Post Script

Alex Evans, technical director

One year on from its early access release, Dreams’ depth of possibility means it hasn’t even begun to approach its ceiling of potential. Here, technical director and Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans discusses evolving LittleBigPlanet’s creative philosophy, busting the ‘lazy game dev’ myth, and what you make after the game that can make almost anything.

Dreams has been out for a while already – it was Media Molecule’s first-ever go at early access. Does it feel like a proper launch?

Yeah. I think Art’s Dream is awesome, and the community has already responded to it. There’s a couple of sides to Art’s Dream: the play side, where hopefully lots of people will discover Dreams and maybe they were intimidated by the create-centric angle, and now they can enjoy a game. But the other side of it is just a community going, ‘Holy shit, you can do that – you can do a relatively long-form experience.’ I thought it was really interesting that we chose a narrative style of game, and quite a different genre – a musical. I don’t think we’ve gone as bonkers as Cats. It’s better than Cats [laughs]. But it’s cool because it’s dropped a bomb on the community. Like, ‘Oh okay, we can use Dreams in different ways.’

We would have assumed after a year of early access there wouldn’t be much left to teach them. Yesterday, one of the really core community members was like, ‘The music was just recorded and brought in – it wasn’t made in the game.’ Ed [Hargreaves], one of the audio guys, was like ‘No, it’s all in-game, the same tools, no cheats, we’re honest about that.’ And they were like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ And I love the fact that someone who knows the tools, who has been using them for a year, didn’t believe that the music for Art’s Dream was made in the game. So yeah, we surprised them – result. And they surprise us, so it’s sort of like a two-way street.

What’s been the biggest surprise so far?

I think content-wise, I think it’s been the sci-fi subgenre. I knew that gamers are always into their sci-fi but like, it was almost instant. Like, [notable Dreams sci-fi creator] Disarmed appeared out of nowhere. After a week of the beta being out – not even early access – he was already cranking out sci-fi dystopia better than anything I’ve seen coming out of Media Molecule – not that we made that style, but that’s cool.

Then there’s the community. It sounds really gooey, but several people have written to us saying it’s the nicest online community that they’re part of. If you’d asked me a year ago, ‘What do you think you’ll be surprised by?’, I’d be like, ‘Content, mad engine stuff’ – actually, the thing that really surprised me is the community, because it’s like the antidote to online. They write thoughtful comments. Like, ‘That’s really cool, but I found it hard to get past this section. Have you thought about..?’

Perhaps that’s because having played Dreams, more people have a greater understanding of what it means to develop game elements from scratch.

Totally, and maybe this is the antidote to ‘lazy game devs’. Because it is hard, and it does take time. We’ve struggled with talking points over the years, because people say, ‘So you can make a triple-A game in ten minutes?’ And I’m like, ‘Erm…’ Game dev is hard whatever your tool, but it’s as easy as we could make it. I think of it as like doodling. If you’re willing to be slapdash, then you can go a long way.

Somebody said early on in early access, ‘I look at every game differently now.’ So maybe you’re right. You feel that investment as well. And because of the choices we made in the UI – it’s not all us, but I’m just gonna say it’s all thanks to us – it promotes sharing. It tries to push you towards releasing stuff to be remixed.

The biggest reason that’s different is because in LittleBigPlanet, the whole language is geared towards, you make a whole level. And there’s no scope to just make a silly little chicken, or a dot, or a sound. It was all or nothing. And then we discovered the hidden iceberg of LBP of: you just make a silly ramp, you drop a load of TNT on Sackboy and blow it up – and then you laugh and then you delete it without publishing it. People love to build stuff for the sake of building it. And so Dreams

is meant to encourage that. You made a beanbag: that’s cool, just throw it up there, and maybe someone will find some use of it.

You have big updates planned, of which a VR mode is one, and Dreams is going to be what you’re doing for the foreseeable future. But after making the game that can make anything, where do you go next?

I can give you the honest answer: we haven’t decided what to do next, bluntly. It’s Media Molecule, and we’re a game-making studio, so one of the things I want to preserve is the magic of a studio that makes games, and the tool comes out as well. So although there’ll be the part of the studio that’s making features and Create mode enhancements, we’re going to make a game for sure. Because we’re a game-making studio. But we honestly haven’t decided. Dreams is beyond Little Big Planet for sure, and in lots of good ways, but I think there’s space for us to make games still. You know, just because there’s a Unity and Unreal doesn’t mean there’s not room for another instrument.

“Maybe this is the antidote to ‘lazy game devs’. Because it is hard, and it does take time”