makingmusic476 on 27 February 2008
From NextGen.Biz:
LittleBigPlanet is now fundamentally complete, in pre-alpha bug-testing and due for a closed beta trial in early summer for some final tweaking. After that, the real work begins – ours. That might seem glib, even a little like an advertising line (something similar will doubtless market the title) but it’s fundamental to any assessment of the game that hopes to play bridesmaid to the next level of user-generated content on home consoles.
The more conventional side of the game is the ‘LittleBigStory’, with a basic narrative connecting over 50 levels to be played through with one to four players. Those players can be any mix of local and PSN sackboys, and each level only begins when each member is at the starting gate – it seems clear that, when the fundamentals are mastered, LittleBigPlanet’s basic levels put the emphasis on players racing each other to fluff (the basic pick-up for content creation in LittleBigStory) and to the next challenge.
The levels also now incorporate hazards that can ‘kill’ your sackboy, but death within the game is countered heavily by frequent respawn doors – it’s rare for all four players to fail at a single obstacle, so dying is more of a temporary inconvenience than an endpoint.
The levels also now incorporate hazards that can ‘kill’ your sackboy, but death within the game is countered heavily by frequent respawn doors – it’s rare for all four players to fail at a single obstacle, so dying is more of a temporary inconvenience than an endpoint.
Most excitingly, Media Molecule anticipates levels that act as hubs and simply point people in the direction of the best user created content: imagine a room with five doors, each one with a little screenshot and description of what’s through it. Those hubs will then become highly rated themselves and people will gain a reputation as good ‘sifters’, and become as important for the community as the creators themselves.
And there's a hell of a lot more in the actual article.
