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Forums - Sony Discussion - Why didn't sackboy become bigger?

I wrote a thread on what sackboy and lbp should be. I think lbp really had potential to be a huge iconic franchise, but they dropped the ball completely.



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theprof00 said:
I wrote a thread on what sackboy and lbp should be. I think lbp really had potential to be a huge iconic franchise, but they dropped the ball completely.

Got a link to this thread, or care to share the general gist?



curl-6 said:
theprof00 said:
I wrote a thread on what sackboy and lbp should be. I think lbp really had potential to be a huge iconic franchise, but they dropped the ball completely.

Got a link to this thread, or care to share the general gist?

looking for it now.



As a character design, Sackboy is too generic. I've asked people, who have not played the game, what they thought of the character and they they said he's ugly. The character design must have personality even outside of context, and Sackboy just fails at that. He lacks interesting color or any distinguishing quirk or feature that separates him from common toys. Customisability just don't cut it to be a proper mascot.

The LBP games themselves, while interesting when you've actually played them, feels really floaty. I'm comparing its play style to Mario of course, the biggest platformer game out there. I wish they did not rely too much on generic physics feel of the game, but instead fine tuned the game to make it feel better than real world physics like what most platformer games do.



code.samurai said:

As a character design, Sackboy is too generic. I've asked people, who have not played the game, what they thought of the character and they they said he's ugly. The character design must have personality even outside of context, and Sackboy just fails at that. He lacks interesting color or any distinguishing quirk or feature that separates him from common toys. Customisability just don't cut it to be a proper mascot.

The LBP games themselves, while interesting when you've actually played them, feels really floaty. I'm comparing its play style to Mario of course, the biggest platformer game out there. I wish they did not rely too much on generic physics feel of the game, but instead fine tuned the game to make it feel better than real world physics like what most platformer games do.

He's supposed to look generic, he's meant to be a blank slate perfectly customizable for anybody. You create your own sackboy using LBP. 

Edit: Pic not showing up.



Sigs are dumb. And so are you!

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Mensrea said:
curl-6 said:
I've only played Little Big Planet 1, but the game itself just wasn't good enough to propel its lead to mascot status.


Really? I found it absolutely refreshing. The platforming is floaty, but the single player is well designed, and the sheer scope and variety in the community kept me at it for hundreds of hours.


You're not the only one.  Don't kid yourself LBP was an amazing unique series everyone I knew loved (Even non-gamers were blown away).  

 

I really think it lacked the heavy marketing and attention it needed.  If I remember correctly massive exclusives came out next to every LBP release.  They should have championed that game like crazy.  Hopefully in a couple years they will reboot it on PS4 and use their new marketers (Who are clearly better than the PS3 era ones) to get this game to where it should be.  Then again MM is supposedly working on some new game and I don't think they will disapoint...



not enough cotton maybe?



Fusioncode said:
code.samurai said:

As a character design, Sackboy is too generic. I've asked people, who have not played the game, what they thought of the character and they they said he's ugly. The character design must have personality even outside of context, and Sackboy just fails at that. He lacks interesting color or any distinguishing quirk or feature that separates him from common toys. Customisability just don't cut it to be a proper mascot.

The LBP games themselves, while interesting when you've actually played them, feels really floaty. I'm comparing its play style to Mario of course, the biggest platformer game out there. I wish they did not rely too much on generic physics feel of the game, but instead fine tuned the game to make it feel better than real world physics like what most platformer games do.

He's supposed to look generic, he's meant to be a blank slate perfectly customizable for anybody. You create your own sackboy using LBP. 

Edit: Pic not showing up.


lol.  The OP asked why Sackboy didn't become a mascot.  To be a mascot, you have to have a solid character design right off the bat.   That is why Sackboy didn't become a mascot.  His base design might look cute when animated, but to everyone who doesn't know which game he's in, he looks like a crappy toy.  Color looks bad, and this is an interesting point from a friend of mine who's buying a gift that her nephew asked her to get "This toy is too expensive, I wouldn't mind the price if the toy isn't ugly."  She didn't see the context of Sackboy outside of the game, that's how she formed her opinion.

I may have some gaps in my explanation, I often fail to explain everything because I think details may be self-explanatory by reading between the lines.  So I tend to gloss over the obvious, even though they might not be so obvious.  Ask away.



code.samurai said:
Fusioncode said:
code.samurai said:

As a character design, Sackboy is too generic. I've asked people, who have not played the game, what they thought of the character and they they said he's ugly. The character design must have personality even outside of context, and Sackboy just fails at that. He lacks interesting color or any distinguishing quirk or feature that separates him from common toys. Customisability just don't cut it to be a proper mascot.

The LBP games themselves, while interesting when you've actually played them, feels really floaty. I'm comparing its play style to Mario of course, the biggest platformer game out there. I wish they did not rely too much on generic physics feel of the game, but instead fine tuned the game to make it feel better than real world physics like what most platformer games do.

He's supposed to look generic, he's meant to be a blank slate perfectly customizable for anybody. You create your own sackboy using LBP. 

Edit: Pic not showing up.


lol.  The OP asked why Sackboy didn't become a mascot.  To be a mascot, you have to have a solid character design right off the bat.   That is why Sackboy didn't become a mascot.  His base design might look cute when animated, but to everyone who doesn't know which game he's in, he looks like a crappy toy.

I may have some gaps in my explanation, I often fail to explain everything because I think details may be self-explanatory by reading between the lines.  So I tend to gloss over the obvious, even though they might not be so obvious.  Ask away.

Says who? Master Chief became a mascot and he's as bland as you can get.



curl-6 said:
theprof00 said:
I wrote a thread on what sackboy and lbp should be. I think lbp really had potential to be a huge iconic franchise, but they dropped the ball completely.

Got a link to this thread, or care to share the general gist?

Couldn't find it, but basically:
Every new game that came out should have included costume and levels for LBP. They should have had a designer spend every waking moment just making levels and costumes for Sony games and franchises. Also, after a certain point, LBP should have been a pack in. Yes, it should have been pre-installed on the system. And even just maybe they could have went a step further and somehow made an alternative UI using LBP. Like, 'ps3-junior', with an option for regular XMB.

LBP should have tied everything together in the same way that smash brothers does. Sony finally understood this strategy later on when they decided to develop ps all stars. The idea for Nintendo is that SSB revitalizes and piques interest in franchise characters and games, and so with growing interest in other IPs, it helps to generate sales for them, while keeping the iconic characters relevant and in sight without requiring mainline title entries. It took Sony YEARS to figure this out, and it is exactly why they made psabr.

LBP should have been this 5 years ago. Instead they spent money on a brawler that by and large failed at retail and strategically.