PlayStation Magazine UK - 12.2019

GAMES, ART, MUSIC,

AND MORE MADE BY

In dreams YOU FOR EVERYONE

Best of the

DreamIverse

METAL MOTHER

Creator MadPropz101

digs into a love of Doom

for this slick shooter.

The controls are solid,

and a heat percentage

counter ticks away as

you shoot. Gameplay is

simple – blast evil

eyeballs and jump

precarious gaps – but in

Dreams this feels like a

genuine achievement.

GAME

WISTMAN’S WOOD

Dreams maker

RadLaddy has crafted

this atmospheric game

set in a mysterious,

mist-cloaked woodland.

While gameplay may be

sparse on the ground,

this walking-sim-like

project showcases how

the core techniques in

Dreams can be used to

create scenes that drip

with character and

emotional connection.

GAME

ART TUTORIAL –

OVERGROWN

Seeking to help us

all improve, mBergs

presents this very

useful training to create

a beautiful Dreams

environment. Each

visual step is offered

with a detailed caption

on how the stages of

the scene are created.

Dreams could do with

more training like this.

TUTORIAL

098

T

o learn a skill there is no

shame in imitation,” says

Dreams creator Robert

Moneagle. Having made games

previously, Moneagle turned to

Dreams as a way to master making

music for videogames, and chose to

replicate the 8-bit blips and blops of his

favourite retro title as a test.

“I’m an ’80s boy and in my humble

opinion there is no better computer

game music than Rob Hubbard’s main

theme to Monty On The Run,” says

Moneagle, who began by scouring the

internet for a piano arrangement,

choosing one by Paul Nelsen on

musescore.com. “The music tools in

Dreams were a delight to learn, even

for someone as musically illiterate as

myself. When I was happy with my

music I had a look at recreating some of

the artwork from Monty.”

Handily there are plenty of fans online

who have archived classic games, and

Moneagle made use of these resources.

It was then a matter of translating

those images into

Dreams, where the Grid

Snap tool proved helpful.

“I set Grid Snap to

1/32, went into Sculpt

mode, pressed down on

the D-pad 24 times to

reduce the size of the

cube, pressed u and Up

on the left stick to zoom

in and started to draw,

each pixel perfectly

aligning with the guide’s

dots. Pixel art really is

that easy!”

DREAMING ON

So what are the dev’s

impressions of Dreams

to date so far?

“Dreams’ strength is

its accessibility. Dreams

is an ideal entry point for

beginners who can learn

whether computer-aided

art, audio, and gaming

experiences are for

them,” he says.

As for the Monty

project, Moneagle has

toyed with the idea of

making a new series

entry in Dreams. But,

“I’ve enquired down the

long, dark road of who

actually might own (if

anybody) the rights and

licences to the IP. That

trail is too dark and

murky and it’s time for

me to move on.”

The future lays the

’80s bedroom coder’s

own character, Jessica,

who’ll be starring in

Monsters’ Mansion soon.

DREAMS’ STRENGTH IS

ITS ACCESSIBILITY. [IT’S] AN

IDEAL ENTRY POINT.

Classic platformer Monty On The Run is remade in Dreams

Dreams gets the full Monty

artist access

Robert Moneagle has been making games since the ’80s.