Confirming the worst kept secret in gaming, Sony announced today that is will release Little Big Planet Karting later on this year. As you’d expect, the game will mix the series trademark creation systems, allowing players to create different characters, karts and tracks, with traditional go kart racing.

“Since the launch of LittleBigPlanet, our community has provided incredible support, which can be seen in the more than six million levels and games that have been created and shared online through PlayStation Network, a truly wonderful accomplishment,” said Guy Longworth, Senior Vice President, PlayStation Brand Marketing, SCEA. “Now, we’re thrilled to bring PlayStation 3 owners the next Play, Create, Share experience, LittleBigPlanet Karting, a brand new competitive karting adventure that is sure to move this genre forward, providing endless entertainment for fans and newcomers, while resonating with every member of the family, young and old.”

The game is being developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Media Molecule. Expect more on Little Big Planet Karting in the coming weeks.

When Sony officially announced Little Big Planet 2 last year, it came as a bit of a suprise as Media Molecule’s level designer Danny Leaver was quoted as saying that a sequel to the DIY platformer wouldn’t be such a great idea. “We’d never want to do that. That’d be the most counter-productive thing you could do I think,” said Leaver. Or did he? Blast Magazine sat down with Media Molecule’s Technical Director David Smith to talk about the upcoming sequel, being the faces of creativity on consoles and that infamous quote.

Blast: So let’s talk about that quote, why is now the right time for a Little Big Planet sequel?

DS: That was a rather unfortunate misquote. He was actually saying that we would never split the community, and we kept that promise by allowing LBP2 to access the more than 3 million levels that the community has created in LBP1. Danny was rather disappointed at the time, since he was referring to the hypothetical scenario of us releasing a sequel to LBP that wasn’t backwards compatible with LBP and thus fragmented the community. Our whole approach to LBP and DLC has been to focus on what would most excite our community while making enough financial sense that we can afford to do so. It doesn’t take much imagination to think of how our community would have reacted to us making a sequel that effectively made all of their levels and hard work redundant. We really respect all of that hard work. There must have been tens of thousands of hours spent making content for LBP, so we spent a lot of coding time and QA time on ensuring the best possibility compatibility between LBP and LBP2 that we could. Because so much of LBP had to be rewritten for the sequel, this was a big undertaking.

Blast: The scope of LittleBigPlanet 2 is unquestionably larger than that of its predecessor, how does the team at Media Molecule manage to allow players such a sense of freedom and creation yet keep the experience so well structured at the same time?

DS: A key to preventing some of the more advanced creation tools from feeling overwhelming was to retain the modularity and physicality that we focused on with the first game. By modularity, I mean that we try to give the users a relatively small number of tools that can combine together in may useful ways, rather than a large number of complex objects that are harder to understand and potentially more limited in what things you can use them for. So for example, the most complex additions in LBP2 are the Music Sequencer, AI Sackbots, and the Controlinator. Initially the Sequencer was just something for making music, Sackbots were just for making AI enemies, and the Controlinator was just for making vehicles. But we continually revised and improved these elements so that they became as useful as the other fundamental building blocks alongside things as simple as the existing blocks of wood, or motor bolts! So you end up with weird possibilities like using a Controlinator to remote control an army of Sackbots that are dressed up to look like pop stars and then using the sequencer at the end of your level to lay out the timeline for not just the music but the dance moves, lighting and camera movements for a Thriller style music video. Or use Sackbots in Controlinators to actually drive vehicles with their AI and then the Sequencer as a tool to choreograph the procedural generation of landscape ahead of the Sackbot! There are so many exciting combinations that it will really take the combined effort of our whole community to try them all out and see which ones lead to new gameplay/music/visual possibilities.

We also really tried to keep the interface consistent between all these different tools, so that our creators don’t need to waste time relearning how to edit all the different objects. Everything the player does comes down to placing physical objects in a physical world, moving them about, and tweaking a few numbers/options in these objects for more specific effects. We avoided ‘abstract’ interfaces as much as possible. Of course, some of the logic tools that we give the users can be a bit overwhelming for some of our users but we try to soften the learning curve as much as possible by keeping the interface clear and friendly. And ultimately, we really encourage our users to work together and share inventions and techniques. The new Microchips are a good example of this as they allow you to take a large amount of cleverness and boil it all down into a cute user-made gadget that can be easily shared with other users.

Blast: From the Sackbots to the ability to record and implement music, LittleBigPlanet 2 features a number of improvements both feature wise and cosmetically. How many of these ideas were originally intended to be the original game but were cut due to time restraints?

DS: In hindsight, it’s hard to recall which of these ideas we were planning on doing for LBP but dropped due to time constraints. Regardless, I think we set ourselves enough of a challenge with the feature set of the first game! Lots of the new LBP2 features were quite specifically asked for by our community, often after we’d planned on doing them anyway, so that was very important to keep us feeling justified in doing a sequel and on the right track regarding the needs of our community. It was heartening and sometimes surprising to see discussions on forums where people were suggesting big new features but then suggesting that there was no chance that they’d really happen. I hope a lot of these people are pleasantly surprised at how aligned we are with their needs. A lot of the challenge was empowering people to do all these cool new things, but in ways that fit the LBP style and so feel cute rather than clever.

Blast: One look at the user created levels for the original LittleBigPlanet and you’re sure to see homage’s and tributes to other games and media. Why do you suppose these have survived in LBP when other game’s that feature user created content have been forced to ban these references?

DS: We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how willing other developers and IP holders have been to have their games, films, and music recreated in LBP. I think that this is in part because of how remarkably friendly our community is! These homages are really driven by love, as opposed to any sort of cynicism. So they perhaps act as a form of marketing. In LBP, the homages tend to be much shorter than the games they imitate and have a distinctive LBP look that reminds you that you’re still in the LBP universe. With LBP2, the homages are becoming immensely more sophisticated while still generally retaining a lot of the LBP look and feel.

Blast: Along with Killzone, LittleBigPlanet is one of the first of Sony’s major franchises to incorporate Move control. How easy was it to integrate this technology into the game, how does it add to the LittleBigPlanet experience?

DS: It’s something that we’re still working on! While there is a demo of this technology on the LBP2 Blu-ray, we are still tweaking it. Being able to use the Move to control a cursor unlocks or greatly improves a variety of game genres that typically would rely on a mouse. Of course, there are many types of gameplay that don’t naturally map to these sorts of controls, so it’s a case of exploring the new types of gameplay which this controller is uniquely suited for. Of course, this is a new technology so we (in the games industry) are still discovering all the possibilities about what things it’s really good for and what sort of gameplay needs completely rethinking to fit a Move controller. Ultimately, our community is going to be very active in discovering the best ways to use Move for new types of gameplay. I would love to see some of our community Creators come up with novel uses for Move that are then ‘borrowed’ by commercial games.

Check out Blast’s review of Little Big Planet 2 later this week!

Sony is teasing the following screens and this preview of Little Big Planet 2 before more news on the blockbuster follow-up is released tomorrow. The news has been confirmed via Media Molcule’s Twitter page, among other places. “Full mega details on Monday ,” the post says. I can’t wait. These screens look amazing…

Media Molecule today announced something Incredible.

The LittleBigPlanet developer announced on its blog today that costumes and environment from the cartoon world of Disney Pixar’s “The Incredibles” are on the way, coming in April.

Incredible!

The Costume Pack will include costumes of every main character as well as allies Edna Mode and Frozone and the oh so sinister Syndrome.

Then there’s the Incredibles Level Kit, which Media Molecule says will include “memorable landmarks from The Incredibles” film like jungles of Nomanisan Island, where Syndrome’s base is, city rooftops and the Parr family home.

Both the Costume Pack and Level Kit come to the PlayStation Network April 8. Can you handle the cuteness of it all?

Media Molecules’ smash hit and playful adventuring game LitteBigPlanet celebrated a milestone today.

Peek-a-boo

The studio announced this afternoon that the game’s community level number today ballooned to over 2 million available user-generated environments.

The game hit the 1 million mark in July of 2009, nine months after the game hit shelves and in less time, the figure jumped to 2 million. Impressive.

Now that the nasty, crippling PS3 apocalypse is over, jump into the game and frolic in the user-generated content.

Source: PlayStation Blog

MediaMolecule, makers of the uber-cute and wondrous LittleBigPlanet, today announced and detailed plans for a “Watchmen” costume pack coming to the PS3-exclusive this Thursday.

In the “Watchmen Pack” you’ll score the comic and recent film adaptation’s main characters’ costumes as well as a slew of stickers from the Watchmen universe to slap wherever you feel necessary.

Need more? Here’s the debut video of the Sackpeople in action and decked out in Watchmen attire.

Full story at Media Molecule

Sony announced today that the cute and cuddly LittleBigPlanet game from Media Molecule has garnered an unprecedented 1,000,000th user-generated and uploaded level.

Launched in Fall of 2008, LBP was an ambitious and seemingly risky brand new intellectual property. But man, oh man, did the gamble pay off, as LBP quickly earned accolade after accolade for its excellence.

Let’s put that 1 million figure into crazy perspective why don’t we?

If Sony did their math correctly, and they probably did, a unique and new LBP level is uploaded, on average, every 21 seconds.

How many have YOU contributed?

You know you’ve won a prestigious award when the body of voters are the developers themselves.‚  Sales figures, cultural absorption, and other such factors matter not at the 9^th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, held last night in San Francisco.

Tim Schafer, legendary game designer hosted the event, as major titles Fallout 3, and LittleBigPlanet took home most of the hardware.

Media Molecule’s crazy-popular, user generated content oriented LittleBigPlanet took home four awards for Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Debut Game and Innovation.

Bethesda Softworks received the Game of the Year and Best Writing awards for their latest post-apocalyptic endeavor, Fallout 3.

Not all the nods went to the games themselves as Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his twenty years of dedication and work on the Metal Gear series and others.

Finally, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, co-developers of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises accepted the Pioneer Award for their undying enthusiasm and dedication to their work.

Full list of winners at the Game Developers Choice Awards below.

Game of the Year
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Game Design:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Writing:
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Technology:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Visual Arts:
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)

Best Debut Game:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Handheld Game:
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)

Innovation Award:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Audio:
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)

Best Downloadable Game:
World Of Goo (2D Boy)

Recipients for the evening’s special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement Award
Hideo Kojima

Pioneer Award
Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

Ambassador Award
Tommy Tallarico

via GamaSutra.

LittleBigPlanet, an original IP from Media Molecule, is a unique title with simple yet ultimately very deep gameplay components.‚  Emphasis is placed on user-creation and involvement and is the true essence of LBP.‚  The cute and cuddly Sackboys are a wondrous element to the games mechanics in that their childish nature and pure innocence mirrors early 2-d side scrolling games we know and love.

Given the hit success of LBP and it’s soon to be PlayStation Portable version, it comes as no surprise that a full blown PS3 LittleBigPlanet sequel is in the works.‚  Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans can’t say much but he does so eloquently describe it as “really fucking cool.”

Evans, in an interview with GamaSutra describes the success of LBP and where the sequel may venture to.

“It’s a quite interesting thing because it was like a magnet. Everyone sort of [joined in] on that thing, then I suddenly saw these people kind of going, ‘Oh my god, far from being tired of LBP, I suddenly see this untapped potential,’” he says.

“And in ways that hopefully will still be fresh so when it comes back, people won’t be like, ‘Yeah, they just exploited that thing, and it’s really fucking obvious that they would do that.’ I think LBP is in their future, and hopefully in surprising ways.”

LittleBigPlanet was a hallmark of creativity and imagination and I believe it is a sure thing to assume LBP2 will be everything the original contained times like a freakin’ million.

As far as non-LBP projects are concerned, Media Molecule’s Evans had this to say:

“We started the company and we called it ‘creative gaming’ rather than [that]… As I said in the talk, there’s a very broad church. We can actually pick a different bit of the spectrum.”

“So, it doesn’t have to be LBP-style creativity. It could be musical, or it could be God knows what. I think there’s definitely a fixation at Media Molecule around the idea of engaging players creatively.”

Full interview can be read over at GamaSutra.