GDC 2007: LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet GDC 2007 trailer.

Every generation of consoles usually brings about a new idea that really wouldn’t work on the previous generation of consoles. It’s not always about texture detail, polygon counts, or even shader technology. Sometimes the idea itself is just so different it really stands out as a truly next-generational experience.This is where LittleBigPlanet comes in. A game by a newly formed company called Media Molecule under the wing of Sony Computer Entertainment developed a game that starts out blank. It’s basically a combination of tools, pallets, and props all entwined in a realistic physics environment. It starts out by allowing you to select items and start placing things in a blank level, and with a little time and dedication you can create a full level — something that could be in a “real game” in essence. As you can see in the videos, the tools are very powerful and can really provide endless amount of creativity. Imagine, you can recreate levels from older 2D games you remember or go crazy and create some really hard physics puzzles for others to challenge

The next level of awesomeness is that the game is based on cooperation so it allows for online cooperative play. This means you can have people from your PSN friendlist hop into a game with you and you can challenge the newest content out there together. In the second demo video you can see how the sharing of content resembles Youtube and allows you to put out content and monitor it by play count and even view gamer comments that have played your level. Of course, this is not the only game to ever allow simple level editing without the need of complicated tools or scripting knowledge, but it’s certainly the most fleshed out one on a console. If Starcraft could live for more than 10 years with custom maps created almost daily by fans, imagine the possibilities of a much more simple and refreshing experience with LittleBigPlanet that is all about new content every day. You probably won’t ever get bored of this game as long as people keep coming up with all kinds of new level ideas with the added benefit of being able to challenge them with your friends online.

There’s also the developer levels that can be a way to experience a pros take on LittleBigPlanet and even a way for them to advertise their games. Plus, you can change the levels as you play so nothing will ever be the same as long as people keep adding their own stickers and adding new parts to a level and calling it their own. Combine this awesome experience with music by The Go! Team, a surprisingly good band from the UK, and you’ve got a recipe for greatness.

LittleBigPlanet will be released on the PlayStation Store sometime this year and a retail Blu-ray disc with all of the best user-created content is planned in early 2008.