Media Molecule has just released a huge new update for Dreams, and it's targeting both sides of the game: play and creation. With version number 2.35, the studio is introducing a major new feature to DreamShaping, the part of the experience in which you create things, but it's also releasing an original game developed in-house for fans to play.

Let's start with the update to DreamShaping. After installing the latest update, you'll find you now have access to special templates. Say you want to make a 2D platformer in Dreams, but have no idea how to build one from scratch. With the 2D platformer template, most of the hard work is already done — you simply follow the steps to complete the basic game, and then you can continue working on it from there.

There are templates for 2D platformers and arcade shooters, mini golf, 3D platformers, dungeon crawlers, and Ancient Dangers, which we'll get to shortly. The idea is that a new creator won't have to start from a total blank canvas, instead jumping into one of these templates, following the tutorial to introduce some basic concepts, and then taking what they've made and putting their stamp on it. It looks like a really neat way of bridging the gap between playing games in Dreams and making them, which can be a daunting prospect if you're new.

On the other side of this update is Ancient Dangers: A Bat's Tale, announced earlier this year as an Mm Original. This is a Media Molecule-developed action game, playable in single player or local co-op. Playing as a pair of orcs on a quest to stop their grandmother from snoring, it's a hack-and-slash adventure about battling beasties and helping out a little bat named Herb. It looks pretty wonderful, and is apparently the largest game the studio has released within Dreams, so it should be well worth checking out.

Not only is Ancient Dangers a fully playable game in itself, it also serves as a template within the creation mode. You'll be able to use the same assets the team did to build your own orc-based excursions. It's the most complex of the templates, but after playing A Bat's Tale through, you might be inspired to tinker with it and come up with something new.

Both aspects of this update make total sense to us. Media Molecule making original games and putting them in Dreams gives the title more value for players, and adding templates will hopefully see more people dip their toe into the amazing creative tools. The update is available now. Are you excited to check out Ancient Dangers and the genre templates? Go batty in the comments section below.