LittleBigPlanet director talks about trophies, mandatory install, SIXAXIS

by Alan Tsang { Jul 2nd 2008 at 7:00PM }

Eurogamer moderated an interview with David Smith, Media Molecule co-founder and technical director of LittleBigPlanet, and lucky fans had the chance to send him some questions. Smith revealed some new elements of the game and confirmed some old ones; the release date is still October, with a beta trial that has already begun but Smith hopes "to have as many people as possible." Trophies were slightly elaborated upon, with creation being a big focus: an example brought up involved creating a new tool/machine that will launch a sackperson at a high speed.

You can create inventions, then use a camera tool make copies of them, and give them away. A simple system of "hitting a button at any time and following a simple series of operations." will allow users to report objectionable content, including copyrighted content. Water is currently not in the game, but "it's something that would be very high on our list of priorities." Gravity change is also said be added later on.

Whether install will be mandatory is unknown, but Smith simply said: "The HD install is perhaps around a gig. Perhaps more or less." LBP will run at "30fps at 720. The game uses a lot of filmic techniques like depth of field and motion blur, so this fits the game pretty well." There will be "VOIP and PS Eye support" but no further details are revealed. Finally, SIXAXIS will "let you look around, point at things and change your facial expression." For more details, read a transcript of the interview here.

Tags: david-smith, interview, littlebigplanet, media-molecule

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Seth @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:06PM

Have to say I'm dissapointed with the 720p and 30fps. It's too bad that currently no game can have great graphics and a good framerate. Maybe further down the line they can squeeze some more juice out of the PS3 like with the PS2 in it's later years. Oh and 1080i looks way better for some reason on my tv so I always like a game with multiple resolutions.

Darkdrium777 @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:09PM

Yes sadly the 720p part is a bit disappointing... I thought it would run at a higher resolution :/
Still, it looks like a good game :)

ruibing @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:01PM

Well, I'd much rather they focus on gameplay than graphics. The game already looks more than detailed and lush enough for what it's set out to do.

UnReAl_SiKaRiO @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:22PM

That Sackboy in the image looks so cool i want one.

Greg Pace @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:14PM

720p at 30fps. FAIL

Also I think it should be like illegal to say on the back of the box 1080p on certain games when it could be like 600p.

PS3 is good and all but if I want a game with good graphics I can just turn to my PC 1080p native all the time.

Tez (PSN: Tezasaurus) @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:27PM

So do that and stop bitching.

cd311290 @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:38PM

OMG are you fucking serious?!

Boo fucking hoo a game doesn't run at 60FPS at 1080P so its obviously crap!! Have you seen the game? Its looks amazing, it doesn't matter about the resolution!! Most people cant tell the difference detween 60FPS and 30 FPS anyway!!

Sorry....but your comment just pisssed me off.

Dwag @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:52PM

Why is this game so interesting?

Seth @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:52PM

Hmm...I thought I presented a thoughtful, well constructed comment where I never said this ruins the game for me, I just noted that I prefer these things. You on the other hand come off as a moronic imbecile who takes what I say out of context, twists it all around and basically vomit it back up on to this website. I'm sure you feel very pleased with yourself right now thinking you in some way, utterly defeated me with your comment, but really you just proved how stupid you really are. And for the record I think this will be the best game of the year.

Nick @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:51PM

You don't need 60 fps for a game like this. It's going to look great and obviously a lot of time has/will be spent on it, so stop bitching and just wait until you can enjoy the final product.

manbeast @ Jul 2nd 2008 7:55PM

this game will live up to all the hype no doubt even w/ 720p, PS send me sackboy ASAP or i will have to shoot myself.

bizdady @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:01PM

Hmmm how can we get in to this beta they speak of?... lol

manbeast @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:04PM

i too would like to know how to enter this beta. :P

Jar Jar Winker @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:17PM

Greg Pace my sackboy wants to teabag yours, but if you won't play because of the frame rate and 720p what will he do?

754Boy @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:12PM

I don't understand why a game that looks this simple cant manage to do more than 30fps. All those processor cores and only a measly 30fps???? And then it isn't full HD!!! WTF, I don't see how the Sony fanboys keep putting up with the lies!!!!

Aozora @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:06PM

@754Boy

I don't understand why you care. You obviously don't have a PS3 and can't play this game.

frankym @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:46PM

This game will change gaming forever.

Not only does it create a completely new genre, but all games in the future will borrow elements from it. Even shooters.

held225 @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:57PM

Well some games look better in 720p than 1080p it just depends on the game and developer, so far LBP looks really good. Its a must buy on my list

Dwag @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:40PM

I don't know about new genre? I don't believe it will change gaming forever it might open new windows for games like this but to change gaming you'll need way more.

Like I said this is a Wii game not saying it can't do good on the PS3 just that it would have done ten times better on the Wii.

The Wii can manage the 30FPS and bumbing it down to 480 and the game will still kinda look the same.

HanzoTheRazor @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:01AM

U gotta be kidding, right??? This is the first "real" user generated content game ever made. It could be endless what we create in LBP and then share with the world. If any game is revolusionary in this time, it will be this. Your not one of those guys who only plays grown up looking games, are u? Oh, and it would look crap on the Wii, like all games do!

Devin @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:51PM

No 1080i!? This is a Sony-made game! My g/f's gonna be mad....very mad...her TV only supports 1080i/480p and all of the latest Sony games have supported 1080i which is why she bought them. Sony should already know that people are pi**ed off that they don't mandate it (hints the PS Forums search 1080i petition).....I can only hope they make this 720p/1080i....

Greg @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:03AM

They were stating the native resolution of the game. The native resolution will never ever ever ever be in 1080i. There is absolutely no point in this. Come back when they say there is no 1080i upscaling.

Devin @ Jul 4th 2008 2:05AM

Greg, nowhere in that post did they say "native". That is why I said what I said....and I hope you're right

Tombstone @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:11PM

Where was it said that the game won't run at 1080i? It just said it will run 30 FPS at 720p, might just mean you'll get a lower FPS at higher ones. No idea.

Anyway, people stop bitching about resolutions and FPS. The amazingness of this game makes up for it.

Franklin McMahon @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:56PM

Most devices (Xbox, digital cable, etc) output at 1080...so even a 720 game or show is output at 1080 on a 1080 set..so it looks great.

PS3 720 games make my 1080 65 inch Hitachi HDTV SWITCH modes, from 1080 down to 720. Most HD TVs have a real cheap resampler (hence why SD looks so bad on HD sets) so when a PS3 game only goes to 720 that means my TV will downsample it and it won't be as crisp.

Smaller HD sets, I would say 40 or 32 inches and below it is less of a problem, because of the smaller screen it can still look great and you often can't notice the TV sampling.

With the PS3 its discouraging, I like how my 360 outputs everything at 1080, even 720 games, with no sampling or mode switching done by the TV. PS3 games however, since most are 720, are resampled by the TV. I don't like this look and have avoided most PS3 games. The few I have, like pixel junk monsters, look great in 1080. I do wish Sony would come up with a solution or have more games in 1080. I think so much of the game testing by developers is done on smaller tabletop HD sets, so 720 looks about as good as 1080. But if you have a large HDTV, 720 looks noticeably less sharp because the TV has to down-sample.

Greg @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:04AM

no, cheap TVs have cheap upscalers. My Sony TV upscales great.

HanzoTheRazor @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:57PM

Upscalling is crap! Native resolution is ALWAYS better. People are still obviously naive about all this. Just look at the best looking game ever from any console; MGS4, it runs under 720p and looks amazing! These are just ferkin' numbers people, so, wake the FERK up! Also, it's not a 1st person shooter, so why would u need 60fps?

HanzoTheRazor @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:08AM

This game will ROCK and will be BIG! Put simply, pure fun. Here's a prediction; will outsell all other previous PS3 games. Bring it on baby! :p

Dwag @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:01AM

If it lives up to its hype and gets an 8.5 or above by Metacritic or gamerankings not buy an individual source like gamespot or Gameinformer(who i'm currently subscribed to) I'll buy this game but if it gets below I might as well rent. I like the thought but just don't think the PS3s hardcore will embrace it when it releases but seeing all the hype i'm considering buying it.

But October I planned on buying Socom(I need the mic) depends who wins the ratings.

DALR @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:01PM

So, your basically saying you don't have your own opinion? And you mindlessly follow other people's opinions, even though they might not like this type of game, or maybe even biased.

REVIEWERS DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING. It's simple opinions, it's not a fact whether it's a good game or not. Reviewers only put THEIR opinions. For example, if they really hate MGS, MGS4 will get a bad score.

But if they really liked the series, it'd get a good one. Understand?