Will Dreams take me away from Project Spark?

The easy answer to this is a sad, yes.

I have spent nearly 5 years creating, educating, writing, playing and promoting Project Spark. I was very sad to see it decline and close in 2016 and was very pleased to see a small dedicated community that invited me back in in 2017. I have built 4 websites pretty much single-handedly and gained a small following on YouTube. Project Spark has been an important part of my gaming life, and as someone stuck at home all day, a big part of my daily routine.

In Dec 2018 I got a Beta code for Dreams on the Playstation4. I have been waiting for this title ever since Spark closed, as I could see it would be a good substitute for the game I had lost. I bought a PS4 in Dec 2017 in anticipation for the Beta, which I had to wait an entire year for. I started a sister site to this one for Dreams in anticipation of what is to come.

The Dreams Beta was everything I hoped for, but there was an unexpected side effect. The controls for this game are so different from Project Spark, I had to retrain my brain and my muscle memory. It took two weeks to learn to use the controls and not try to do Spark moves to pick up shapes and move the camera. As a result, when I go back to Project Spark after 6 weeks of exclusive Dreams gameplay, I can no longer control my cursor. I am failing to clone objects, place objects, rotate objects. The zooming of the camera feels wrong and weird and pressing buttons to go up and down feels alien, just as the reverse was true when I started playing Dreams. I can no longer create in a game that at the beginning of December I had quite a high level of skill in. This was a big surprise.

What is also a surprise is my complete lack of interest in making anything in Project Spark any more. When you have had the experience of making anything you can think of, being reduced to the limited assets of Project Spark is jarring. The look of Project Spark is also now looking very dated and uninspiring. I also have very little interest in making any further content for this website, as I have a Dreams website to work on. I did not think I would feel this way at all.

We do not yet know when the Dreams PS4 game will launch for purchase. It could be a long wait. My choices now are to go back to Project Spark in the interim and possibly interfere with the muscle memory for Dreams I took time to get, or just leave it. I think it will entirely depend on how long we have to wait. If it is months then that muscle memory wont stay anyway. Once the game is launched though, I am afraid that will be it for me and Project Spark. It has been a great 5 years but, I am moving on.

So should you abandon Project Spark?

I am not in the habit of telling people what games they should enjoy, so I will leave that entirely up to you. However, I would encourage you to look up DreamsPS4 on Twitter and YouTube and see the amazing creations that are being shared from the Beta. To be able to be part of a community that can share games we can play is so great, and much missed from Project Spark.

I cannot tell you enough how much the game is perfect for creative people to express themselves, be it artistically, with gameplay or music. It is a very hard learning experience, and is not as easy as Project Spark with all its shortcuts. There are no pre-made brains and animations here. However, it is very rewarding,and you will be amazed at how good your efforts will look. If you are good at Spark you should excel here.