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LittleBigPlanet (PSP) Diary Entries- What's the Story? (Part 2)
Garth Hugh, Lead Designer from Cambridge Studio, continues to fill us in on Sackboy's continued adventures on PSP!
PUZZLES!
By Gareth Hughes- Lead Designer
After having resolved an Egg based relationship issue in The Orient and freeing up The Emperor to attend the Carnival of Creators, Sackboy jets off on Dragon Airlines for an exciting new destination.
Word has it that a creative Genie-ous is to be found in The Bazaar, a place renown for its architectural beauty, fantastic markets and crazy carpets!
On arriving at The Bazaar, Sackboy witnesses a scene of brazen simian stealing; a notorious Monkey Thief snatching the Sultan’s lamp. Not just any lamp, but a lamp that happens to be home to the Curator Creator of the realm, the Genie!
After a sack-race through the Sultan’s Palace grounds, the Monkey Thief gives Sackboy the slip and button-holes up in the Thieves Den, a place of puzzles, traps and some rather fetching curtains!
Now, Thieves’ Dens aren’t the easiest of places to get into, but with a bit of thought and a Pizza based distraction, Sackboy manages to sneak in and track down the Monkey Thief. Following a rather fun game of Grab and Swing, Sackboy proves a worthy adversary and retrieves the stolen lamp, setting the Genie free!
As a reward for putting an end to all the recent monkey business, the Genie furnishes Sackboy with a rather more portable version of the lamp, in sticker form. This sticker will prove to be a very useful addition to Sackboy’s puzzle solving Popit.
Returning the lamp to the Sultan proves no easy task, but with a little help from the Genie and his magic carpet, Sackboy makes it back to the palace in good time. Delighted to have his lamp back, the Sultan grants Sackboy’s wish and allows the Genie to attend the Carnival!
Hitching a carpet ride to the next location on his Curator Creator gathering quest, Sackboy touches down on Golden Sands.
Prince Funubis, the Curator Creator of this sandy space, is having some camel related complications and is in need of some Hessian based help!
After lending Prince Funubis a hand to drive his camel train across the scorching desert, Sackboy is employed at the docks to sort and transport cargo destined for the Prince’s latest, spectacular project. This is no easy task; Sackboy will need to put on his thinking cap in order to operate the lifting, sorting and carrying machines.
Can Sackboy help Prince Funubis finish his project? I’ve heard there are some health and safety issues that need ironing out like a particularly stubborn crease! More entries to come! Stay tuned!
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LittleBigPlanet (PSP) Diary Entries- Nuts and Bolts (and Motors, Strings and Magnetic Keys)
The next LBP PSP Diary entry from the creative folks at Cambridge Studio.
What Makes LittleBigPlanet Tick
Jon Torrens - Designer
What's unique about LBP is that all the behind-the-scenes machines that make the game work are actually created using the tools available to players in edit mode, and are in the level somewhere (just not where you can see them). For example, in the mini-games we have things that have to get faster and faster, like the giant wheel you run on in the China mini-game. The best way for us to do this is to have a little vehicle that moves slowly towards a switch that uses the speed setting. Need something to happen faster? We just speed up the motor bolts on the vehicle. Need something to happen halfway through the game? Stick a magnetic key on the vehicle and a magnetic key switch on its track. The brilliant thing about this is that you have a really simple diagram of what happens in the game. You don't have to think 'Well, the time for the wheel to reach top speed is 90 seconds, and I want the player to have to deal with bombs at increasing amounts, so I'll put bombs dropping on the player at 40, 70, 85 and 90 seconds, you can just place key switches along the track.
A technique we used for repeating sequences was simply having a big disc with a magnetic key on it that rotated past magnetic key switches on a static block behind it. We could move the magnetic key switches into any sequence without having to calculate the exact values required, and to change the overall speed of the sequence we just changed the speed of the motor bolt that made the disc rotate. This might sound technical, but if you're making a slightly more sophisticated level - like, for example, one with emitting blocks that Sackboy has to run across, or a series of sound effects that plays a tune - then comfort yourself with the knowledge that you have exactly the same tools that we had, and with which we managed to make all those lovely story levels you've been playing. Okay, there are quite a few of us, and we had a fair amount of time, but it's all there for you to use. Aren't we generous?
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