Well that didn’t take long. Dreams, the game-within-a-game-maker, has had its newly updated VR feature for hardly more than 24 hours, but someone has already made a fully functional Beat Saber clone.
Dreams launched earlier this year as the latest creation from developer Media Molecule, whose prior Little Big Planet games thrived thanks to a community of creators that built new levels and completely new content with the in-game tools.
Dreams takes that idea of community-made content and makes it essentially the heart of the game. In fact, the actual ‘campaign’ that you can play out of the box is entirely made with the in-game tools.
This week the game was updated to include PSVR support, which means that existing and new creations can be played in VR. The game also allows creators to make ‘VR Only’ content which requires a headset to play and there’s even a comfort rating system for VR experiences.
Of course, creators making experiences in Dreams are going to start with what’s familiar. And what is more familiar than Beat Saber, one of the most popular VR games to date?
Hardly less than 24 hours after the debut of the PSVR update, creator MonocledRobot has made a functional ‘Beat Saber’ experience which is played with PSVR and the PS Move controllers. It features music, cuttable blocks synced to the beat, and even a working scoring and multiplier system.
What’s especially interesting about Dreams is that almost anything made in the game can be expanded by other players or used as building blocks for other creations. Creator MonocledRobot made his ‘Beat Saber’ experience with community expansion in mind, including the creation of new songs and maps. A 10 minute tutorial by the creator on YouTube overviews how the experience was constructed and how others can add their own songs and beat maps.
Of course, this isn’t a proper replacement for the real Beat Saber. Not only does it not look or feel quite the same, it also lacks many features of the real game. But more than an imperfect facsimile of a full game, it goes to show the breadth of what can be achieved in Dreams. In the creator portal you can already find players building everything from VR FPS and horror games to driving and puzzle games.
With enough time, we wouldn’t be surprised to find some seriously worthwhile VR content inside of Dreams.