[Official] LittleBigPlanet: Play, Create, Share!

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Sounds very promising :yes:

Aw man, Triliaeris you deleted AB's last post which had a hands-on impression of the game!

Hope you don't mind AB, I managed to get a copy back for you..

WhatIfGaming E3 ‘08 Exclusive Preview: Playing With Alex Evans and LittleBigPlanet Multiplayer

LittleBigPlanet is ridiculous. It’s ridiculously entertaining. You will laugh at it. This laugh, however, is a great laugh that that comes from the additively fun anti-drug administered by Media Molecule, the talent behind Rag Doll Kung Fu. LittleBigPlanet jumps in sackboys to start off that you can begin to customize and make yourself a part of the game in any way. There are obstacles to overcome, challenges to face, and barriers to cross all of which requires a combination of the motion wheel of team work and competition . As players advance in the game, their creative skills will grow and so will their loyalty to such an amazing title. LittleBigPlanet isn’t as little as the title will have you believe and therein itself is the true reality that this video game is something bigger than this planet alone. Something we really can’t understand fully.

The gameplay is simply defying the theoretical limitations of the creativity RAM in our brains. The main plot focuses on the power of teamwork to reach the end against evil character bosses. The game begins and we are just beginning to drool by taking control of Sack Boy, who’s standing there lifelessly. Life is full force in these little brown sacks as soon as we touch the controller. Tilt allows a very unique and dynamic experience with your character. A slight tilt to the left makes him bend left. A turn to the right, a bend right. Hitting Square brings up a customization menu, which is filled with choices icons such as: Character, Retry, Items, and Heart Objects that is equilateral to fancy for favorite objects/items. It has all sorts of items. Hat’s, feet, shoes, belt, shades, the whole consortium. We start moving on along, jumping and dodging items that will burn our sack boy to a golden crisp in mid-air. Continuing to do this, we eventually fight a boss called “Ze Dude” and reach the ending. That’s one level. The next is with Alex Evans.

We’re slightly comical as we start on this one with Alex Evans in the desert level, and eventually as Alex begins to give a demo of some stuff, we start running off and keep going and going. This preview map scale is huge. The map is about an entire yard or so. And then slowly, I huff and puff the character and it’s exhausted. He laughs about it, and I laugh about it even more. The thing with LittleBigPlanet is that it never fails to amuse anyone. The gameplay really isn’t about the racing, or collecting sponges, but it’s about being a community and having fun with others in that community. With such a scope like this, putting a time hour count on LittleBigPlanet is fairly difficult and really not practical as the devs will also believe.

The multiplayer for LittleBigPlanet was super fun. Keep in mind there is no split screen in this game at all or motion capture to YouTube or any of that. As the online component distends, we can clearly see that the world diagram in the center represents a lobby of sorts. The thing is you can’t flip through all of the servers of the game/hosts at once. A great and better utilization of search aspects is a redefining of the old and apparently now dated lobby system. The search is arranged according to: Popular, Best, and New. With these three tiers, it’s easier to access any game and find out how many players play in them with the use of orbs below the picture of the game name. 4/4 orbs means 4 people are playing and it’s full so it will not display. The maximum that will display is 3/3 orbs, meaning room for 1 more lucky gamer.

The multiplayer is split up into a point and ranking system that will be consistent to the online profile Media Molecule is working on. There will be points given and they will be based on the constructive motto of LittleBigPlanet: “Create,” “Play,” and “Share.” If you create a lot, you get a lot of points, and if you play constantly you get some amount of points based on your overall standing in the game itself. Never much of a creator but a Sharer? Sharing isn’t the same sense as “Create” as in creating a map and sharing it. Share in LittleBigPlanet is about discovering new levels, commenting a lot, giving ratings and all of those community features to give you a high amount of points in the Share category.

Right now, LittleBigPlanet is looking marvelous. There are still some essential tweaks that need to be made such as render fixes, frame rate issues with highly layered scenes (heavy drops to mid-25 frames per second), and even some scripting flaws with the icons not showing up all the time. With more than 2 months away from release, Media Molecule has all the time in the world to not only make LittleBigPlanet a great game but also a highly polished one.

Source: http://whatifgaming.com/whatifgaming-e3-08...littlebigplanet

[Sethos]

Link is broken :p

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Some new game play from a pain in the arse level ahha!

comes from here - http://news.punchjump.com/blog/2008/07/19/...truction-level/

The guys playing it do suck a bit though.

[Dc'1]

Does "Blu-ray disk only" mean its going to be like GT5:Prologue and on sale? Not just a free demo :(?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Does "Blu-ray disk only" mean its going to be like GT5:Prologue and on sale? Not just a free demo :(?

?

Why would LBP be a free demo?

It means it's not going to be for sale on PSN, BR only.

When LBP was first announced at GDC07 they said they might offer it for sale on PSN.

Another preview

One of the titles that we had the opportunity to see at E3 was MediaMolecule's LittleBigPlanet. First making an appearance at GDC '07, the game is almost here -- it'll roll out this October. Thankfully, instead of throwing lavish parties filled with booth babes and coke, MediaMolecule has been hard at work on the game ever since we first caught a glimpse last year.

One of the newer additions is the ability to turn objects into "meanies" by attaching a special "brain" item to them. This will turn them into bloodthirsty foes, but fear not: if you can manage to hit the brain, the meanie will fall apart and you'll be clear to progress through the level. If you've ever played a Mario game (and who hasn't?), you're already trained for the job. You could always just ignore such an obstacle entirely and try to avoid it, but that's not very satisfying, is it?

MediaMolecule wants LittleBigPlanet to be played by the "broadest possible audience". Narration by Stephen Fry guides players along when they first start out, and a limited set of items are unlocked in the beginning, allowing for a smooth introduction to each feature so as to not overwhelm anyone. Players will also have the ability to play, create, and share, to varying extents which will help make the game appealing to more people. Because of this, levels can be completed in a different fashion based on the players preferred style. For those who want to play, any particular level would be presented in its full glory. However, if someone is more inclined to create, they can go through a smaller portion of the level to complete it, helping to unlock new materials and items faster. It's easy to see what play style someone chooses, too, because three colored orbs on a players profile indicate to what extent they play, create, and share. Tons of statistics are actually tracked behind the scenes such as amount of times the player jumps or how long they've played the game.

Even after being told this, we were surprised to find out that when a screenshot is taken by the player, every player in the level is automatically tracked and tagged. This allows for a seamless transition between viewing a screenshot and viewing a player's profile, jumping into a specific level or finding out more about a certain item. Such data tracking is also useful for handling abuse reports, which are detailed later in the article.

As Alex played the game, he told us that during development one of the important lessons they learned was to artificially limit the complexity of certain aspects of the game. Initially, LittleBigPlanet had infinite depth of field, but this proved confusing and cumbersome. To solve this, the depth of levels was limited to 3 layers: a background, a middle, and a foreground. One of the levels that served to demonstrate this featured a set of sleighs powered by the rocket item. Each sleigh was on its own track, allowing for a sort of makeshift sledding race along curvy paths made of ice. The end of the track was signaled by a satisfying crash into a wall, with the physics engine handling the resulting chaos without a hitch. This race was more of a fun demonstration than anything else, but proper races can be organized by placing specific start and end points throughout a level.

We were also shown the reporting feature, to be used when abusive players are encountered. A window titled "Good Grief" pops up, which takes a screenshot of the current environment, and it asks the player to highlight the specific offense and categorize it as pornographic, copyrighted, etc. During this, Alex joked that MediaMolecule's creative director Mark would be "leading the charge" of creating offensive content. Speaking of in-house content creation, we were shown a level created by a beta tester that featured an arrangement of blocks in the background, each assigned a specific sound. In the foreground was a vehicle that drove across the level, activating these blocks to play a song in some sort of Rube Goldberg-esque beat machine. We were told that although each object has default settings (making the game easy to pick up and play for a majority of players), several configuration settings can be tweaked allowing the hardcore to make some ridiculous stuff. For example, sounds can be activated when an object is destroyed, stepped on, passed by the player, etc. As sackboy reached the end of the track, a picture of the creator's face (likely taken with the PlayStation Eye) was prominently displayed on screen, ushering in laughs from everyone in the room.

It's worth noting that everything we see in LittleBigPlanet can be created with the tools in the game. The demonstration at Sony's press conference this year was created in less than a day. The team admitted to cheating to get text to display, but decided it was a useful tool, and will be adding this functionality in to the final build. Granted, most people won't be able to create amazing levels on day 1 -- which is why the d-pad acts as a VCR, allowing you to pause the level and rewind when things go wrong. Once your masterpiece is completed, be it a level or an object within, you can publish it for the world to see, rank, comment on, etc. The current fascination at the MediaMolecule office, we were told, is vehicle creation -- more specifically, tanks, which grow more ambitious as time goes on. When an object is created by a player, such as a vehicle, it can be added to a level as a reward, shared with a friend so that they can use it and/or modify it, etc. Objects can be free to all or "copyrighted" which prevents it from being shared, requiring that players must earn it themselves through successful completion of a level, etc.

If you're wondering about trophy integration, don't worry. We saw several trophy notifications pop up during the demo. One of them is awarded after 1 or 5 levels are published (Alex was unsure as to which). Speaking of published levels, surely there will be tens of thousands mere days after launch. How is one to sort through them all? You can, if you want to, but LBP makes things easier for you if you're not a masochist. Search results are prioritized by what types of levels you play, which objects you add to your favorites, etc. There's a lot going on behind the scenes to make sure LBP is tailored to your tastes.

The game will be out shortly, and this is likely the last time we'll see it before then. We'll bring you a full review as soon as we get our hands on the thing.

Source: http://totalplaystation.com/ps3/LittleBigP...t/previews/7951

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

LOL now this should be the extra with LBP LE...

[Guest]

i want one of those :o

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

New trailer - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37307.h...=1&type=wmv

Funny ending :p

The trailer is also in 720p on PSN.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Haha cool trailer, music was pretty well fitted as well :p

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

New video from E3 - http://www.e3coverage.com/E32008/e32008_littlebigplanet.html

Doesn't show off much, but they tell us Mini-games will also have their own planet/section. Mini-games are basically shortened levels, you'll see above.

Also,

During his keynote speech at Develop in Brighton today, Alex Evans from Media Molecule said that the Developers are constantly checking forums, blogs and press for peoples views on the game and implementing any ideas which stand out, he did go on to say that obviously they can’t cater for everyone, however it just goes to show that if you happen to be one of these people that like to make your voice heard on forums, the developers are reading your comments and perhaps even taking them into account when making their game.

Elsewhere in his speech he also mentioned that they are constantly tweaking the game and that some of the demos they show are usually only a week old, having been programmed the week before.

The highlight of the speech was when Alex showed a shaky video which captured the moment the game was playable online for the first time, amusingly to celebrate this fact, eight little sackboys headbanged simultaneously to Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen. It was funny stuff which captured the elation of the developers as they reached an important milestone in the development of the game.

Source: http://www.wonderwallweb.com/story-1337-Li...e-watching.html

:punk:

[Matrix XII]

LOLL@that LBP costume!!! :rofl:

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

LOLL@that LBP costume!!! :rofl:

If you're talking about the pics at the top, it's not a costume, it's a full size doll :p

[Matrix XII]

Really?? haha that's even better :rofl:

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Video I haven't seen nor posted yet - http://www.g4tv.com/e32008/videos/27098/Ex...keyword_key=319

6 mins of footage.

edit: No wait, I'm sure it has been posted earlier now that I've watched it all :p

Also, a really long preview,

After reviewing thousands of games over the last 15 years, I'm confident I have a good appreciation of what makes a great game, and can readily identify many of the traps that developers routinely fall into that can frustrate and discourage players.

But after spending some joyous hours with LittleBigPlanet on PlayStation 3 this week, I have a renewed appreciation for the skills and talent of games designers worldwide.

It's not because of how much fun Media Molecule's wondrous creation is (although it is almost certainly going to be one of the highlights of the year's gaming releases) but more because my first feeble attempts at creating a level were so awful.

My colleagues also produced platforming stages (and some wacky machines) that were unlikely to cause Miyamoto to lose much sleep. Yet all of our creations shared one trait - they were fantastic fun to make (whether alone or in tandem with others) and often hilarious to play, even in their most ridiculously broken and primitive state.

My time with LittleBigPlanet this week begun with a presentation by Nick Robinson, Senior Product Manager at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, then a few hours hands-on with the intuitive Create mode and some of the introductory levels created by developer Media Molecule.

For those that missed Screen Play's introduction to the game a year ago, Nick describes LittleBigPlanet as "a physics-based platformer that includes all of the tools, really intuitive and fun-to-use tools, that the developers use to create this game, so that you and your friends can create your own stuff".

Nick says he uses the word "stuff" deliberately. "We don't want to use the word 'levels' because you can create other things. We don't want to use the word 'content' because it's a bit dry.

"It's not mini-games either, because you can make a mini site about your cat if you want. You can make massive sprawling game levels, you can chain them all together and make platform adventures (complete with basic cut-scenes)."

The game's mantra is "Play, Create, Share" - with each element receiving equal attention from the studio. But Media Molecule also has another in-house rule - "Don't Cheat". Every single level and item contained in the "professional" levels on the disc has been created using the same tools as what players can harness.

"Everything they can create, you can create," Nick says, before adding that the tools allow players to explore and experiment with what gaming personally means to them - what you consider "fun".

In their levels, Media Molecule avoid hiding the mechanisms of how their cool toys and creations work, deliberately "pulling away the curtain" so that players can see how simple they are and get inspiration for their own designs.

Nick readily admits that "not everyone is going to want to create" but stresses that "the

depth is there for the people who want to do it".

"The 50-or-so levels that are actually on the Blu-ray are designed to be an inspiration for what people want to build," he says. "They are not designed to be the be all and end all of LittleBigPlanet. They're just the starting point."

Early levels introduce the mechanisms for levels and controlling your "Sackboy character" (run, jump and drag). The action can be presented on three planes, with movement in and out of the screen handled automatically. Media Molecule dub the system "2.5D" and in action it is as simple and accessible as any old-school platformer.

LittleBigPlanet presents a very physical, tactile world. Physics puzzles include simple see-saws, spinning wheels that propel you into the air, and soccer balls that you can grab and use to roll up around to a higher platform.

While described as a platformer, you can also create basic role playing elements - essentially conditional events with multiple options. If players make one choice, there will be a consequence, and the other choice will be closed off.

There are few creation items available to LittleBigPlanet users upon booting up the game for the first time - playing through the pre-built stages enables players to unlock items to use in the creation mode.

Essentially forcing people to play the adventure mode might be a controversial decision among those who are simply desperate to get in and start making their own creations, but after seeing how much material can be eventually unlocked, it seems wise to gently introduce players to many of the game's creative tools and objects so as not to overwhelm or intimidate.

The obsessive or completist will also find a compelling reason to replay stages and find the many hidden objects - some of which cannot be accessed until you discover tools from latter levels.

Every level has an entrance point for the Sackboy characters, and can also feature elements like checkpoints, start and finishing lines for races, and end-of-level scoreboards.

Every object is constructed using one of the game's basic materials, which include wood, bricks, cardboard, sponge, polystyrene, stone, metal, glass, rubber, feathers and cloth. These easily identifiable materials are a critical element of the game because players will instantly understand each material's properties and uses. Each has a different weight and friction, for example.

There are also a few more fantastical but easily understandable additions like "bubble" material that floats, and "dissolvable" material which is great for attaching to proximity-based triggers or physical switches to activate exciting events such as prizes falling from the sky.

During Screen Play's time with the Create mode, it quickly becomes apparent that switches are crucial for designing gameplay elements (rather than relying on the more unpredictable physics to cause drama).

Objects can be easily "glued" together or bonded to the ground so they cannot be moved, and the relatively recent introduction of "dark matter" to the list of materials is very useful, often providing a handy workaround for tethering aerial objects and creating anchored, unmovable objects.

You can also unlock materials with different visual textures, such as coloured cardboard, but each obviously has the same properties as the plain materials.

Even beginners will discover that just by placing a few simple objects and choosing a background scene you can create a fun little obstacle course for other people to enjoy - a process that can take just minutes. But our tinkering (and particularly Media Molecule's wondrous designs) also showed theirs is terrific scope for wasting countless hours constructing elaborate and unique constructions.

Customising Sackboy is also fun, with players able to change their character's clothes, eyes, mouth and hair, as well as adding amusing novelties like goggles, and items to hold.

Media Molecule wanted players to be able to communicate with others from around the world, so puppeteering elements have been added, which can be hilarious. By holding down the PS3 controller's triggers you can use the analog sticks to manipulate the character's arms, while you can move Sackboy's head by waving the pad around thanks to Sixaxis motion sensing support.

You can also switch between emotions like happy, angry, sad and scared via the directional pad. Both voice and text chat is supported, with Sackboy lip synching if you use a microphone.

Backgrounds for use in your designs include urban areas, deserts, temples, and the now-familiar garden. They are not simply flat images or photos - you can change the lighting and colour correction and add elements like fog to dramatically change their appearance and the subsequent atmosphere.

I drew inspiration for my level from the urban background, with Sackboy triggering a switch which caused a basketball to bounce down some stairs and into a basket, which then triggered the opening of a (very primitive) garage which included a cool race car (that Media Molecule had built).

The low-rider featured a switch in the driver's seat that propelled the car forwards when Sackboy pulled it. The level included a race start and finish, but I should have added a second car for two-player competition.

Using the "Popit" tool is reasonably simple and quickly becomes intuitive, and there are overlay grids available for placing objects precisely.

A thermometer style gauge on the side of the screen acts as a simple gauge representing each level's memory restriction.

Levels can be almost as wide as you like and infinitely high, but there obviously needs to be a limit on the amount of elements in each stage to keep file sizes reasonable for uploading and sharing online. Adding hundreds of objects seemed to have little impact on the gauge, but items like music made it jump appreciably.

Music and sound effects can be interactive - linked to an event such as an object being dropped or a character passing by a certain point in the level - but you cannot currently import your own audio because of "file sharing" copyright concerns.

The same restriction is easier to overcome with user-created stickers, with the PlayStation Eye support allowing you to essentially scan anything (as well as snap images of you and your friends or family to put into your worlds).

Amusingly, you can make Monty Python-esque creations using photos and then adding interactive elements like moving eyes that follow Sackboy around the screen.

Two of the most useful buttons in the Creator mode are "hover" which helps you get your Sackboy around the level quickly and easily, and "Pause" which essentially turns off the physics system and lets you more easily place moving objects like spinning cogs.

The realistic physics system will no doubt ensure endless laughs, but one trap I regularly kept falling into is forgetting to pause during construction and then carelessly triggering traps or knocking over elaborate compositions, which resulted in me having to reload my stage, often losing my most recent completed work. There is a helpful "undo" function which removes an object that you just placed, but I often wished for a "rewind" instead that would pick up the pieces that I just broke.

There are some other quirks of Popit that might annoy, such as the fiddly process of selecting items. I often had trouble after combining multiple objects together, then realizing I had made a mistake and finding it difficult to move a single element. But overall, Popit is an absolute delight to use.

Categories include "stickers and decorations", "tools" and a "goodies bag", with multiple tabs that are quickly and easily navigated using the shoulder buttons.

There are few limits on your imagination. You can easily create your own designs using raw materials and either adding shapes together or cutting.

Mechanical machines are constructed using parts like nuts, bolts, wheels, cogs, pistons, winches and motorized bolts, which can be tweaked for speed and strength. Media Molecule has even created bosses with varied attack patterns and multiple layers.

You can also easily make physical objects dangerous for Sackboy, imbuing them with poisonous, electric or flaming attributes.

Nick says some elements of LittleBigPlanet have been removed to ensure players are not overwhelmed by complexity or depth, but naturally there will be the opportunity to provide them later down the track when the community is more mature.

He says Sony is extremely unlikely to ever charge for additional levels because of the huge amount of free levels that will be available (some of which will be created by Media Molecule as both "official" and "unofficial" creations.

But of course the game has plenty of scope for other downloadable content allowing Sony to extract more money from players and to drastically change the experience. Things like gravity changes allowing space-themed levels and weapons or tools for Sackboy to have deeper interaction with his environment immediately spring to mind.

"One of the things that Media Molecule are very keen on is seeing what the community

wants," says Nick.

"There's loads of ideas that they've got, and some of them have even been built, but they're not in here yet. There's a lot of things that completely change what people make. We want to see what people start to make and then we'll decide."

For example, support for keyboard and mouse has not be ruled out (but will not be available at launch) and the same goes for an audio editor to create your own music and sound effects.

"Whatever 'power creators' want to create things, we'll look at doing it," Nick promises.

Can't wait.

Source: http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives/010156.html

Edited July 30, 2008 by Audioboxer

[popisdead uk]

Hubba Hubba

[PiracyX]

Nice doll.

This game is getting previewed way too much and its getting so overhyped it's actually strange.

I want this to be good but it could turn out just like Liar/Hevenly sword/Haze.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Nice doll.

This game is getting previewed way too much and its getting so overhyped it's actually strange.

I want this to be good but it could turn out just like Liar/Hevenly sword/Haze.

Maybe that's because not one preview or journalist has a bad view on/bad thing to say about the game?

It's one of the most different games to come out in a while, of course everyone wants to cover it till your eyes/ears bleed.

I'll buy you a Neowin subscription if this gets a metacritic score/sells as little as any of those 3 titles ;)

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Develop 08: Media Molecule on LittleBig challenges

Indie studio head Alex Evans reveals some of the hurdles to developing PS3's LittleBigPlanet.

BRIGHTON--Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet is due to come out exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in October. The game, which company co-founder Alex Evans describes as the combination of "games and pop culture into an online community-based game," has piqued the interest of many in the industry. It is being developed by a team founded by former members of Bullfrog and Lionhead Studios, including Mark Healey, Dave Smith, Kareem Ettouney, and Evans himself.

At Develop 2008, Evans presented a session which he described to the audience as "half post-mortem, half me waving my arms around hoping one of you will come up with a better idea." During the hour-long session, he reflected on the development of LittleBigPlanet to date, as well as his previous experiences at Lionhead Studios and Bullfrog, and offered some advice to other developers in the room.

Evans was quite candid about the game's development process. He said, "We're making all the mistakes that Bullfrog and Lionhead did," and highlighted some of the common pitfalls. "A huge amount of effort in games development is wasted in what I would call the wrong place." This is what he referred to as glue in between two bits of code--the enjoyment for a gamer might be something completely different than what a programmer is working on, but Evans said that some are busy building the glue without actually knowing what they're joining together.

If you choose the right constraints, stripping back a game (for example to 2D) is acceptable, Evans said, although he doesn't always practice what he preaches. "I know this and yet daily I try and add features...I want the game to be 3D." Despite this, Evan said "you can make great levels in 2D that look next-gen," and in the end the team compromised on what he called "deep 2D levels."

"Especially for programmers, don't let yourself expend any effort when at the back of your mind you don't know what you're doing." It's something he said he's learnt the hard way, "at least for me, it has been the most incredibly, incredibly hard process."

The team at Media Molecule consists of a mere nine coders in total (including Evans, who doesn't code much from day-to-day). It's not by chance the team's resources are limited. "We're not very good managers," Evans confessed, and said the size is an arbitrary constraint they've placed on the company.

The studio head was asked by an audience member how he might cope with a lack of constraints, following the release of his first game. "What I'm looking forward to is keeping some of those constraints quite arbitrary like, for example, keeping our company size 30 people," Evans responded. "If I do change, I want to change slowly...if we grow to 100 people, I want it to be an incremental process."

Despite the pitfalls and perils, Evans also talked about his passion for developing games. "Why is my experience of making games with friends the same as it was 10 years ago?" He said one of the reasons is because the people making games with him haven't changed. "We're still a room of boys and girls at 2:00 in the morning with a dev kit...we're still making the same things as we did 10 years ago, we just have the opportunity to get it out to a wider audience."

Source: http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6195209.html

*in heavy weapons guy voice* I SEE SNES!

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

This was briefly, and graciously touched on by TheGreatDave in the Edge thread, but I have my hands on the magazine myself now, and there's more info and enough new stuff to come back to it..plus Edge features/previews are pretty great!

Edge again refers to it, as they did in their first preview, as the PS3's most important title. It looks like they paid a visit before E3, so things like AI brains didn't seem to be on the agenda, but they go through and explain certain things that none of the media at E3 adequately did. They were shown some of the more advanced stuff. They start by saying MM has been successful in creating a good modelling tool that's also friendly and 'empowering'. Everything is physical/mechanical, everything is mapped to physical objects.

e.g. If you want text in your level somewhere, you just open the Popit, select a mouth, and stick it wherever it's needed, and add your text. So you can use this for hint boxes, stories, cut-scenes etc.

Adding music you add a music box. There was some confusion about music and sound editing possibilities from the E3 coverage, but this seems to be how it is according to Edge: the options on music boxes are to control the song, the audible range, and the volume level of each of the instruments in the music. However, you can also have music boxes that just play a given sound effect. For example, Edge describes granite whoopy cushions that sound a fart when jumped on.

Scripting is object based too. As Edge says, this is where LBP could have risked losing a lot of players - "the boss battle where people get stuck on and just give up". But, they say, it's not - it's simple stuff that can let you trigger enemy attacks, locked door behaviour or NPC behaviour. Switches are the main object for scripting. They give an example of a basic Zelda style puzzle made in 15 seconds - a switch tied to a motor. Flip the switch and motor can raise a locked door.

However, there's more kinds of switches than just manual. Motion sensitive ones can act like more conventional passive triggers. E.g. you could have an enemy drop down from the sky when you pass a point - all this behaviour control by cogs and pistons linked to the switch.

There's a lock-and-key switch based on stickers. Use the right sticker(s) to flip the switch.

There's magnetic switches. Which is totally new to me. You have a pair of switches that can be split between two objects. The switch only triggers when they're brought together. As Edge says: "in a single move, the colour-coded keys and gateways of Gauntlet and a hunder other RPGs are suddenly brought within reach".

As Edge says, simple building blocks, the complexity that can emerge from which is 'staggering'.

One example of the magnetic switches: finding a baby belonging to a meerkat blocking a door. The mother and the baby both have either parts of the magnetic switch. Find the baby and bring them together, and the switch triggers, activitating pulleys which take the mother into a standing positiion and opening a door at her feet.

The mechanism for chaining levels together is also revealed - keys. When you build a level, a key for that level is added to your inventory. If you want to link that level to another you're building, just place the key at the end, and players will be warped from one to another. The capability opened by this is pretty great also, in that it needn't just be warping players from the end of one level to the beginning of the next. You could have worlds of multiple depth..e.g. have a key to a doorway of a house, to warp your players to another level representing the inside of the house.

Like TheGreatDave mentioned, the team has apparently implemented RPGs, complex platformers, hub worlds, puzzle games like Tetris, and even a rudimentary homage to Outrun. Edge says if you know what you want, and you can think of a way of implementing it mechanically, you can probably do it in LBP.

Popit they say is the perfect interface for all this, taking only a couple of seconds to find anything you need at a given moment.

They address the issue of 'creative freeze', people just having a brain freeze in the presence of the possibilities offered by the tools. Mark Healey says he thinks it's less intimidating that MySpace, and that they haven't come across this problem in Beta testing. They say part of the reason for the craftworld aesthetic was to welcome imperfection.

Edge describes its own efforts with 5 minutes using Popit..a rudimentary assault course made out of rock. As they say themselves, their results were hardly brilliant, but they say they could have happily messed about in it for hours. The emphasis in the create mode is on enjoyment rather than speed, even for those not very good with it.

For those wonder 'WHERE'S MY READY-MADE GAME?!?', Edge says this was the real surprise for them on their visit. From what they played, they say it should be a 'devestatingly effective' 2D platformer out of the box, even if not very revolutionary. They say the mix of precision jumping and simple physics is very reminscint of 16-bit gaming. They had relatively low expectations for this part of the game, but they walked away with the impression that they had been playing with the 'purest' 2D design since Super Mario World.

They talk about the company for a bit, the team, their reaction to the expectation and pressure (Healey says "I don't think that's really true", when asked about the PS3 being tied to the fate of PS3), the way there seemed to be a hint of "lottery winner's confusion" among a team almost surprised by what they've created. However, Healey cautions "The game hasn't even been released yet - it might be crap. Never one to believe in Hype myself" :p

Edge concludes that the game may well even outshine Spore in terms of ambition, that it could be "that special game that finally demonstrates that control and freedom don't always have to be at odds".

Source: Neogaf

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

LBP dev hints at another big reveal

News by Rob Fahey

Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans wants to do another big "reveal" for LittleBigPlanet - and reckons the game has plenty left to surprise us with.

Chatting to Eurogamer last week Evans said, "I really want to be able to do another [Game Developer Conference 2007] reveal. A lot of people say to me that when we first did that Sony GDC reveal of LittleBigPlanet, that was a big shock - people didn't see it coming. I want to do another LittleBigPlanet reveal that people don't see coming.

"It's still LittleBigPlanet, but people will be saying, 'I thought it was this - now you're telling me it's this as well?!' That excites me hugely."

You certainly can't accuse the studio of thinking small, and Alex makes no apologies for that."I started Media Molecule with my friends to go balls-out, to see what's the biggest thing we can do," he enthused. "I would love there to be a LittleBigPlanet universe of content. With a game like this, the number of directions and the breadth that you could take in, while keeping it in a self-contained universe, is insane."

As to those people finding the wait for LittleBigPlanet all too long, Alex points out that the game has actually been developed in double-quick time - and if it feels like it's been around for ages, that's because they've been open with everyone about what they're doing from the outset.

"The big thing thing there is that we've got into a real habit of throwing stuff out earlier, testing it and showing it earlier," he explained. "A lot of people ask, 'When will LittleBigPlanet be done, for god's sake?'. This is the quickest game I've ever worked on! To me, this is an in-and-out, job done sort of thing.

"I think the reason is because we showed it when it was less than a year old. If you go around and ask developers working on a new platform with a new IP whether they'd show it when it was less than a year old, those people would be like, fu** off!"

"We've got used to this idea of really baring our soul to everyone as much as possible," concluded Alex. That's going to be great for them in the future, though, he reckons. "It means that we can react to the community," he explained.

LittleBigPlanet is due out exclusively for PlayStation 3 this October.

Source: Eurogamer

"Loads of plans" for LittleBigPlanet DLC

News by Rob Fahey

Developer Media Molecule has "a rather scarily long list of great ideas for ways to support the community" after LittleBigPlanet launches - but is waiting to see what people want first.

"We've got loads of plans, we're going to support it massively," studio founder Alex Evans told Eurogamer. "Content packs, new objects, new game modes... All of this stuff could be done. What we're basically waiting to see is what the demand is for.

"We can do all of that stuff - we will do all of that stuff - but what order we do it in, and how much weight we throw behind any of the different ideas that different people have got, is totally down to what the community does," he continued.

"That really excites me, because if people are loving the costumes, we can crank them out. If people are loving the levels and master classes... We've got a slightly scarily long list of great ideas for ways to support the community, and it's just a matter of prioritising at this stage."

As to what users will be paying for that content - if anything - Media Molecule hasn't made up its mind yet, but there'll definitely be some freebies in the mix.

"All options are open," Evans informed us. "I can definitely say that there will be content that's available to people free of charge - I'm just not saying exactly what that content is going to be right now.

"I can also say that if there's any way we can reward the community, we'll go there. If people are clamouring for big chunks of content, it would make total sense for us to do it. We're just exploring all options at this point. Sequels? Why not! DLC? Yeah, why not! Paid-for content? Why not!"

Look out for our full interview with Alex Evans soon.

Source: Eurogamer

[soniqstylz]

AB's head go asplodee.

[PyX]

Woah... I love platform games, and this one has great graphics, great marketing, a great concept, godly-designed.... so it should be a real success, I can't wait to put my hands on it... same time as Rock band 2 and midterm university exams though, this is problematic!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Gamespot updated hands on, don't think this was posted - http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/action/littlebi...;om_clk=topslot

[Vortex566]

I am now more excited about this game then I was for MGS4. I was listening to 1UP Yours Podcase and Shane was talking about it. The depth this game has is going to be huge. The guys behind this really do need a huge pat on the back, when it is finished.

I am so excited!!

Not quite as excited as AB.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I am now more excited about this game then I was for MGS4. I was listening to 1UP Yours Podcase and Shane was talking about it. The depth this game has is going to be huge. The guys behind this really do need a huge pat on the back, when it is finished.

I am so excited!!

Not quite as excited as AB.

:p

That section of 1UP Yours was amazing though. I got goosebumps ;)

Glad to see a fellow 1UP Yours listener as well, awesome podcast (Y)

For anyone interested - http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3149993 - Talk on LBP starts @ 35 minutes. There's a bit more talk on music for once, they said it's kinda like Loco Roco crazy, everything fits with the art direction :)

Also, good quote

"It's like clever overload, it's just so clever, like that's all I can keep thinking, is like OMG that's so clever, they just integrated that little... that's so ****ing clever! It's like saying that to yourself 100 times a minute, for at least the first half hour"

Clever then? ;)

Edited August 11, 2008 by Audioboxer