Release Terminology Demystified

You’ve done it! Congratulations, you’ve just finished working on that thing you’ve been making for a while, and now you feel ready to unleash it upon the Dreamiverse, like a shower of creative rain! Well, hold up one second, there are a few things that would be handy for you to know first. We’re here to guide you through the process, and break down the jargon. Yes yes, we’re too good to you.

What Can You Release?

Firstly, let’s walk you through the creation types. There are so many wild and wonderful things out there that you wouldn't think they could be categorised sometimes, but creations will always be one of these four types:

• Element

An Element is a stand-alone item used to populate scenes. A sculpture, painting, sound effect, music clip, character, microchip containing specific logic… all of these can be Elements. Elements appear as hexagons in the Dreamiverse.

• Scene

A Scene can be one small section of a creation that can make up a larger experience, like a scene in a movie, a level in a game, a chapter of a story, a room in a house. In this way Scenes are the constituent parts of Dreams. A Scene can also be a stand-alone - a mini-game or an artwork or similar. But it's worth noting that, if not placed in a Dream, fewer people are likely to see it, as it won't appear in DreamSurfing. Scene also refers to the workspace in which you create in Edit Mode. Scenes appear as circles in the Dreamiverse.

• Dream

Usually comprising a number of Scenes linked together via doorways. You can, of course, have a Dream with a single Scene in it. This way you can add a scoreboard, and have your Scene appear in DreamSurfing. Dreams appear as rectangles in the Dreamiverse.

• Collection

An assortment of creations, collected together for any reason you like. Maybe it's all your favourite creations. Maybe they're all cat-related. Maybe they... you get the idea. A Collection can contain any combination of Elements, Scenes, Dreams, and even other Collections. Collections appear as dashed circles in the Dreamiverse.

Versions

Of these creation types, each one can have multiple versions. A version is the same creation but saved in a different state, either as a backup, work in progress, to experiment with a different creative direction... any number of reasons. Take the jellyfish diagram below. Here, the original jellyfish, Version 1, was blue and we hadn't figured out how to do the legs yet. In Version 2, we'd decided we didn't like blue and made it yellow, and we'd made a start on the legs. By Version 3 we're off and running - we have all the legs done, and we finally plumped for lilac. Version 3 is now our Lead Version, the one we've released, which is why it matches the One Creation on the left - to all intents and purposes, this IS our jellyfish now - we just happen to have some work-in-progress versions of it too. But we could also have a version with all the legs but in a different colour - maybe we haven't decided what colour it's going to be yet. Or we could have one with eyes (hey, this is the Dreamiverse, we can do whatever we want). Any of those other versions could be released and become the Lead Version whenever we like.

Version Save/Release States

You'll notice that the version release states are always presented in-game in SHOUTY CAPITALS. That's just our little way of making sure you don't miss them in a bunch of text, and to show how important they are.

• PRIVATE

A Private version will be saved online, but not discoverable via search. This is the best option for group projects, testing amongst friends, or backing your work up online without letting anyone else see it. Only collaborators added by the creator can find or edit a Private creation. Collaborators can also stamp versions of a Private creation in their own creations - but don't worry, they can't release any of these creations as Public!

• PLAYABLE

A Playable version is discoverable and playable via search, but only the creator can remix it or make it Public. Anyone, however, can add it to Dreams and Collections, where the creator will be credited.

• PUBLIC

A Public version can be remixed, stamped, edited and generally made into something else by anyone. The original creator of a Public creation is always known, via Genealogy and creation credits.

All creation types can be saved as Private, but whether it can be saved as Playable/Public depends on what you're saving. To make this a bit easier to visualise, here’s a table breaking things down for you:

Each version of a creation can be released with a different release state. You can, say, have one version be Public, and another Private. This means you have full control over who you want to engage with your creations, and how people can use them. There are, however, some caveats to this. If you've released a version of a Scene as Public, for example, you cannot then release a version as Playable. Take a look at our jellyfish again, below. You can see we kept it Private until we were ready to release it as Public. Note that it's an Element, so it can never be saved as Playable.

Okay, so now you’ve got the basics, let’s talk about what this actually means for releasing a creation.

This can be where things start to get a little confusing for people (some of those people are us, let's be honest), but generally if you've created something that includes creations that only you have made, then you can release it as Public (playable and remixable by anyone). And if you've created something that uses your creations plus creations from other dreamers that are Public, or you’ve remixed something that is Public, that will also be releasable as Public.

Here's some more rules for releasing that you might find useful.

If you have created something that...#

• contains stamps of other creation versions you own
• contains stamps of other creation versions you DON'T own, but they are already Public
• or is a remix of another Public creation

...then you are able to release that creation as Public, as you have the Public permission to do so! Once your creation is Public, it can be played and remixed by anyone.

BUT... if your creation includes stamps of creations which are not Public, this will prevent a Public release. You must save all Private or Local stamps as Public to proceed, i.e.

• If your Scene contains a Private version of something, you can only release the Scene as Private or Playable.
• If your Element contains a Private version of something, you can only release the Element as Private.

If you do not own the creation versions preventing your release, you can only release Private or Playable versions of your creation. To remedy this, you can either:

• Ask the owner of the stamped Private version to release a Public version.
• Remove the Private version from your creation!

Well. That was all a little bit technical, wasn't it? If you want further information on the terminology mentioned here, check out the full Dreams glossary. If you want to see some more specific examples of other issues that Dreamers have come across during the releasing process, take a look at our Creator FAQ.

Or if you'd like to check out a handy video about the release process then jump to the link below:

Release Your Creations

Releasing creations explained, with Tom M.