I had been working with my friends Ken and Tonny over at Von Dutch and Planet Illogica for about a year. These two are looking for ways to use their skills and connections to help artists market themselves to a broader audience. Early this year I got the call from Ken to come down and meet the folks of PlayStation and design a LittleBigPlanet level. A day or two later I was sitting at the Von Dutch office in front of flat screen TV with Leo, the guy who produced LittleBigPlanet, gawking at this amazing game.
Leo led me through a basic tour of the game’s potential. I could tell it was just the tip of the iceberg. While other artists around me worked away on their levels with a PS representative, I felt like I needed some time to let what I had seen sink into my thick skull. That night I sat down with pen and paper and sketched out a schematic for what would become the Joe Vaux level. The next day I cruised over at lunch to present my drawing to Leo. He seemed inspired. Knowing I needed to get back to work, Leo took the drawing and began the construction.
A couple of weeks went by and I get and email from KG. “Have you seen your level?” he asks. Then he iChats some stills from the world I designed. My jaw hit the floor. Now I have to admit, I’m not much of a gamer. I just don’t have time between being a father, an assistant director on Family Guy and a painter. But, if I did have time I would eat this game for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What a blast to design and build your own game. Kudos to PS!
To the fans of PS and LittleBigPlanet: Don’t judge me, enjoy and bask in the ability to create and share with the magic of this fantastic game. Thanks to all the the great people at PlayStation (Katie, Ginger, Leo and Jeff) and to Ken Goldstein and Tonny S. for presenting this great opportunity. You guys Rock!!!
Heheh, good job. I really need to finish my NOIR level.
Cool stuff!
PS: When is the E3 meet-up info coming? Not trying to b picky or anything. >.<
Awesome Joe! Love Family Guy too! Woulda liked to have seen a FG themed level. Oh wait, it would just get ‘moderated’ right? Time to fire up the LBP again!
that was a pretty hot level…..
Sounds like a perfect job for me…
awesome stuff. It’s always nice to just come back to LBP whenever I want and know that there is new content waiting.
I agree Delriach. That’s why LBP will pretty much never be sold. I don’t want to not have it if some Huge new addition is added, since that game is so organic and ever changing.
So when is this going up? All i see is a level by Sarah Burke(?).
I sure do wish there was an easier way to make levels. Like a PC editor of some sort. ;)
Oh, and we need a water effect! It’d be so fun to see if flow and build different things for it to interact with and things to float in it! :D
It’s definitely a hard thing to do when you are pressed for time. My level ( not the best of the bunch) took me almost 60 hours combined to get right.
I’m not sure I really understand this ‘The Patch’ thing. Is that actual creation of the level going to be handled by developers or the people themselves. If it’s the former, that really doesn’t seem fair. Meanwhile, I’m swearing at my PS3 because “that damn bolt won’t work right!!!” (Seriously, the system is NOT perfect and after spending an hour trying to figure out why such a simple, annoying little thing wouldn’t work right I gave up.)
I will be checking out the new portal, “The Patch” when it hits LBP!
Was hoping the “The Patch” levels were actually created in-game by those folks. But probably better to be done by the pros. I understand celebs and artists have other priorities and will realistically never be the best at making in-game levels. So we’ll just have to see!
@Joe Vaux
I added you as a friend Joe.
@XxBigP123xX
I know right, I couldn’t find the level either and now I see people hitting that level like crazy. Sarah is gonna get alot of hits just from luck on that one.
Awsome work! would be nice to see if one day they’d let up use image files as stickers so we can render levels to the fullest of the artists’ abilities!
Both Family Guy and LittleBigPlanet are legends!
So The Patch levels were not actually created by the people themselves. They were just sketched on a piece of paper and handed over to the PS reps. Would prefer better exposure of some of the amazing user made levels, like a Top 5 of the Week section or something.
That seems to make a lot of sense. I bet PS will get there. I had a very limited amount of time to absorb the games potential and create something. You experienced gamers will really explore the games building power.