wishful Thinking..."
"It's an astounding technical achievement with unprecedented ambition."
There is a reason why most people aren't game dev. (Score:1, Interesting)
There is a reason why most people aren't game developers.
Look at the countless "hacks"/"mods" of classic video games and study their quality... It's all trash. Most people are trash at creating things. Things *cannot* logically be simplified/dumbed down without losing any originality, instead turning it into a bland, generic mess. Much like all modern games... (So many this does work in this shitty world where every game is identical and garbage anyway?)
Re:There is a reason why most people aren't game d (Score:4, Interesting)
I disagree. If you look at how indie games today are blooming, and how enough of of them ARE good, you see that things can be simplified. For example, in the past, game programming was coupled with heavy knowledge of computer architecture and programming concepts. Today, when we have better hardware and more CPU cycles to spend, you have people who ARE very good at game design, but suck at computers, creating good games. Hell, sometimes these hobbyists, who have only "good gaming" in mind, create better games than so-called AAA titles, whose main focus nowadays is graphics and micro-payments.
Ther *others* (Score:4, Insightful)
There is a reason why most people aren't game developers. {...} Most people are trash at creating things.
Yes, most people are trash. This isn't for them. This is for the remaining that might be good at creating stuff.
Making the barrier of entry lower will help those who might not be trash at creating to give it a try.
The thing is, before trying to create stuff, it isn't easy to guess who'll be good and who won't.
Lowering the barrier of entry will increase the occurences that somebody will give it a try.
There *is* indeed going to be a lot of crap uploaded if you make game making tools easier.
But there is also interesting stuff that will appear, from people who happen to have talent and would not have given it a try otherwise.
See: Youtube and any other platform that has lowered the barrier of entry.
Re: (Score:2)
Something like this has been done before (Score:1)
There have been numerous tools to let players create games without writing code. SEUCK, AdventureWriter... Maybe it's new to be able to make a 3d game in this way, but it's not even close to being a new idea. It's only an obvious evolution of an old one.
Re: Something like this has been done before (Score:1)
Were any of those available on a console though? The point is that Dreams is only for PS4.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Project spark was started after dreams was announced, was release early, then died a horrible death because it was a piece of shit.
PC port of a shit game development system.
Putting it in the same conversation is like saying we had dark souls precursor called Bubsy 3D.
Dreams is revolutionary in its interface and first of its kind to put everything into a console, using some bleeding edge rendering technology.
It makes project spark look 20 years old. I'm not exaggerating.
Re: (Score:2)
You could run SEUCK on the Amiga CDTV :)
Re: (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
There's the DSi covered. And a sequel on 3DS.
Re: (Score:1)
Finally! (Score:1)
Finally, lack of things like this, is what has kept me tethered to the PC platform.
Mods extend the life of a game significantly.
$60 to play for say maybe a month, and add on top-of that 5.00/mo in "small monthly fees" for PSn/XBOX Live, and there better be some replay value, of which currently, there is little to none.
Some commenters claim that most mods are trash, and yes, they are. But there need be just one or two good ones to extend the life of a game.
Look at Portal 2 - There are 1000's of mods,and the
highly recommended. (Score:2)
This is great for long-tail type games. There are lots of niches that commercial or even indie developers won't touch, either because it's not profitable or the material is too offensive/controversial/etc.
I'm been playing the Dreams since it came out. This weekend, I used Dreams to knock out an abortion game to protest the Alabama abortion laws.
Heh, Open Access Dreams, Open Access Abortions :)
Re: (Score:1)
Soon VR games (Score:2)
And it'll be updated with VR support as well
https://pureplaystation.com/dr... [pureplaystation.com]
Never been done before? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Little Big Planet (Score:3)
Big Little World
Little Big Planet, you mean? Those games had a similar creation mode that let you make your own levels, with some users creating very elaborate ones that essentially turned it into a different game. I seem to recall someone making a calculator out of the tools given.
Porn innovation (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Interesting Tech (Score:3)
Halo Reach's Forge mode... Anyone?... (Score:1)
If you remember Forge mode from Halo Reach... then this is nothing new.
Coming in 2018 (Score:2)
Many of the videos look like they were posted in 2017 --Glad this is the first time I heard of it cause I hate waiting, like most people do... It looks cool, and less-technical people will have access to another tool that will see unique uses never perceived by the creator of said tool.
I just wish I could see the menu system/tools people are accessing for their creations.
Fuck Mark Healy (Score:2)