LittleBigPlanet 2 is a very difficult game to review. It is unique in the world of videogames (prequel aside) in that the levels and gameplay mechanics created by the developers will almost certainly represent the tiniest minority of the time you spend with the game. In fact, if you concentrate solely on the more traditional aspects, you may well wonder what all the fuss is about.

There certainly is a structured, familiar singleplayer mode. Ostensibly a platformer, the revamped and turbo boosted Create mode has led to some levels and mini-games being presented as, for example, old school ‘bullet hell’ shooters. You will for the most part however be running, jumping and swinging your way from A to B.

As those familiar with the first game will know, everything has a purposefully ‘handmade’ look. Look closely and you’ll see washing up liquid bottle rockets, characters with cardboard heads, and hand-drawn background details. It’s all fantastically rendered and beautifully designed; this is one amazing looking game.

The new lengthy & artistically directed cutscenes are far from unwelcome, and some are overwhelmingly impressive. The decision to voice characters in the scenes which open and close each level, however, proves to be an unwise one. It edges LittleBigPlanet closer to an overfamiliar singleplayer experience; and in addition, some jokes prove to work better on paper than they do when spoken out loud.

Yes this is a game with a sense of humour – but the script now and again aims for a more serious, meaningful angle. Simply put, it does not work. Despite this – and the fact that the story mode is shorter and easier than we’d like (we never even failed a level until the final boss) – it’s an enjoyable ride. That, however, is a fraction of what LittleBigPlanet 2 has to offer.

The rest revolves around Create mode. This is the level creation tool that the developers themselves used to create the story mode from start to finish and as such, is incredibly versatile and powerful. In fact, it has been so much improved from Create in LBP 1, it makes that game seem almost perversely restrictive (no mean feat).

There are over 50 tutorials for Create, all once again perfectly narrated by Stephen Fry (who has been roped into much more narration overall). You can ignore them all and jump straight in if you wish, though all but the most experienced LBP creators would be well advised to go through at least a handful.

Once you’re confident you’ve got a handle on things, you can get creating. LBP 1 veterans will find that the basic setup is largely unchanged; music, backgrounds, objects etc. are chosen via the ‘Popit’ menu, and you can draw completely new shapes and objects into existence with the controller. The new options are far too many to list and explain here; the music sequencer for making your own music, the logic gates for more complicated programming, the ‘creatinator’ (a gun that fires out anything you tell it to), the ‘controlinator’ (which, for example, allows you to assign controls to all buttons and both sticks for a vehicle you’ve made for your level). And much more. It may sound daunting, but it’s all presented in the most user friendly way possible.

Special mention must go to the sackbots – AI sackfolk that you can use in your levels. You can dress them up in any skins, costumes, or combinations thereof that you own (a sly way of making DLC costumes appeal to more people, perhaps). Even better than that is the control you have over their behaviour. They can simply stand around looking cute if you want; but you can also make them attack, flee from, or follow players. Best of all you can make them ‘act’; take control of the sackbot in Create, then record actions for it to perform as and when you decree.

If you’ve ever had dreams of becoming a games designer, LittleBigPlanet 2 is worth the money several times over for Create alone. You won’t find a cheaper, more user friendly game creation tool anywhere – and famously, Media Molecule are in the habit of hiring people whose levels impress them the most. But what if you have little to no interest in making and showing off your own creations?

The feature that has perhaps been most instrumental in allowing new genres to be explored proves to have been the ability to tweak the level of gravity, which leads neatly to the final chunk of LittleBigPlanet – the user created levels. Go online, and you’ll find literally millions of user created levels (though that includes all the ones imported from LBP 1). Thankfully, search options have been poked and prodded to make digging up levels that interest you easier, and there is now an ‘MM Picks’ list for levels so impressive, Media Molecule feel the need to promote them themselves.

Platformers, twin stick shooters, short movies, top down racers… all these and much more have been provided – for free – by the community. When considering our score deduct one mark if you never intend to make a level yourself, two marks if you don’t take your PS3 online, and two marks if you’re instantly distrustful of anything that looks this damn cute.

There were sad sackboys and sackgirls across the LittleBigPlanet when Media Molecule announced that, rather than the November date originally announced, LBP 2 had been pushed back to January to allow for a final polish. But could they have almost finished the job already?

If you head over to Amazon UK, you’ll see that they’ve updated the LBP 2 release date from the January 2011 one to “December 17, 2010”. Before you get too excited however, remember that retailers have a long history of getting release dates wrong. That said, these mistakes usually only happen before a firm date is confirmed by the publisher. Again however, Media Molecule make no mention of a new release date on their website, and we can’t find the new date at any other retailers. Even Amazon US still has the release date down as “January 18, 2011”.

However, Amazon UK are so confident that this new date is correct, they’ve sent out e mails this morning to customers who have already preordered, advising them of the new release date. Could there be any truth in this? We shall see…

UPDATE: Though amazon.co.uk have the release date for LittleBigPlanet 2 down as ‘December 17, 2010′, we are currently waiting for confirmation that e mails have been sent as well as delivery estimates updated on the website (confirmed via customer). We are also waiting for comments from Amazon, Sony and Media Molecule; we’ll update you as and when.

SONY: “We’re still tracking a January release”.

They’ll be having a word with Amazon, so don’t be surprised if the date has been changed back again when you click through. Sorry folks, the official word is that the release date is still January 2011.

It turns out that not only is RaphaeI (‘I’ at the end, not ‘L’) the author of this incredible flOw tribute, but he’s also a Polish man who can speak English better than many English people we know. Is there anything the guy can’t do?

CG: Did you make this level (flOw) from scratch, or was it first created in LBP 1? If the latter, how have you been able to improve it with LBP 2 features?

RaphaeI: The level was made in the LBP2 beta from scratch. There was not really much to make; the creature, some food creatures and the boss. Those were all the shapes I needed.

CG: How long did the level take to create?

RaphaeI: About a weekend and two-three long evenings. Everything worked quite well on the first day, but seeing how well it replicated the original I decided to spend more time to polish it. Add sound / music, different depths etc. to make it a full, polished level and publish it.

CG: Did you expect your level to get the amount of attention it did?

RaphaeI: No, not really. As in the original game this type of gameplay is not really popular (actually not many people played it more than just a few bites before quitting). The level was probably MM picked because it’s a great showcase for freedom and flexibility of the new LBP2 tools.

CG: What levels do you admire, from either game?

RaphaeI: I can not specify any concrete level but I’m always blown-away with what people do with the 3D glitch.

CG: Are you working on any more levels at the moment?

RaphaeI: I’m only playing around with the Create mode, but if any of that will turn into a level worth publishing… I don’t know. I don’t publish unfinished stuff.

CG: Any tips for other LBP creators?

RaphaeI: It’s always good to plan things out on paper before starting to build a level from a blank. Heh, I’m not really the one that should give LBP creator tips to others…

CG: What’s your most favourite thing about the LBP 2 beta… and your least favourite?

RaphaeI: Most favourite, that they gave us an easy to use, fully fledged programming language based on logic. With emitters and sackbots, and control over things like movement, gravity, cameras etc. so many things are now possible. The least favourite, that I don’t have enough free time to try and make everything that comes to my mind…

The video used in this article is taken from ChimpanzeePS3′s YouTube channel, as this channel is unofficially approved by Media Molecule. ChimpanzeePS3 is in no way affiliated with Critical Gamer or any of its staff.

One of the first levels to be leaked onto YouTube (NOT by ChimpanzeePS3!) before the lifting of the LBP 2 beta NDA, Sackro Machines 2 has been a hit with beta testers and jealous outsiders alike. Now that the NDA is just a memory, the level’s creator Splapp-me-do talks to Critical Gamer about LBP creating, making Sackro Machines – and seeing it leaked.

CG: Did you make this level (Sackro Machines 2) from scratch, or was it first created in LBP 1? If the latter, how have you been able to improve it with LBP 2 features?

Splapp-me-do: It was made from scratch in LBP2. I’ve had experience with the LBP1 tools though.

CG: How long did the level take to create?

Splapp-me-do: The first Sackro Machines track I made took about 3 hours on and off. Most of the 3 hours was spent actually decorating the track and making it look pretty, getting the actual cars up and running was surprisingly simple. They started off as a single block of cardboard with a controlinator seat attached. It was then a case of adding a mover for forwards/backwards movement, and a rotator for steering and hooking them up to the buttons/analogue stick on the controlinator. I spent a bit of time tweaking the movers and rotator to make it fun to drive, added an anti gravity tweaker to it and it was ready to go!

Sackro Machines 2, I spent more time on… probably around 5 or 6 hours. Again, most of the time was spent on laying out the track and making it look nice – the cars have the same logic as the ones from Sackro Machines… it was as simple as copying the microchip across onto the new cars.

CG: Did you expect your level to get the amount of attention it did?

Splapp-me-do: Not at all! I had a feeling that everyone would try to imitate Micro Machines using the new tools. I used to love Micro Machines when I was younger, so I just had to make a LittleBigPlanet version of it… so I just plodded along making the level, published it and went offline and forgot about it. Next time I came back, it was on the Cool Levels page and had an MM Pick. Couldn’t believe it!

CG: How do you feel about your level being leaked onto YouTube before the lifitng of the NDA?

Splapp-me-do: I didn’t mind that my level had been leaked, to be honest. I knew it was breaking the NDA, but after reading all of the positive comments on the video I was just sort of… grinning like a maniac. However, I did mind that Joystiq had credited the guy that leaked the videos as the creator of the levels! That kind of annoyed me

CG: What levels do you admire, from either game?

Splapp-me-do: My favourite level from LBP1 is “The Miracle of Life” by Poms. It’s just a really awesome level, brilliantly made, amazing creatures and contraptions and really fun to play. Another of my faves is “Digitized Reality” by steve_big_guns. Again, really well made and great fun to play. In fact most of, if not all of, these two creators’ levels are amazing.

CG: Are you working on any more levels at the moment?

Splapp-me-do: I haven’t started working on any new levels yet, but I’ve been spending a lot of time fiddling around in Create mode experimenting with the new tools. I’ve got a couple of ideas that would make fun levels, so once I’ve decided if they’ll work or not I might start building them. I’ve also been throwing ideas around for a new Sackro Machines track (possibly on the beach), so there’s always that.

CG: Any tips for other LBP creators?

Splapp-me-do: Hmm… well I always find that the best way to learn how to use new tools is to dive into Create mode and just muck about with them. I guess that’s my tip! It sometimes gives me ideas for whole levels too.

CG:What’s your most favourite thing about the LBP 2 beta… and your least favourite?

Splapp-me-do: Most favourite: New tools and graphical upgrades

Least favourite: It crashes too much!

The video used in this article is taken from ChimpanzeePS3′s YouTube channel, as this channel is unofficially approved by Media Molecule. ChimpanzeePS3 is in no way affiliated with Critical Gamer or any of its staff.

Another day, another LittleBigPlanet community creator superstar. Famous for his popular creations, such as Mario and UNO inspired game worlds, Critical Gamer sits down with TheAdipose for a constructive chat.

CG: Many of your levels are collaborations. Is this difficult to organise? It’s surely a problem in the LBP 2 beta, where online create is disabled…

TheAdipose: I think online create is the single greatest feature on LittleBigPlanet. Without community and other people to build and socialise with I would have very little interest in create mode. Collaborating with others allows you to accentuate your strengths and hide your weaknesses. I’m a ‘logic and gameplay’ guy and I’m always looking for visual experts to hide my shocking artwork.

I’ve never found it particularly difficult to organise creating teams as I tend to take on the ‘project leader’ role and ask others (very politely) to work on certain areas in the level. It’s sad that online create is currently disabled in LBP 2, but we all know it’s coming at some point. Until then, we upload our levels to each other and work separately. There may be *cough* ‘ways’ to get into O.C. but MM have asked us not to use it at the moment.

CG: You’re already one of the most popular LittleBigPlanet creators. Did it come as any surprise to see how popular your beta levels became?

TheAdipose: I was very happy with the success of my levels in the beta. So far I’ve made ‘demos’ of what is possible with the tools and people seem to have enjoyed playing them. I based each one on an existing franchise (Lemmings, Mario, UNO) which normally guarantees a bit of extra attention. I’ve been really pleased to see that ‘cool levels’ seems to use a different system this time, which hopefully promotes high quality levels rather than repetitive survival challenges.

I’m still after an elusive ‘MM Pick’ which is a great way to promote the best of the best. As I mentioned above, community is the biggest part of LBP, and whenever I publish a level I ask my PSN buddies to give it a play. It’s their feedback I value most of all. I would recommend every creator gets to know as many other creators as possible.

CG: Were any of your levels in the beta originally published in LBP 1? If so, what has the LBP 2 beta allowed you to add or improve?

TheAdipose: They are published, but all three are currently broken under the new systems. Although MM have worked very hard at backwards compatibility, it’s not perfect yet. My most famous LBP 1 creation (apart from my video tutorials) was a level based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. This involved lots of sack cut outs and dialogue looped through old style logic. I’m very much looking forward to replacing the cut outs with proper sackbots and making the city feel so much more alive.

On a related note – there is finally a reason to buy costume DLC. I’ve always been a ‘this is my one costume’ kind of player, but now I need characters for my levels. MM is going to get so much money from me on the costume side.

CG: What, for you, is the most important thing now possible in LBP 2 that isn’t
possible in LBP 1?

TheAdipose: I’m not sure I can answer this in one so I’m going to give myself three.

1. Sackbots – They allow so much more character development in levels. They can act, move, follow, talk and really immerse the player into whatever world you have created. As well as having sackbots around the player, you can actually put the player in a sackbot. This means that in a Spiderman level you can make the player be Spiderman. You can also give special abilities to each bot – like in my Mario level – flying Mario could jump high, fire Mario could shoot fireballs, etc. The possibilities in creation are massive.

2. Movers and rotators – Without the awkward restrictions posed by pistons and bolts, movers really open up the gameplay genres on LBP. Objects can move by themselves on any pre-programmed route. You can also set objects to follow other objects (or the player). The card game level I made would have been near impossible on LBP 1. With LBP 2 you just stick the movers in a microchip and the card glides from your hand into the deck.

3. New logic tools – The new logic tools are so easy to use, it makes creating with them really enjoyable. Logic that would have taken me half an hour to put together in LBP 1, I can link up in under a minute in LBP 2. It means that easy logic is now available to all creators and very advanced logic is waiting for those who care to learn more. Some of my friends have been building calculators and even entire computers inside these tools. The microchips also mean that you no longer have to give vast areas of your level over to storing the logic. Lush.

CG: How long do your levels take to create, on average? What’s the most time and least time you’ve spent on a level?

TheAdipose: Well I’ve been doing ‘level demos’ in the beta at the moment. It seems unlikely that we will get to keep our creations so I don’t want to put my heart and soul into something that won’t see the light of day. I’ve been doing ‘levels in a weekend’ which seems to tie in quite nicely with my short attention span. The quickest was the UNO level which took half a day. Mario and Lemmings took most of a weekend each. Some of my LBP levels felt like they took forever.

My Gladiators level (which I won a crown for – yay!) took over a month and both Luos and I were sick of it by the time we finished. My first proper level took about two months, but it went through several revisions and re-releases before we were happy with it. Discworld took about three weeks to finish, but that was also the most ‘social’ of my creations. The credits list for that level was well into double figures. Luos and I often had four people working on the level at one time – which obviously speeds things up. I’m simultaneously envious and horrified by the people who take months and months on one level. I don’t know where they get the stamina from, but the outcome is often very impressive.

CG: What levels do you admire, from either game?

TheAdipose: My favourite level in LBP history is subterranean setbacks by rtm223. My favourite creations are tricky levels, with original gameplay and puzzles that make you think hard. That level by rtm had ground breaking logic, a great narrative, many tough challenges, and nice gritty visuals. Check it out – but don’t expect an easy ride.

On the new beta it’s just really great seeing what new ideas are coming out. LBP 2 is no longer constrained by the platforming genre. With a little imagination you can make literally any type of game with the new tools. I’ve seen RTS, card games, movies, racers and much more! I admire the creators who think outside of the box and keep surprising the community.

CG: Do you have any general tips for fellow LBP creators?

TheAdipose: Tutorials! LBP is blessed with so many great creators who are willing to share their genius with others. Look in the tutorials sections of many LBP websites. There is so much to learn that will improve your creations. I also made a series of video tutorials that have also supported new players through their first levels. Aside from that, get involved in the community. Join fansites, be active on forums, make friends, share your creations, give feedback on other peoples and generally enjoy the experience.

CG: Is there anything else LBP related you would like to add?

TheAdipose: It’s a real shame the game has been delayed but I understand the decision. LBP has a long shelf life – it isn’t the kind of game you complete and trade back in. For some of these creators, LBP is THE game they play. For that reason, I think MM have made the right decision to get LBP 2 right before they publish it. Until then, this buggy, crash prone beta will have to withstand my creative whims.

With nothing more than a little mopping up left to do from our Eurogamer Expo coverage, we continue our focus on the unsung stars of the LittleBigPlanet 2 beta; the community creators. Today: GruntosUK.

CG: Did you make this level (Sackometry Wars) from scratch, or was it first created in LBP 1? If the latter, how have you been able to improve it with LBP 2 features?

GruntosUK: I created it solely in the LBP2 beta. I don’t think it would be even possible in LBP, simply for the controls. Plus it uses a lot of emitters, and the new way the engine calculates emitted objects kept it within the thermometer’s boundaries. And it uses holographic material, because it’s based on Geometry Wars and the mechanics rely on overlapping materials.

CG: How long did the level take to create?

GruntosUK: I’d have said around 10/11 hours start to finish. I had the basic enemies and controls done in a couple of hours, then spent maybe another 3 or 4 adding in another type of enemy, the effects, the play area and generally tightening it all up. I published the first version after that was complete.

After a lot of feedback I spent another 5/6 and basically revamped most it except the craft itself. I added a HUD, Megabombs, more enemies, more waves and much tighter controls.

I’d like to add more actually, but behind the scenes is pretty much a mess, and I don’t want to attempt to untangle it all. I have since learned to use notes and make things tidy as I go now though

CG: Did you expect your level to get the amount of attention it did?

GruntosUK: Not really, I knew friends might have a play, and I might get a couple of people coming across it but I thought most people would be in Create to be honest. I’d had fun making it and learning as I went along, and still enjoy playing it so anything else was a bonus.

The MM pick was a great surprise and when lbp.me was opened I was blown away it had over 7000 unique plays . Most of my levels on LBP1 don’t have that.

CG: What levels do you admire, from either game?

GruntosUK: There are literally hundreds from the first game, many many creators and many more levels; hearted lists are always the best place to begin. From there move to other people’s hearted levels from levels you have enjoyed – Morgana25′s list is a great place to start. I know I will mention some and forget others and want to change it so I’ll leave it at that.

Luos_83 has made a fantastic level, his Caves Of The New Beh’ta level is awesome, as is faith_rips Ice Age level, two traditional LBP levels using the new features really well. Fyshokid’s Audio Visuals and Stereo/Mono are fabulous, as are LadyLyn’s movie levels. And I have loved most, if not all, multiplayer mini games I’ve played; great fun with plenty of laughs to be had.

CG: Are you working on any more levels at the moment?

GruntosUK: At the moment no, I’m just playing around with the movie camera and sackbots. I have got an idea, to do a small trailer movie and a typical LBP platformer, but whether I get the time to finish is another thing.

CG: Any tips for other LBP creators?

GruntosUK: Always get your gameplay right first, make it pretty afterwards and take in any feedback you get. “Generally” the player is always right

CG: What’s your most favourite thing about the LBP 2 beta… and your least favourite?

GruntosUK: My most favourite thing, definitely the experimentation with the wealth of new tools and features available to use. I’m being extremely erratic in Create mode because of this, always finding new things to play with for a couple of hours before getting completely sidetracked with something else.

The worst is most certainly not being able to keep what we make. There’s some mind-blowing stuff on the beta at the moment, with the promise of even better stuff to come along. It would be a great kick to the start of the game if they could be carried over for the first couple of weeks after release. Plus I’ve got some stuff for future projects I’d like to keep a hold of.

The video used in this article is taken from ChimpanzeePS3′s YouTube channel, as this channel is unofficially approved by Media Molecule. ChimpanzeePS3 is in no way affiliated with Critical Gamer or any of its staff.

“I’m basically just pizza delivery boy today.”

That’s how Alex Evans, co – founder of Media Molecule, half seriously explains his one day only presence at the Eurogamer Expo to me. Indeed, developers and fans alike are sharing pizza when I arrive at the row of TVs running LittleBigPlanet 2 – which initially sets me off screaming with frustration inside. I’ve already been informally chatting with a few Molecules over the last few hours, and even the previous day. But I missed the free pizza!

Then I notice that the pizza is infected with olives, and become considerably less disappointed. Who likes olives? Seriously?

“It’s nothing to do with the beta, funnily enough.” says Alex, when I ask the inevitable question about the LBP 2 delay. “The beta’s actually been one of the happy things that’s kept me going through this dark time. We were gutted. It actually boiled down to just playing the game a bit, and realising it was nearly there, it was 98%. We had to do that final few percent, we knew we’d regret it if we didn’t do it. The thing is, a lot of people still don’t have online. The solution of patching it isn’t really good enough. We were like ‘we’ve only given ourselves four weeks, which isn’t a massive amount of time’ and we really felt we needed the time to polish it.

I’m a programmer, so I’m more the bugs side of it. The story was sorted, and now it’s the programming team. The story’s the first thing to benefit; they just totally raised the bar. The decision [to delay the release of LittleBigPlanet 2] was made a while ago, a little bit before it was announced, and we were down for a bit. But the story team were the first to really pick themselves up and go ‘okay, we’ve got four extra weeks on our schedule’ and they went through and breathed new life into the levels. So now it’s the code team that’s got to step up, our focus at the moment is ‘framerate framerate framerate’. There were a few places where when you’re playing four player, it really suffered. That’s the difference. It won’t be more levels; it’s all about quality.

We looked at the game, we weren’t pleased with it as a whole. It wasn’t like there was one thing that was wrong, we were like ‘This is 98% good. But the story could do with a polish, the code could be…’ ask any coder, is it ever done? No. Even when you ship it. We just thought…”

“Two thousand bugs as well!” Adds a nearby LBP fan.

Due to time constraints on my part, the interview is taking place on the Expo show floor. As a result, the interview is interrupted several times by fans determined to take the opportunity to talk to the immensely approachable Alex. And who can blame them?

Although he apologises more than once for the interruptions – which are of course not even his fault – it’s impossible to get annoyed at Alex in the same way I found it impossible to get annoyed at the fans. The way he instantly devotes all of his attention to each LBP fan, yet politely returns to the interview as soon as is reasonably possible, is admirable to say the least.

“No, two thousand bugs didn’t help.” he agrees, when the interview resumes. “We’re down to nine hundred and… something now.”

Media Molecule is small for a development studio (about forty people) – particularly one now owned by a company as big as Sony – and presumably, keeping it small fits in with the family vibe that seems to surround everything MM do.

Just one of the companies to help out Media Molecule.

“I can’t comment on other studios, but I hate working in a big company. It’s not my style. Some big studios are amazing, and I’m not saying that they’re rubbish; I’m just saying that personally I don’t like being in a big team, I like being in a little team. We did a blog post the other day; there’s loads of other studios that have done tons of stuff for us. We couldn’t do it all ourselves, and the game’s been such a huge success – people are hungry for it all the time. We’re like – ‘we’d love to do that, we’d love to do that‘ – and we can only do a certain amount. That’s the trade – off you make. If you stay small you can’t do everything. Cambridge Studio did the PSP version, Tarsier did a lot of the DLC… and it’s all about picking your battles basically. I’m amazed by what a big team can do, I just don’t choose to do that.

They [the companies featured in the aforementioned blog post] are in the credits of the game as well, but I think they don’t get enough credit. Everyone loves to remember one name. It’s maybe my name, or it’s Media Molecule – but a lot of people put a lot of effort in. Tarsier, Fireproof… all these people have helped, and I think the story behind how the game is made is quite nice. You wouldn’t be telling the story as a whole unless you were including them.”

And how does he think the delay will affect sales?

“If only I had a crystal ball!” he cries. “I’m actually really ignorant. You’re basically asking another gamer that question. When you decide to ship something, especially over Christmas… you don’t do that [delaying the game] lightly. Everyone was like ‘Holy shit, this is not an easy thing to do… but is it the right thing to do?’ and we decided it was the right thing to do. Now whether or not we lose sales… well if we do I’ll be ‘fuck it, that’s life’. The bottom line is, I really have no fucking clue. I’d love to hear people’s opinions. What I do know is, the right thing was to ship the game when it’s done. We had to make that call, and it was tough.

The nice thing about the industry, and I think you see it in all of the big publishers, Sony especially, is that they’re not in it for a quick buck. There’s no point, especially for a first party title, putting out something that’s nearly there, like 99% there. With a first party title, they’re taking a risk in the first place. They’re showcasing PlayStation, what PlayStation can do. That’s why I think they’re so behind us. Sony have been so amazingly supportive. It’s not easy to phone them up and go ‘Guys, we’re not there yet’. You know, they could have said ‘Fuck it, we don’t care’ and the point is, they didn’t. They said ‘Woah, that’s serious. Let’s think about it, let’s work it through’. So in a way, it’s a group decision. I have a lot of respect for external development, the people who look after us in Liverpool. Supporting us for quality; it’s quality first, and that’s great.”

With that, it is frustratingly I who must cut the interview off, and run like the wind to make another in the nick of time.

No matter which publishers are your favourite it’s important to remember that they are all, at the end of the day, businesses. This has led to them coming in for a lot of criticism from games fans over the years, being blamed for everything from rushing a game out early to maximise profit to suppressing fresh and exciting ideas. Speaking to us at the Eurogamer Expo at the weekend, however, Media Molecule co – founder Alex Evans told us of his sincere belief that big publishers – especially Sony – aren’t like that at all.

“The nice thing about the industry, and I think you see it in all of the big publishers, Sony especially, is that they’re not in it for a quick buck. There’s no point, especially for a first party title, putting out something that’s nearly there, like 99% there […] Sony have been so amazingly supportive. It’s not easy to phone them up and go ‘Guys, we’re not there yet’. You know, they could have said ‘Fuck it, we don’t care’ and the point is, they didn’t.”

It’s very easy to be cynical about the power publishers have over developers; but Evans’ words indicate that, at the least, there are spots of hope in the industry. Stay tuned, because we’ll be bringing you the full interview – only at Critical Gamer – soon.

Following on from yesterday’s article we bring you more of our interview with the creator of Vietnam FPS, PPp_Killer. In today’s article however, we are lucky enough to be able to welcome a second LittleBigPlanet community creator to the discussion. You’ll also be hearing from dadrester, creator of Little Big Retro Arcade. First of all, however; PPp_Killer reveals how he was able to create an FPS in LBP 1 without the benefit of LBP 2 tools.

“The thing about the LBP 1 version was that it was not powered by the controlinator and movers. It was powered by rockets, and what I like to call a jetpack powered movement ball that your sackboy was in. Whenever you moved it would trigger rockets; but the movement was just too slow, and the frame would tend to go off on an angle. Those were my problems in LBP 1 and no matter what I tried I could not fix them. On top of that the gun was prone to jamming, and you could even accidentally flip the frame onto its side.”

But the LBP 2 beta allowed him to fix these problems?

“Movers fix the responsiveness issue, a gyroscope fixes the frame going off on an angle, and the new microchips without the possibility of breaking were used to fix the jamming problem. When I say jam, I mean the piston that was responsible for shooting would break. I couldn’t help that.”

The man known to PSN as dadrester made what is currently his most popular level, Little Big Retro Arcade, entirely from scratch in the LittleBigPlanet 2 beta. He tells us:

“To begin with I made a standalone single player pong clone, where the player used the sixaxis motion controls to “rotate” the paddle around the centre and keep the ball in play. It sucked pretty bad so it never got published; but I just kind of carried on from there, adding more and more (half) games. It’s kind of an odd level because most of the games are just little experiments with new techniques I’m discovering, rather than final polished quality levels. I’d like to do a single level with just one standalone game and polish it, but I keep returning to the arcade for some reason.”

When asked how long it took him to make Little Big Retro Arcade his first word is ‘Ooft’, which says it all, really.

“I’m not sure really. Probably more time than I should admit. I’m actually a game designer by profession, just putting the finishing touches to ‘The Shoot’ ( go buy it ;D ), so I’m working lots of hours, and then getting home and spending a good few hours a night on the beta. A little less now than to begin with, but I’m finding it much quicker to do stuff as I get used to the tools.”

“People think it took a long time to make the Vietnam level but it really didn’t.” says PPp_Killer. “Reloading logic with an on screen display in LBP 1 was probably the most time consuming thing to do right (easily fixed with hologram materials and a counter or selector microchip). You can easily figure out the ammo logic, but how do you get it to re-emit again, and to work with the other logic if you can’t connect them by wire? It’s tricky. But doable. It took me two weeks, but I hardly worked on it most days. How long did it take me to improve it in LBP2? A day, simply a day.”

The reason this article is being written, of course, is that these two levels have been played and watched by hundreds of thousands of people; perhaps millions. Were they surprised that their levels became so popular, so quickly?

“I expected it to get attention, but how fast it got onto the cool levels list was unreal, nine hours and it was second place behind Audial Visuals.” says PPp_Killer. “Then after a day it was on the top spot. I didn’t expect it to be leaked onto Youtube though, or be the most watched Beta level.”

Dadrester wasn’t expecting that level of popularity, “Not to begin with. I played quite a bit of LBP 1 and made a quiz level I was pretty proud of, “Quizness Business”, but it never really got any plays (I’ve still not platinumed that game) so I wasn’t hopeful of getting many plays for this one. But as time went on and I added more stuff, it was clear people were really digging the level. Thanks to everyone who’s played it.”

He was ‘in two minds’ about Little Big Retro Arcade being leaked onto YouTube before the NDA was lifted. “In the first instance I thought, ‘what a dope! Doesn’t he realise he’s going to be booted from the beta?’, but I was also incredibly proud that my level was getting all this attention. I actually forwarded it to a couple of colleagues.”

PPp_Killer made his thoughts on the YouTube level leak of Vietnam FPS clear yesterday. On the subject of levels created by other people, he’s happy to say that “There have been a lot of great levels In LBP1, but I did admire this one level called “Action Shooter: Crazy Agent Sack 6″ by polloizarraraz43. That level was action packed craziness, nice visuals, great boss battles and it had an epic Fighter Jet battle at the end of the level to finish it off. It has inspired me to make my own action packed Agent level series. A recent one in LBP 2 would be “The Ancient Caves of New Beh’Ta” by Luos_83. An amazing, good looking level, which the creator put a lot of time and effort into.”

“You can check my hearted levels for that.” says dadrester. “But (like everyone else) I think Fyshokid’s experiments are really professional. I really look forward to seeing what he does going forward. There’s loads of great levels tbh. I’ll name drop some less frequently played ones… BCC01 – Lint’denburg By Slaeden-Bob really made me chuckle! Clock Blocked by jiggles is a really simple, innovative 2 player game, but there’s loads of good ones.”

Is dadrester (who joked about making ‘a game in a game in a game’ when answering questions!) working on any more levels himself? “Only in my head. I have a two year old daughter who absolutely loves ‘boy’ (sackboy), especially when he’s waving at her or pointing ‘up and down, up and down‘ so I’m thinking I’ll do an ABC type thing for her… press any button – music changes, sfx play, fog colour changes and ‘A is for Apple’ appears along with an apple; all with an accomapnying giant sackboy. That sort of thing.”

“I just finished off a new helicopter for my next level.” PPp_Killer tells us. “My next level is going to be the first level in my own sack agent series; it will combine the crazy gameplay in Action Shooter with the awesome visuals of Luos_83′s level. I will spend my time on this one to make it amazing, epic and action packed.”

Dadrester’s tips for other aspiring LBP creators? “Do some simple logic gate tutorials. Have a bit of paper to plan your logic. Get more sleep than I do.”

“Take your time, do not rush.” says PPp_Killer. “Don’t release concepts, that will only slow your process down. But it’s kinda ironic since I did both… anyway, if you want to make good looking objects, look at a photo of it on the internet; it will help you understand its shapes. I don’t know what else to say. But I do believe there is going to be a bunch of new super creators in LBP 2 giving me tips. Maybe it could be somebody reading this?”

And finally: what do they think are the best and worst things about the LittleBigPlanet 2 beta?

Dadrester: “Oh blimey, there’s so much. I think all the new logic and control tools are the biggest, most important changes. They allow you to do pretty much anything. As for least favourite? Hmmm. The fact I’m not playing it right now. ”

PPp_Killer: “My favourite thing? Pretty much anything that makes it easier or faster. The music sequencer and microchips are great additions.
My least favourite thing? The constant freezing, I lost my sniper because of it.”

Are you the author of a LittleBigPlanet 2 beta level that’s made it into ‘cool levels’ or ‘MM Picks’? Would you like to share your creating tips and views on LittleBigPlanet in general with the world? Then mail admin@criticalgamer.co.uk. We’ll follow your mail up with a private message on the official PlayStation forums, so don’t bother trying to pretend being somebody you’re not – it won’t work!

The videos used in this article are taken from ChimpanzeePS3′s YouTube channel, as this channel is unofficially approved by Media Molecule. ChimpanzeePS3 is in no way affiliated with Critical Gamer or any of its staff.

The creator of this level is known on PSN as PPp_Killer. The Italian YouTube user who broke the beta NDA (by uploading game footage early) is known on YouTube as TheFinalBurst. They are not, PPp_Killer is keen to stress, the same person.

“I saw my level and I was laughing at how it was posted; I liked how TheFinalBurst put into the description ‘My favourite level in the Beta’ but I did not like the fact that people thought he made my levels and a bunch of others. He should have written ‘Vietnam FPS by PPp_Killer’. I remember seeing Joystiq publish an article and yet again, getting the facts totally wrong. It’s hard to believe anything Joystiq say if they can’t see he didn’t make the level. I did not like how they said TheFinalBurst had made these levels, and a handful of other websites did the same.”

What you may not know about Vietnam FPS is that it can be found in amongst the community levels of the first LittleBigPlanet game, albeit in a less perfected form.

“Search ‘Vietnam FPS’ in LBP1” he says, also providing a link to LBPCentral. “Back in April, a couple of weeks after LBP2 was announced, I posted my ideas for a cool SWAT level on LBPCentral.com here. Of course, nobody believed I could actually make an FPS in LBP2 at all, who was I to them? Another COD fanboy? Which I am not. I knew how to make an FPS long before I made Vietnam FPS and I did trial an FPS idea previously too, nothing advanced though (see it in action in “Flee Iraq 2″).”

And now, the juicy bit you’ve all been waiting for; how did he do it? Well, it seems that while some people find it impossible to understand how the level was possible, others find it impossible to understand how the techniques could be so hard to work out.

“Most people who create levels in LBP1 or 2 will easily be able to see how I did it. It’s not that hard. You just need to know how to use the 3D glitch and make objects in the foreground. First, you make a 3D gun using the 3D front layer glitch. Attach it to a controlinator, add movers, and set R1 to emit the bullets. Set up a camera to activate so when you hold L1 it zooms down the sights. One major tip if you’re making an FPS level is to put the entire 3D gun on the front glitch layers. If you want moving enemies, none of it should go onto the normal layers; if some of your gun is on the normal layers you can use the emitter trick to push it into the foreground more.”

PPp_Killer is obviously happy to share his tips and tricks with his fellow LittleBigPlanet creators. So why aren’t his levels copyable?

“I would allow the level to be copyable but I don’t trust the LBP community at all, too many kids ruining the fun. Lets take LBP1 as an example; any popular copyfree levels are republished with no changes at least 100 times by different people, and at times receive more plays then the original level did.”

So what did the LBP 2 beta allow him to add or improve? How did he first manage to make an FPS with no more than the tools available in LBP 1? These questions and more answered in tomorrow’s article; when we’ll also be talking to dadrester, the creator of Little Big Retro Arcade.

The video used at the top of this article is taken from ChimpanzeePS3′s YouTube channel, as this channel is unofficially approved by Media Molecule. ChimpanzeePS3 is in no way affiliated with Critical Gamer or any of its staff.