Recently I stepped on https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/dreams-ps4/ . I always had in back of my mind the idea, that some day a peace of software will be developed where you can make any game without external tools (and without writing code). And there it is - modeling, sculpting, animating, ringing, logic trough gates, audio composer, etc etc. all in the box. And it's working!!! And being improved of course. Artists are creating games ranging from 2d platformers to open world 3D games like Fallout > https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ps4+dreams . The quality (lights, shadows, lods, etc) is on point and the creations are breathtaking. Its like there was minecraft and roblox set the bar higher for creation tools, and then now there is Dreams that sets the bar super high. Im sure this will blow of and Dreams or other software will reach PC, XBOX, etc. So are game programmers in danger? If a group of artists with some logic thinking can create any game, they really don't need us. So Im crying :D

trsh said:
So are game programmers in danger?

Dystopic vision about the future of games:

Only one final game will remain. A large MMO where player can create their own sub-games/worlds/experiences with ease and no restrictions.

So a few, skilled players will become famous content creators on built in social network, and they will be the entertainers and heroes of the masses.

The single remaining company hosting the game will make money quietly in the background, while content creating PewDiePoop-Ninjas will make even more money in public.

Who is John Carmack? Never heard of him?

Einstein? What? Is that a Hearthstone?

Few years later humanity will die out because cyber sex does not make babies, and machines can rule the world in peace and hamony. huhuhuh ;D

@JoeJ Thats kind of lot of sarcasm? But real arguments?

Its a linear gradient: Real argument at the first sentence, sarcasm at the last sentence. :D :P

Ok, i think Dreams is brilliant work. Only flaw seems the procedural puppet alike character animation. That's really bad and makes it hard/impossible to make games that look serious? (If they have improved this til release i have missed it - not sure it's still that bad)

The big question becomes: Will the players be able to create games really worth to play?
Could it even become a platform for Indies to do something really good?

Will the process of creation already satisfy the players, and quality content is not that important in the end?

We will see. Only future can tell…

As a developer i'm just excited about the tech. Really great work!

@JoeJ But Im scared. If it works and such software spreads, there will be less and less need for game developers, and more and more for Artists.

Oh, one more: The games that i personally played the very most are Quake III, Trackmania, and Super Mario X. (MP with friends or wife).

The reason was community generated content, which often beats professional content in quality. This also means lots of content, and the games do not become boring.
So games driven by community have the highest potential to become ‘keepers’.

But all those games are restricted and it is clear what the content has to be.
That's not the case for Dreams - the options are pretty unrestricted. The goal is not clear for the creators.

This makes it very interesting to see if that's an advantage or disadvantage in the end.
So far, all ‘game-maker-games’ did not work well. Dreams is much better, but it may suffer from this same issue just as much.

trsh said:

@JoeJ But Im scared. If it works and such software spreads, there will be less and less need for game developers, and more and more for Artists.

Isn't that true since quite some time anyways? U engines?

And how do you seperate ‘game developer’ from artist, or designer?

There is no more ‘single man game dev’ which does programming AND art well - that standards in both fields became too high.

(though, the resulting games are not that good, so let's keep going on with our single man dreams and show them better, huhuhu : )

Dreams is truly expansive in capability, from what I’ve seen, but it’s still limited. It cannot accomplish as much as game programming and traditional game makers can. It can do a lot, don’t get me wrong, but there are limitations, namely things like art style.

I can’t say that it’s the end of game programming as we see it.

That said it does show how content creation is evolving. These tool sets will only become more robust over time. But this is true of basically everything. It just means the type of work you do changes.

I feel that for the foreseeable future, programming will play a role in game creation.

A key point about Dreams is that it uses a game controller for creation. You have two joysticks plus the controller orientation as inputs. This allows a totally new kind of user interface. With one mouse, you're constantly shifting between modes. Just being able to move things and change viewpoint at the same time is a huge win.

Also, it looks like the system is constructive solid geometry, not meshes. That's easier to manipulate, and you always have a valid watertight mesh.

Any comments from game artists on this?

Nagle said:

A key point about Dreams is that it uses a game controller for creation. You have two joysticks plus the controller orientation as inputs. This allows a totally new kind of user interface. With one mouse, you're constantly shifting between modes. Just being able to move things and change viewpoint at the same time is a huge win.

Also, it looks like the system is constructive solid geometry, not meshes. That's easier to manipulate, and you always have a valid watertight mesh.

Any comments from game artists on this?

I'm not a game artist, but I do work on lots of CG art for fun. I will say that from what I've seen, the overall interface is pretty good. That said, nothing really beats a Wacom tablet for sculpting. Plus there's just a ton more control and power with tools available on traditional PCs, etc. Again, this isn't a knock against Dreams: it's excellent at what it does. It's just a point to remember that it is still somewhat limited.