Time to get out your trilbies, the Heavy Rain Costume pack hits the LittleBigStore next week! Five costumes and a set of stickers based on characters from the PS3 Thriller, including Madison, Jayden, Shelby, Ethan, and the Origami Parajita with a great big red jam stain all over it, sticky!
The Heavy Rain Costume Pack will be available next Tuesday for North America, Wednesday for the UK, and Thursday for the rest of Europe.
To celebrate the launch of the Play, Create, Share inspired cart racing extravaganza ModNation Racers, Sackboy’s tailoring department have been hard at work making sure that you can look the part.
Take Sackboy to the racetrack in style with the ModNation Racers costume and stickers from the LittleBigStore, out now in North America, Asia and Japan arriving in Europe next week!
– Sarah Hefford, Artist
Daga daga daga! If we’re perfectly honest, the jump jet caused us rather more problems than we would have liked. It’s such a cool vehicle though we struggled through, since we couldn’t bear to let it fall by the wayside. The plane itself again follows the military style from the last two levels, so you can now expand your domination of land and sea by taking control of the Little Big skies too!
As with all the other vehicles we designed what the jump jet looked like before we designed the level, because its capabilities really defined what sort of gameplay we could use. This one took a little more thought than most of the others however. The first major decision we made was to build the jet from a front-on perspective, whereas all the other vehicles (barring the pogostick) are portrayed from the side. This was because it had to be very balanced in order to have as much control over flight as possible – the solution to this was to make it symmetrical, and enclose Sackboy in a small space so that his weight wouldn’t upset the balance as he moved from side to side.
Originally it only took up two thin planes and one thick plane, but fairly early on we decided to make it use two thick planes and two thin planes, so that it had space for a cockpit that could be reached by running up the wings.
Recreating the jet out of 3D meshes was simple because the design was so dependent on its shape to start with that all we needed to do was give it a splash of colour. Actually this was probably the easiest part of the whole level! Did you know you can manually alter how big the bevel on a material is? Using the Corner Editor tool, move one point (one near a corner usually works best) really close to another and you should see the bevel get smaller. If it doesn’t work at first, try picking another point to move. Since our stickers only cover the front of an object, this is really useful for using stickers to disguise materials that have a noticeable bevel, such as dissolve, pink and peach floaty.
From an artistic point of view, the main problem that we’ve had while building this level is that the jump jet’s flight is blocked by objects in any plane except the front thin (unless they’re made of gas). In addition, we’ve had to be careful that there aren’t any weird nooks and crannies that the jet could get snagged on. To maintain the freedom of flying we’ve had to leave as much open space as possible without allowing you to wander off and get completely lost (eek!), whilst at the same time providing enough interestingly shaped landscape to let you know exactly where you are in the level. This means being really cunning with our materials in order to signpost the different areas of the level as much as possible, and the stickers have to be really punchy and stand out. As Andy said, headaches all round.
Since this is the last level in the ‘Turbo! Pack’ we won’t give too much more away. Those tricksy toy soldiers are up to something though, so expect big explosions and tons of destruction. Oh, and a nice happy ending. :)
– Andy Knowles, Designer
The final level. No pressure, then! To be honest this level was a bit of a headache. And not just a normal headache, but a big, fat headache, one of those ones that the ibuprofen doesn’t even take the edge off.
The main reason for this was that, like Jon’s submarine, the jump jet is effectively ‘floating’, and so can be really difficult to control. Now, Jon’s luckier than me because the sub’s supposed to be underwater, so moving really slowly is a good thing. Not for a jump jet though, eh? Oh no, something like that’s got to be moving pretty quickly. And we want it to have controls for four directions, not three (the sub is naturally buoyant). Four controls for one cockpit. Grrreat.
And another thing: the trouble with something as big as the jump jet being made to move at any speed greater than ‘quite slow’ is that you can’t see where you’re going. With the tank, for example, you can point the camera in front of it, and as long as Sackboy’s on-screen, everything’s fine. But the tank only needs to move forwards in its levels; the jet has to be able to go forwards, backwards, up, down, in fact it’s more than four directions because you can go diagonally as well.
The point is, I cracked it. The jet has a variable counter thrust when the player lets go of a control, making it stop quickly, so that you don’t fly into any of the hazards. The cockpit walls, floor and ceiling are all controls, meaning you just have to grab in the direction you want to move. The jet also gets locked into place whenever a magic mouth triggers making sure the player doesn’t fly off in a random direction while they read the text. The cameras are set up in the level (and not on the jet) so I know they’re always pointing in the right direction.
Okay, that’s my last development diary for the ‘Turbo! Pack’. We hope the insight into what we did was helpful to you. We’re looking forward to what you, the community, start doing with all these magnificent machines.
Next week you’ll be able to get your hands on the new Turbo Pack for LittleBigPlanet PSP, you know, the same pack we’ve been talking about for a few weeks now! Come on in and check it out!
Aaaah more tanks and destruction. Spiffing stuff. Here the landscape of the level changes once more as we introduce the bridge builder and missile launcher. These vehicles are both built in the same style as the tank, so you can create a whole matching army assault force should you so wish.
A problem that we encountered however, is that if you want the vehicles to be able to run side by side you’re kind of limited to using stickers and the front thin plane for decoration. The vehicles in this level only take up two planes each (a thin plane and a thick plane), so they can drive past each other easily as long as the back and middle thin planes are kept free – we also use this handy tactic on the crane and cement mixer in the construction level (Construction Derby).
As previously mentioned, the military levels see the introduction of not one, not two, but eight (yes really!) different toy soldiers. Well ok, four different ones, in two different colours. We really love these little guys. In fact, we love them so much we stuck brains on them so that we could blow them up. Ka-boom indeed!
Whilst previous levels have been wholly based around using the vehicles, this level sets you loose to explore more on foot. Did you ever get a shiny new toy, and have more fun building a fort out of the box? We certainly did, and this “homemade” aspect was largely our inspiration for this level. The style is quite simple but very strong and effective, making great use of cardboard materials and some wicked new castle-themed stickers. We’ve also put our lovely fire effect to good use in order to make certain sections look like they’re smouldering away, again in combination with some cunning sticker usage.
To all this we’ve added a good spattering of 3D objects to pep things up – look out for some cunning secret areas to make sure you pick all the prize bubbles up! Rounding things off is a rather unusual boss that you have to defeat using the rather satisfying might of the missile launcher. We don’t want to give too much away however, so you’ll just have to believe us when we say it’s wheely good…
– Sam Dickinson, Designer
The Bridge Builder was a tricky proposition, because it had to be able to move around easily, but also create a bridge that the tank could cross (and the tank is a pretty weighty engine of destruction). Also, the gaps had to be big enough that the tank couldn’t just roll across them, and so the actual bridge emitting bit was getting a bit big and unwieldy. So we made bridge sections that cleverly expanded immediately after emitting. Not only is it useful, but it looks cool too!
We found that you can have fun emitting bridge sections while swinging the bridge emitting arm around. We also found that the bridge sections can get in the way, and that you can just emit lots on one gap to easily bridge it, so we limited number of bridge sections that can be emitted to one at a time.
The tank was good fun, but we decided that what we also wanted something that actually fires missiles. Technically (here comes the science bit), the tank fires projectiles, which aren’t self propelled, and we want missiles, that zoom towards their target rather than arcing towards them like a grenade (okay, not very scientific).
Making these guys actually go in the right direction was quite a challenge. Have a go yourself and you’ll see that quite a few factors come into play: what it’s made of, the angle it’s launched at, exactly where the rocket is attached, the power of the rocket, and the position of any explosives attached to them. Lots of fine tuning (and the invention of the microbomb) later, and it was done. Lovely.
LittleBigPlanet Central have recently re-started their Creator Spotlight series, a series of interviews with some of the most loved creators around. The last in the series was with Morgana25, creator of a whole load of jolly good levels, and this time round it’s the turn of Jackofcourse – joint winner of the Creator of the Year 2009, and all round good chap.
These interviews are a great chance to take a little peak inside the mind of a star creator, allowing us to see what makes their brain work the way it does, so let’s dive on into the brain of Jackofcourse.
What has now become the opening question for the Creator Spotlight crew, would you be so kind to please list the levels you’ve published to date and any statistics you’d like to share with us, e.g. plays, hearts, how many rocket animals per level, etc. Whatever you feel like sharing.
- Perennial Danger
- Perennial Expedition
- Flaming Timberland
- Flaming Timberland 2
- Calamity Construction
- Industrial Assistance
- Tribal Ruins
- Pretty Simple
- Egyptian Findings
- Industrial Assistance 2
- Shoot! Jump! Die?
That is one great list to be proud of! Which of these is your own favorite? And why?
Hmm this is a very tough question. I have a few favourites for different reasons. Flaming Timberland 2 because of the memories of how well received it was and how exciting that was back then. Calamity Construction because all the obstacles and challenges had to be worked into the environment and getting to create vehicles that I could then compare to the real thing was really satisfying. Industrial Assistance 2 because, I dunno, I just think it’s one of my best! And finally, Shoot! Jump! Die? because that’s a level that if someone else made I would genuinely enjoy playing, I love a challenge!How long have you been playing LBP?
Since day one! LBP was the reason I bought a PS3. I’ve been on board since its first appearance at the GDC.What was the first full level you ever built? And what was it like?
Perennial Danger! It was like a crazy mad coloured maze with lots of challenge and electric. I actually published it a few months ago for a short while to let everyone see where I started. It was first published in first few days of LBP and I think it was pretty decent for its time.
These, and a bazillion other questions are all available to read in the full Spotlight on LBPCentral, along with this special video interview about Jack’s creations. Head on over to the full article to read more!
To celebrate the announcement of LittleBigPlanet 2, this week sees the arrival of the all new, and very colourful, LittleBigPlanet PlayGround space in PlayStation®Home.
In true LittleBigPlanet fashion, this space offers plenty to Play, Create and Share: Take part in the King’s “Snap Happy” Photo Challenge. Find the target, get the perfect shot, and you can win some great virtual rewards. It doesn’t stop there: team up with your friends to create your own wallpapers for the PS3 with the Creator mini-game!
And there’s more to come! In a few weeks you will be able to release your competitive side and show off your sharp-shooting skills in the LittleBigDerby. Check out the trailer below:
Finally, no LittleBigPlanet experience would be complete without the iconic Pod … which is why you’ll find the LittleBigPlanet Pod Penthouse in Estates this week! Crafted from the finest cardboard, this personal space can be rotated to get the best out-of-this-world view! But not only that, the Pod also includes your own personal Creator mini-game and comes complete with a special prize on entry. This truly is the perfect place to express your creative flair.
Motorstorm Hessian Stitch Costume and Level Packs
We like Motorstorm, and we like the crashes in Motorstorm in particular. The way the poor bike riders fly through the air like rag dolls is brilliant. So who better to be a motoring rag doll than Sackboy himself? Download the Motorstorm Hessian Stitch Costume and Level Pack and make Sackboy your very own crash test dummy, heading to the store next week!
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