Game Design, Gamer Culture, Playstation 3
The Idiot’s Guide to LittleBigPlanet Level Creation
If you’re anything like me, you anxiously awaited the release of Media Molecule’s groundbreaking PS3 title, LittleBigPlanet. It offers gamers a plethora of head-scratching levels, some interesting social environments, along with customizable characters and spaces all displayed within a beautiful art concept. Among all of these traits, LittleBigPlanet stands tall (ha) beside the competition as arguably the best platform title available for purchase this year. But its best feature is perhaps viewed as a bit more like a bonus; and that is the option that enables users to create customizable levels. All this creative freedom can amount to a bit of a headache for those trying to design beloved levels among the online masses, so this guide will provide you with the necessary steps to cleanly and concisely construct the creation of their dreams. So grab your controller and engage your thinking cap; this is Level Creation 101.
We have all been there: a cold, food poisoning, or even the flu, being home sick from work or school is never fun. However, there are ways to add a little bit of enjoyment to your day in-between trips to the porcelain palace. These are some of the easiest and most fun games to play while you’re sick.
We all love user-generated content. There’s something magical about being able to adventure into worlds that we crafted alongside our peers with a handful of tools and our imagination. It’s no secret that LittleBigPlanet has capitalized on this communal creativity, offering players a nearly limitless palette of set pieces and objects with which to design their own platforming masterpieces that are as much self-contained games as they are individual levels. It’s no surprise, then, that this massive tool box is capable of pumping out levels and items that look awfully similar to existing intellectual properties which are protected under copyright law. Despite fair use, Sony has decided to take no chances and are banning levels that contain what they believe to be copyrighted material.
LittleBigPlanet has been lavished with titles such as “system seller,” “innovative,” “cute,” “amazing,” “OMGWTFBBQ!!!” etc. As most people know, it is an interesting and ambitious game. But is it too ambitious? Is it, like Icarus, striving for something it cannot obtain? In order for it to be as successful as it’s been prophesied, it will need to cast its spell on the non-gamer. So I did an experiment. I found some non-gamers and made them play this game. The results are…well, see for yourself.
Players hoping to get their platform-jumping, level-creating juices flowing with the PS3’s LittleBigPlanet are going to have to wait another week, and not for the usual reasons. Instead of the normal “ensuring performance quality” hoopla we’re all used to, it seems LBP had a genuine problem: Arabic passages from the Quran had inadvertently been used in the game’s “Swinging Safari” level.
Can you remember when we played video games way back in the day? Saving was a rarity, the controller was like holding a brick, memory cards were mysteriously formatted, and playing online was limited to a couple of games on the Dreamcast? Times have changed, and you can hardly walk into a GameStop without running into a crazy innovation in gaming. Let’s discuss some of those innovations and see if your favorite makes the list!
Have you, for one reason or another, not bought a new-gen console yet? Well, it’s perhaps understandable—there are plenty of PC-only gamers, and for good reason—the most graphics-intense, most gigantic (MMORPGs!) games can be found on PC. There are also some of us who are just poor. But you want a reason to hold that controller lovingly. And good games are certainly not just about top-notch graphics and processing. Just which controller you choose remains to be seen. Here are GotGame’s “Jaw-Dropping Upcoming Exclusive Games: Reasons to Splurge on… (InsertConsoleHere).”