Exclusive: LittleBigPlanet Expert's Guide - Level Design

Not a good sign when a game needs a video walkthrough accompaniment to show you how to get the most out of it.

i want to kill nobsack boy with fire

@morriss

Twat.

Christ man, you do say you're being open to the game but you REALLY stick your oar into it with every nugget you can get hold of!

Don't be deceived, this may look like a casual game, but it will be the hardcore level designers that spend hours and hours that build the community.

I don't know how many times I would make a level, or just start one level and edit it to make it better and better over time. This is pretty deep stuff, to get the most out of it you'd need to spend a lot of time learning aswell as building.

That front page pic looks like Scarecrow from Batman Begins.

hehe

You lot are so bloody easy.

'its not trolling I swear m'lud' ;)

He's right tho you are a twat, like an annoying schoolkid who thinks his pathetic pranks are funny.Troll somewhere else.

i do like the look of this game, bu i don't think i would be spending days creating levels. we'll see soon enough.

Insultsfromtheinternetlol

It's not trolling when it's true, btw. I know that hurts more than me saying, "IT'S SHIT!" but I can't be held responsible for that.

Looks amazing and I can't wait, but this seems far too complicated for a casual user to build levels.

I think the obvious plan is the casual gamers get the benefit of potentially endless content from yer hardcore gamers, Spazzfish. So they're still getting something a bit more than your general console platformer even if they aren't interested in the design tools

Lots of games get gameplay walkthroughs before they're out, the game doesn't "need" it but for people who want some tips with level creation, it's a good thing to do.

confused.com

But, learning is good, and this still looks like the best thing ever.

"Not a good sign when a game needs a video walkthrough accompaniment to show you how to get the most out of it."

Judging by the community-made levels that are already in the beta, it hardly NEEDS the video walkthroughs.
It's a nice extra for people who don't know where to start, but most people were getting by fine without it.

How is what you said true morriss? The game contains *some* complex elements - needed to ensure the user generated content has variety and longevity.

The best way to help people understand how this works is with tutorials and videos. This is what they've done. I can't see how this is anything but an incredibly good thing.

Games have had manuals, tutorials and other such content since the beginning. Why pick up on this instance?

Seriously though, in a sea of people who have been saying untold wonderful things with their hands on, be it the journalists or us on the beta, you really are coming across as desperately trying to fly the "its shit" crusade single handedly. Almost wishing shitness upon the game as a result of the attention its receiving. A victim of its own PR perhaps.

I pick up on it on a more political than personal level, DrDamn (thanks for asking the question and not swearing).

I pick up on it because this is supposed to be Sony's great unifier. This game will launch 1000 PS3s etc., and really put PS3 back on top. Sony execs have been saying this for a long while. However, the more I see of it, the more I see what is a great idea, but one that is lacking in certain areas of its execution and method.

Although, I think the core game will be very good, I still feel that even when I watch the levels on YouTube, you see sackboy getting stuck under something or the z-axis not functioning properly. (Check out the God War level when he needs to move in and out of the screen to avoid the rolling fireballs).

Also, I feel that the level design is going to be this "Wow, I can create anything!" at first, but after a month of fuck-ups and realisation that you simply don't have the time and energy that many people, both adults and children alike, will simply give up on it. Hence, it will not live up to its billing.

However, I know that I haven't played the full retail version yet so all the concerns - because that's all they are at the moment: concerns, not trolls, or being overly negative for the sake of it, genuine concerns after lengthy play of the Beta - could vanish as soon as it hits retail.

However I do understand that these concerns aren't shared by everybody. That's fine. But I'm certainly not going to stop expressing my opinion on what I see is a potential false Messiah for a lot of people.

Remember Sony knows that every "gamer" out there wants this game, but they want the casual market. The want to break down the wall, so to speak, and they want Sackboy to lead the charge. I don't think he's up to the job.

I also object to the "everyone else likes it, so you must be wrong" line. That's such an ugly, negative statement on so many levels.

@morriss

Its fair enough to voice concerns, and the points you make are quite valid (especially in your last post) but when you start 'hehe'ing when you 'wind people up' forgive me for thinking it looks a bit like trolling

I "hehe" after being called a twat and the insta-barrage that I get every time I don't reply with "This so is soooooo awesome".

I'm not going to stoop down to other people's levels and start shouting and swearing back so I laugh at them.

Wahey! Brilliant tutorial! I want moooooooooooooooore! :) :) :)

I haven't trolled the game. People really need to look up the meaning of that word.

Anyway, I like making sarcastic comments and am under no obligation to make every one in here happy by posting in a way that you all understand. However, DrDamn was polite enough to ask, so I answered.

heres the thing this game will be shit hot! anyone saying it is too complex is a complete nob..all it shows is that the possibility's for level design are huge!! if it were too simple it would get crap in a few hours of play..like halo 3's forge which is great but the creation isn't exactly endless..littlebigplanet is going to be awesome...simple as that!

Hmmmm..this video's kinda put me off the game. I guess I didn't really think too much about how much work it would take to get one of these levels working, can't see myself bothering with this. Really clever game, though not for me.

The game is not just a creation tool.

@morriss
The trolling comments I think are because your first two comments came across that way. The second implied the first comment was intended to deliberately provoke people and you were happy it did - that is trolling. If you actually meant the initial comment - aside from being wrong ;) - then it ain't.

Coming back to your reply. I understand the concerns you've put there, I'm not convinced they apply to the initial comment though. The whole play, create, share is for everyone - but this sort of complexity is not. It's there for those with the time and inclination to use. It's important that a video shows this side too though, so people with the inclination understand that quite complex things are possible with the tools - and it's not just limited to what the masses might want to do.

It also demonstrates a simple gameplay aspect many have misunderstood. There have been lots of comments previously that the game would be just "go from A to B" - run and jump etc - without objectives or structure. This vid demonstrates that not only are structure and objectives possible - but they are achievable with a large degree of freedom in the create mode.

Jesus.

Anyone would think morriss had made comments about someone's mum.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M BEING OVERLY DEFENSIVE!

Some of the levels already designed in the beta, without the use of these tutorials, are amazing.

@Fab4
The beauty is that it just needs one person to work it out publish it and then you can grab that level and work out how they did it. This sort of stuff really helps though.

I hae betaand i gotta say this game is good for creating but you just need 2 get your head around it

The people who doesnt like this game is either people not tried it out. or people that dont like cuddly platform games. simple as that really. me? i cant wait. the beta is awesome.

i have been lucky enough to play the beta over the last week or so, it really is a great game, i dont have that much spare time to be able to sit around all day createing these amazing levels so i generally just play through the one that users have already created, and allot of them are brillient.
yes there will be a steap learning curve in regards to the creating of wonderful levels but its not as hard as some people are making out.
i published a level within a few hours of finishing the tutorials, it wasnt a masterpiece by any means but it certainly teached me a few things so now when the full game is released i will definately putting something interesting together over a period of a few days or so.
it does have its problems, like the z axis thing which can be annoying at first but you get use to the way it works and now i dont notice it.
if you are just into your shooters then dont bother, but if you like to create stuff and enjoy any sort of platformer then this will not dissapoint.

@morris
you WERE trolling and you know it!

There will always be moron's who think they are cool or clever for 'messing' with people but it's best if you just ignore them, it's pretty dull when you look at how often they do it and what that means about them personally.
Anyway I think this game looks superb and I think the walkthrough's are great for examples of how to get more out of the game. I've always loathed manuals and have never bothered with them myself, so a video walkthrough is a much prefered way for me to learn about a game, especially if I'm still waiting for it to be released. It's nice to see what you can do.

@morriss
"Also, I feel that the level design is going to be this "Wow, I can create anything!" at first, but after a month of fuck-ups and realisation that you simply don't have the time and energy that many people, both adults and children alike, will simply give up on it. Hence, it will not live up to its billing. "

I think you've missed the main thing most of us lack - talent.

I have a demanding job, demanding wife and a demanding toddler, and yet I've still found plenty of time to discover that I'm utterly talentless when it comes to platform game design.

I don't find the tools interface particularly difficult, and I am a software developer/designer by trade... but designing clever, interesting and beautiful-to-look at platform games is a skill I simply don't possess. I have zero art skills and little creative imagination for this particular thing. That's why I normally pay professional game designers to design a game for me. That's why, unless it comes bundled with an absolutely unmissable single-player story, I won't be bothering with this one.

Now once LBP has been released, I wonder, out of the entire PS3 user base, what percentage of people will discover the same thing?

besides the guy in the videon is not exactly good at explaining things!

I think this is all pretty damn cool, but it won't be for everyone. I'm a coder and love messing about with 'create by logic' toys like this, but a lot of people won't have the patience. All those other people will be able to play the levels of others though, and maybe there will be a secondary market where people who find the mechanics a bit complex just have fun decorating existing levels a bit nicer.

It's definitely very interesting and as a 360 owner I'm sad I won't be able to play it. I do however think it's a long shot to expect this to be a system seller.

Who said you even had to create levels you could create calculators or epic machines that complete the simplest of tasks. The game is giving you the tools to create almost anything you want even if your not that creative you could make yourself a kick ass tank or just download what other people have made. Even if you never use the level creator your still going to get people who will and there will be a lot of content from that.

Can't expect the great unwashed xbox contingent to love this game. There's no marines, guns or homoeroticism innit.

Although I would agree that the majority of people who get the game will not publish a level, the game is extremely inspiring to others.

I probably won't have the time to make to many levels but once you start playing around with the editor and playing other user generated levels, you start to see possibilities and get ideas that you would put into a level.

Playing this online with a few pals is great fun and it's just an incredibly charming game.

I've never really liked sidescrolling platformers. But, I have the beta and have spent well over 20 hours just messing around with user levels. Already more time than I get out of most games. Within 2 minutes of starting the game, I can be in the latest and greatest levels created that day. It's fast and slick and you're always wondering what suprises the next level will hold.

If the game sells just one million copies, and only the smallest fraction create decent levels (some will be outstanding) then I will have an endless supply of content. Plus, add in the upcoming downloadable content (ie disney characters) and the game is extended further. Plus, I can play and create with my kids. coop is a blast.

I haven't even touched the creation tools and probably won't except to maybe make a family level with stickers of family pictures (wish you could import from hdd..sigh).

No game can appeal to everyone, but everyone should give this one a chance.

I don't get the bit about the dissolving matter... I understand that the switch causes it to dissolve, but how does that then cause the switches on the dark matter to activate?

The switch keys are attached to the dissolving matter when the switch is activated it causes the matter to dissolve the keys then placed on the dissolving matter then touch the corresponding lock and activate the process. hope that makes sense.

Fuck me, I was zoning out after 3-4 minutes ...

This may be 'accessible' to the Flash programmers amongst us but it's hardly mass-appeal is it?!

"I pick up on it because this is supposed to be Sony's great unifier. This game will launch 1000 PS3s etc., and really put PS3 back on top. Sony execs have been saying this for a long while."

I think you'll find thats utter rubbish. Sony have been stating that they have a number of exclusive games coming this winter, LBP being one of them, along with Killzone2, Resistance2 etc. One thing is for certain, it's about time Sony had a console mascot of any kind and Sackboy fits the bill nicely. If they market it cleverly the game will be massive, getting content from people like Disney is genius.

"Also, I feel that the level design is going to be this "Wow, I can create anything!" at first, but after a month of fuck-ups and realisation that you simply don't have the time and energy that many people, both adults and children alike, will simply give up on it. Hence, it will not live up to its billing."

So a game can't live upto it's 'billing' because the public can't be arsed, what are you smoking? That isn't the fault of the game, the game is a tool. Some people will create levels of genius and others won't. At least this is a breath of fresh air and something new and inventive instead of Halo 4, Halo RPG, Halo Chess etc.

I think you'll find Yoshida, who is Mr. Sony - oh wait, that's you - said so. http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/09/01...

and there's also this: http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/08/12...

So it's this statement I'm arguing against. But you continue crying over the fact that someone doesn't like LBP as much as you do.

You really need to wipe the shit out of your eyes, mate.

"So a game can't live upto it's 'billing' because the public can't be arsed, what are you smoking? That isn't the fault of the game, the game is a tool. Some people will create levels of genius and others won't. At least this is a breath of fresh air and something new and inventive instead of Halo 4, Halo RPG, Halo Chess etc. "

For sure I give props to the inventiveness of it, especially vs the standard 360 fare but I think this is destined for 'cult hit' status and there'll be an awful lot of pre-owned copies floating around by Xmas ... It don't got legs.

"So it's this statement I'm arguing against. But you continue crying over the fact that someone doesn't like LBP as much as you do.

You really need to wipe the shit out of your eyes, mate."

What shit? I can't remember ever saying i'm in love with this game, from the beta im impressed but that's about it so far. I'm not crying about anything pal but i find it highly amusing how you take every opportunity to run it down. First in the forum and now here when an LBP article comes up.

As for your link, what's wrong with Sony saying LBP is a big title for them? It is, surely. Also they want a mascot, just like Nintendo have with Mario.

This video is REALLY helplfull. I had trouble grasping how camera zones worked and what the difference were between Dark Matter and the other materials.