I absolutely love dreams, but I feel that Media Molecule overplayed what the game could be, or simply misunderstod it. It's a suite for creative tech demos more than anything, and for me that is awesome, but it's only awesome because I don't expect to create or find great games. I expect to find weird and crazy tech demos, and that I in turn I can create the same things.
What's fun about Dreams is what's fun about other creative processes, like for example editing a video, it's about sitting and watching the video come together, and how your editing techniques make the thing come to life, by your own hand, by your own terms. It's not about the final game but more the creation process.
LittleBigPlanet worked because it had the 2D platforming in place as it's base, in Dreams, there is no base and it means it's a thousand times harder to land on a concept that plays well. And with the incredible toolset, it becomes more about design and creative decisions than the quality of the end product. That's at least how I see the game and why I think the audience is a lot smaller than was perhaps expected.
I think I agree 100%. I'm loving Dreams (even as a lazy non-creative person) but focusing on the final result is not the best way to enjoy it.
Media Molecule took one of the most complex activities (creating a videogame), packaged the most complete set of tools
ever, and somehow made it simple and
fun to use.
This can't be stressed enough, because it's a console game at its heart, even with the terrifying complexity lying behind every happy icon.
It's nice to play even without creating nothing in particular, the end result is almost a by-product of the fun of creation. Of course, if you want to finish something, you'll have to plan a little.
I'm currently trying to make a Pong clone, because Pong is stupid and how hard could it be. I'm encountering a MILLION problems behind every minimal interaction, but they are for the most part logical problems, not operative ones. Once you enter in the correct frame of mind, things start to make sense and the tools at your disposal show their power. Play the tutorials, people!
Remixing other people's creation is huge, in this sense.
Using other people's assets is cool, but it's also cool to understand how others have solved the same problems, and learn new mental paths along the way.
...or you can slap a puppet in a square maze and call it a day. You've made a videogame in 2 minutes, congratulations!