One arena LBP didn’t break into was karting, ”a whole genre that is so well known and loved”. The studio will capitalise on the LBP’s creative community thanks to a ”very big cross section” of gamers.
Fans will get to create their own entire levels just like in LittleBigPlanet, which can then be feed into the giant rotation of tracks people can race on.
”This really is a true partnership. I mean, Sackboy is their baby, they entrusted him to us, and that’s a huge honour, one that we don’t take lightly,” United Front’s Jen Timms said, referring to Media Molecule. ”We’ve been giving them builds from day one and they’ve given us feedback on how to keep that real Craftworld flavour and new ideas of what we can do.”
”At the end of the day we are karting developers. We’re experts on it, it’s what we know and that’s what we get to bring to the mix. It’s a real balancing act because these two things have such huge fan bases, and you do not want to do either of them an injustice by bringing them together.”
”We only wanted to do this if we knew we could do it right, and of course Media Molecule felt the same way. They wouldn’t take a risk on something like this if they didn’t think we could pull it off, and we’re so happy with how it’s turned out because it’s so powerful and fun. I really can’t wait for the world to get its hands on it just to see what they do with it.”
The developer doesn’t skimp on the creation side of LittleBigPlanet, which is its selling point. Being able to customise the kart racing experience is key to the game, but so is letting people experiment on the fringes of what can be done - like turning it into an FPS.
”This is a great example of the power of how these tools can combine to make completely different things,” explained producer Timms. ”So yeah you can make a first-person shooter, your own custom objects – in this case it could be a hand with a gun – and then you have the ability to control the handling and physics of that.”
”You also have the ability to re-map buttons, or change your abilities, and then you can combine that with the Weaponator gadget that lets you make custom weapons. Then you can make bullets, or even like rainbow trails or flowers that come out the end of the gun – anything you want, and we can give you that power.”
Maintaining a nurturing environment to the community is a must at launch.
”The LittleBigPlanet franchise really is a whole new genre in itself, it really is, as it delivers a whole new idea of customisation that can be mind-blowing. So we’re really enjoying merging that genre together with the karting genre that we all grew up with.”
”There’s a very big cross section of people who love the LittleBigPlanet games and karting games, so it really caters for them well.” Check out the full interview between Jen Timms and VG247.
LittleBigPlanet Karting releases on PS3 November 6th in the US, 7th in EU, 9th in UK.
