SuperAwesomeGame
LittleBigPlanet is one of the coolest concepts on the PS3. It's also apparently a game.
Published: March 7, 2007
Video game editors are ulta-non-reactionary folk. Possibly it's because they've had expectations tempered by a non-stop stream of bullshit buzzwords and oft-used bits of marketing speak like "emergent gameplay." So when a crowd many dozen-strong actually go beyond polite clapping and jump right into flat-out cheering, developers have a reason to celebrate. When it happens at an event with free booze, it's understandable that alcohol might have a play in things, but when an entire ballroom full of developers celebrate with thunderous applause and whooping cheers not seen since an E3 Nintendo press conference, clearly something is being done right.
This was what greeted the Sony brass at an event last night (and then later to greater degree at the Game Developers Conference keynote a few hours later). It was something of vindication for Sony -- a feeling that maybe they weren't so out of touch with developers that a previously indie development group could create something that whipped developer and jaded journo alike into a frenzy -- especially when combined with the finally unveiled PlayStation Home service.
Such is the power of LittleBigPlanet, an entirely user-created game experience that is the very definition of that previously BS buzzword "emergent gameplay." Seriously, think about it: give the player the tools to create their own world, their own levels, their own bits of gameplay based purely on the laws of physics, and then make that the game experience. The key, of course, is in making that something that anyone with a predisposition to game design could easily pick up and do.
Which is where LBP works. "If you can use the Cross Media Bar [the XMB - PS3's main root navigation], you can design here." It sounds like the stuff out-of-touch game developers would say before releasing level design tools to the public, but in LBP, it rings true. Everything, from materials to decals to placing them in the world is done from a little thought bubble borne from the mind of an adorable little stuffed toy named StitchBoy.
Yes, that's a little confusing, and yes, we'll happily back up. See, UK-based developer Media Molecule were something of an indie PC development wundergroup. They created Rag-Doll Kung Fu and established themselves as enough of a talent that Sony felt the need to bring them into the fold. The spirit of small-time development stays strong, however, and it's why anyone can control the whole world creation process with just the dual analog sticks and the d-pad on the SIXAXIS controller.
That's when you're actually in the creation window, mind you. When you aren't, the analog sticks control your hands, and just tilting the SIXAXIS will move the head freely. This makes for some absolutely adorable little animations like windmill strumming an air guitar or headbanging or even positioning a set of little stars on springs that bounce around realistically on a friend's head when they lean down. In fact, everything in LittleBigPlanet is so "awwwwwww"-inducing that it's almost impossible to love -- even flicking the sticks when you're next to someone to slap them halfway across the screen.
This was what greeted the Sony brass at an event last night (and then later to greater degree at the Game Developers Conference keynote a few hours later). It was something of vindication for Sony -- a feeling that maybe they weren't so out of touch with developers that a previously indie development group could create something that whipped developer and jaded journo alike into a frenzy -- especially when combined with the finally unveiled PlayStation Home service.
Such is the power of LittleBigPlanet, an entirely user-created game experience that is the very definition of that previously BS buzzword "emergent gameplay." Seriously, think about it: give the player the tools to create their own world, their own levels, their own bits of gameplay based purely on the laws of physics, and then make that the game experience. The key, of course, is in making that something that anyone with a predisposition to game design could easily pick up and do.
Which is where LBP works. "If you can use the Cross Media Bar [the XMB - PS3's main root navigation], you can design here." It sounds like the stuff out-of-touch game developers would say before releasing level design tools to the public, but in LBP, it rings true. Everything, from materials to decals to placing them in the world is done from a little thought bubble borne from the mind of an adorable little stuffed toy named StitchBoy.
Yes, that's a little confusing, and yes, we'll happily back up. See, UK-based developer Media Molecule were something of an indie PC development wundergroup. They created Rag-Doll Kung Fu and established themselves as enough of a talent that Sony felt the need to bring them into the fold. The spirit of small-time development stays strong, however, and it's why anyone can control the whole world creation process with just the dual analog sticks and the d-pad on the SIXAXIS controller.
That's when you're actually in the creation window, mind you. When you aren't, the analog sticks control your hands, and just tilting the SIXAXIS will move the head freely. This makes for some absolutely adorable little animations like windmill strumming an air guitar or headbanging or even positioning a set of little stars on springs that bounce around realistically on a friend's head when they lean down. In fact, everything in LittleBigPlanet is so "awwwwwww"-inducing that it's almost impossible to love -- even flicking the sticks when you're next to someone to slap them halfway across the screen.
