Media Molecule will continue to put its unique spin on game creation and player interaction, and Sony is reportedly still banking on the developer. Media Molecule has been creating games since it was founded in 2006, and Sony acquired the company in 2010, a few years after Media Molecule’s first big success, LittleBigPlanet. Since then, Media Molecule has worked on several projects, including a few sequels to LittleBigPlanet, the Tearaway series, and Dreams, which released early last year. According to the company’s studio director Siobhan Reddy, Sony wants to continue investing in Media Molecule to help foster a creative gaming environment for PlayStation fans.
Some key components of Media Molecule’s most successful games are the creation tools provided for players which allow them to personalize their gaming experiences. The LittleBigPlanet games started this trend with their emphasis on user-generated content and encouraged players to interact with one another with the series slogan, “Play, Create, Share.” Dreams followed up on this concept, designed primarily as a game creation system through which players can make their own games and share them with other gamers. Dreams celebrated its first year of existence in February, and many gamers have already made videos, games, and art with the system.
However, with an abundance of creations available to view in Dreams, some gamers feel that Media Molecule isn’t doing enough to promote creators using its game creation system. Siobhan Reddy says that Sony’s continued investment in Media Molecule will allow the company to focus more on the curation of user-generated content. Reddy recently received the BAFTA Fellowship award for fostering a “creative and collaborative working culture,” and she hopes to carry this attitude over to the Dreamiverse to ensure Dreams can “connect people to the content they’re going to want to play.”
Sony’s investment has primarily centered on hiring more staff to work on the “live product” side of Dreams. Hired programmers have been able to assist with adding new categories for players to select when “dreamsurfing” like racing games, arcade games, and visual art projects. Media Molecule also wants to make sure that old creations can resurface as part of annual or seasonal events like the All Hallows Dreams event started last year. Although Media Molecule has preferred a limited staff model in the past, Dreams is the kind of game that requires developer input to make sure the public’s creations are seen by a wide audience.
Although Media Molecule has its own annual Impy Awards ceremony with the purpose of recognizing and awarding gamers for their outstanding creations in Dreams, the company is trying to branch out and make more of an effort to curate user creations. The company is also working on a system that would allow players to fully export content from Dreams to share on platforms outside of PlayStation. This may give even more freedom to Dreams creators and keep the game’s player base excited and active.
Source: Kotaku
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