Making the Most of Kits

We all enjoy a “here’s one I made earlier” moment, don’t we? That satisfying scenario where you can claim you did everything yourself ahead of time, but in fact you had a few sneaky helpers along the way. Whilst they’re doing the hard work, preparing aspects of your creations, you can busy yourself doing more important things, like eating cake. If you like eating cake, you’re going to love the kits in Dreams.

By a long way, kits are some of the most useful creations in Dreams - a selection of ready-made assets, templates, and level designs that give you a head start on assembling your unique visions. There are a selection of kits made by Mm, and those curated by the coMmunity, meaning that anyone can create, design, and use kits. The assets found in the kits can be used in DreamShaping, and are designed to be useful and easy to use.

How do we find these kits, and what should we do to get the best out of them, we hear you cry! Well that’s what this page is for, providing some top tips to help you find, utilise, and experiment with the kits to your heart's content. Don’t ever say we don’t do anything for you.

1. Where Do You Find Kits?

Kits in Dreams can be searched for and implemented from many places in the Dreamiverse. If you’re in Create mode, you can find kits by scrolling past your creations to find a bunch of Mm-made kits ready and waiting for you. Or if you’re searching in DreamSurfing, you can simply search for new kits using the search tool, or over on this very website by using the collections tab. The various kits have been broken down by genre to make them more easily accessible. We even have a whole section of the website dedicated to showing off the kits that Mm have made in-house!

2. What Can I Expect to Find in the Kits?

Variety! That’s the spice of life! Each kit is differently-themed and featuring different assets. However, the ones created by Mm usually include a character or two, some level elements, and sometimes a scene. We try to include as many of the elements we created for our games and experiences as possible, to ensure that you have access to the same material that we used to make our games, and to format our kits in a way that makes them as accessible as possible. Here’s where you can find the full selection of Mm produced kits and their contents.

3. How Should I Use the Kits?

That, our confounded little friend, is very much up to you. The kits, whether they’re made by Mm or our lovely and helpful coMmunity members, can be used however you want. Obviously, you can use the elements in your own games and levels, but do try to use them in interesting and unexpected ways too. Whilst they contain a variety of characters and elements, that doesn’t mean that they have to be used that way specifically. Some dreamers have used elements from the kits in really unique and interesting ways, and we’d love to see you create something similarly innovative. A good example of this is the game Chicken Bomb Run by Fr0d0_FragginS79 that remixed elements of Welcome Home to create a whole new (and much more explosive) experience.

4. Don’t Stick to the Same Genre

So you got your hands on the 2D Platformer kit, did you? You don't have to make a 2D platformer with that. Why not try making a 2D side-scrolling beat-em-up, or a side-scrolling shmup, or even a visual novel? The kits are easy to use and you can find anything from character puppets to monster voices. Give a human character a dragon roar, just for funsies. Or do a mashup of elements from the Mini-Golf and the Dungeon Crawler template kits to make a dungeon-crawling golf course. I mean why not, right?

5. Check the Genealogy

One handy little feature of Dreams is that you can check the origins and uses of a particular asset. From a creation's cover page, you can view the genealogy of it, which shows you when and how it was created, and what else it's been used for in the creations of other dreamers. This can be really handy for trying to understand how something really cool you’ve seen in Dreams was made, giving you an insight into the creation process, and inspiration for what else you can do with by showing where it's been used in other creations. Checking out the Ancient Times Dinosaur Skeleton element for example, shows that it has been used in over 12,300 creations, and remixed 26 times. Neat, huh?

6. Be Careful When Mixing and Matching

Mixing and matching items from various kits can be a really interesting and innovative way to make use of the different elements available in each kit. But there are a few things to be aware of, not least that some elements and characters might not work together as you intended. For example, if the logic of a particular element designed to be used with characters of a given kit doesn’t work on another character, you haven’t necessarily done anything wrong, it just wasn’t designed for that character model. If you're able you can change the logic to fit with the different characters, or ask someone in the coMmunity to help. Don’t be put off if your idea doesn’t work immediately.

7. Mess Around With Elements

Just like everything else in DreamShaping, the elements you’ll find in the kits can be manipulated and used in surprising ways. Scale them up and down; clone them; stick them together; change their colours; flip them upside down or side to side... the possibilities are endless. Manipulate them to give them different uses and make completely new objects or a different use in your game. In this screenshot, we’ve made this chair waaay bigger than it ever needed to be. What for? Uh, y’know. Reasons.

8. Make Your Own Kitstravaganza!

Last but not least, you also have the ability to make your very own kits and collections! Many members of the coMmunity have created their own kits, and remade existing ones, taking what they need from specific kits to give them a pack of assets they can quickly draw upon when creating. For example, if you’re looking to quickly make your own JRPG adventure, you can access and use Bohalaa’s Remixable JRPG Systems Kit, which is designed to help people quickly and easily make their own JRPGs with minimal fuss. So give it a try, and see if you can curate your own perfect package of Dreams material and assets. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

So there you have it! We're sure you'll agree that kits are an excellent way to speed up your DreamShaping. Now go off and get yourself kitted out!