Back in 2009, I got involved heavily with the LittleBigPlanet creation community: building levels and experimenting with the esoteric tools to try and work out how to squeeze the most out of what the game could do. Mostly I was hanging out on forums and helping other people create, but my contributions to the community, both in and out of the game got me invited to Media Molecule’s offices for their first Community Game Jam, and subsequently landed me a job working on LittleBigPlanet PS Vita. The following is a selection of the things I produced during this time:
Hansel and Gretelbot (2010)
This was something of a publicity stunt by Media Molecule’s Community Manager – get a number of well-known community creators to work together during the Beta of LBP2 to create a level series and have it completed and ready to show when the game was released. I worked mainly on developing an AI buddy character using the new NPC and visual scripting tools.
Cap’n Sackbeard’s Booty (2009)
Created with 3 other people across the globe, using the public beta of LBP1’s online create and water features. The new water mechanics seemed most suited to puzzling, so we constructed a level based around raising and lowering the water level in a cavern, gradually unlocking extra water levels and iteratively unlocking more levels of water, before escaping the cavern and doing battle with a kraken boss.
LBPCentral’s Logic Pack (2009)
In 2009 I worked with some other community creators and the popular fansite LittleBigPlanet Central to produce a set of tutorials about creating LBP Logic, trying to demystify physics-based approach to level scripting that the first instalment of the game was known for.
Subterranean Setbacks (2009)
This was my first proper level, that I created whilst learning the tools. Much of the level is built around set-pieces that were effectively tech demos for cool things I’d created with the tools (most of which was very unique within the community at time), combined with a punishing difficulty level and significant combo rewards for perfect platforming. It proved to be a niche hit, especially amongst other creators, and got nominated for Media Molecule’s community awards (Best Level).