Little Big Planet screens and trailer

[Zenien]

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_4612_en.html

 

[xwolverine2]

i posted a thread on this an hour...

this looks like the most addicting ps3 game ever...

 

[Zenien]

Oh crap sorry.

Yeah it does apparently you can even import your own texture surfaces... I want to make a Mario level

 

[xwolverine2]

thats what i was thinking...... you could rip-off tons of levels...
or wait for someone else to do it and upload theres...lol

 

[Avalanche]

IGN has a preview. Apparantly the creation feature is so good it's destined to win lots of awards.

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/804/804413p1.html

-----------------------

US, July 12, 2007 - We've seen 2008's LittleBigPlanet before (enjoying it every step of the way), but never had the chance to try out its "Pop It" creation feature. For the unfamiliar, "Pop It" is the same cool-looking menu system that we've seen demoed a million times before but weren't allowed to touch. Now that we have, however, we definitely like it.

How does the creation system work? ...Pretty easily actually. Once a player has decided to manufacture something, they simply need to tap a button and bring up the onscreen menu. Once the HUD is active, users can then scroll through a series of material and item types and pick the things they want to work with. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of pieces to scroll through but they're themed to the selected backdrop. So in the E3 demo, for example, there was a blank white slate, a graveyard, the area from GDC, a desert, and a cool-looking garden.

Once players have selected their background and item types, the creation process begins. Each object is entirely physics-based too; so if a ball falls from the sky and lands on a hardwood floor then it will react just as it should (as will all objects). Once users have chosen what they need (no word yet on whether or not there's a limit to how many pieces can be inserted into a level), they can further customize them by adding stickers, changing their position, or erasing parts of these objects entirely. Players can even put items together to create new working contraptions -- cars, carts, you name it. Oh, and yes -- it's as cool as it sounds.

The best thing about this entire process, though, is that you can build entire worlds populated with funny gadgets and obstacles in minutes. LittleBigPlanet is one of those rare examples of finding something that really is limited only by your imagination. Expect plenty of awards for this one in '08.

 

[xwolverine2]

did anyone catch the stage demo on gamespot last night?

they said they would keep updating it after the games release... some of the suggestions were awesome.
they said they might include game themed backrounds....


this game will own ps3...

too bad i dont have a ps3

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

sony's answer to mario?

 

[Mr. Credible]

i think this might be the best side scrolling adventure game to date... it's certainly got the potential, and the level of customization is really incredible.

 

[Zenien]

On the latest 1Up Yours, Shane revealed that at TGS, they will be showing ENEMIES for the first time!

N'Gai Croal revealed another interesting mechanic...you can make the levels races, with ONLINE LEADER BOARDS posted for levels that you create! Not only that, you can assign a moving object (or even an enemy) as the "finish line" in your level, so you could make a level where the end-goal is chasing something down! Amazing...

credit goes to Pristine_Condition at gaf


So there's more to LBP then just moving through the levels, I hope you can customize and built the enemies like you biuld the environment. Eitherweay it's a big deal imo.

 

[xwolverine2]

enemies!!!!!!!!!!!

awesome!!!!!!!!

 

[Avalanche]

Some more videos over at Gametrailers. Watch them or die.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22224.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22232.html

 

[Avalanche]

Gamespot preview. Boo, it's still a year away.


Please allow us a moment of editorializing before we get to the meat of this preview: LittleBigPlanet is awesome. There--now that we've got that out of our system, we can move on and try to describe what developer Media Molecule was showing off of their fascinating adventure/creation game here at E3 2007. The demo presented at the Sony media HQ showed off a number of different aspects of LBP that look to comprise a game that is both big on charm and fully dedicated to making each player's experience unique.

Let's start with the main characters, affectionately dubbed as "Sackboy" (or "Sackgirl") by Media Molecule developers; they're tiny little creatures that are able to run around the world's horizontally scrolling levels of the game, overcoming obstacles as they go. Using the Sixaxis controller, you're able to move your Sackboy around through the levels, jump by pressing the X button, or grab onto items (or other Sackfolks) by pressing the R1 trigger. Holding down either the R2 or L2 trigger and moving the analog sticks will let you articulate Sackboy's limbs (or throw a slap at one of the other players in the level with you), and you can even change Sackboy's facial expression by pressing in different directions on the D pad. Simple controls combine with cute design to make Sackboys adorable right from the get-go.

By default, Sackboy is made out of a drab, brown burlap material, but you'll have tons of ways to customize your personal Sackboy on the fly. By pressing the square button you bring up a menu where you can choose from different heads, body materials, and accessories. With just a few clicks of the X button, we were able to outfit our Sackboy with a fancy top hat, a superhero cape, a dandy Wyatt Earp moustache, and a pirate's hook hand. Anyone playing the game with you--and the game will support up to four players either online or offline at any given time--will be able to customize their Sackfolk with similar ease and variety.

But this is quite literally just scratching the surface of the amount of depth found in LBP's customization. The next level comes with stickers and a host of different shapes and colors, which are available also by pressing the square button and going to a menu. Stickers can be stamped on any existing object in the world, and it's as easy as moving the template sticker where you like and pressing the X button. You can place as many as you like in the world, and the game is smart enough to have stickers wrap around 3D objects in an intelligent manner.

In addition to slapping stickers wherever you like, you'll also be able to create objects from thin air in LBP, using a simple tool that the developer has been refining since it debuted the game at the 2007 Game Developers Conference. Now, summoning an object from nowhere is as simple as, once again, going to the build menu by pressing the square button, selecting the item you want, and stamping it into the world. You can stamp an item as many times as you like and, once you press the square button again, your summoned items will appear--if you've created them in thin air, they will fall to the ground, demonstrating the game's intensive physics engine. The E3 demo of the game featured a good number of items to create including spongelike squares, woven bowls, and chili peppers as well as a huge host of simple objects made of metal, wood, and various cloth materials. Developers are promising many more shapes and objects to build with in the final build of the game, as well as downloadable content in the future.

These simple objects can easily turn into quite complex ones with the help of some simple helper parts and tools that greatly expand the depth of creation in the game. For instance, creating an object on the outside edge of another will cause them to merge when you finish their summoning, resulting in a shape that is the combined result of the two basic forms. As an example, the two Media Molecule developers quickly created a wooden snowman-like construct using only resized circles--you can resize and twist shapes in the world before you summon them by manipulating the right stick.

Other tools in the game include a simple bolt that will help you mechanically attach one object to another, glue splats you can place in order to stick two parts together, and cogs which add movement to your object. To demonstrate, the developers created a working wooden tank from several precut wooden shapes and what looked to be yarn spools. After gluing the main part of the tank's body together, the developers attached bolts to the yarn spools and then stuck those on the tank body to create a working tread. It's important to note that multiple players can work on the same object (or create separately) at the same time in LBP--indeed, both developers were busy constructing their own individual parts of the vehicle. The whole process took maybe two minutes and, after it was done, the two Sackboys were able to ride on the rolling tank; they even added some decorative stickers for added flair.

Another cool tool at your disposal is a "cut" tool that will let you remove sections of any object in the game. The cut tool comes in several shapes--square, circle, and triangle--and just like a "real" object, you can manipulate the size of a cut shape in order to remove exactly what you want. An easy example of the cut tool was a huge wooden block, which the developers sliced sections from in order to create a makeshift staircase the Sackboys could then climb to progress through the level. In our experimentation, we noticed that when cutting a hole in the middle of a fabric object, the game will intelligently "stitch" the remaining fabric around the new hole.

So what do you use all of this customization for? The easy answer is just to mess around and have a good time. The more compelling answer is to create objects you can share with your friends. Any object you create can be sent to a friend, who can then add on or subtract from it, and send it on to someone else, essentially creating an endless cycle of creativity as the object moves around from player to player. Developers showed off a couple of examples of objects created by Media Molecule staff simply using the shapes and tools found in the demo build--standout examples included a huge lumbering, mechanical dinosaur, and an absolutely mind-blowing binary adding machine made out of wood.

Beyond exercising your creative juices on objects, the larger goal for the create tools in LBP are to create entirely new levels that will complement the game's already premade levels. By stacking levels with created objects--levers, pulleys, obstacles to transverse, even a makeshift skateboard like the one shown in the GDC demo--you can create entirely new levels in the game and share them with others. LBP players worldwide will be able to rate your levels or objects, so the more skill you show with your creations, the more recognition you can earn from your adoring public. In addition to all of the different objects, you'll be able to swap new backgrounds in the game, The demo showed off a tranquil Japanese garden, a spooky cemetery, and a dusty desert setting complete with the dried skull of a bull in the background. According to producers, levels will come in different sizes depending on the size of the background. In addition, there will be some limitations to the amount of objects that can be present in the level at any given moment as well as the size of the object. In the latter case, however, the restrictions don't seem to be that bad--the developers showed off an absolutely massive tower built of metal squares that loomed over the tiny Sackboys.

With a game as open-ended as this, it's scary to think where LittleBigPlanet will be in roughly a year, which is the tentative release window. With that much time to pack content, shapes, tools, and new levels into the game, LittleBigPlanet looks well on its way to being one of the standout games on the PlayStation 3. It's a long wait until next year, but we'll be keeping you up to date on all the latest on the game in the coming months, so stay tuned.

 

[DorkyFresh]

surprisingly, out of all the games featured at E3 this one has caught my attention the most. it wasn't MGS4, Killzone 2, Call of Duty 4, GTA 4, or Halo 3.....it was LittleBigPlanet.

as simple as the premise is, it seems like i'd probably have the most genuine fun playing LittleBigPlanet...

 

[KALEL114]

The vissuals are just stunning. I can see myself playing this alot. The game play could be never ending with all of the customization and level sharing. I am super hyped for this game.

 

[A.J.Rimmer(BSC)]

Looks AWESOME.

 

[KALEL114]

Nice little interview.

http://www.n4g.com/ClickOut.aspx?ObjID=52660

 

[KALEL114]

TGS 2007: LittleBigPlanet Hands-on
Get the scoop on lip-synched VoIP, a public beta and more.
by Patrick Kolan, IGN AU
Australia, September 19, 2007 - As TGS gets underway for wayfaring businessmen and women of the wider world, tonight Sony graciously held a pre-event hands-on with all the titles to be displayed on the show floor here in Tokyo - and IGN stayed up late to bring you the sweet, sweet candy. Although Killzone 2 was mysteriously absent, LittleBigPlanet was being shown in all its inoffensive glory. After being one of the few titles to demonstrate the processing and gameplay capabilities of the PS3, this year's Tokyo Game Show has already brought with it a couple of revelations ahead of Sony's press conference.

The first and most game-structure-significant is the Pod. This is the handle being applied to your personal space ship - basically a glorified starting menu screen from which you can access several different modes; Play - pre-designed maps, Friends - your friends list and their creations; Messages - a basic messaging service integrated with your friends list; Creations - the do-it-yourself design mode; and Me - your personal character customisation menu.

'Fluff' is the key to unlocking all sorts of new items and customisation options. Looking a lot like faintly glowing marshmallows, Fluff is scattered in strings of five or more, sometimes hidden behind hard-to-reach areas. Collecting Fluff becomes an essential gameplay mechanic from the get-go. Without some sort of unlocking process, how could new items be unlocked, after all? It's a bit of a worn concept, but by scattering Fluff in strange places around the level, it creates a compelling reason to experiment with the physics.



Racing! Woo! Just wait until the beta kicks off.
We also played a new level, 'The English Garden'. This was, according to Technical Director Alex Evans, assembled neatly inside of a couple of hours by one of the designers especially for the show. Whether or not it makes it into the final game (and we wager it will, since Evans also mentioned that they're aiming for "a whole bunch" of levels in the final release, The English Garden is a whole lot of fun.

Designed for two players, which is how we played, the level introduces cooperative skateboard racing - a case of both players standing on the starting grid in front of the skateboard deck - and then one player hopping onto it with X while the other player pulls the deck with R1 until it is over the starting hump. In a nut, any player can create a race in their course, creating conditions, jumps, hazards and whatever kinds of twisted opportunities for sick air they want, wrapping it up in a time limit that they think is fair. Then, this race can be competed on with your friends or anyone who downloads your course, competing for points and score-table glory.

The other big revelation is that LittleBigPlanet will feature VoIP and all the characters are actually lip-synched; when you talk, their adorable oversized gobs will babble away, which is always entertaining. This feature wasn't demonstrated, but will apparently feature in the press conference. Beyond this, although Evans was non-commital on a release date, he did mention that there were plans for a slow roll-out of a public beta this year starting, jokingly, with his mother and expanding bit by bit from there. Sign us up, please.

The customisation continues to expand with the introduction of Fluff and accessories.
Also newly revealed to us was the ability to, in addition to using your own photos as background textures, being able to place 2D objects in the fore-, middle- and background. We were shown all manner of simple accessories, as they've been dubbed, that add just a smidge more to the gameplay, but go a long way towards making your creation look distinct. Flags, posts, bolts of fabric, rolls of cusions, stickers, decals, metal grates and numerous other simple accessories were shown.

It was also revealed that the game's custom levels can be simply and automatically themed to suit your tastes. We saw two different themes, adjusting the basic background texture and object sets to suit - the Japanese Garden looked much as you'd imagine it - pagoda-style stonework, mossy paths, cloudy sky and so on. The Pier theme was all about worn wood plank floors, rusty bolts and old stonework. We're guessing there are another six or so themes built in at least.

On the subject of downloadable content, the team at Media Molecule have already got big plans for all sorts of items, themes and more. They wouldn't go into specifics as yet, but this is clearly the sort of game that would greatly benefit from as much fresh content as possible, as often as feasible.

Apart from all of this, the game is looking and playing as well as it did at E3. We're confident that this is going to be one of the key releases of early 2008, when we expect it to finally ship. Stay tuned for more coverage from the Tokyo Game Show floor in the coming hours and days.
http://www.n4g.com/ClickOut.aspx?ObjID=68650