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Prize Possessions - Getting Gifts From LittleBigPlanet
by Jon Torrens - Designer

In LittleBigPlanet, there are lots of score bubbles, and then there are PRIZE bubbles. Now, these prize-filled popping spheres - as well as giving you fifty points instead of the score bubble's measly ten - each contain something special. Burst one of these shiny beauties and you might get a sticker, costume, character, music, background, an object such as a lemon or a boomerang, or even a vehicle to place in your levels. Prize bubbles are scattered throughout each level; some are easy to find, and others not quite so easy. And that's not all: when you reach the scoreboard, as well as seeing your score, you get prizes for finishing the level. If you get there without dying, then here you go, more prizes. And if you collect all the prize bubbles in a level, do you know what you get? That's right, even more prizes. Altogether in LittleBigPlanet on the PSP there are several hundred cool things to find, keep, and use however you like. My favourite's the flying saucer costume. Or possibly the rocket bike vehicle. Or the giant beach ball.

 

'Real physics'. The phrase makes a designer's face light up like a child who's just got a big noisy toy at Christmas, and a programmer hold his head in his hands like the parent who's going to have to deal with the following audio torture. LBP has real physics, which is fantastic for the player because it's a little bit like real life: that stack of objects you've built is going to fall apart in a clatter of unpredictability. However, it's a nightmare for a programmer because it's a little bit like real life: that stack of objects you've built is going to fall apart in a clatter of unpredictability, and that's something that in a video game can cause some very nasty problems (or as we say in the technical lingo, make the game 'pop').

What LBP has managed to do is allow players to create all manner of amazing things without any problems (within reason. You've got a thermometer on the side of the screen that tells you how close you are to overloading the game and, basically, getting a little big for your physics boots). Make great piles of bricks, cylinders and stars. Or even better, add some collected objects - fruit, enemies, vehicles, bubbles, and then go into play mode and watch it fall, collide, crash and finally come to rest. Then go and get Sackboy to jump up and down on it a bit. Then throw some bombs into the mix. And then set up an emitter that chucks out more bombs. We did this sort of thing a lot when testing LBP, and trust me, it never gets old.

The big deal with LBP on the PSP is edit mode, which features a real physics system. It's a part of the game that you can actually play with indefinitely, and discover new things every time you do. Other games have a few objects that you can knock over, but LittleBigPlanet has a lot of them, all waiting to be smashed against each other. Have fun, and enjoy the physics. Please Note: No programmers were harmed in the making of this game. Well, not seriously hurt anyway, nothing that won’t heal...eventually.