Media Molecule's: LittleBigPlanet

["Nerve-Damage"]

The team behind LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule, has been discussing the background to its eye-catching game in an exclusive Develop interview - and has plenty of good things to say about host format PS3.

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"We had soft body physics and things like that running early on because we got lots of other smaller things sorted out or decided before hand – and even with all that in place there’s still loads more headroom. The PS3 has this insane quantity of power, which seems to take a cloth simulator, and then lots more you want to throw at it. It’s just a really enjoyable machine to code for."

The team's other technical director Dave Smith says that the new format was ideal for the new team, which came together after their part-time indie PC game project (they all previously worked at Lionhead) Rag-Doll Kung Fu turned industry heads.

"We’ve come to the PS3 without baggage," explained Smith: "If you arrive with legacy code it just doesn’t work.

That seems to be the theme with PS3 that legacy code sucks on it. IMO…I’m glad developers would have to strive for something better or a different way of thinking/programming the PS3.

 

[mrcorbo]

That seems to be the theme with PS3 that legacy code sucks on it. IMO…I’m glad developers would have to strive for something better or a different way of thinking/programming the PS3.

I don't know why you would see this as an absolute advantage. Did it ever occur to you that some of that "legacy code" may actually represent the most efficient way of accomplishing a certain task and that the Cell-friendly code may at best hope to be equally efficient? In these cases the developer is having to spend time re-solving an already solved problem instead of solving new ones.

I am quite certain there will be a lot of cases where developers will be able to exploit the strengths of the PS3 to do things in a much more efficient/better way. And I am equally certain there will be some cases where they are basically having to re-invent the wheel.

 

["Nerve-Damage"]

I don't know why you would see this as an absolute advantage. Did it ever occur to you that some of that "legacy code" may actually represent the most efficient way of accomplishing a certain task and that the Cell-friendly code may at best hope to be equally efficient? In these cases the developer is having to spend time re-solving an already solved problem instead of solving new ones.

I am quite certain there will be a lot of cases where developers will be able to exploit the strengths of the PS3 to do things in a much more efficient/better way. And I am equally certain there will be some cases where they are basically having to re-invent the wheel.

I wouldn’t say it's a disadvantage either…

From what I read/heard the PS3 just doesn’t do good with legacy code or previous platform code (i.e. Xbox 360). I feel developers (who have the resources) should develop from or on the PS3 from the ground up. Not fluffing/buffing/crimping code over from another platform.