GDC 2007: More On LittleBigPlanet
Timsy did an excellent job of summing up the innovation that is LittleBigPlanet - but since it dominated the second half of Phil Harrison's keynote, I figured I'd devote some time to sharing the first-person experience of what looks to be an absolute showstopper of a game. Hell, more than a game, LBP can be any number of games...and you'll be able to play (or make) them all.
LittleBigPlanet is the brain child of Media Molecule's Mark Healey and Alex Evans, who were on hand to help Harrison display the game, which hit a grand slam in terms of defining Sony's otherwise rather ambiguous "Game 3.0" pitch. When I first sat down in the auditorium, I was perplexed at the seemingly bizarre stage design: a cog, a tree, an orange, a soccer ball...what could these things possibly have in common?
Well, when Healy and Evans began to show how unbelievably simple the process of creating and editing the environment can be, it soon became clear. After demonstrating simple object placement and manipulation, they resized a block of wood, nailed a spinning cog to it, and soon decorated a new nearby tree with an orange and, you guessed it, a giant soccer ball. The cute little avatar grabbed hold of the spinning cog and was dragged atop it, where he began running - treadmill style - for his adorable little life. After a non-lethal tumble, the group fired up a series of customized avatars (Harrison's was a girl...) and began a cooperative run-through of a custom-built level, helping each other pull down blocks and surmount obstacles in various creative ways. They also competed for resources, racing each other to snag bits of fruit. The game ran like a 3D side-scrolling platfom, and the environments, which included wooden blocks, A Bug's Life-style ginormous garden and a cartoonish castle, displayed the obvious flexibility of the game.
Finally, the crew zoomed out of the level world to show what the LBP community might be like: gamer-built levels tacked onto a virtual globe, spinning with names, user comments, number of times played, etc. Paired together with the theoretical potential of the PlayStation Home dealie-bob, today was an ambitious and perhaps, future depending, auspicious day for an otherwise bedeviled Sony.
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 7 March 2007
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: gdc 2007, littlebigplanet, media molecule, phil harrison, ps3, sony
Who knew? Maybe Sony really is getting its shit together now that Kutaragi's been neutered.
Krazy Ken needed to be brought out back old yeller style. I think he picked up some of the mad cow in his old age. :(
And LittleBigPlanet looks awesome.