Never quite as it seems

Dreams is creating an army of new indie developers. Luke Kemp speaks to some of them to discover how the software is bringing their imaginations to life

What if you could install another console within your PS4 or PS5? One with its own seemingly endless supply of games, demos, videos, songs, and more? And what if this console within a console gave you user-friendly tools to create something of your own, complete with tutorials and a huge amount of pre-existing assets? That, in effect, is exactly what Dreams is – with the result that we’re seeing a huge amount of fantastic material that never would have existed otherwise.

You don’t have to make anything of your own – there is, in a very real sense, more to watch, play, and listen to than any one person could realistically get through on their own – but if you’ve ever had even the slightest inclination to make your own digital project, this is the perfect place to start. We spoke to four very different people about four very different Dreams games in order to understand what they made in Dreams, and how and why they made it.

In 2011, Lýz McPeters (AKA LyzLdy) was living with depression in the concrete jungle of New York City, her hard-earned BFA degree in dramatic writing unable to lift her out of a cycle of unfulfilling minimum-wage jobs. In the summer, she flew out to her Midwest hometown to visit her parents where, unbeknown to her, she was to experience something that would affect her deeply.