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twesterm on 25 August 2008
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forevercloud3000 said:
twesterm said:
forevercloud3000 said:
The_vagabond7 said:

Also @ cloud3000

when I was a kid, probably about 10, I had a computer program called "gamemaker 95" or some other digit at the end. There have been other iterations since then. It was almost exactly what LBP is, except it was 8 bit graphics. You could design everything from scratch with no programming knowledge. It was all intuitive and with a bit of tinkering and ingenuity you could learn to create some incredible things using the systems in place. It came with a handful of games to show you what you can do with it.

You could create your character sprite by sprite, animate him, give him whatever abilities and powers you wanted, create items, weapons, keys, anything. You created all the tiles with their own attributes to build the levels, you could make them damaging, add gravity, have them heal you, animate them. You could make it a side scrolling game by having the background tiles have downward gravity, or make it a top down game by making them lack any gravity. You created all of the enemies sprite by sprite, animate them, and then control very specifically how they would behave. You were limited only by your imagination and ingenuity. the goal of the levels were up to you, beginning points, end points, objectives, ect ect, all up to you. I made god knows how many games as a kid using that program, I loved it to death.

LBP will have better physics no doubt, but it's going to be more limited than even that program. You will always have sackboys, you can customize them, but they will always be sackboys. The physics is already set in place, and you have to work with it rather than create it. You can't create the abilities or animations of your characters or levels. they give you a construct, you work out what you can within it.

There have been innumerable games and programs with just as much if not more freedom to create than LBP. LBP planet's defining attribute is marketing, not revolutionary design.

What you just described is actually not a GAME at all. It is a program used to create games. Sounds just like RPG maker and if I am not mistaken, that was not a "GAME" either. That is where people are confused on the topic. In that case let me pull out my Unreal Engine, or GameMaker XP, they are loads of fun. These are game creating TOOLS. There is a huge difference between them and LBP which is actually a game.

See my point? There are virtually none(maybe some out there in the void of the internet) that do what LBP does. I just want people to stop trying to deflate LBP's hype by saying "Oh, its been done befoe, so what!".

 

 

While LBP will have premade levels (50 I think?), you're really just buying an editor and that's about it.  The games focus isn't on those 50 levels it comes with, the focus is on the things people create. 

So yes, LBP is easily lumped in with things like UT2k4 or whatever as games people buy just for the editor and not the actual game that comes with it.

the 50 levels are more of a campaign and less of templates which you find in a engine. The game is rumored to have a story of some kind as well. After you have finished the game you can do what you will with all the little pieces the game provides. Even if they did not have story, they would be no different then the droning levels of mario.

 

 

Those levels are there for two reasons:

  1. So they can say you're buying a game and not just an editor (even though you really are just buying the editor)
  2. Give you a template

They may turn it into a campaign, they may add a story, and I'm sure they will show some cool things but that still doesn't change the fact the focus on the game is creating.

And it's funny that you bring up Mario.  Super Mario Bros. has 36 levels and can easily be finished in a few hours.  Would you pay $60 for that?  Of course not.

So why would you pay $60 for 50 levels that you could more than likely finish in a day?  You wouldn't unless you are in fact an idiot or just don't care about the money.  You're spending $60 because you want to buy the level editor and share with other people.  Again, look at the focus of the game.