Since the LittleBigPlanet servers were turned on, [...]]]> Both sets of release dates (pre- and post-recall) saw many complaints from those who felt that they had a greater right to receive the game first.  At this point, I think it might be more appropriate to be thankful that someone else gets to be the guinea pig.

Since the LittleBigPlanet servers were turned on, attempting to play the game has been an interesting experience.  When the servers are misbehaving, even getting to play the Story levels involves go-make-a-sandwich-type delays; my solution at one point was to simply remove the Ethernet cable from the back of my PS3.

Players have also complained of lag while playing through levels online, but that’s largely up to the connections of the group they’re playing with.  As Sam reminds us, the multiplayer communication is peer-to-peer, not involving the game servers.  I have to wonder, though, if there isn’t a problem when one of the players is trying to contact the servers for some reason (e.g. inviting another friend).

In (understandable) frustration, many players are wondering: What was the purpose of the Beta, if we still have these problems at launch?  I can think of a few possibilities:

• Maybe having 60k max Beta users was nothing compared to the launch load.  I haven’t seen any sales numbers yet, but I’d bet that the NA player population dwarfs the Beta already.  Sony/Mm did some server restriction during the Beta to simulate greater load, but scaling is a tricky business; perhaps there’s a tipping point that they had no way of seeing until 100k+ players logged in.
• Maybe there simply wasn’t enough time to prepare after the Beta.  The public Beta was pretty late in the development process; if it brought out server issues that weren’t seen in the private Beta, it’s possible that there simply wasn’t time to fix them before launch.  If there was a chance that these issues wouldn’t actually manifest (due to differences between the Beta and release versions), rolling the dice and hoping for the best is a valid business decision.
• Maybe a post-Beta fix went wrong.  Scaling issues found during the Beta might be fixable; but once the Beta’s over, how do you test the fixes?  It’s possible that some fixes stood up to a large simulated load, but fell short once the masses rushed the gates.
• Maybe an unrelated change brought out the issues.  Between the end of the Beta and the launch date, is it likely that the entire PSN infrastructure was static?  Routes change, servers are added, defenses are updated, etc.  Particularly in scaling up for the launch, it’s possible that there was a change sufficient to bring out a previously unseen flaw.

It’s unlikely that we’d ever get a full explanation out of Sony or Media Molecule.  But at least there’s some good news.  Last night I was able to play online quite easily; I’ve heard from some people still having problems, but others have agreed that it’s much better.  Sam says “It’s getting better but there’s still a way to go yet.”

So if the UK launch goes swimmingly, all you blokes can send your thanks to us Gamma testers across the Atlantic.

Oh, and go check out this Nuno Markl documentary.

Going to be in London next week?  I’m not, but MyLittleBigBlog is giving away two tickets to see Irish supergroup The Script at the LittleBigPlanet space in Covent Garden on Monday.  So go send in an email, and get out of the house and enjoy some [...]]]> More things to see and read while we wait:

Going to be in London next week?  I’m not, but MyLittleBigBlog is giving away two tickets to see Irish supergroup The Script at the LittleBigPlanet space in Covent Garden on Monday.  So go send in an email, and get out of the house and enjoy some culture for once!

If you’re a fan of handmade knitted Sackboys (like we are), you’ll want to keep an eye or two on this Flickr group.

Originally scheduled for an Oct 15th release, the BradyGames LittleBigPlanet Signature Series Guide is finally hitting the streets (at least in the USA).  I’m not much for strategy guides, usually, opting to find everything myself; but look at the table of contents:  75 pages or so on the Creation mode.  Assuming it’s full of tips and tricks from the Molecules, those pages alone are likely worth the cost of the guide.

Still haven’t ordered your copy of LittleBigPlanet?  There are a couple of good deals to be had.  Or, if you’re wealthy and impatient, you can pay a premium for the recalled version (warning: strong language).

If you already have the recalled version, and are online in Europe, you’ve probably been patched twice:  The first patch “concerns certain online functions and adds more costumes”, and the second removes the controversial vocal track from Tourmani Diabaté’s song “Tapha Niang”.  I was concerned that they would remove the song entirely, which would have been a shame, since Media Molecule clearly put a lot of thought into level-music pairing.

Webcomic 2P Start! pokes a little fun at the unhappy recall situation.  Penny Arcade has dire predictions (warning: strong language).

Lastly, I would like to thank Guy Cocker for giving us some much-needed multiplayer etiquette pointers.  When your fellow players are underperforming, it can be difficult to broach the subject in a sensitive, non-confrontational fashion.  This YouTube clip can help.

Anything you believe is unsuitable or inappropriate for the game should be reported immediately. By posting it here the only thing you’ll do is encourage more people to look for it and insodoing encourage more people to create levels that people will take offense at. Content such as [...]]]> First, some wise words from Sam Protagonist:

Anything you believe is unsuitable or inappropriate for the game should be reported immediately. By posting it here the only thing you’ll do is encourage more people to look for it and insodoing encourage more people to create levels that people will take offense at. Content such as this will be moderated when it’s reported, so make good use of the reporting tool.

Please stop using forums and comments to tell the world about offensive levels.  Just report them, and then deny the creator the attention they’re looking for.

Over on the EU PlayStation forums they’re taking a vote on whether to keep the already-created content when the Beta ends.  I have no preference myself, but a lot of people are quite bent out of shape about losing their work; I expect that we’ll be seeing the published levels retained.  To make it clear:

Please bear in mind that what we’re talking about here are levels that have been uploaded already, any save game data, offline creations or progress cannot be transferred into the full game.

So yes, we will have to go through the tutorials again, and you can’t keep any of those naughty levels that you’re afraid to publish.

MusterBuster also gives confirmation of the Beta end time: October 12th at 23:59 GMT.

Over here in the States, USA Today is giving away 15,000 Beta keys.  I personally don’t think this is a good idea.  If most Eurogamer and GameSpot readers don’t seem to be able to understand what a Beta is, what are the chances that USA Today‘s readership won’t be completely turned off by any flaws they encounter?

The article there has some nice quotes from familiar faces, but nothing too ground-breaking.

With the recent giveaways, it seems that just about all of the core fanbase is in the Beta now.  Are any of our US readers still out in the cold?  Due to entering most of the contests, we actually have a few extra, so just leave us a comment!

The ability to create with [...]]]> “And, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”   Our trusty friend Sam has confirmed what I was so certain wasn’t the case: At launch, multiplayer Create mode will be limited to local players, not online.

The ability to create with your friends online will come as part of the first major update after the game is released. Offline creating with up to 4 people on one PlayStation 3 however is available right from the get go.

Disappointing?  Of course.  Many of the people I most want to “jam” with are more than a thousand miles away, not within “c’mon over and bring your controller” distance.  It looks like I’ll have to summon all of the local talent to help with my outlandish ideas, at least for a while.  The more disappointing part, especially to the forum threads that I’m not linking to, is to already be talking about the first major patch.  To me, this is simply the nature of modern software development.  Being able to count on users being connected, we can offer slipped features in a patch rather than delaying releases further or, worse yet, waiting for the sequel.

While this is purely speculation, I wonder if this explains the reluctance to nail down the release date.  Perhaps they ran into major bugs which only occurred during online multiplayer Create, and were deciding whether or not a week’s slip would be sufficient to get it fixed (and still release in “October”).  Instead they were forced to go gold with it disabled, and begin work on getting it into a patch.  By the way guys, if you need help testing that patch…

There are definitely doubters in the community, wondering if we’ll actually see this (and other things) patched into the game in the near future.  Having been burned in the past, I don’t blame them for holding off on purchasing the game until patches materialize and are of high quality.  Let’s just hope that all goes according to plan.

Media Molecule announced that LittleBigPlanet has gone gold, gifting us a cool sackboy spaceman pic.

Then the official PlayStation Blog spilled the beans on a sackboy spacesuit available at launch, as well as “first week” t-shirt.  Certainly these elite items will have the intended effect of spurring on more [...]]]> Just in case you missed it:

Media Molecule announced that LittleBigPlanet has gone gold, gifting us a cool sackboy spaceman pic.

Then the official PlayStation Blog spilled the beans on a sackboy spacesuit available at launch, as well as “first week” t-shirt.  Certainly these elite items will have the intended effect of spurring on more pre-orders.  Oh, and they confirmed the Oct 21st date for North and Latin Americas.

More news comes from the LittleBigPlanet News Site, with the full release schedule:

The full global release schedule:

October 21st	North America & Latin America
October 22nd	Europe, Australia & New Zealand
October 24th	UK & Ireland

(The Japanese release date is currently targeting the week commencing 27th October)

I know this schedule is disappointing to everyone outside of the Americas, and especially those in the UK and Ireland.  As has been discussed somewhat before, the retailers tend to have the most influence on these things.  They own the shelves, so they decide if they only stock new games on Wednesdays, or during full moons, or whatever.  And most regions have different dominant retailers, so we get this kind of staggered schedule (and then some retailers break the street date anyway).  The good news is that the worldwide schedule only spans a week or so, rather than being months apart.  For a new IP, this is just about the best any marketing group can attain.  I know there have been some simultaneous multi-region releases; I don’t know what was necessary to make that happen (probably guaranteed sales, which only tend to come from sequels).

Still, I respect some fans’ decision to be angry about the release schedule.  Just please don’t vent irrationally in the comments.  A calm, rational explanation of grievances is always more likely to be listened to.  At the very least, I ask Sony to keep in mind the release dates when setting up the limited-time items (i.e. “First Week” t-shirts should not disappear from all regions on Oct 27).

As has been often stated, LittleBigPlanet’s release is just the beginning.  The official announcement reinforces this:

However, this is only the beginning. We won’t be taking it easy just because we have started to manufacture the game! Media Molecule and SCE have a long-term commitment towards expanding the world of LittleBigPlanet and working hard to make sure that our fans get amazing new content and features via PLAYSTATION®Network.

So what more can we possibly add?

Well, that’s up to you! We know that you will come up with ideas that will surprise even us, so let us know what would make your LittleBigPlanet a better place. To get you started we are already hard at work on some cool ideas for the way gamers can interact, including the ability to create levels together online in a multiplayer jamming mode!

But there isn’t long to wait before you can get your hands on the game, and then you can tell us what you would like to see us work on next!

It may just be the wording, but I’m a little confused by the mention of multiplayer creation when they’re talking about new ideas.  I assume multiplayer creation will still be there day one, and they’re just working on interesting ways to enhance that experience.  Maybe someone could clarify this for us, without spoiling the surprise?

Oh, and finally:  What with the Sackboy spacesuit, and the existance of an Alladin Sane Sackboy skin, I keep thinking of how much I like #11 here.

GamesIndustry.biz has a two-part interview with Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida was named as his successor as president of Worldwide Studios (part one, part two).  LittleBigPlanet still seems to be on Yoshida-san’s mind:

I can’t wait to see how consumer [...]]]> First, ScrewAttack spent just a couple of minutes with Kyle Shubel at PAX08.

GamesIndustry.biz has a two-part interview with Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida was named as his successor as president of Worldwide Studios (part one, part two).  LittleBigPlanet still seems to be on Yoshida-san’s mind:

I can’t wait to see how consumer will create stuff using the tools. It’s great to play many different levels that Media Molecule has been creating, and you can spend hours finishing this game – but there’s the possibility of hundreds of thousands of interesting things for consumers, and people will spend that time. When we were kids we’d spend lots and lots of time, just because we were motivated.

One challenge is getting the support from all parts of the company, getting them behind the titles. Something like LittleBigPlanet is brilliant, but it’s such a new concept, it takes a lot of effort to communicate it. That’s something that has to be done in each region, but in each region consumers have different sensibilities, so sometimes the message has to be catered to each region.

But we really want to make it successful globally, so what we’re trying to do is communicate much earlier in the process of development with the marketing partners within the company, not just in the region where the game’s made.

Yes – LittleBigPlanet is unique in the sense that it defies cultural differences, and will hopefully be accepted in Asia as well as Europe and the US.

IGN also talked to Shuhei Yoshida, and the topic of LittleBigPlanet came up there as well:

We are totally focussed on making it successful from worldwide marketing. From a company standpoint we totally believe in the premise that it brings to the table – not just for the game but for the future and where we’re heading. It is just going to take a concerted effort from all parts of the company. So from a marketing standpoint it’s going to be huge campaign that you’ll see.

LittleBigPlanet even came up in an interview Joystiq did with Spore Producer Caryl Shaw:

Now that Spore is done – and reviewers continue to make of it what they will – we asked Shaw what she’s most looking forward to. The answer didn’t surprise us in the least. “I’m really interested in LittleBigPlanet, and I think the rest of the team is, too,” she said with genuine excitement in her voice. “I really want to see their tool set and how easy it is to share [content] with other people. There’s huge potential there if they do it right.”

The big news, however, was GamesIndustry.biz’s interview with Alex Evans.  You know, the “LittleBigPlanet Couldn’t Have Been Made on 360” [sic] and “LittleBigPlanet fills up Blu-Ray disc” [sic] one.  My initial headline was “MM Praises 360, Says Cell Processor is Weird, Confirms Possible Sega Mega Drive Port”.  Unfortunately the internet is knee-jerking based on headlines, but let us look at what was actually said.

Alex first gives a behind-the-scenes explanation of the E3 presentation that went a little awry, which is worth a read if you don’t know the story.  He also talks about the difficulty in explaining the game to people.  I keep hearing industry insiders saying “Of course we get it, but what about The Casuals?”  Alex seems to see it another way:

If I’m talking to someone who doesn’t have all these preconceptions of what a game is, it’s actually a lot easier to explain – it’s something that you play and enjoy, and you make things with it. That’s what it is. They don’t know what a game is anyway, they wouldn’t know what an FPS was, so they have fewer preconceptions – like kids: “Oh, it’s fun, oh it’s got a cute character.” They see things a bit differently, they’re less worried about this elevator pitch.

The comes the controversial bit about it being 40gb:

Q: And it weighs in at about 40GB?

Alex Evans: Erm, yes – I believe a Blu-ray single layer is 20GB and a dual layer is 40GB, but we’re filling up the Blu-ray. One of the things on there is we’re having a lot of tutorial content – basically there are two paths through the game, the player’s route and the creator’s route.

[ . . . ]

So one of the things we’re filling the Blu-ray up with is tutorials, and a lot of video stuff showing exactly how it’s done, it’s narrated by Stephen Fry and so on. It’s really useful that thanks to Blu-ray we haven’t needed to worry about file size, it’s never crossed my mind. We’ll check in another gigabyte file… it’s a bit slow on our network but beyond that…

But the game itself and the levels you produce are relatively compact.

To me this sounds like they’re putting all sorts of stuff on the Blu-Ray because they don’t have to worry about space.  It doesn’t sounds like “We have a double-layer Blu-Ray’s worth of data”.  Given the space that’s available, I’d expect we’ll see uncompressed files where it speeds loading, and perhaps all languages on every disc to simplify distribution.  If they were limited to DVDs, or CDs, or floppies, various compromises would be made.  Also:

So we have a huge library of thousands of different objects, and they’re not just textures – we worry about the bump-mapping and the specular… all the HD, next-gen stuff happens and it’s sitting there on the Blu-ray for you to use without having to worry about it. And that’s really how we’re using the space up.

I wonder if we’ll ever see a procedural material editor for LBP, or if they’ll keep new materials as DLC-fodder.  Now on to the big-time fanboy incitement:

Q: So clearly you couldn’t make LBP for the Xbox 360?

Alex Evans: No. Somebody asked “Could you have made it on the Megadrive?” and there’s one answer that’s yes, and one answer that’s no. With LBP as it is, we couldn’t have made it on the Xbox 360 and the reason for that is actually because we designed it around the PS3′s strengths.

In other words, if you’re a game designer, from day one you know your platform, and you just cane it on that platform. You’re not worrying about cross-platform, you’re not worrying about anyone else’s hardware design.

The 360 is an incredibly capable machine, and you could make a user-generated content game on it, no question – just as you could make one on the PS2 or the Megadrive, or any platform. But because we picked our platform, you go and you use every available bit of space, every little processor cycle.

For example, the Cell – which is unique to PlayStation – we really enjoyed using it because rather than coming at it from the “Oh my god, we’ve got to port to a 360 engine for this” or “We’ve got to do an engine that’s on both,” we were instead: “Fine, it’s idiosyncratic, it’s weird, it’s not anywhere else – let’s go use it.”

And that’s been the reason I think that it really plays to the PS3′s strengths. I don’t want people to say “You could do this game on the 360″ – well, you could do any game on any platform, it’s just that you have to design around it. Just the design decisions on the PS3 are huge, and I’m sure you realize that having a hard drive on every unit makes a difference.

That’s another thing – if we didn’t have a hard drive on every unit, we’d have to scale back the ambition of what you could save and do. So yes, you could make this game on the 360, but it’d be a different game.

I love certain things on the PS3, and the hard drive is one of them. And it’s not just that it exists, it’s that it’s on every single SKU.

I think Alex says it pretty well, if you bother to read it.  My take: Certainly the guaranteed hard drive is a factor, and (althought Alex doesn’t mention it) the openness of PSN is a factor; but primarily it can’t be a 360 game because it was designed around the PS3 from the beginning.

It seems that EGM/1UP’s Shane Bettenhausen (with help from David Ellis) has been making good use of an early build of LittleBigPlanet.  October’s Electronic Gaming Monthly has a nice article giving us some tips from their first level-building attempt.

But first, there’s a two-page ad for LittleBigPlanet:

Nice to see the print [...]]]>

It seems that EGM/1UP’s Shane Bettenhausen (with help from David Ellis) has been making good use of an early build of LittleBigPlanet.  October’s Electronic Gaming Monthly has a nice article giving us some tips from their first level-building attempt.

But first, there’s a two-page ad for LittleBigPlanet:

Nice to see the print ads starting to show up.  From the ad, it should be clear that it’s a whimsical multiplayer platformer.  There’s talk of uploading your creations, but nothing about what those creations are.  Given the difficulty of expressing all of the goodness in a simple ad, I’ll take the multiplayer platformer take-away over confusing the reader into thinking it’s only a level design tool.  The lines “Actually, it is all fun and games” and “Fun shall overcome” are a good counterpoint to the dark serious tones that market a lot of the other upcoming games.

The article itself has a few reveals, including apparent confirmation that you must complete “the game’s first set of professionally constructed Story Mode stages” before entering Create mode.  Some forum-goers have been complaining about this restriction, but I certainly would not want to play anything constructed by someone who hasn’t even played enough to have the basic platforming mechanics down.  Trust me, the first set of levels won’t take you that long to at least complete (although there’s a lot of replay value later).  The same internet denizens will likely be perturbed by the mention of mandatory tutorials present in Create mode, but they are reportedly “brief, entertaining, and best of all, worthwhile”.

There’s also talk of levels having multiple exits, and a note of caution: “Jumping, in particular, requires a little practice, as your vertical leap goes considerable higher than a lateral one”.  In my experience, Mario and Metroid veterans won’t have a problem, and platforming newbies will get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Showing you their level, built “over the course of three hilarity-filled hours”; they give advice on choosing materials, inserting PSEye images, offering multiple paths, simple obstacles, leveraging mistakes, “wicked” jumps, corralling big contraptions, and including challenges near the end.

There’s not a huge amount of LBP content, but I’d suggest at least thumbing through it when it shows up at your local newsstand.  And since they already have the code, look for EGM to do a review of LBP soon.  Gee, I wonder who’ll be writing the review?