It is the fantasy of all video game lovers: to cross the other side of the barrier, from player to creator of these fascinating virtual worlds. This transition is now accessible to the general public thanks to Dreams , a video game to create ... video games, but also music or animated short films. All with a simple controller, since the game is only available on PS4. The promise of an infinite and community universe, provided you are patient.
The palette is the controller
New game from Media Molecule studio, after the already very creative Little Big Planet , Dreams is a bit like "plasticine" for video games. We can literally do everything that goes through our minds: create your own imaginary world, copy in great detail a game you like, compose music, etc. The introduction to the game, in addition to being pretty, is very well done. A voiceover successively presents the commands of the game editor, the mode that allows you to create freely. However, it is better to be careful because the tools are numerous and the PS4 controller does not offer the same variety of commands as a computer keyboard.
The game is not reserved for artists. Even if music theory gives you buttons or you draw people with lines, you can become an artist on Dreams . "If you are given a violin now, you will find it very beautiful but you will not be able to play it. We clearly did not want to put a violin in the hands of the players, with the brutal apprehension that it could have been provoke ", specifies to Europe 1 Christophe Villedieu, one of the creators of Dreams . "For the release of the game, we made tons and tons of tutorials which are designed to desacralize the difficulty of creation."
Total freedom
Playing Dreams is then to overcome the anxiety of emptiness. It is not easy to create your own world from A to Z. Fortunately, the game puts at your disposal a whole bunch of tools and preconceived elements. With, for example, models of characters, trees, buildings, water, lava, obstacles ... Everything is customizable according to your desires. "It is a very versatile tool in terms of graphics. We can adopt an impressionist style, or very realistic, or completely fanciful," underlines Christophe Villedieu. And once it's ready, you play!
However, do not expect to be able to create a FIFA or Assassin's Creed imitation: the means available to you remain limited, particularly in terms of graphic power and gameplay. But the creative freedom offered by Dreams remains impressive. "There are animators who use Dreams to make short films, sketches. Some make series in episodes, like cartoons. And then, we have people who have squarely designed music albums with the game's instruments They even put them on Spotify! "Enthuses Christophe Villedieu, himself a creator on Little Big Planet before being recruited by Media Molecule for his talent and becoming" game designer "of Dreams .
The "video game Youtube"
The "creation" mode, which therefore offers unprecedented freedom to the player, is reinforced by the community aspect of Dreams : everything that is created by the players is put online. The game is thus presented as a sort of "video game Youtube", in which you can make your own wishes and then offer them to the community, or even play the creations of other players (and rate them). All this via the Dreams "home page", equipped with a search engine, suggestions for current games or even a tab of recommendations based on your gaming experience. Dreams thus becomes a kind of social network mixed with a video game platform on demand.
And it goes even further. Beyond the finished creations, you can access a gigantic database to build your world. In addition to the elements designed by the developers of Dreams , players can thus access those designed by the community, whether it be sets (a type of tree in particular for example), textures or music. An excellent initiative, which will allow less imaginative players to have fun and have the feeling of creating beautiful things.
In short, in Dreams , you can do everything, including modifying other people's games. "If you see a game of clown racing in trucks, you like it but you want it to be chickens in cars, it's doable! You find a car in the creations, a chicken, and you replace in the work created by the other player. And your game is added to its creation ", explains Christophe Villedieu. Endless creativity and constant renewal: Dreams is the culmination of what video games can offer as an art.
A video game that is exposed
Even if video games are sometimes called the 10th art, they are rarely exposed. It is the privilege of Dreams , with an interactive exhibition in Paris on the occasion of the release of the game (free entry). From February 13 to 16, in a private space in the Marais, under a glass roof, ten screens, hung on the walls, all framed, like paintings, with a joystick for playing, are available for free access to visitors.
On each screen, there is an experience created by artists - graffiti artists and designers like Oskunk, Toxic Avenger, Le Diamantaire - especially for the occasion. They were helped by the Dreams teams to make their own game, bringing their visual or musical universe. Result, a varied production, with an animated short film, a fun game where 'we embody a stuffed Godzilla with the aim of destroying a city made of cardboard, a soothing underwater exploration, a game of very stylized mazes but also very nerve-wracking… If you missed the exhibition, don't panic: their creations are playable in the game.