What Was the Inspiration Behind the Dream Hideaway?

Written by King_of_games30; PSHG Team Writer

During my time spent on Home, I have seen one developer outdo themselves time and time again. Since the beginning, they have created some of the most entertaining and competitive games, such as Sodium, that have kept players interested in the Home franchise. During these past few years, they have brought us a new and improved gift machine and have expanded their personal space collection to more exotic locations. Recently, I had a chance to speak with Megan from Lockwood about the Dream line and what we can expect in the future.

What was the inspiration for the Dream line of spaces and items?

JAPANESE ‘SHELL’ HOUSE BY KOTARO IDE OF ARTECHNIC                                                                          Photo Credit: http://inthralld.com

We were contemplating creating a luxury Yacht for a while, and it complimented our designer clothing range ‘Figment’ really nicely. We really want to achieve something that reflected an opulent and aspirational lifestyle, so when coming up with ideas for various places in the Dream World, we just had to think about where the most amazing places on earth would be to live, and that has driven all of the Dream spaces so far.

Specifically, what was the inspiration for the Dream Hideaway?

We had an idea for a secret dream house that was hidden away in the depths of the Jungle, the kind of thing that you can only fantasize about. To stay on theme with the other Dream spaces we looked into some architects who use sleek and curved organic structures, whilst maintaining a modern interior, we were particularly influenced by Kotaro Ide, and like all the Dream spaces, it is surrounded by nature and utilises water as a key feature. There is something fascinating about water, even in a virtual world, you can use it in so many ways to bring a different feel to an environment, be it peace, turbulence or beauty.

You’ve stated in the past that you intend to possibly link the Dream Island spaces in someway. Can you elaborate on further here. Is that plan still in the works, and can you offer any hints about it?

You will find out more about this in a couple of weeks, for now I can’t give anything else away.

What kind of rewards will be receiving in this space, how many can guests receive?

There are a total 14 rewards, these are furniture items that have been designed to reflect the shapes in the architecture of the house. Two will be available for guests ‘Ultra Modern Dining Chair’ and ‘Ultra Modern Pod Planter’

We have seen spaces that have had a tiger, a genie and even cars, do you plan to release any spaces in the future with similar entities in them? Is there a possibility that we can get a robot butler built in to a space?

These types of features add so much to an environment, they fill it with life and animation – so we are likely to do more of this in future, but I can’t say what specifically. I will note down the robot butler in case an applicable environment comes up.

JAPANESE ‘SHELL’ HOUSE BY KOTARO IDE OF ARTECHNIC Photo Credit: http://inthralld.com

Some of us weren’t able to finish some of the previous quests such as Defeat Brinsop the Evil Dragon, will they be coming back and are we going to see more activities such as this?

Some of the rewards were one time only, but some rewards are more seasonal and we may bring those back at specific points in the year. Yes, we would like to do more similar activities.

Lockwood has always endeavored to practice good public relations. An example of this is during the recent problems users had accessing their personal spaces. Lockwood was very good about letting users know that they were aware of the problem and were fixing it, posting a response on FB and other sites. How important is it to maintain good public relations with your users?

It is incredibly important! It’s actually a shame that we can’t always contact people directly via PlayStation Home, as this is the best place to have direct conversations. But we try to maintain a good presence online as well as in Home so we are always accessible to discuss things with the community.

Many people have asked, is there anyway that we can gift ourselves instead of trying to make an alternate account or trading gifts with another person?

We like the idea of people being able to give their friends awesome gifts, such as an entire space, that’s why we’ve been putting a few more in the Gift Machine – but don’t worry, we have several other really cool spaces planned that won’t be going in the Gift Machine.

There are a few technical roadblocks that prevent us from having a self-gifting service in the Gift Machine – it’s also against the philosophy of how we originally created it. That’s why there won’t be the option to send gifts to yourself, sorry!

I want to thank Lockwood for giving me the chance to have this interview and from what I see there are good things coming to PlayStation Home. I will say this, even with that one fault with the gift machine, I do see Lockwood tokens surpassing Midway as the number 1 sales item for consumers.

Photo Credit: http://inthralld.com/2012/01/japanese-shell-house-by-kotaro-ide-of-artechnic/