Their staff enjoy the atmosphere of ”around 40 people,” where you can ”walk up to anybody’s desk” and know them. Collaborating studios ‘join the LBP team’.
Guildford-based Media Molecule prefers to work with other developers to handle projects if their own studio has reached a maximum workload. The UK developer has worked closely with Supermassive Games and Tarsier Studios to create more LittleBigPlanet.
”It’s pretty small, yes. It’s a tight team. I don’t think it will ever grow into a mega-studio,” said producer Martin Lynagh of Media Molecule.
”We are still around 40 people. We’re very careful, because we don’t want to become too big. I think everybody that works there enjoys that atmosphere. You know, just being able to walk up to anybody’s desk, and you know them, and you can talk to them.”
Lynagh oversees the external studios creating LittleBigPlanet content. ”It’s a case of you build up your relationship with the developer. As that relationship matures, they just become part of the team, as it were,” he explained.
”It’s a process… you work very closely with somebody in the beginning, and you share the vision, then you can step away a bit more, which is what’s happening just now.”
They don’t see LittleBigPlanet 2 as just a game anymore. ”We are a service, and in a sense we’ve become a service as well, just because the disc is just the start. You have 5 million levels that you can play online, and more are being created all the time,” he added.
The Move Pack releases for LittleBigPlanet 2 this week adding full PlayStation Move functionality as well as new levels, creative tools and other all-new goodies.
”There’s a competitive level in the Move Pack as well. You throw bombs at each other. When you begin, it’s fun to sort of grab it and plant it on your friend. But after a while when you master it, you can really just grab it like that, and flick it with your wrist, and it just flies across. The skill you can get from it is great,” said lead level designer, Kengo Kurimoto.
”That’s the kind of gameplay that I like, which is very simple for the entry-level, but at the same time you’ve got the capacity to really master it.” The Media Molecule crew goes through ”thousands, thousands” of level iterations before they’re happy.
”So, iteration is the word. It’s how we develop. It’s the best way… So, if someone came up with this idea, someone else has come up with another idea, we can then bring them together and put them into a level like that as well. I think it’s fundamental, really.”
”And then just keep polishing it, polishing it, polishing it, and keep playing it, playing it, and playing it until we’ve got something we’re really happy with. And I think the Move Pack, as a story mode, is a standalone game which is I think one of the best on the market.”
Check out the full interview between Martin Lynagh, Kengo Kurimoto and Gamasutra. LittleBigPlanet 2’s Move Pack: The Rise of the Cakeling releases on PS3 today, September 13th in the US, 14th in Europe. It adds 6 costumes, 66 stickers and 12 levels.
