LittleBigPlanet is a 2008 platform video game developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. In LittleBigPlanet, the player controls Sackboy, a customizable ragged doll as they explore the titular realm. The game is primarily centered around content creation, with examples including a level editor and the Popit, a portable menu used for accessing creation tools. Prior to 12 March 2021, the player could publish levels online and play others' published levels. The story mode consists of eight themed areas, in which Sackboy helps out various Creator Curators across LittleBigPlanet before fighting the Collector, who has been kidnapping and stealing creations.
Media Molecule was formed by four former Lionhead Studios employees after the release of Rag Doll Kung Fu in 2005. Wanting to create a video game centered around content creation, they pitched a prototype called Craftworld to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison, who lauded the concept and agreed to fund the project. LittleBigPlanet was first announced by Harrison at Game Developers Conference 2007, followed by a marketing campaign, beta testing, and consumer and press anticipation. After brief delay to remove controversial lyrics from an in-game licensed song, LittleBigPlanet released worldwide between October and November 2008.
LittleBigPlanet was met with critical acclaim, with praise for its creative gameplay and community-driven aspects. LittleBigPlanet won several Game of the Year awards and additional awards for its graphics, music, and gameplay innovation. Retrospectively, some publications have ranked it among the greatest video games of all time. After dwindling sales in 2008, LittleBigPlanet became commercially successful, reaching 4.5 million copies. LittleBigPlanet was followed by two sequels and several spin-offs.
Gameplay
LittleBigPlanet is a physics-based platform game with an emphasis on content creation. The player character is Sackboy, a brown, customisable ragdoll. Sackboy can run, jump, grab objects made out of certain material, shift between the three layers of the game's 2.5D plane, and access the Popit, a menu where the player can use customisation tools, stickers, and objects. There are two game modes, each of which take the form of a celestial body: LittleBigPlanet, where the player can play levels, and MyMoon, where the player can create levels. Both modes can be accessed from a hub, taking the form of a cardboard spaceship known as the "Pod".
The story mode of LittleBigPlanet consists of eight themed areas, each with three or four main levels. Hidden keys unlock bonus levels for a grand total of fifty. Although the story mode is in sequential order, each of the levels can be replayed. Each one is designed around the control scheme of Sackboy and the themes of its area. For example, the Metropolis levels involve navigating sewers and hopping on subways. Levels contain different prize bubbles, which contain items, including costumes, stickers, songs, and objects, alongside score bubbles, which when collected in a chain, can multiply the score gained. Each level has checkpoints, where Sackboy can respawn if he dies. Each checkpoint has three or, in some cases, infinite available uses. If the last activated checkpoint runs out of uses, the level ends. The player can play the game with up to three other players. Some puzzles for finding prize bubbles in story mode require more than one player.
Content creation The Popit gives Sackboy access to various creative tools. During play mode, the Popit can only be used to access stickers and character customization. Stickers can be stamped on any object. Throughout story mode, there are blank canvases that require a specific sticker to be placed on them to collect prize bubbles. The player may customize Sackboy in a variety of ways: by selecting a base color and texture of the Sackboy's skin, giving them accessories, or placing stickers and decorations. At any point, the player can give Sackboy one of four emotions—happy, sad, scared, and angry—with an emotion capable of being given a degree of intensity.
The main focus of LittleBigPlanet is the level editor, which incorporates a large number of editing tools and objects, accessible from the Popit, to create levels from any degree of complexity. There is a collection of interactive tutorials required to use their respective tools. To accommodate potential mistakes, the editor features a manipulable time system, whereby the player may "rewind", which acts as an undo feature, or pause the editor, which temporarily halts objects that are normally governed by the physics engine. The player may create new objects by starting with a basic shape of a material and "drawing" it into the level. Objects may be glued to each other or to the level floor. Mechanical tools are also available, such as a strings and bolts to connect objects, various sensors, triggers, and attachable rocket motors to propel objects. After creating custom objects, the player may save a creation to their library for later use; these objects can be shared by placing them inside a prize bubble in their level to be collected by other players.
The player used to be able to publish their levels to the online community for other players, accessible from LittleBigPlanet. One option was "Cool Levels", which allowed the player to play levels at random. These levels could be played in both online and local multiplayer mode. Once completed, the player could tag the level from a list of predefined words, allowing other players to quickly find their level of choice by searching a specific tag, and rate the level out of five stars. However, since 13 September 2021, the online servers for LittleBigPlanet have been shut down.
Plot
Setting and characters
LittleBigPlanet is set on the eponymous planet, a realm made of pure imagination, with each area created by their focus character, known collectively as the Curator Creators. Sackboy explores eight of them, each with a theme based on locations around the world, incorporating their respective elements, including the United Kingdom, Africa, South America, Mexico, the United States, Japan, India, and Siberia. The eight areas are the Gardens, the Savannah, the Weddings, the Canyons, the Metropolis, the Islands, the Temples, and the Wilderness; each Creator Curator being the King, Zola the Lion King, Frida, Uncle Jalapeño, Mags the Mechanic, Grandmaster Sensei, the Great Magician, and the Collector, respectively.
Story After Sackboy explores the Gardens, learning various tools along the way, the King sends Sackboy to the Savannah for him to begin his adventure. In the Savannah, Sackboy accidentally destroys one of Zola's creations upon arrival, but Zola agrees to forgive Sackboy if Sackboy finds out what is troubling the bison; the cause is discovered to be crocodiles. The conflict is resolved when Sackboy proves King Croc's innocence in the disappearance of Meerkat Mum's son, Stripy Tail, after finding him at a VIP room in a club. In the Weddings, Sackboy reunites Frida with her groom Don Lu, who disappeared during their wedding reception. In the Canyons, Sackboy rescues Don Lu's uncle Jalapeño from the corrupt Sheriff Zapata, who is afterward incinerated by his own bombs while trying to kill Sackboy. In the Metropolis, Sackboy retrieves Mags the Mechanic's car, which had been stolen by the martial artist Ze Dude, before winning a match against Ze Dude and his bouncers. In the Islands, Sackboy uses Grandmaster Sensei's flame-throwing cat to defeat the Terrible Oni.
In the Temples, the Goddess reveals to Sackboy that the Great Magician needs help to "bring sharing back to LittleBigPlanet." According to the Great Magician, the Collector is stealing creations around LittleBigPlanet and "not sharing them around the world." The Great Magician teleports Sackboy to the Wilderness to find the Collector. Sackboy breaches the Collector's base and starts freeing all the inhabitants of LittleBigPlanet from their cages, including the curator creators. Sackboy confronts the Collector, who attacks Sackboy with machines. After Sackboy destroys the machines, the Collector tries to escape through his pod, which breaks down. Defeated, the Collector admits that he became evil because he has no friends to share with. The King appears and addresses the player, calling for the player to be a part of the LittleBigPlanet community.
Development
Background and concept
Mark Healey, Kareem Ettouney, Alex Evans, and Dave Smith worked at Lionhead Studios and developed the 3D platformer Rag Doll Kung Fu (2005), the first third-party video game released on Steam. After a cinema visit to see Howl's Moving Castle, Healey and Smith discussed a game that had character controls similar to Rag Doll Kung Fu that would be playable on a game console. Afterward, the four left Lionhead Studios in December 2005 to develop the game, forming Media Molecule, previously known as Brainfluff. At the time, they only had a vague idea of what game they wanted to create, with them generally wanting to create an ambitious console-friendly game that utilised user-generated content, appealed to a broad audience, and proved that a small company could develop a mainstream game.
The same month, Media Molecule pitched a prototype, a physics-based 2D side-scrolling game named Craftworld, to Phil Harrison, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, using their own software rather than PowerPoint to allow for live, controllable movement of the game characters. By their own admission, the pitch was vague. They intentionally toned down the creative aspect of the game for fear of negative reception of their pitch, instead presenting the prototype purely as a playable game and only briefly mentioning user creation. According to Evans, Harrison noticed and asked them why they had chosen not to explore this element further. The meeting, which had been scheduled to last 45 minutes, lasted three hours, ending with Sony agreeing to fund the project for six months. Media Molecule became incorporated as a company in February 2006.
After some further development, Sony asked the team to present their progress in what Healey described as a "Dragons' Den style scenario". Following this, Sony gave them a deal to develop LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3 in exchange for exclusivity and ownership of the intellectual property. Despite backing from Sony, Media Molecule was concerned about the direction of the game and whether people would like it, though these were dispelled after the game's announcement at Game Developers Conference 2007 (GDC 2007). At the time, Media Molecule were aware of the fact that Sony wanted them to demonstrate the game at the upcoming convention, but they were unaware that they were to be part of Phil Harrison's keynote speech until near the date it was due to take place. Healey stated that it was only when they arrived in San Francisco for the conference that they realised the extent of Sony's dedication to the game, saying that although the revelation boosted their confidence, it also increased the pressure to meet expectations.
Design Healey was the creative director, Ettouney was the art director, and Evans and Smith were the technical directors. LittleBigPlanet was designed around its associated tagline: "Play, Create, Share". Healey wanted LittleBigPlanet to bridge the gap between casual and hardcore gaming. A particular goal was to make it so that players could create levels of higher quality than even the story levels. Though the game was meant to be ambitious and to allow players to creatively express themselves, constraints were deliberately placed on the game to make the game more focused and fun, and to appeal to uncreative people.