SPEED CREATE by Mnniska
A new fan-created video series called SpeedCreate. Love the new approach and helpful tips/ideas passed along to the rest of us. Thanks!

LittleBigPodcast – Episode 156 and Muppets DLC
Thanks for keeping us updated on the latest!

The Muppets Invade LittleBigPlanet!
Speaking of the Muppets, the new DLC is available NOW! Here’s a look at our recent trailer…

The 2011 Sackies – Nominations Needed!
With the Golden Globes behind us and the Oscars coming up soon, awards season now here in full force, so it’s time for our own special LBP awards, called The Sackies – and we need your help. Check out how you can help nominate the best levels out there via LBP.me – just find the level and look for the special Sackies nomination feature at the top of each level. Nominations will be closed on Feb 6th, then voting will begin and go until Feb 20th with winners scheduled to be announced the week after. So, nominate your favorite levels now!

Other LBP News…
LBPCentral’s Community Spotlight, Episode 76
Thanks for the round-up. This episode highlights a handful of new games uploaded recently:

• InterKinetic
• The Hollows of Thronwood Thicket
• Super Special Awesome Christmas Level
• A Christmas Tale: Santa ClaWs is Jelly
• Escape from the Mines!
• Sealed Fate – Chapter 1
• Aeon Quest
• El Guero’s Disembodied Genius
• The Cillian Saga part 2
• The Ruins of Kalahr

Exciting Times at Media Molecule
-Happy belated Birthday to Mm (Jan 4th) – click on over to the Communities’ B-DAY card and add your own special message to Mm.
-Mm Podcast 15 – New Years Resolutions

…More Thank Yous…
And a special thanks to everyone in the community that act as our eyes and ears on the interwebs for the rest of the community to enjoy, including LittleBigLand, LBP2Blog, LittleBigPicks, RocketCheetah, and many many more!

New on the PlayStation Store

We hope you all saw Disney’s The Muppets Movie! We loved it so much we wanted you to continue with your own Muppets adventure with our new costumes, newly available on the PS Store refresh. Check these out!

…and be on the lookout for more costumes from The Muppets in upcoming weeks.

Also…

For all you Oddworld fans, be sure to check out the latest Munch costume on the PlayStation Store, now!

Must-See Creations

This week’s must sees are some amazing examples of machinima in LBP2. Great job guys!

Ghostbusters Intro by r2d2111

Losing Things by MuddledMuppet

Hands on LittleBigPlanet (PS Vita)

RocketCheetah has a recent hands on report from a recent PlayStation Event. Read on for the breakdown of every playable level, including:

Puppet Circus [watch the video] was perhaps the most ‘traditional’ level I played (if that word even has any meaning in LBP anymore!). A cute, fairground-themed platformer which serves to introduce you to all of the the Vita’s controls. Tilt we’ve experienced in LBP before but what impressed me was how natural the touch interactions felt. Everything seemed instantly familiar and always like it was enhancing my experience rather than getting in the way.

’Tis the Season

If you’re in the festive mood, go enter LittleBigLand’s Christmas Pod Decorating Contest and show the world your holiday spirit!

We’re pleased to bring to you a new costume from our friends over at Oddworld Inhabitants. With the PlayStation Store update later today, you can dress your Sackboy up as the crossbow-wielding, poncho-sporting bounty hunter with a deadly secret (and deadly breath). Introducing the Stranger…

More wallpaper goodness!

If you’re looking for more wallpapers, check out the latest featuring Ezio Auditore Sackboy!

Crown winners!

For the goodness of science, congrats to the winners (and all participants) of the LittleBigPlanet Central Crown Contest!

A picture is worth…

Our friends over in LittleBigLand have a new segment of LBP “A week in pictures”. Check out this week’s snapshots of levels you SHOULD be playing!

LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition = LBP2 + Move + over $35 of bonus goodies

If you’re reading this, we know all/most of you already have LittleBigPlanet 2, but for those of you who don’t, or if you have friends who don’t, this is the perfect time to get your hands on the latest Sackboy adventure. Not just because it’s been one of the most popular games on PS3 in 2011, but because it includes tons and tons of bonus content, including:

• PlayStation Move support: Now you can choose to play LittleBigPlanet 2 with all new Move controls and enjoy the over 6,000 Move games created by fans like you…FOR FREE! Endless Fun!
• LittleBigPlanet 2 Move Pack: Rise of the Cakeling: A whole new adventure in which a rogue cake threatens doom and destruction, and you Sackfolk must once again attempt to restore peace to Craftworld, featuring 5 new levels + 7 mini-levels, and tons of goodies. Plus, all of the cool new Move tools to let you Create and Share your own “Move” games for the rest of the community to Play! This suite of new creative tools give you the power to create your own Move games, record fluid motions, and paint your own stickers, while using a boatload of new stickers, materials, decorations, costumes, music, sound and sequencer objects that will vastly broaden your creative palette, and make your Popit burst at the seams.
• Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story Level Pack– five new levels + two mini-levels + one Alien costume and more goodies.
• Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story Costume Pack – Buzz Lightyear, Slinky Dog, Hamm, and Rex costumes for Sackboy!
• Pets Costumes — The full line of costumes (12) from the Cats Costume Pack, Dogs Costume Pack, and Even More Animals Costume Pack

The LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition will be available at select retailers on November 15th, just in time for the holidays. Tell your friends!

LittleBigPlanet 2 PlayStation Move Bundle

It’s everything you need to get Sackboy Moving! The LBP2 PS Move bundle, includes everything you need to enjoy LBP2 in a whole different way, including:

• LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition
• 1 PlayStation Move Motion Controller
• 1 PlayStation Move Navigation Controller
• 1 PlayStation Eye Camera

Be on the look out for the LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition and LittleBigPlanet 2 PlayStation Move Bundle available at select retailers on November 15th!

UNCHARTED 3 Nathan Drake costume next week

Next week’s release of UNCHARTED 3 is something we’ve all been waiting for. And to keep you in the Nathan Drake mood, next week you’ll be able to download the brand, spanking new, Nathan Drake costume.

The UNCHARTED 3 costume will be available on PSN beginning November 1st.

Birthday Cake costume next week…but for a limited time!

Come celebrate LBP’s third birthday with us with some FREE cake! Next week download the FREE re-release of the “Sackboy in cake” costume, but hurry, it’ll only be on the PS Store for a limited time. The LittleBigPlanet Birthday Cake costume will be available on PSN from November 1st through November 8th.

Let the awards season begin!

Looks like the 2011 awards season is ramping up and we’re honored to be recently nominated by the following organizations:

• Best Game by 2011 British Academy Children’s Awards – After winning a BAFTA in 2009, we’re once again honored to have this prestigious nomination.
• Best Song in a Video Game by 2011 Hollywood Music in Media Awards – The original song created by Winifred Phillips for “Victoria’s Lab” in LittleBigPlanet 2 has always been one of our favorites and glad it’s getting the recognition.

This week on the PlayStation Store

• LittleBigPlanet 2 inviZimals Pack
• LittleBigPlanet Halloween Costume

Community Corner: Must Play Move games

Castle of Infinite Sunset by DiOxi



Timber Ridge by codibear8383

Also, thanks to SilverScorp91 and LittleBigRussia on capturing these levels for our online viewing pleasure. Keep it up!

LittleBigPlanet and LBP2 enabled PS3 players to play, create and share custom-made levels and game modes online for all to enjoy. Now, with the upcoming PS Vita game harnessing the handheld’s plethora of inputs and sensors for playing and creating, Sackboy’s new adventure will be the most accessible – and empowering – LittleBigPlanet yet.

We’ve seen glimpses of what PS Vita adds to Play starting at E3, when SCEE’s Pete Smith demonstrated how the touch screen, gyroscopes, and rear touch panel helped Sackboy navigate levels in all-new ways. At gamescom, Smith was joined by Tarsier Studios designer Richard Meredith to show us some more Play possibilities and tools you’ll use to Create new types of games.

Even the “Super Oval” shape of PS Vita is giving the development team novel new possibilities. Smith turned the Vita vertically to demonstrate a gravity-based game where players rapidly sort colored balls into the right chute – reminiscent of a touch-enabled version of PSN game Droplitz.

Next, the duo demonstrated an air hockey game where two people can play at once by each grabbing one side of the PS Vita. The demonstration made clear that, much like in LBP2, Vita’s LittleBigPlanet will allow for games far outside of simple side-scrolling platformers. Add in PS Vita’s tilt sensors, front and real touchscreen, cameras, and microphone and you’ve got a powerful but intuitive suite of control options for playing and creating levels.

Of course, if you see it in the world of LittleBigPlanet, you can also create it yourself.

Meredith took the controls here, showing how the most basic functions of creation can now be mapped to the intuitive touch screen. He first painted a simple stickman with his finger. As he dragged the completed scarecrow around the screen, the game automatically recorded the movement path. When he let go, and the little man danced along the path all on his own. Sorcery!

Smith then shared an anecdote about how development team members were tasked with making a complete game in about three minutes. Meredith re-created the experience by selecting a Swiss cheese texture and drawing a maze with his finger, dropping in a few pitfalls to make things interesting. Then he snapped a photo of someone’s mouth with the PS Vita camera, which he placed as the end goal of the maze. Drop in a ball, assign tilt controls to steer, and you’ve got yourself a game! Meredith also showed a more advanced version of that level, which took him a couple of hours to create. Though it packed far more detail and polish, it was essentially the same game he created in just a few minutes.

When it comes to the third element of LittleBigPlanet, Share, the team is working on a seamless connection between the PS Vita and PS3 community, including LBP.me compatibility. It seems clear that finding new levels to play will be as easy on PS Vita as it is on PS3. Perhaps most importantly, the simplicity of the new Create interface should entice countless new players to contribute to the millions of levels already living in the LBP ecosystem.

In a nutshell, the PlayStation Move Pack lets you create levels with (and for) the PlayStation Move motion controller, and it includes a set of levels built by Media Molecule to make your creative juices juicier. LBP has always been all about communities creating and sharing, so rather than show you our 200-slide marketing presentation, I’ll hand you over to Andrew, AKA Chimpanzee, creator extraordinaire and editor of the splendid Rocket Cheetah, for enlightenment…

Back in May I was lucky enough to be invited to the hallowed grounds of Mm Towers to check out the new LittleBigPlanet 2 features they were working on and hang out with some well-known Creators to see what they could do with them. We all knew that Media Molecule were working on an update to the game, introducing brand new tools which make use of the PlayStation Move motion controller, but what we saw was so much more than LBP 2 with added ‘waggle’.

15 members of the community from as far afield as the USA and France descended on Media Molecule’s Guildford studios and to kick things off we were given a brief demonstration of some of the features of the Move Pack.

Looking back, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by how much was being given to creators – after all, Media Molecule aren’t exactly known for doing things by halves. Aside from features that people are expecting, the Move Pack also includes a wealth of amazing new gadgets and tweaks which Creators have either been asking for forever or don’t even know that they need yet, but will soon wonder how they ever did without.

First up was the Manipulator, a power-up which can be dropped into a level to instantly enable Move gameplay. It works just like other power-ups that you’re already familiar with; It’s equipped when a player walks over it and can be removed with the power-up remover. With the Manipulator, the player aims by pointing the Move motion controller and can pick up, move around and carry grabbable objects using the trigger. It has a set range (similar to that of the grappling hook) indicated by a translucent orb around Sackboy.

The Moveinator is the PlayStation Move’s equivalent of the Controlinator. As well as all the standard buttons, it gives Creators access to all of the Move’s sensors: Gyroscopes for rotation and tilt on all and the accelerometers to detect up. down, left and right movement. Anyone who’s used the Controlinator in their levels will find the Moveinator’s circuit board very familiar. All of the outputs can be wired-up to Mover logic to allow the player to control any object directly.

Combine the Moveinator with the Move Cursor and you’ve got instant point and shoot gameplay. Just plonk one of these new logic chips down on the Moveinator’s circuit board and you’re given a reticule which you can aim with the PlayStation Move. You can customize the pointer to be any sticker you like and you can even tweak a range of options to have it change color or even switch to a completely different graphic when it hovers over specific objects.

To illustrate how some of the new features could be used, we were shown a few of the MM-made levels that’ll be included in the downloadable pack. It’s the largest piece of DLC that Media Molecule have released so far and the variety of gameplay is bound to inspire Creators to come up with even more exciting and original ideas. The main story levels consist mainly of puzzle/platformers where you play using with a DualShock or Sub-controller in one hand and the PlayStation Move in the other – a control scheme that was surprisingly easy to get used to. But the mini games are where I was really blown-away. One was a Labyrinth-style game where you had to tilt the Move to guide a ball through a maze-like track. In another, you had to use the Move Cursor to arrange objects, conveyer belts and bounce pads on a board to guide a dumb Sackbot from one side to the other.

Overwhelmed? I was. But grab a cup of coffee and take a deep breath because we aren’t even nearly done yet!

Next we we shown some of the smaller but equally pleasing new tweaks and tools. Firstly, Media Molecule have been listening and have delivered on a much-requested feature: Multipliers on Score Givers! Huzzah! You can even tweak how often the score is multiplied and by how much. They’ve also introduced Speed and Rotation Sensors which output if and how much an object is moving, which I’m sure will be music to many Creators’ ears. There’s also a new Slicer Tool. This works in a similar way to the Corner Editing Tool but allows you to pick any two points on the edge of a shape and slice it in two – a big time-saver.

Yet another new tool is the Move Recorder – a new logic chip which records the fluid motion of the Move controller. This allows Creators to give realistic, organic behavior to any object and anyone who’s used Sackbots’ “Act” function will instantly recognize how it works.

Well, that’s about it. Oh wait, no it’s not!

Just a small thing really, no big deal, it’s just that LittleBigPlanet 2 now has a freakin’ paint studio! The fully-featured Sticker Creator takes you to a whole new interface where the Move controller is your paint brush. Excuse me while I gush here for a moment but it really is no exaggeration to say that the artistic types among you will be able to create fully-fledged masterpieces with this. There’s a selection of brush types, shapes and colors to choose from and you can also change the brushes opacity, allowing you to blend several colors together to get that precise shade that you’re after. You could also take any existing sticker and use it as a brush or stamp. I used it to make a rather lovely ocean of bright yellow rubber ducks but you could of course get a little more creative with it and compose hundreds of different stickers together into something incredible

The paintings you make can then be used as stickers in-game, shared in prize bubbles or exported in high-resolution to the XMB.

With all these awesome new stickers you’ll be making, you’ll want a way to display them in their full glory in your levels. Mm has you covered, yet again, with the new Sticker Panel material. This mysterious new substance is magical; draw out a block of it in Create mode and as soon as you stick a sticker to it, it becomes completely invisible, leaving only the sticker behind. Sticker Panels behave in a similar way to the Hologram material in that it has no physical properties, can pass through other objects and can be stacked on top of one another in the same layer. However, unlike Hologram material, a Sticker Panel doesn’t affect the sticker’s color or opacity… unless you want it to of course.

Phew! That about does it for my ‘brief’ round-up of the LBP 2 Move Game Jam. It was a truly amazing to see some master Creators in action, let loose with some new toys. I really cannot wait to see what the rest of the community does with them.

A huge thank you to Spaff, Tom and everyone at Mm for making it happen and to everyone who was there on the day for letting me tap them on the shoulder every 10 minutes with a curious “Whatcha dooin’?”

• It’s not a port: this LBP features an all new campaign and Vita-specific features
• Your previously purchased LittleBigOutfits will transfer seamlessly into LBP for Vita
• Sackboy looks 72% cuter on the OLED screen

Producer Pete Smith from SCEE Liverpool has been working on the LittleBigPlanet series since the original, and is therefore well qualified to show off what’s new for LBP Vita.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this LBP is that the Create tools are kind of like a Vita dev kit. You can access the touch screens, accelerometers and more to make levels that take full advantage of the handheld, and are unlike any previously created in the LBP universe.

Four million – or to be exact, 4,141,742! To give you a sense of how big that number is, if you played LBP straight for 12 hours a day and only played each level for 5 minutes, it would take you more than 78 years to play through all of them. WOW!

Here’s a message of appreciation to all of you from the folks over at Media Molecule…

“For us the most exciting thing has always been seeing what the community does with a LittleBigPlanet game when they get their hands on the new features and tools. We’re constantly delighted – and amazed – by their ingenuity and creativity, and it’s so inspiring to see the level of affection that exists for LittleBigPlanet amongst fans around the world.”

Contraption Challenge 13

Next up – the LittleBigPlanet Contraption Challenge has returned! If you have no idea what I’m talking about the Contraption Challenge is a series of tasks to test and reward the creativity of the LBP nation, coordinated by community members Nuclearfish, Chimpanzee, and other members of the PlayStation Community Team.

This specific challenge is to construct a working submarine – see full details on our European team’s forum here. The closing date for the contest is this Sunday, April 17th so feel free to check check out some of the great submissions on lbp.me using this handy link.

If you only look at one thing this week, check out the teaser trailer for the new series of Contraption Challenges, in case you didn’t see it a couple of weeks ago – it’s pretty awesome.

Upcoming Downloadable Costumes
Finally, an update on some of the imminent downloadable goodness coming to LittleBigPlanet 2. Our next release on the PlayStation Store will be the Tron: Evolution Minipack, which will be released on April 26th for $2.99. In the pack you’ll get two brand new costumes, plus a batch of handy new stickers – here’s some shiny neon pics…

May will see the release of the Killzone 3 Minipack and I couldn’t resist giving you a sneak peak at one of the two costumes from the pack, probably one of the coolest LBP costumes I’ve seen. Behold, the Hazmat Trooper…

Combine this together with the original Killzone costume kit (which is fully compatible with LittleBigPlanet 2, remember) and you’ll have all the tools to recreate the battle for Helghan down to the finest detail. What could be better than that?

During the past several weeks, Sony make.believe presented ”The “LittleBig Creation,” giving the community a chance to vote on every aspect of a new, custom-created make.believe level for LittleBigPlanet 2.

The polls have closed and your voices have been heard! You can find The make.believe Adventure here.

We asked you which genre and environment you wanted to see, and you chose an action-adventure level set in the jungle. The storyline, also chosen by you, involves Sackboy’s quest to find the mysterious “dot” that will help unleash the world’s creativity. It won’t be easy, as he’ll need to navigate treacherous terrain, solve puzzles, and avoid deadly enemies including some particularly nasty tigers (thanks to your votes!). Everything from the music used in the level to the name (the make.believe Adventure) was the result of community polling.

You can still visit the Facebook.com/Sony page and click on “make games” to view the poll results and watch videos of the level creation in progress. Those of you who visited the site during the program and submitted your votes were automatically entered into a drawing for prizes such as a PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move, a PSP and a grand prize trip to this year’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles. The winners will be announced shortly!

Even if you voted for the shooter genre instead of action-adventure, an urban environment instead of the jungle, or snakes instead of tigers, we think you’ll enjoy the end result. Look for “The make.believe Adventure” from “LittleBigPartner” online in LittleBigPlanet 2 and see just how Sony make.believe helped turn your ideas into reality.

Nearly 100,000 people have downloaded and played our “LittleBigPrius” level since it was released in early February. As you know, we asked the LittleBigPlanet community to use the objects they earned from playing our level to create their own Prius-themed levels, and the response was overwhelming.

The community has spoken, the judges have rendered a verdict, and we’re happy to announce the contest winners. Finalists, who have won a PlayStation Move Sports Champion bundle, include:

• “Prius Fights Back” by Hymanator
• “Prius Goes Hollywood” by Stephie Rawks
• “Prius Commercial” by wildbil1217
• “Driving Test” by GoodDogPhoebe

And the Grand Prize winner is… “Eco Adventure” by rhansen2!

From the main menu screen that lets you select chapters, to the level checkpoints featuring miniature versions of the windmills from our Prius level, this three-part platformer is so polished that we wondered if we had accidentally downloaded a level directly from developer Media Molecule! After some great action sequences utilizing the Grabinator and Paintinator in an outdoor environment and a futuristic Toyota factory, you’ll eventually make your way into the very heart of the gigantic Gas Hog — an evil swine robot bent on polluting Craftworld! The level works well as either a single-player or multiplayer experience, and it speaks to the Prius’s message of harmony between man, machine and the environment. Add hidden items and even an LBP-ized 3D TV for a level prize, and we think you’ll agree that “Eco Adventure” is something special. The creator, Rhansen2, has earned himself a 46” Sony Bravia 3D HDTV and a PlayStation Move hardware bundle for his effort. Congratulations!

If you haven’t done so already, download and play Eco Adventure and all the other contest winners inside LittleBigPlanet 2 today. A free dynamic theme based upon our “LittleBigPrius” level is also available for download from the PlayStation Store.

Thanks to everyone who played our level and entered the “LittleBigPrius” contest!