Dreams - Media Molecule
As a Content Curator on Dreams, I was responsible for curating UGC into live collections, banners and playlists. Using bespoke LiveOps tools, I maintained and optimised the UX of both DreamSurfing (play) and DreamShaping (create) experiences, updating promoted content on a daily basis. In addition, I collaborated with Data & Analytics on A/B testing throughout live service to implement new personalisation and presentation opportunities: genre pages, daily playlists & player recommendations to name a few.
Dreams by Genre: As part of an effort to improve discoverability for quality UGC in Dreams, I established and curated twelve genre pages from the ground-up: Action/Adventure, Art/Animation, Comedy, Education, Horror, Mini-Games, Music/Rhythm, Platformers, Puzzle, RPGs, Sandbox & Sports/Racing. Each page includes a variety of playlists spotlighting sub-genres (eg: Psychological Horror, Open Worlds), playtime categorisation and community curated collections. These pages are maintained weekly in the live game - with input from Data & Analytics - alongside promotion by bespoke icons designed by the Mm Brand team.
Collaborations: I've been fortunate to work with a variety of industry partners & transmedia IPs with Outreach support. To celebrate Dreams' launch on PlayStation Plus, I initiated multiple guest collections by fellow developers: Guerrilla, Bend, Sucker Punch, Enhance, Housemarque & Shuhei Yoshida. Regular communication allowed us to hone down specific collection designs, alongside curated content celebrating their catalogue. These collections ranked in the top-5 most engaged social posts during the Plus launch period. I've also helped amplify collaborations with Sony Pictures (Ghostbusters), BBC, Mercedes-Benz and Aardman through in-game promotion.
Agile Curation: A significant pillar of our curation strategy involved monitoring and responding to trends within our community and the wider industry. This also allowed us to collaborate cross-platform with Editorial on trending articles. One successful example was our Liminal Spaces collection, curating UGC and creator kits inspired by The Backrooms trend. Simultaneously, an Editorial feature interviewing Backrooms games creators was released on web. This initiative resulted in our most-liked official collection in Dreams - and the 7th overall including all community content.
Daily DreamSurf: My collaboration with Analytics deeply involved experimentation and innovation when building out our A/B test roadmap. One such playlist born from this collaboration was the Daily DreamSurf: a live playlist of five titles updated every weekday on the DreamSurfing front page. Balanced between three games, one audio-visual and one art showcase, the Daily DreamSurf enabled smaller creators to be platformed whilst ensuring a steady stream of new, authored content was displayed in-game. Designed in the context of live service, this model allowed rapid-response customisation, tying into major releases, trends and global holidays without new code.
Live Event Hubs: Seasonal events became significant milestones in Dreams' live service calendar, whilst also presenting unique curation opportunities. DreamsCom - our in-game convention (a la E3, Gamescom, Comic-Con) - allowed us to design a dedicated hub with playlists for demos teasing upcoming UGC games, trailers made in Dreams alongside tie-in playlists for our stream calendar. The Impys - our awards ceremony - similarly gave us opportunity to showcase nominees whilst spotlighting hidden gems from the past year. The 4th Impys Hub featured themed 'island' areas unlocking over a 6-week period, building anticipation for the awards show stream.
Livestreams: As a vital part of the wider Mm Community team, I made regular contributions to our weekly livestreams. This largely involved curating the collections for our Community Creations series - weekly deep-dives into quality, trending creations. Aside from creating these collections, I would frequently appear on-air as a co-host, giving context to each creation whilst engaging with our community through chat. Aside from Community Creations, I've also prepared special event streams (eg: Halloween, Pride) and made guest appearances to discuss my Editorial work in the studio (eg: the Tren launch stream).