DREAM TICKET

As Media Molecule prepares to move on, we get the inside track on Tren, its spectacular swan song for Dreams

- CHRIS SCHILLING

For the better part of two decades, Media Molecule has been in the business of breaking down creative boundaries: not just by placing game development tools in the hands of its audience, but by finding ways to actively encourage players to become makers. As such, it’s hard not to view the opening of Tren – the studio’s last major release for Dreams, as it turns its attentions to a new project – in metaphorical terms.

As a diminutive wooden train finally manages to burst free of its box, breaking open the cardboard flap holding it back, it’s only natural to think of Toy Story, and the familiar notion of an old plaything coming to life when no one is around. But as polystyrene curls are sent scattering, we see instead a dormant creative spark being unleashed, the barrier of self-doubt forced aside. And the winding track before this tiny locomotive, stretching out into the distance? Well, that’s the long, serpentine route this nascent idea must take to reach its ultimate destination.

Perhaps that’s reaching a little. But the more we see and play of Tren, the more it feels like a game that simultaneously reflects the studio’s ‘play, create, share’ ethos; the remarkable piece of software that hosts it; and, just as significantly, the artistic linchpin behind it. For John Beech, recently appointed the studio’s creative director, this marks – for now – the culmination of a development journey that began in unusual fashion. Here at Media Molecule, however, his new role feels the most natural outcome of all.