Members of the Media Molecule development team answer questions from the always inquisitive PlayStation community about the sequel to the hit PlayStation 3 game.
What kind of story and theme can we expect from LittleBigPlanet 2? (Perelie, UK)
In LittleBigPlanet, the different cultures of the world provided the diverse art styles for the game themes. This time you'll be travelling through history, to different worlds themed around a period of great human creativity, but with a LittleBigPlanet twist.
Amongst the new themes are: Victoria's Lab, a Victorian inspired steam punk playground, flourished with cakey decadence; Eve's Asylum, a lush garden world we describe as Designer Organic, which is very much inspired by the likes of Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright; and the Handmade Arcade of The Cosmos, a theme based around the creativity of videogame art.
Can people from the first LittleBigPlanet game join your pod or even play levels with you in LittleBigPlanet 2? And will the Popit size increase in LittleBigPlanet 2? (ISlayer3000, NZ)
You can't join each other to play online from the different games, but things you create in the first game can be played in the second game. In terms of Popit, you can now run it in full screen, and it also comes with some new rather nifty sorting and filtering options.
Will it be possible to make videos and to export them to the XMB? (Dragongaze13, France)
Nope, sorry.
Will we be able to shoot short movies with the new camera functions? (katil199X, Germany)
Oh yes! The new cameras, when combined with the Sequencer tool and other great tools like Sackbots allow you to create in-depth cinematic cutscenes for your games. If you combine these tools with the ability to level link, you can make a movie that lasts as long as you want it to!
Now that we know LittleBigPlanet 2 can be played with PlayStation Move, will there be PlayStation Move only trophies? If so, will there be PlayStation Move multiplayer trophies too? Will I have to buy PlayStation Move to be able to gain all the trophies or will they be achievable with both PlayStation Move and/or the Dualshock 3 Wireless Controller? (Tomyi, Germany)
The LittleBigPlanet 2 Blu-ray Disc will feature a bonus section of levels specifically created for PlayStation Move. The gameplay is an evolution of what was shown at the Tokyo Game Show in 2009, and the Game Developers Conference this year - fun co-op gameplay with one player playing as Sackboy, and another player using PlayStation Move to help him through the level.
As this is a separate bonus mode, there are no trophies tied in with it - so you won't need a PlayStation Move motion controller to gain all the trophies in LittleBigPlanet 2. And this is just an initial taster of what could be possible when Sackboy meets PlayStation Move. There will be plenty more exciting stuff to look out for in the future!
Will we be able to add custom music to LittleBigPlanet 2? (Deserteaglezx, AU)
Yessiree! You'll be able to use the Music Sequencer to easily remix songs or create your own from scratch. It's a very powerful - but really easy to use - new tool that works straight from Popit. If you can use Popit, you can make music.
The level editor in LittleBigPlanet was actually a bit hard to use, will the editor in LittleBigPlanet 2 be more user-friendly? (flaviusdigital, Poland)
Create mode is essentially still the same, but we've made a lot of alterations to the toolset to make it easier to use, and added loads of more tools that make it easier and faster to create things.
In lots of cases, the new tools allow you to build something in four minutes that used to take four hours, so the things that were harder to create are now within the reach of people with less time, or who maybe aren't quite as familiar with the existing tools as those super creators out there are. It also means those super creators can go even further than they've been able to.
It would be interesting to find out how you came up with the idea for Sackboy? The main characters of the game are rag dolls; does it have a hidden meaning? Seeing the game for the first time, I was pretty sure that this title was not created only for children, although, judging by the style of the title, you surely wanted to please this particular audience. Please tell us more about the origins of the lovely Sackboy! (WhiteMoj, Russia)
In the beginning, Sackboy was a little guy with a pink square with a yellow head, the costume you get for Ace-ing the final level. He was placeholder programmer art, and was soon replaced by the cute little guy we all know and love. He was designed by Kareem, Mark, Dave and Francis all jamming together until he was just right.
LittleBigPlanet is definitely for kids, but it's also definitely for adults too - we think some people see the game as being only for kids, because of the playful nature of the game, and the association with imagination and creativity - as we get older we stop imagining and playing so much. LittleBigPlanet allows you to go back to thinking like a kid, like when a washing up bottle was a perfectly good spaceship.
Will items bought in LittleBigPlanet work on LittleBigPlanet 2? (Luis_FFgamer, Portugal)
All downloaded DLC packs, all saved costumes, all created levels - everything on your profile essentially - will work with LittleBigPlanet 2.
Are you able to slap Sackbots? (If so, it would make great practice for when friends come over to my pod.) (NivekKom, AU)
Yes. But don't be too mean, or we'll call the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Sackbots - the RSPCS.
‘Step Up 3D’ Cast Reveals Their Signature Dance MovesWeekend Essentials – Issue 39
