14 DAY TRIAL // MyDream is an upcoming voxel sandbox building game that is nearing the end of its Kickstarter campaign, having already secured the minimum necessary funding to become a reality.
The game aims to combine the serene gameplay of Journey with the exciting creativity outlet that is Minecraft. For now, the game only has the creation mode enabled, which allows you to stack blocks to your heart's content and build majestic structures.
A nice thing that sets the game apart from other such voxel-based creations is the fact that it is a bit more realistic, as the terrain moulding tools allow you to make natural curvatures in the ground and create life-like relief formations, and the visuals are very good, with nice looking textures and all.
Another major step forward for the genre is the integration of social features right from the get go, allowing you to visit other people's worlds and see what creations they dreamed up, hence the game's name. You can even place sign posts with messages for others to discover when visiting your world.
The developer was nice enough to provide me with access to the backer-only playable alpha, and I in turn graced one of its servers with the pinnacle of my cube-stacking building career, the towering Pillar of Uselessness, a self-sufficient monument to its own unfathomable redundancy.
The tools are really easy to use, just pull down the menu, pick your blocks (you can also sort them by type) and drag them in the hotkey bar for instant access, and you're set.
There are several shapes available, such as half cubes, vertical ladders or stairs, columns and even torches to illuminate the underground passages you construct, and all shapes come in different colors and even textures, from wood to concrete, brick and up to more intricate designs.
You can really go wild and start building up a mountain and then tunnel your way through it, and by visiting a few other worlds that MyDream's backers are already starting to populate, I was able to witness the game's potential.
There already are worlds where people have collaboratively built entire cities, and I spent around half an hour navigating one such world's network of tunnels along with the supporting structure, only to find myself on the other side of a mountain, where its inhabitants had created several towering buildings and a temple.
On another world I found an intricate and very colorful mosque that must have taken ages to construct, with torches cleverly placed all around its walls and in its spires, to accentuate the impact of coming upon it at night.
Ultimately, MyDream is the kind of great game where you can wallow in self pity while admiring other people's greatness. You can spend your time exploring other people's creations, as I have done, or creating your own version of Machu Picchu, given enough time.
But the best thing about the game is having other people join in the fun and assist you in your quest to populate the world with cubes. And you can rest assured, the developers have already taken care of your creations, as you can opt for other players not to be able to modify what you have already laid down, so that you find your work intact when you return.
Like any such sandbox building game, the sky is the limit, and the game becomes much better once you have a clear goal in mind.
The toolset allows ample building opportunities even from this early alpha, but MyDream's future holds much more than just erecting structures, and it's definitely going to be interesting to see the direction that the developers will take the game in once they finish the building module.
