End-of-July Inbox Cleaning –Part Two

More stuff,from Develop and E3:

Develop

Gamasutra has an article about the value of constraints,citing Alex Evans’talk at Develop:

So it’s clear that the amount of freedom given to the user in LittleBigPlanet has at once been a massive win but a massive issue to the people creating the game. The solution? “The best way is to give players a tiny,simple tool that can be used in a complex ways –rather than a set of complex tools which lead to confusion and inelegance.”

GameSpot concentrated on the challenges faced by Media Molecule:

Despite the pitfalls and perils,Evans also talked about his passion for developing games. “Why is my experience of making games with friends the same as it was 10 years ago?”He said one of the reasons is that the people making games with him haven’t changed. “We’re still a room of boys and girls at 2:00 in the morning with a dev kit. We’re still making the same things as we did 10 years ago. We just have the opportunity to get it out to a wider audience.”

GameSpot UK’s Start/Select (with our favourite Guy Cocker) talked to Alex “I’m just a code monkey and I wave my arms around”Evans at Develop as well.

More E3

Somehow I had missed UGO’s preview of LittleBigPlanet from E3,where Scoop was somewhat concerned:

Little Big Planet‘s strength is in its devoted user base that will create lots of different types of content experiences,but I,Scoop,have to worry about it long-term.  I’m not like Rusty,having to run around in N+ getting the best time or collecting every last coin in a Mario game;I play for story or cool experiences.  So playing some guy’s level just to collect some more bubbles doesn’t do it for me.  I guess I’ll reserve final judgment until I can tour some user-created stuff this October,before I condemn it for feeling too flash in the pan for me.

I think Scoop will find that the community is prepared to offer him more “story or cool experiences”on an ongoing basis,if he’s willing to give our levels a try.

PlayStation Lifestyle tried to make a Joker Sackboy at E3;check out the results.

It looks like Gamereactor cornered Alex Evans for an interview one evening at E3.  It sounds like Media Molecule is looking carefully at what’s happening with Spore,along with their own Beta.  According to this interview,Sony had asked about using LBP for the E3 Press Conference even before Paris GDC,so there goes my theory.

And with that,my inbox is almost clear.  For a few hours at least.