LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet to Embarrass Xbox Live

Sony-vs-Xbox.jpg


:lmao:

Is Microsoft’s Xbox Live service better than the PlayStation Network? At one stage in this generation such a question would get little debate: Xbox Live for the win – at least from a user’s perspective. We’d still tend to give a nod in Live’s direction. With all of Microsoft’s extensive PC networking experience behind it, consumers have rallied behind the marketplace (despite its questionable pricing plans: microtransactions our collective arses!) and fallen in love with the social mechanics and achievements.

Sony has been playing catch-up all along. But catching up they have been, with each firmware update the PlayStation Network has become a more robust online alternative, to the point where there is a hint of the cross-media bar in the upcoming Xbox Live re-skin. Now Sony just need some killer software.

For a while there it looked like Home was going to be Sony’s big PSN hope, but a run of delays has seen interest in the product wane. But a new beast has risen to take its place: having just spent a few days goings hands-on with LittleBigPlanet and chatting with Nick Robinson, its Senior Product Manager, we think it could be LittleBigPlanet that really rocks Xbox Live’s boat in this key skirmish of the console war.

For the uninitiated, LittleBigPlanet is one of the bravest software concepts of all time. A side-scrolling platformer on the surface, its beating heart lies in user-creation, with gamers empowered to construct their own levels and freely distribute them across the Net to all other community members. As Nick informed us, the driving mantra during the game’s creation was ‘no cheating.’ Each of the 50 levels constructed in the main experience is developed with exactly the same tool kit provided to users in the creation mode.

In fact, Nick stated that originally they weren’t going to provide any maps at all, just the editing software. But instead the 50 levels were designed and included for the specific purpose of illuminating what can be achieved with the tool kit: they’re instruments of inspiration first, entertainment second. And while Nick informed us that there is already 12 months of planned DLC for the game, it will come in the form of new editing tools – a mini music studio was spoken about but not confirmed – coupled with levels that show off what it can do.

The possibilities in LittleBigPlanet are next to endless. As part of our time with the game, the assembled journalists were each given two hours to construct a map, with everything from skate-boarding simulations to hardcore platformers and cut-scene driven puzzlers spilling out of the nation’s finest critics.

Nick is aware that this leaves the door open to just about anything – he believes that they’ll probably get every Mario Bros. level ever developed day one – and they have strict moderation features to counter spam and indecency. But the truth of it is they are genuinely clueless as to what is going to happen. They really don’t know: they’re going to press the big green button step back and watch what happens. It’s the great unknown, but ultimately Media Molecule, and Sony, are charging headfirst into the unknown with barely contained excitement.

It’s a mentality that parallels the ground-breaking work being done by Will Wright on Spore, and it’s already working. In fact, Nick informed us that other Sony studios – including Guerrilla Games – are chomping at the bit to make their own themed-levels for their games – Sack-Helghast anyone? The game is filled with brilliant features that are sure to facilitate exponential community growth. Like the ability to create props and images that you can hide in your level as Easter eggs which, if discovered, will be delivered as prizes to the gamer for use in their worlds. Or to chain-link multiple levels together, so when you finish one it downloads the next, allowing guilds and clans to develop whole games of their own styling. Not to mention full website support covering things like stat-tracking of your average map rating, and fastest times in race maps. Not to mention that the game supports Trophies.

It’s going to go off. And it’s all facilitated by the freedom Sony gives to developers in the way they use the PSN. Such freedom does not exist on Xbox Live.

We broached the subject of the Xbox 360 with Nick and whether LittleBigPlanet could function as desired on the format: the answer was a disappointed shake of the head. Echoing thoughts we heard from Epic Games Mark Rein last year regarding the issues they faced with wanting mods available for the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament III (which subsequently resulted in a delay), and the frustration shown more recently by the developers of N+, Microsoft’s Draconian – and frequently hypocritical (seems to be ok in Halo 3 and Forza 2) – restrictions on user-generated content is proving to the be Live’s Achilles’ Heel.

Just today the developer of the highest rated XBLA game ever, Braid, suggested he would never work on the system again due to Microsoft's restrictions.

Getting a straight answer out of Microsoft as to what precisely is their problem has been a long trek down a dead-end. On the surface they’re saying it’s a bi-product of Xbox Live being a ‘closed system’, and then there’s been a bit of the old ‘we can’t guarantee the quality, or that the content will be kosher’. But there are more than enough hints to suggest that Microsoft is simply worried that it will devalue the premium content on the Marketplace: as in they will lose money. Or more precisely, will not get as much money. Certainly Bizarre Creations, who were told they couldn’t give Geometry Wars away for free, would agree with this theory. Even Mark Rein has moaned about the need of “convincing Microsoft to let us give some things away for free."

As it stands, LittleBigPlanet is set to embarrass Xbox Live and really challenge Microsoft’s views on user-generated content. The game has a tremendous amount of hype and having played it for hours now, that hype is certainly warranted. It’ll be a trendsetter for sure, and a host of LittleBigPlanet clones will surely appear down the track, all of which will seemingly need to head to the PS3. And LittleBigPlanet is just the first wave in an onslaught of user-driven experiences, including such big hitters as Guitar Hero: World Tour and Spore.

Indeed, if LittleBigPlanet fulfils its potential, appealing to mainstream and gamer alike, then it could very well force Microsoft’s hand by humiliating the revered Xbox Live system. Worse still for Microsoft is this all important question: what other unannounced games have already pledged themselves to the PS3 in order to jump on the user-content bandwagon?
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:THINK:
 
Coopz said:
Am i alone in thinking this game looks shit?
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I'd FULLY expect you to think that, to be honest. I'm also pretty sure you think Home, KillZone 2, Resistance 2 and anything else that's just on the PS3 is shit too though ;))
 
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What are you seeing and thinking is shit?

I'm looking forward to creating levels and sharing them - creating prizes and hiding them away for people to find - downloading friends creations - setting up time trial leader boards and seeing which of my friends has ran through the fastest... also trying to beat friends maps as fast as I can.

Chain linking levels sounds great - we'll be able to link our maps together in one long run and then upload that as a evo web game.
 
You can use pics from the HDD as stickers

LBPpicofstickerinfo.jpg


Nice, I thought they scrapped it and made it PS Eye only.
 
I saw a demo where the 2 people playing it at E3 took a photo of themslves while playing and put that into the game while they were running around the level.

That would be awesome if you had a level where the challenge was to get as high up as possible and to prove it you had to slap your photo down and it would save it to the map.
 
Europe box art

LittleBigPlanet_PEGI_WM0001.jpg


Thats a lot better than the US one, also that Europe on the globe :COOL:
 
Remember that person who was playing LBP and was saying how hard it was and he's not as hyped as he was before.


Well...

So today I was at the Edinburgh Interactive Festivals and there was 4 booths of LBP goodness where you could play.

I stood and watched as one of the graphic designers from Media Molecule showed me around the games features. He firstly showed me how to customize your Sackboy, there is so many options here.. Hair..face..eyes..mouth..nose..feet honestly you can change anything on your Sackboy, he turned Sackboy into this paper thin post-it note kind of thing, it was the first time I'd seen that so it was pretty cool. Also there was the helghast costume and the kratos one!!

Anyway then I asked if I could get hands on with the game, I jumped into a blank level to see how it felt to create objects in the game. I played around a bit with the diffirent materials and they really all do have diffirent physical properties, its easy to drag bubblewrap but try and drag a big block of wood and you'll need a friend to jump in and help.

Its really easy to scale things and move them around you use the right analouge stick to scale and move your objects.

The stickers are so much fun, there was loads to play with but the dev I was talking to said they had to limit the amout they came with as the build was being read from a memory card. I used the pseye to take a picture of my face and stick it on a robots face we made, the level of detail you can go into when making a machine is amazing, you can use diffirent types of cogs and connecters and change the strength and speed of the cogs as you wish. I made a little car with beer tops as wheels, it wasn't to smooth!

I then decided to jump into an earlier made level and give it a try. There are only 3 buttons you control, X to jump Left analoge to move, and R1 to grab ,pull ect....

It's really easy to get to grips with Sackboy, for example you hold down X for longer to get a longer jump, there is also diffirent depths to the game, you can bring stuff forwards and backwards you jump between these by pressing down on the stick then jumping.

I was playing co-op with a friend and we had to get on a jet-pack and collect lemons and drag them up to a canope which was connected to a pulee system, once we had enough weight on the canope, a door opned so we could continue the level. We were then confronted by ghosts that would bob up and down, there was platforms you had to go up so you can access a button which kills the ghosts, the platforms were too high for us to jump onto so we had to work together to pull a box so we could use that as a stepping block. All the way through the level we were collecting sponge to get our score up.

There is honestly to much to mention about this game, I was truley blown away. I felt before playing the game that I would not create that much levels but after trying it out it is so easy and so much fun. I think that loads of practice will make anybody into a great level designer.

Its a blast to play too, it is not super easy and often requires logic to be used and some parts took me a few trys.

Everybody present was really impressed by this game, this will be huge.
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Pics and original post here
http://ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=158662
 
DagsJT said:
I'd FULLY expect you to think that, to be honest. I'm also pretty sure you think Home, KillZone 2, Resistance 2 and anything else that's just on the PS3 is shit too though ;))
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Not at all i just think this like Lego is a kids game thats why i think its shit
 
I loved the balloon ride down into hell (i suppose) and a sort of boss fight.

I think this game will be amazing when you make a level like that and then grab 3 of your mates online to show off your map while you play the support to them 3 helping them along but without actually showing them how to do the level.

Im interested to see what these items we can create will be to reward players who complete your level. It it just parts of your map or can you create little 3D trophies or is it going to be your custom sackboy?

-

I'm going to have to grab the ps3 eye toy camera now - i spotted the eye of judgement for £25 with the camera last week so i think ill grab that and then ill be able to photo myself and slap the sticker on the start of the level with a 'created by...' tag under it
 
what the hell is this?! this for real

all this looks to me is none stop running, almost as pointless as a classic sonic game!

Im with you on this one coopz
 
Running, jumping and puzzle solving combined with co op play and co-mpetition or whatever they called it and the tools to create your own levels.
 
THIS IS AN OLD POST BUT IT HAD SOME INTERESTING INFO IVE NEVER READ BEFORE


Straight from Sony Computer Entertainment's US gamers day is this latest batch of Little Big Planet screens and hold on a minute, do some of these characters look familiar?

We're curious as to what kind of legal ramifications SCE would face if the costumes in this concept art reached the final game, with Mario, Katamari and Half-Life suits blatantly visible in the art roster.

Still, we wouldn't complain; that Mario suit has got our names all over it and the Katamari suit will surely have Mike J weeping onto his SixAxis.

Might want to change the big 'M' on Mario's hat though, eh Sony?
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Random other screenshot

screenshot_178768.jpg
 
It was i think but they decided not to release a demo in the end - not sure if they still will release one after the release date though.
 
Found on Kotaku :DD

Yes, we know that LittleBigPlanet will let players slight stuff on fire and BURN THINGS. But that's just fire. What about other elements? Or the weather? According to Media Molecule's Mark Healey:

You can set fire to pretty much anything, you can also make things ‘electrified’, or turn them to gas, which is very cool... By water, I assume you mean ‘real water’ that acts like real water does! This isn’t in the initial release, but we have some cool ideas for how to integrate it into a possible future DLC — of course, it will have a slight LBP twist to it... There is fog that you can tweak, and you could pretty easily fake a thunderstorm with the right sound effect objects and some ‘emitted’ rain drops or something.

Electrified? Gas? Possible water DLC? Tweakable fog?! Fake thunderstorms?! Woah.
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Here is our exclusive interview with Co-Founder of Media Molecule and Co-Creator of LittleBigPlanet, Mark Healey. Give it a read, it's got some great information:

We are a little unclear as to the purpose of the moon. Does it represent local save space or online hosting space? If it is local, then is there a limit to the amount a player can upload?

It represents your local save space (hard drive). There are about 100 slots for to experiment in. There is a limit to what you can upload – but it will be possible to earn more….

We have heard of special "triggers" that detect certain events and deploy an action, such as the breaking of a rope. Could you elaborate on the types of triggers you are including, and how many you plan to include?

We have a set of ‘switches’ that can be wired up to various items;

‘Button’ – This is like the button you might find on a fruit machine – it requires pressure on it to operate it.

‘Two way switch’ – A two position switch – much like a light switch.

‘Three way switch’ A bit like the two way switch , except it has a central position, and will spring back to centre when not being operated.

‘Sensor switch’ This will become active when a Sackperson is close to it (you can alter the range) – this is much like a traditional ‘trigger’ as used in many game.

‘Sticker Switch’ Will become active when a particular sticker is applied on the object it is attached to.

‘Grab Switch’ Detects that a sackperson is grabbing the object the switch is stuck too.

‘Magnetic Key & Magnetic Switch’ – a bit like the sensor switch, except instead of detecting Sack persons, it detects color matched keys – very very handy...

These are all base level items, and can be combined and used in very cunning ways……to make very different types of games from what you might expect LBP to currently be….

Is it possible to reward a player a download key to another level upon completion, to create an overarching story while requiring they play them in the intended order?

Absolutely Yes! - for every level you publish, you get a key – you can then lock levels, and give that key to others - either as a reward in another of your levels – or by directly sending it to a friend. This is the mechanism we have used to create the story progression that comes with the initial bluray.

We've seen the video screens that display information in many levels. Is this something we can create and customize, or an option reserved for the single-player aspect?

These are for tutorial videos – and there isn’t currently a way of players creating their own ones – but we would love to add is as a DLC thing in the near future.

We know wooden logs can be set on fire. Will you have other element interactions, such as ice melting or fire extinguishing?

You can set fire to pretty much anything, you can also make things ‘electrified’, or turn them to gas, which is very cool.

Is water still planned for the game? If so, were you planning to release it via DLC or in the final build?

By water, I assume you mean ‘real water’ that acts like real water does! – This isn’t in the initial release, but we have some cool ideas for how to integrate it into a possible future DLC – of course, it will have a slight LBP twist to it…..

We have heard of an in-game system that allows you to save an item as a "blueprint" in order to place that item wherever you would like in the future. How does this system work?

You can capture objects you make into your POPIT, and then use them like you do other objects from Popit – you can also put them into eggs for vistors to your levels to take away (or try to win)

How dark can we make a level? Can we control the degree of darkness throughout the level(such as making the sun rise when the player reaches a certain point)?

You can make it pitch black if you like. You could fake the sun rising with some cunning switches and light objects….

Are there any weather effects, such as rain or fog?

There is fog that you can tweak, and you could pretty easily fake a thunderstorm with the right sound effect objects and some ‘emitted’ rain drops or something.

Are we going to be able to give detailed text descriptions to our uploaded levels, or is the keywords/tags system the only way to describe our levels from within the game?

There is plenty of room for you to add instructions to your creations, each level has a description field, and in your level, you can add ‘magic mouths’ that talk to the player.

Well, There you have it! Our exclusive interview is now live, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Digg It if you've got an account, as it's our best bet of showing it to everyone!

EDIT: Now we are going to depart from hard fact and wander into the land of speculation. Possibly more interesting are the questions they chose not to answer. Here’s the reason why they didn’t answer certain ones:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Siobhan Reddy
we haven’t answered all of them as there were some subjects that need a bit more discussion in here before we have an answer
Here are the unanswered questions:


-We've heard a little bit about the enemy AI in the game, and are curious. How in depth are these AIs, and what options do we have for customizing them(if any)?

-We've heard of things like water, gravity manipulation, and gameplay recording(possibly YouTube integration). Are those planned features for the final build, or were you thinking of releasing it via DLC after release?

-Speaking of downloadable content, what are the plans for future DLC? Will there be any and what will it cost us?

-It's also come to our attention that users who qualify may have the option to charge for their levels later on. Is that still planned, and if so, how do users meet these qualifications?

-What can fans be doing now to create their own stickers? What formats are supported, what resolution, and how does transparency work for those wanting to create stickers other than square ones?

-We have heard talk of a public beta happening sometime in September. Can you talk at all about this, and if so, how can one go about being included?

-Will LittleBigPlanet's online play be region locked, or can we play with our friends overseas?

-How does local play work when migrating to a friend's PS3? Can we bring our sackboy along, and if so, how?
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Hugely-Anticipated Game Lives Up To All Expectations Gamepreview Littlebigplanet Ps3 Scott Munro’s Games Round Up

IT’S been 18 months since Sony and Media Molecule unveiled LittleBigPlanet to the general public.

Its blend of ambitious user-based content and sumptuous looks have made this game top of people’s most wanted lists since then…myself included.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when last weekend I was lucky enough to get my hands on the highly-anticipated game at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, and Ihaven’t stopped smiling since.

LittleBigPlanet allows players - you and up to three others - to express their creativity by creating new levels in real time, build objects such as cars and rockets from scratch, shape objects and landscapes and decorate your levels in any way you want, then share them with the PS3 community.

I was first taken through a couple ofpre-made levels that will ship with the game this October by one of Sony’s reps. The graphics, as you can see, are stunning, with the game’s lead characters - Sackboys - exuding charm and personality with every move.

Leaping over fire, dodging scary ghosts, flying around with the aid of jetpacks and using teamwork to reach new areas were just some of the things we experienced during my 45 minutes hands-on.

In the Pod

Then it was time to check out the creative side of LittleBigPlanet.

The first thing you’ll notice is how well laid out and easy to use the menu system is.

Asimple press of a button calls up the menus. Then it’s just a case of highlighting your chosen object and you are instantly able to place it into the world, scaling and rotating to suit your needs.

The first thing I did was give my Sackboy a fetching cowboy hat and then we got down to business creating a car.

We added wheels to wooden blocks then fixed a rocket to the back and added a steering wheel - all very basic, but the scope is there to create something truly spectacular.

We jumped on board and held on for dear life, as the car lurched forward at some speed.

Of course, we had failed to attach the rocket properly and as a result, the car somersaulted a few times in the air, sending our Sackboys flying.

Next we created a statue, complete with moving fiery arms. A picture was then taken of myface using the Eyetoy camera and slapped on to the statue’s head for a neat finishing touch.

We were able to create these objects in a matter of minutes and LittleBigPlanet is as involved or as simple as you want it to be. If you want to create a sprawling, epic level incorporating hidden exits and objects, you can.

But if you just want to play through the game’s 60 levels and never touch the creative tools, that’s OK too.

Everything you create can be shared online and no doubt some members of the community will pull out all the stops and deliver jaw-dropping creations.

The first thing I plan to create is a rollercoaster/ghost house with terrifying drops and fabulous special effects, while a dominosstyle level is also on my list.

There’s only two months to go until everyone gets the chance to play this PS3 exclusive title, and I’ll be at the front of the queue
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:DD
 
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