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Dreams is getting two new Media Molecule original games: the charming toy train track-building simulator Tren, and the co-op fantasy adventure Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale. Both games were showcased as part of DreamsCom 2021 and will be free to all Dreams players at launch.
Beech Corp’s Tren is inspired in more ways than one by the life of lead designer John Beech. The developer’s real-life home, which is being renovated, was used as a rough template for the in-game space you’ll use to build your fantasy toy train track. Furthermore, the title Tren came about because Beech and his friends casually refer to each other as “frens.” The project started as the brainchild of sole developers Beech, but it’s since been picked up by Media Molecule as an original game for Dreams.
In a nutshell, Beech describes Tren as “an escape room with toy trains,” but “just toy trains” works too. Along with adorable toy trains, you’ll also have the chance to play around with little helicopters, boats, and “many other vehicles,” which you’ll use to complete delivery missions, rescue missions, speed challenges, and more. Or, if you’d rather just tinker with your toy train track, you’ll have an array of interactive track pieces like see-saws, lifts, bridges, and turn-tables to experiment with. Beech says Tren is still in a “work-in-progress” stage of development, but says his newly assembled Media Molecule dev team is working to launch it ASAP.
Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale is a third-person fantasy adventure inspired by movies like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, combined with the more gritty elements of Game of Thrones. Gameplay is seen through a top-down perspective and involves hack-and-slash dungeon-crawling and puzzle-solving. You can venture into dark, bat-infested dungeons on your own or team up with a friend for good ol’ couch co-op play, but keep in mind that even co-op has some competitive elements; gold and kill points aren’t shared, so you’ll be fighting each other to rank up the leaderboards.
Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale lead designer Rich Franke says the game is “pretty much finished” and due to launch this year in Dreams.
While we wait for the new Media Molecule originals, here are the best Dreams levels available now, including the Seinfeld horror game (yes, really).
