The LittleBigPlanet pre-release Saga

[cthellis42]

That game is beyond cute.

Makes me wonder what kind of amazing a next gen Katamari Damacy could deliver.

I gots ta have my silly games!

 

[EricVonZipper]

Looks Fantastic!

Any idea of the resolution? Hope it's 1080p.

 

[rounin]

Stylish 2-D platform-like gameplay will probably never go out of style. By keeping it 2D, they've essentially made it easy as well to customize and build your own stuff from scratch. I hope that the constraints on level dimensions are very low such that you can scale it however big you want so people can replicate or make what they've always wanted in the classic games like Sonic or Mario, and then mix and match that with new gameplay concepts. In a way, it could allow people to make a mulitplayer New Super Mario with better graphics, sound, and gameplay.

 

[DieH@rd]

Looks Fantastic!

Any idea of the resolution? Hope it's 1080p.

Dont know about 1080p, but Playsyde.com has 720p@60pfs footage!

 

[Natoma]

Little Big Planet looks quite compelling. First thing I thought was "Pixar Movie meets Pikmin".

Now if only Sony would lower the damn price, I'd be interested in getting a PS3 to play this game.

 

[Titanio]

Given it's made by the guys who developed Rag Doll Kung-Fu what's the chances that this will use SIXAXIS as a puppet like control (i.e. they are manakins)?

High. From the conference it looked like the Sixaxis controlled head motion. At the end they bowed their heads by 'bowing' the sixaxis forward.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

My guess is tilt controls the upper body, with sticks for the arms. That'd be the simplest, most intuitive way to get the range of actions they were managing.

 

[blakjedi]

Very next generation. I am extremely impressed. I hope the next Viva Pinata can approach the realism in terms of texture and lighting of this title.

 

[Titanio]

My guess is tilt controls the upper body, with sticks for the arms. That'd be the simplest, most intuitive way to get the range of actions they were managing.

Yeah, sticks were definitely for arms, they mentioned that. You can move both independently. I presume sticks also control movement, so you probably toggle between general movement and arm movement by holding another button or something. I don't think the d-pad controls movement as they said you used that 'emote', change the facial expression.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Very next generation. I am extremely impressed. I hope the next Viva Pinata can approach the realism in terms of texture and lighting of this title.

That's an interesting topic in itself. From the .pdf, my first guess is this game uses the third technique which is suited to 2.5D games. It likely won't be adaptable to conventional 3D games, and alternative solutions would need to be found. Ultimately every game gunning for a realistic 3D look (solid 3D world, and not necessarily photorealistic) is going to need some GI type illumination.

 

[zed]

I just love this picture.

very nice, reminds me of sonic youths dirty album cover (and also within the album are more pictures of various homemade creatures, unfortunately i mistakely left that cd in a cd player that i abandoned in oz )

notice the lack of bloom in that picture, IMO this is how it should be done, letting the DOF handle the edge softening

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yeah, sticks were definitely for arms, they mentioned that. You can move both independently.

I was getting confused by the GI.biz interview. They mention left stick for arms, right for legs, but that was the prototype they showed Sony.

Incidentally, when companies 'show Sony', who exactly do they show? We had the same thing with NT showing Heavenly Sword. They certainly can't be showing it to the entire corporate population of Sony! There must be a person or group that deals with acquiring developers. Is Phil Harrision involved at this low level? Or is it mysterious ninjas in suits and dark glasses, who remain nameless and only smile and nod if they like a product?

notice the lack of bloom in that picture, IMO this is how it should be done, letting the DOF handle the edge softening

Bloom is there, but realistically subtle (nice to see devs with artistic taste in using CG effects!). Notice it on the space-helmets glow, very apparent early on in the four player footage.

 

[Titanio]

I was getting confused by the GI.biz interview. They mention left stick for arms, right for legs, but that was the prototype they showed Sony.

Incidentally, when companies 'show Sony', who exactly do they show? We had the same thing with NT showing Heavenly Sword. They certainly can't be showing it to the entire corporate population of Sony! There must be a person or group that deals with acquiring developers. Is Phil Harrision involved at this low level? Or is it mysterious ninjas in suits and dark glasses, who remain nameless and only smile and nod if they like a product?

I think it was Pete Smith of Sony Liverpool. On their site, they mention in their (funny) story of how they began that they met an important looking guy called 'Pete'..and now, Pete Smith is their producer. Although I should say, that in their telling of the story they plied 'Pete' with alcohol and mugged him for his clothes, but I think the coincidence is too high..

Also, Media Molecule has updated their site with a page on LBP!!

http://www.mediamolecule.com/

 

[NERO]

I normally choose to critique graphics when they are in motion but the "beenie babie" pic takes my breath away. It looks ab so lute ly fa ri gin amazning. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

 

[Jesus2006]

This game's just great. Graphics, gameplay, physics beyond comparison :smile: Definately a step ahead of anything.

Any release date?

EDIT:

Probably end of the year?

Sony has a huge hit on its hands here although frustratingly it won't be available until the Autumn - and then only in demo form on the PlayStation network.

I'm guessing that Sony wanted to get something of the game into the hands of users as soon as possible.

The response to the game in the conference hall was ecstatic - this is an industry that has "seen it all before" but many left with the sense that LittleBigPlanet was something special.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2007/03/a_whole_new_world_1.shtml

Some more screenshots in high def:

http://www.gfdata.de/archiv03-2007-gamefront/2857.html

 

[pjbliverpool]

Oh man this game looks amazing! Im so jealous of PS3 owners now

I know it will never come to the 360 but please please pleeeeeaaaase release it on the PC aswell

Imagine these graphics with some high level AA aswell

 

[Gradthrawn]

A small Gamasutra interview, but with some interesting information. Covers how the company was formed, their relationship with SCE, their initial goals with the project and so on.

Immediately the company set out to make a simple 2D PC prototype intended to give Sony an example of what they had in mind. The demo, which the pair showed at the session, was a super-flat representation of what they had shown with LittleBigPlanet earlier in the day, with a simple character interacting with a flat shaded physical world, demonstrating an impressive amount of expressiveness even rendered in basic wireframe.

Though the two had grander and more ambitious concepts for the game, they decided to play it safer for the meeting and toned it down, taking out the 'age of aquarius,' and were surprised when Sony saw the demo and said, "We love it, but can we have more of the age of aquarius stuff?"

Evans said that another large part of the studio's success at getting from nothing to a major reveal was simply the decision to stay single platform. Starting with an early PS3 dev kit, the company decided not to work up a 3D PC prototype, instead focusing on the most difficult part of the PS3, the Cell processor, and embracing it.

"We went multiprocessor from the beginning, went multicore, and not having legacy code to hamper that code was such a blessing," said Evans.

Finally, asked what it felt like to have the past year of their work out in the open with the earlier demo, Evans, who later told Gamasutra that it was honestly the first time since the morning's keynote that he'd taken it all in and assessed how he felt, after a quick mental check said he might be suffering from "post-natal depression," but added that he realizes there's still a mountain to climb: "actually making the game."

 

[chris100]

The concept and technology in this trailer is awesome,could be easily INSTANT CLASSIC.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A small Gamasutra interview, but with some interesting information.

It's actually the press conference already spoken of in other news links. An important point is 'age of aquarius' in this context means keeping the game open to user content.

Also worth mentioning is...

Concepting was also a large part in resolving what the company had termed their "screwdriver fights," settling, for instance, an early battle about how a 2D physics engine could function in a 3D world.

...which I think confirms the use of a 2D physics engine. That and the fact the 3D objects only rotate on one axis, it'd be silly to have a full 3D solver churning around doing lots of calculations that have no impact on the sim.

 

[Arwin]

Now if only Sony would lower the damn price, I'd be interested in getting a PS3 to play this game.

By the time the game comes out I'm sure we'll have had at least one, maybe even two price drops.