Danny & Don's Dreams Community Meet-Up!
29/03/2017
Our lovely friends Danny and Don, who both run two of our awesome Dreams fansites DreamBubble and Somniloquy, went to Pax East this month and they hosted our very first Dreams community-run meet-up! It looked incredible and we were so sad to miss out this year!
Luckily Danny and Don have very kindly written up a blog for us, sharing all their shenanigans and adventures. Take it away fellas!
Danny:
When we had the Pax East 2016 Media Molecule/DoubleFine meetup last April, I knew we would need another one in 2017! As I started to get the meetup going I kept in touch with my amazing hero Jenny from MM to see if the studio could help. Her response was phenomenal as she sent me a hand-painted drawing of an imp in Dreams created by the amazing Francis and Kareem! There was even a tiny bit of wet paint that had to be dried off when it was sent so Jenny saved the day by carefully packaging the art piece and “bubble wrapping it to death”! She also sent me A LOT of pins and an official lanyard.
Francis and Kareem's IMPressive Imp painting!
Then I asked Don from Somniloquy if he was could make art for some posters and art prints to give away, and he did an amazing job! We had two Dreams posters, around 16 art prints created by Blual from Italy and Don himself! I also got some DreamBubble decals for PS4 controllers thanks to the amazing Dave and his wife from Flaming Toast!
We kept the same hotel venue from last year and the same time as well to make it easy for everyone! On Saturday we walked there from Pax in EXTREMELY chilly weather; the wind almost blew the swag away and it actually RIPPED A ROAD SIGN FROM THE GROUND in front of us!
When we got there, I did a swag reveal in front of everyone and Blah Blah was amazing enough to record the entire thing (Dreams meet-up at 15:50):
A Day at PAX East 2017 & Dreams Community Meetup
After the display of the swag, we ate and drank for a bit while talking about PAX, Dreams and other fun stuff!
Hanging out at the Capiz Bar, in the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel!
Afterwards, we played a round of Media Molecule trivia hosted by Blah Blah where everyone gets an MM pin for a right answer and the first to 10 pinnies would win the grand prize painting. Congratulations to Lt_Twinklez!
Second (Noam!) and third place (Noah!) got two Dreams Posters (they got to pick which)!
I gave everyone who came a load of pinnies and art prints so no one left empty handed.
We said our goodbyes after 2.5 hours of meetup-ing. It was an amazing time and everyone had a smile on their faces! But most importantly I want to thank EVERYONE who made this possible! You made me almost cry tears of joy for the overwhelming support and assistance with everything and it was a time I will never forget!
Other than the meetup, my PAX East mainly revolved working as an exhibitor at the Versus Evil booth, giving out pinnies to Media Molecule fans, and meeting the amazing Sumo Digital and playing their game Snake Pass! I even spotted a Sack Boy on the show floor.
Don:
I’m Don Oskowski and I operate the Dreams fan site Somniloquy.net. Before I begin speaking to my part preparing for the meet up and my experience during it, I want to thank Danny from DreamBubble.me for organizing the Media Molecule PAX East meetup. His passion for all things Media Molecule and its community is truly amazing.
When I found out that Danny was in fact planning another meet up at this years PAX East I knew I wanted to help out wherever possible. So when Danny put out a call via Twitter for graphic designers for an upcoming event, I knew exactly what it was for. After speaking with Danny I designed these posters. Here is a better look:
While working on these posters I came up with an idea for a PAX East IMPatient comic. If you’re unfamiliar with IMpatient, it’s a fan strip about an Imp named Murray who can’t wait to meet his Dreamer. You can read more like this one at Somniloquy.net!
Media Molecule has always encouraged creating and sharing in and out of the game worlds they create. For that reason I was more than happy to create some Dreams art knowing that it would go to some truly dedicated fans.
As Danny had mentioned, the grand prize for the trivia contest was a hand painted IMP from Kareem and Francis of Media Molecule. It was an amazing gesture from even more amazing artists. It goes to show just how much the Media Molecule community is appreciated by Mm. Such an unnecessary gesture, but a very much appreciated one. Thank you Kareem and Francis!
As for my own experience at the meet up, what can I say? It truly amazes me just how talented, kind and passionate OUR community is. But, it should not come as any surprise when you think about the games Media Molecule creates and the messages they promote. I’m sure Dreams will evoke much the same.
Some of us started the meet up as strangers, but all of us ended it as friends.This was my 2nd meet up and I look forward to many after that. As someone said during our meet up goodbyes, “Can we do this forever?” I hope so. With that, I want to thank all that attended the meetup and I cannot wait to see what you all create in Dreams!
Absolutely awesome :) I know I say this often, but our community really is the best and seeing everyone's hard work and dedication around planning and coming to this meet-up just cements my feelings even more. A huge thank you to Danny and Don for organising this event, and a big thank you to everyone who came along <3 You folks are the reason we do what we do, and we certainly couldn't do it without you all.
With lots of love from all the Molecules, we can't wait to see you all again real soon! xoxo