Mon, Aug 23, 2010 | 06:50 BST
gamescom: MM pushes limits of Play, Create, Share with LBP2
Media Molecule was demoing LittleBigPlanet 2 at gamescom this month in a Sony booth full of 3D tech, Move games and very, very weird seating arrangements – and yet it still managed to stand out from the crowd. I got a brief 15 minutes with the level creation suite to see just how far LBP2 can push the “Play, Create, Share” concept.
LittleBigPlanet 2 isn’t just about doing more – though you definitely can do more with its new level creation tools – it’s about doing it quicker. Tasks that used to take several days in the old LBP creation suite now take a tenth as much time. There are quicker, easier ways to compose your own music, link levels together and make full-blown, bite-size games rather than adorable levels which, despite their hilarious recreations of Mirror’s Edge, Metal Gear Solid and even Shadow of the Colossus, limited you to running, jumping and admiring.
Media Molecule can tell us all it wants about physics parameters, sequencing and gyroscopes, but the only way to understand how LittleBigPlanet 2 is different is by looking at what you can make with it. We’re shown a top-down racetrack where two little sackboys can leap into furry rat-shaped karts, which careen skittishly around the track, slipping around corners thanks to a new gravity option that lets you unstick things slightly from the world.
There’s also an incredibly impressive Robocop walker that fires globs of fire ahead of it – you can even use sixaxis tilting to control its direction of fire. A gyroscope option lets you tell it to reset to neutral after a few seconds. Vehicles are clearly a strength of the new creation tools – we also see a little tank game, where you can tell the game to dissolve an opponent’s tank after it’s been hit three times. You can have proper competitive games that involve more than collecting.
It’s the puzzle stuff that blows my mind though. I’m shown a level about halfway through the story mode where you have to control two Sackboys simultaneously, getting them both to stand on switches to open a doors. It’s space-age lateral thinking along the lines of Echochrome, and really shows what you can do with the game if you think outside the platforms.
The people behind this full-featured reimagining of LittleBigPlanet have not only made things easier for the community, they’ve made things easier for themselves. All of LBP2′s story levels were created in this new set of tools, and Media Molecule reckons that’s just the beginning.
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Posted in: Hot, PS3, Platformer, Puzzler, Sony, gamescom 2010
Tags: littlebigplanet 2, media molecule
13 comments
#1
Dannybuoy
23/08/10, 7:29 am
The more I hear about LBP2, the more excited I become. I loved the first. I even loved the floaty controls. Sure the depth mechanic led to some unfair deaths now and again but it got away with it due to the mind boggling creativity in display at every turn. If the tools are simpler and easier to use then great. I spent about 2 weeks creating a level that was basic at best and I just didn’t have the time to create all the ideas I had whilst day dreaming. Hopefully 2 will cut back on most of the fiddly stuff and allow me to properly create my magnum opus. Roll on launch day.
#2
Michael O’Connor
23/08/10, 10:13 am
I do have one question to ask…
…where the hell are they supposed to go from here?
#3
Suikoden Fan
23/08/10, 10:23 am
4D?
#4
Aimless
23/08/10, 10:25 am
A full 3D editor that you won’t see until the next hardware generation.
I think they’re good to build on 2 for the next few years, and creating a user-friendly 3D editor is going to take a long, long time.
#5
Blerk
23/08/10, 10:40 am
I actually think they’ve gone the wrong way this time out. More things wasn’t what was needed, more usability was what was needed. The editor in the first one was super-powerful but needed super commitment to do…. well…. anything. If anything it feels too powerful, everything’s just so time-consuming and so fiddly. I’d have liked to have seen them put in a simpler version of the editor rather than a more complicated one.
#6
ExclusivesMostly
23/08/10, 10:47 am
LBP2 is a must buy for me.
@ Keza: nice job on the Sony liveblog, I enjoyed it (a surprise to me really)
#7
Gekidami
23/08/10, 10:48 am
@Blerk
You may actually want to read the article…
#8
ExclusivesMostly
23/08/10, 11:05 am
Those seating arrangements look rather fun, albeit unusual.
#9
Gekidami
23/08/10, 11:07 am
Not sure what was up with the seating, they also had people lying down on ortopsy slabs and sitting on toilets.
#10
Erthazus
23/08/10, 11:11 am
@4 You are joking right? you saw Mario Galaxy? and it is on the Wii. Everything is possible here, nothing complicated to do a 3D Sackboy game with editor.
There is already a SPORE game.
#11
onlineatron
23/08/10, 11:48 am
@10
… You confound me sometimes.
How does Mario Galaxy being in the Wii affect it being a complicated title?
More so, what relevance does your post have in response to Aimless’s statement?
#12
Redh3lix
23/08/10, 11:52 am
I personally don’t understand why people say the creator was fiddly tbh. It was and still is very simple to create anything you want. Once I discovered the grid I found things much easier aswell.
#13
Kerplunk
23/08/10, 2:22 pm
I’ve dabbled with the toolset and I think it’s very well presented.
I think the underlying issue is that, actually, making games isn’t as easy as people assume it is. It’s easy to blame the tools but I think making a cohesive level is just a tricky thing to get right. Let alone a FUN cohesive level. I don’t think the worlds best tools will make that sort of thing easy, because it’s not about the tools.
After all, having the world’s best pen won’t automatically make you a brilliant writer, will it?
So, extra kudos to those amateur level designers that have gone beyond expectations with their creations. I can’t wait to see what LBP2 will bring.