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!
In our 2nd episode we’re talking more about LIttle Big Planet 2. More specifically what our thoughts are on the few new power ups that have been announced, Power Gloves, Magic Bags and the Grappling Hook. The 2nd half of the video we share our most wished for features for LBP2. Also featured at the end of the video is a quick preview of a brand new PS3 theme created by Erik exclusively for LIttle Big Planet Galaxy. Created with all custom icons and 4 amazing LBP2 wallpapers, this theme is frickin’ awesome. Find the download link and instructions here.
Contents
Release date: 05/25/2010
– 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.
Click here to view a full size version of the preview shot
To celebrate the announcement of LittleBigPlanet 2, Erik (KAPBAM), master of theme creations, among other things, has created quite the fancy theme for your PS3. Featuring 4 amazing wallpapers and a complete set of custom icons, this theme is sure to satiate your desires for LBP2 until it is released, and after for that matter.
Thanks to KAPBAM, hope you guys enjoy this awesome piece of LBP2 art!
Install Instructions
Downloading with PS3 Browser (preferred)
1. Open web browser from XMB
2. Navigate to “http://www.littlebigplanetgalaxy.com” & Click the “Downloads” button at the top of the site.
3. Hover cursor over Download Now! text and Click ‘Triangle’ on your controller
4. From here scroll down to ‘File’, then ‘Save Target’. The theme will be downloaded and automatically installed.
6. In your XMB go to “Settings”, then “Theme” and “Themes”
7. The theme you downloaded should be in the list, click on it and then apply.
Downloading with PC or MAC
1. click the Download Now!’ (MAC – “Ctrl – Click “Download Now”)
2. press “Save” (MAC – press “download linked file as)
3. save to a SDCard or a USB Device (FAT32 formatted)
4a. make a folder in the Device or Card called “PS3?
4b. make a folder in the PS3 folder called “THEME” (ALL CAPS REQUIRED)
5. put the .pt3 file into the THEME folder
6. put the card or usb device into your ps3
7. go to themes
8. select install
9. select the memory card or USB device and find the “LBP2 Green Dude” theme
10. finally, apply the theme as you normally would
Back when LittleBigPlanet was still in it’s public beta phase, I had the pleasure of meeting KAPBAM (Erik) through the forums that used to exist here at LittleBigPlanetGalaxy. I knew of KAPBAM because of the awesome wallpapers and themes he was creating for LBP which wasn’t even out yet. To make a long story short, we became good friends through PSN and discovered just how much in common we really had. Both in creative positions professionally, very opinionated, and most importantly, LittleBigPlanet obsessed!
From then on we’ve managed to stay in touch, the whole time partaking in conversations, debates and rants about video gaming and the state of things to come as we saw it. Again, mainly focused on LittleBigPlanet. We always had this idea in the back of our minds to start a video show of some kind. Saying “You know, we have some pretty interesting things to say and opinions that others would understand and be able to relate to. Why don’t we start something up, you know, do reviews, give opinions, make specific requests to developers. You never know who’s watching”, I would say. Well almost two years later and we finally got around to putting something together thanks to the bomb shell drop that was the announcement of LittleBigPlanet 2.
So for our first video in what we hope to make an ongoing series, we discuss some of the more relevant aspects of this big announcement of LBP2. We both learned a lot working together on this first video, and you should expect them to get only better in the future 
So for now, hope you enjoy our first video in our new series “Off the Wall”.
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…
Red Dead Redemption – Off the Wall: Episode 3
In this episode we discuss some of the reasons why we both agree that Red Dead Redemption is a game on top of our favorite all time games list. An immersive world like none other, Red Dead Redemption is a must own game for anyone wanting to play through an open world set in the west, complete with showdowns, hunting, horseback riding through the countryside and so much more. There’s really too much to talk about in one 10 minute video but hopefully, if you haven’t played this game, this video will help give some insight as to why you need to go get it now!