November 2021 Newsletter

The year continues to slip away at what is, quite frankly, an alarming pace. That’s November (and even some of December) behind us now. The holiday's are so close we can practically hear the bells jingling and the snow... Snowing? (We suppose snow doesn’t really make a sound. Hm.) We’re already seeing you lot gear up for your holiday celebrations in the Dreamiverse - it’s going to be a cracker. Geddit?

Still, let’s not forget the month we’re leaving behind. It’s been a busy one - read on for the big summary and the usual special extras!

Guest Artist: IlyasClooz

IlyasClooz has a vibrant imagination and an eye for detail - their art is stunning, ranging from fantasy landscapes to terrifying tentacled creatures. The piece you see at the top of this month’s newsletter is ‘Other worldly’, and is so impressively done that we just had to have the artist break it down for us.

You seem to really enjoy portraying ‘otherworldly’ alien life. What is it about the alien and the surreal that interests you as an artist?

Oh, I absolutely love the idea of other lifeforms and aliens. I have been fascinated by space for a long time and I just love the endless possibilities space has to offer, the creative freedom it gives me and the way it can inspire me as an artist. Nothing is impossible when it comes to the otherworldly!

One of the standout parts of your ‘Other worldly’ piece is the texture of the creature’s skin! How did you achieve that kind of detail?

I have been practicing a lot of sculpting lately, and ‘Other worldly’ brings together all that I have learned in recent times. The bumpy texture might look more complex than it really is. I created this look with a small pyramid shape on subtract mode, adding a lot of different tones of colour to it which creates the texture you see. Adding some dim lighting will give this even more depth. I might create some tutorials on this!

You are very good at lighting your art pieces, and the lighting really helps bring out the detail in them. Lots of dreamers find lighting their work difficult - what pro tips do you have for them?

I must say lighting has been a huge learning process for me - I mostly had no experience with art and lighting before I got Dreams. It very quickly became clear to me that lighting is very important, so I started to study other dreamers’ lighting work in Dreams a lot. I’ve personally learned a lot from Martin Nebelong’s remixable scenes. They gave me a good insight in how to use light; it’s easy to overdo lighting, which can take some other elements of your art away. I highly suggest people to study other dreamers’ lighting work in Dreams itself. When it comes to lighting, less can be more! It is also very interesting to look outside and study how light works in the real world - this will give a more realistic and recognizable feel to your scene!

What's Happening At Mm's Many HQs

Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale

What a way to cap off November - our newest Mm-made game, Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale, is now available to play in Dreams! Help orc twins Scoria and Gabbro find the cure for their grandmother’s chronic snoring in this dungeon-crawling adventure, featuring combat, puzzles, egotistical dragons, treasure, and a shady but loveable bat. And make sure to tag us in anything you share on social media - we are so excited to see your reactions (and your high scores).

DreamShaping Gets A Makeover

Clearly releasing a brand-new game isn’t enough for our intrepid Molecules, as we’ve only gone and made a MASSIVE update to DreamShaping as well. Honestly, what are we like? This significant reworking of Dreams’ create mode onboarding offers a range of accessible entry points into making your own stuff in Dreams - from step-by-step tutorialised templates for a variety of game genres, to a reimagined front page and new support pages on indreams.me!

Impys Submissions!

It was a big moment in the multi-month planning process of setting up the 3rd Annual Impy Awards, as we announced that the initial round of submissions were open! In a big change that we hoped would encourage a wider and more diverse pool of nominees - and help reduce a lot of admin headaches - we asked dreamers to only submit themselves and their own work.

The reaction, however, has been... mixed! But we want to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who kindly and patiently shared their thoughts about this year’s submissions system with us (which led to a helpful wording change). Finding that balance that works for both the scope of an Impys event and the community it celebrates is still a work-in-progress for us - so a fist-bump to all those who are willing to support us and offer feedback as we figure things out. Rest assured we have a TONNE of stuff in the works to make sure the 3rd Annual Impy Awards is, more than ever, all about the coMmunity celebrating and connecting with each other. We can’t wait to show you.

CoMmunity Happenings

Stats Entertainment!

Keduko_’s latest brilliant idea allows high score-chasing dreamers to simultaneously compete for leaderboard glory in an event called DreamStats Tournaments. Powered by Keduko’s own website, dreamstats.me, interested parties can simply sign up for each tournament with an account to have the site track scores from each 15-minute play session for each featured game. Congrats to the winner of the first tournament - SinocTheHodgeheg, aka Mm’s own Chloe Mills!

A Voice For The Future

Psst! Looking for some inspiration? A recent release from SakkusMind might provide some artistic and technical insight. Beyond just being a beautifully animated ode to facing the challenges of life, it’s also making use of a clever tool from Replica Studios that uses artificial intelligence to synthesise convincing voice acting. Fascinating stuff - if you’re curious about using the tool in your own creations, there’s a 30-minute free trial available.

Meet Typhus667!

Lock your doors. Bolt your windows. One of Dreams’ foremost proprietors of horror is here, and you’re about to journey through their twisted mind... And find out their favourite food. Spooky.

What do you like to do in the Dreamiverse?

The main thing I do in the Dreamiverse is design and sculpt characters. Most of which fall firmly under the genre of horror. Many of my proudest creations though are made possible with the help of other dreamers such as The Invocation and The Infernal Hunt, which both required a much more varied skillset than sculpting fleshy hell monsters.

If you could give other members of the CoMmunity a piece of advice for their time in Dreams, what would it be?

Whenever I get asked for sculpting advice I usually give the same piece of advice to everyone and it is simply to keep sculpting. Nobody is good at any new skill straight away and I think it is important to remember when looking at other people's impressive creations that whoever made this has probably dedicated an obscene amount of time into learning and mastering the toolset given to them. Don't compare yourself to other people, compare yourself to the last thing you have made.

What was the first thing you created in Dreams?

The first thing I remember properly creating in the Dreamiverse was an orc head. It was terrible but still better than I expected one of the first moments of realising the potential of dreams for me was seeing the orc being used in Aecert's tower defense game when dreams was just taking off. I never expected my stupid looking orc to be seen or used by anyone except myself.

Favourite food, movie and song, in that order. GO!

Food: Fresh placenta
Movie: Hellraiser 2
Song(I'm choosing and album try and stop me): The Satanist by Behemoth

Which creations are currently your Top 10 in Dreams?

Meg Mucklebones by Sutherner

Imp Lamp by Vyzium

Klaus by Blightbeast

The Mouth of Madness by Reklisnipes

Medusa by Funk_97-ITA

The Queen by Tashunka94

Glory Arsenal by Lampazzu

Lycanthropy by Source_Dreamer

Abandoned Industrial Kit mk.2 by Lucid_Stew

EXULANSIS (amaranthine hollows) by sparkyPricc

Who’d you like to get to know in the Dreamiverse? We’ll ask them some questions for next month’s newsletter!

And the creator I would like to shout out is Reklisnipes. Very underrated creator with a lot of really interesting projects going on.

This Month's Wallpaper(s)

Two wallpapers?! Well, it has been a bumper November, what with our ‘Brand New Planet’ jam stream with none other than Professor Brian Cox, and then the whole ‘releasing a new game’ thing. You can find space for both of these glorious images somewhere, right? Right. If you’re cold, they’re cold. Bring them inside (your heart/devices).

Click here to download Miguel’s ‘Brand New Planet’ graphic wallpaper!

Click here to download the Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale launch wallpaper!

We're on the lookout for new Molecules to join in the fun and make Dreams the best it can be! Follow the links below to read more about our current vacancies at Mm Towers!

Stay up to date on our jobs page

Current positions

Alright, that’s your lot. We’re off for a really long lie-down, because what a month... Ack, no, actually, we’re still full-speed on the Impys until the holidays! Okay, new plan: we buy some of those prism glasses that still let us see our laptop screens even though we’re flat on our backs. Problem solved.

See you in the Dreamiverse, CoMmunity! Through our cool new prism glasses!