The LittleBigPlanet pre-release Saga

[Arwin]

How is this accomplished? Do you have each note of musical instruments available as a unique sound in the game?

You have a bunch of different sound items that for instance activate when something is near it, which contain a sample that you can also modify a bunch of parameters for. So you can create various monkey sounds using the monkey sample, and ditto with individual instruments.

@Robert1: the story mode contains about 50-60 levels if I remember correctly, playable with up to 4 players, with leaderboards for each and every one of them, etc. Should be a more than capable platformer in that respect!

And remember that many of the levels you've been playing online have been created in 5-15 hours, typically, by a limited group of people. Imagine what things will be like when people have been able to work on their levels for a few months, have learnt the strengths and weaknesses of the tool, learn from each other what kind of things you can do ... I think you'll end up being amazed. And it will be interesting to see how many other developer teams will create a level of their own, or create one for promotion purposes of their own game, etc.

They left in the key triggers so you can see how it works. I think that it could be possible to extend this idea and make a guitar hero like level where you have to move about to trigger the note and where the trigger releases points bubbles for each of the successfully triggered note.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

You have a bunch of different sound items that for instance activate when something is near it, which contain a sample that you can also modify a bunch of parameters for. So you can create various monkey sounds using the monkey sample, and ditto with individual instruments.

@Robert1: the story mode contains about 50-60 levels if I remember correctly, playable with up to 4 players, with leaderboards for each and every one of them, etc. Should be a more than capable platformer in that respect!

And remember that many of the levels you've been playing online have been created in 5-15 hours, typically, by a limited group of people. Imagine what things will be like when people have been able to work on their levels for a few months, have learnt the strengths and weaknesses of the tool, learn from each other what kind of things you can do ... I think you'll end up being amazed. And it will be interesting to see how many other developer teams will create a level of their own, or create one for promotion purposes of their own game, etc.

They left in the key triggers so you can see how it works. I think that it could be possible to extend this idea and make a guitar hero like level where you have to move about to trigger the note and where the trigger releases points bubbles for each of the successfully triggered note.

Cool! but i think sackboys movement speed is quite slow for such a game, but people can come up with the strangest workarounds sometimes !

 

[goonergaz]

I would have thought you'd simply require the SB to hit less notes than a prper GH game...effectively meaning altho SB is slow he's fast enough to hit the required notes? After all, that's how GH works for the easier levels isn't it?

 

[Arwin]

Sure. You'd put Sackboy on a moving platform going upwards at whatever speed you like, and make him control a pick that contains the sensor, for instance.

Some more cool stuff on youtube:

Amazing helicopter:

Funny (and nice looking car):

 

[RenegadeRocks]

The helicopter is so fucking cool ! I want my Contra level now !

One question: When people have built a custom level with custom made objects, then when you want to play it, you will have to download it to your HDD to play it , right? Does it take a lot of time to download? or ,as the objects are made through boolean operations, are they very small in size like Spore worlds?

 

[Arwin]

The helicopter is so fucking cool ! I want my Contra level now !

One question: When people have built a custom level with custom made objects, then when you want to play it, you will have to download it to your HDD to play it , right? Does it take a lot of time to download? or ,as the objects are made through boolean operations, are they very small in size like Spore worlds?

Yeah like Spore. The only thing that can add to the size of the download is when someone goes overboard with different PS Eye pictures in his level, but even those don't add much weight currently, due to the small size of the grabs and the compression (and the maximum amount of different shots is probably limited too). I doubt levels end up being more than a few megabyte typically.

You do it all the time when you play an online level. When you copy the level you do it because you want it in your edit world. Once it's there you can take anything from that level unless it's locked.

The original creator of an object can always be viewed under detailed information on the object by the way. It will say who latest modified it, and who made the original. Very nice.

 

[Arwin]

This is fun, a codeswarm rendition of the LBP project, which you can see starting with Alex, and then grow from there right up to this weekend:

http://vimeo.com/1825138?pg=embed&sec=1825138

It makes me want to use Eclipse.

 

[deepbrown]

After spending about 5 hours with it today, I'd have to say, content creation means 0 to me and it'd be fun to play a user made level on occasion but it's the actual single player I want to know about. Is there a story of any sort and how many levels? I'll be strictly looking for that feedback in the reviews. I'm basically looking for SMG level platforming and single player.

The game itself is rather cute with lots of options but I'm not the type to sit there and make a level in any game, ever. I just like to play the game. User made levels are cool. I played Heist 1 and Hiest 2. Both were good but still can't hold a candle to the actual game levels in terms of presentation. I'm sure some nutjobs will put even more effort in! but still that's a crap shoot.

One weird thing I noticed. There seems to be some sort of motion blur and it's really distracting once I noticed it. It's not resolution loss on the set.

Limited tool set (seriously...we have hardly anything to use at the moment), been online for a few days. Damn. "The user created levels are crap." Cheers very much. Pft.

 

[Quaz51]

Yeah like Spore. The only thing that can add to the size of the download is when someone goes overboard with different PS Eye pictures in his level, but even those don't add much weight currently, due to the small size of the grabs and the compression (and the maximum amount of different shots is probably limited too). I doubt levels end up being more than a few megabyte typically.

You do it all the time when you play an online level. When you copy the level you do it because you want it in your edit world. Once it's there you can take anything from that level unless it's locked.

The original creator of an object can always be viewed under detailed information on the object by the way. It will say who latest modified it, and who made the original. Very nice.

the max file size for level is 5MB but generally just some hundreds KB
it's important because you can invite online friends to play all your local level on your HDD (one hundred or so), little file for realtime upload is required

 

[-tkf-]

I'm basically looking for SMG level platforming and single player.

Wack´d out story, save the princess , collect coins and awesome controls?

You tried the game, so you know the most important answer already. The rest is just levels

And i have no doubt that the best stuff from this game will come after maybe millions of people have tried building their own stuff and their by have inspired others to achieve stuff you just can´t do in a "small" development team.

 

[deepbrown]

Wack´d out story, save the princess , collect coins and awesome controls?

You tried the game, so you know the most important answer already. The rest is just levels

And i have no doubt that the best stuff from this game will come after maybe millions of people have tried building their own stuff and their by have inspired others to achieve stuff you just can´t do in a "small" development team.

Yes...i have been inspired by other peoples levels...and the MM levels. The 60 SP levels in the game will do the same...loads of cool inspiration of what to do.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

60 sotry levels (not SP, as you can play together!)? IIRC the mentioned numbers were 50 levels and 50 minigames, which I think are pretty loose numbers.

 

[deepbrown]

There's a guy on Neogaf working out how to make computations in LBP using coloured magnetic switches >_< He's going to make a computer in LBP or something. Confuses me...but I'm very intrigued to see what it results in.

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, it's fun ... he's basically on a quest to make the most elegant mechanisms he can think of that do calculus (additions, substractions, multiplications and divisions so far I think)

 

[Cyan]

Could it be possibe to create a level in a Guitar Hero style (love the game), with different coloured switches acting as notes -you'd have to jump on them to produce notes-?

"Jessica" would be an amazing song. (I don't own a PS3 )

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I made this for Shifty but whoever wants it, it's a quick run-through of the beta edit tools with my lousy explanations.
http://rapidshare.de/files/40580328/LBPb_edit_mode.wmv.html (90mb)

Loadsa thanks for doing that Arwin! It did explain a good deal, like poisonous gas being an object shape, or the combination of planes. It's amazing how many user created objects there are, when you think about the short beta. When the game proper is released, that menu will be ENORMOUS! The baby model was incredible! Very convincing. It really shows off LBP's lighting engine too The only thing missing was the logic options. I know most of the switches, like proximity, magentic, sticker etc. What about behaviours though? You've demo'd a move-to-play behaviour. Anything else we need to know about? Thanks again!

 

[patsu]

After spending about 5 hours with it today, I'd have to say, content creation means 0 to me and it'd be fun to play a user made level on occasion but it's the actual single player I want to know about. Is there a story of any sort and how many levels? I'll be strictly looking for that feedback in the reviews. I'm basically looking for SMG level platforming and single player.

For my first few hours, I played alone and I don't have time to create levels yet. The real treasure in LBP is co-op platforming (if they fixed the lag). LBP gameplay will likely differ from Mario style platforming because the former is physics driven.

The game itself is rather cute with lots of options but I'm not the type to sit there and make a level in any game, ever. I just like to play the game. User made levels are cool. I played Heist 1 and Hiest 2. Both were good but still can't hold a candle to the actual game levels in terms of presentation. I'm sure some nutjobs will put even more effort in! but still that's a crap shoot.

LBP is basically a huge gameplay experiment.

Heist 2 is interesting because its story requires a certain kind of mechanics not found in the original game. Its creator innovated out of necessity. The players experienced a twist near the end of the level. I'd say he has gone beyond (some) actual game levels in this aspect.

Looking for consistent, hi-quality presentation would be like looking for a roof in Japanese open bath. ^_^ (boring !). LBP's visual language is very rich and expressive (real world textures !). The visual experience is like visiting a foreign country with a different culture. I might not like it but it's the very nature of art.

For me, the trill of jumping into a level is whether I will find someone playing there already. Without them, it's like visiting a country with no people. With them, the game world comes alive.

One weird thing I noticed. There seems to be some sort of motion blur and it's really distracting once I noticed it. It's not resolution loss on the set.

Yeah, there is motion blur when SackBoy runs/moves too fast. I don't usually notice it unless the game lags.

 

[Danalys]

so i made a custom music engine by emitting keys next to a bunch of key switches hooked up to speakers. you set the delays on the emitters for the timing, the frequency is the length of the piece. you can have music anywhere in a level since the switches can be hooked up to multiple speakers strategicaly placed. i have a demo level with some weird music called custom music engine.

 

[patsu]

Where is your link, dude ?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

On the Media Molecule site Kenny, the LBP audio geezer, posted a piano vid and we discussed a little bit about an old-style tracker, which he said he had already made. IMO the only difficultly would be assigning pitch in an easy way without needing one block per note per sound. A machine could dispense notes when a button is pressed. Other controls could scroll the song (conveyor/machine).