Meet a Molecule
You may have seen Designer Peter Field present Dreams at EGX in Birmingham either live or on the event stream, so we thought we'd let you get to know him better by making him our Molecule of the Month! Peter started at Ninja Theory on DMC and worked on the Uncharted franchise and The Last of Us at Naughty Dog before he came to work on Dreams.
What do you do on Dreams?
I’m a designer which means my main responsibilities involve building content for the game. When the project started we spent a lot of time working really closely with the code team to design and test the tools but as the project has progressed and the tools have become more complete we now spend most of our time using the tools to build levels and characters.
What're you looking forward to the CoMmunity doing in Dreams?
I’m most looking forward to being surprised by the community. I think they will push the tool in ways we won’t can’t predict and I think they will create some stunning games. I’m also really excited about non-game projects. I can’t to sit down and watch a short film in Dreams or listen to an album written & performed entirely in Dreams. I basically just want to be constantly stunned & surprised by what the community make, if that is not too much to ask J
What do you like to do in Dreams? Do you have a favourite creation?
I really like to prototype game ideas in Dreams. It’s a really excellent tool for jamming and sketching down ideas quickly to see what works. I was prototyping a game idea on my laptop while I commuted to work on the train but then I realised I could build it much faster in Dreams and now it’s almost done! Which is good because I have another prototype that I am eager to get started on in Dreams too!
Things like being able to instantly switch from making music to animating a character to sculpting geometry make it very fast to polish a level to a very high standard. I think some of my favourite creations aren’t finished yet so I probably can’t say what they are. Probably the train puzzle game because my kids like it J
Another thing I really enjoy using Dreams for is sketching out spaces that are fun to explore. Our sculpting tool is so fast and intuitive to use that it can be really calming and relaxing to just sit and build a space for an hour. Dreams has a lot of tools that I have wanted as a designer for a long time too which make this process much more enjoyable than it has been in the past. Things like being able to drop in and play the game at any point to experience what a space feels like from the players perspective. I think a lot of designers & artists from other companies will use Dreams to sketch out their level design ideas before building them into their games when Dreams comes out.
Favourite food, movie and song, in that order. GO!
Extra hot veggie masala! With all of the sides and naans and chutneys that can fit on the table. Skip desert.
Rossetta by the Dardenne brothers – If you haven’t seen any films by them check them out. They do so much with so little and there isn’t an ounce of fat in their story telling. Really effecting human stories told in a brutally honest and brave way. Rosetta was the first film of theirs that I discovered and it felt like finding an old book that I had forgotten the ending to.
Sleep the Clock Around by Belle & Sebastian – This song has been with me for the longest time and it just keeps coming back into every playlist I make. It has a really soothing and dreamlike sound that is really calming. I have no idea what the lyrics are even though I have probably listened to it more than any other song.
Finally, what’s your favourite game?
Aaaagh, there are too many! I could probably say Dark Souls or Shadow of the Colossus or Metroid Prime, but I’m assuming that’s what everyone says so I might go back a bit further. I think the first game that really blew me away was Star Wing. There was a dynamism to the way the camera pitched and rolled as it tried to keep up with your ship. And they embraced the limitations of the SNES beautifully. Where before there had been waves of enemies firing a sea of bullets at you, now it was more about dodging skyscrapers and asteroids as you picked off enemies. Having the camera follow behind your ship made aiming and manoeuvring a bit more cumbersome than top down shooters but it added so much drama and intensity to what was traditionally a very mechanical genre. It showed me that games could be experiences that could be enjoyed, not for their challenge or the accomplishment of reaching their end credits but for the actual experience you got from playing them. Also I would say that because I never finished Star Wing. It was too hard.
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