Thursday, November 6, 2008

Painting with a New Kind of Paintbrush

Journal Entry No. 7

After a long wait, LittleBigPlanet has finally been released. I have been involved in the community of LittleBigPlanet recently, both in forums and on some official websites. The game, developed by Media Molecule, is a video game that relies heavily on user created content, so it is not surprising that a strong community has been born because of the game, and several issues about creativity and good content have also arisen.

LittleBigPlanet is a video game for the Playstation 3 that allows anyone to create their own levels. The game is a 3D platformer, and initially comes with a good number of developer made levels – all very complex, creative, fun, and interesting. Each one has a very different feel or theme to it – whether it be strolling through the jungle, riding a taxi in the city, or helping two skull people to get married, each one has its own feel. Even though there is variety, everything feels “constructed.” A car is not a car: it might be a cardboard box, painted to look like a car, that moves when a switch is pulled to make the wheels spin. Suddenly, you might realize it: every level is created with the same tools they give the player for user creation. The tools are vast and varied, but simple enough to allow anyone to access them. Suddenly, level creation feels like a game.

This is good and bad. Suddenly, thousands of people who have no experience with level design are suddenly level designers. There are already dozens and dozens of levels published, accessible to anyone who plays the game. There is a surprising amount of ingenuity to be found, but there is also a lot of poorly put together, dysfunctional messes. Of course, there has been a community response to this. It is interesting to see so many definitions of creativity. Many levels are based completely on level designs from other games: Mario Bros., Mega Man, etc. Is it creative, or should it be praised, to only recreate levels from other games using different tools? Is level design an art form - like painting or, perhaps more closely akin, like creating in 3D? There are also an incredible number of "fan-boy" levels that do not steal from another game, instead they take some general ideas from another game, or perhaps movie, and incorporate into their levels. For example, a user created Metal Gear Rex monster from Metal Gear video games, or a DeLorean in a Back to the Future themed level. Some fantastic work has been put into several of these themed levels, but some (not all) of the community agree that the best content are the designs that comes straight out people's heads. It is easy to tell if a user has spent a lot of time creating his or her level – even this early on. Some levels rely only on the user's imagination – and a few of those are some of the most impressive levels to be seen in the world of LittleBigPlanet.

The community of LittleBigPlanet have also been through some other issues. The game was originally dated to be released on October 21st, but because of some arguably malicious lyrics quoted from the Qu'ran in a licensed song, Sony decided to recall all of the discs and release the game a week later (in the U.S.). So, discussions of acceptable content, especially in a game with an “E” for everyone rating, began. There are ways to report user created levels if people use the tools to create offensive content, but it is unfortunate that these limits have to exist. Give a hundred people a pencil, and some of them are going to draw something vulgar. But what about the rest of the lot? Are people generally creative? If you give someone the tools to make a masterpiece artwork, would he be able to do it?

I'm optimistic about LittleBigPlanet's future. Before the game was released, many critics argued that general players would not have the creativity to develop enough interesting levels to keep the game alive. So far, I am seeing that the critics are very wrong. Amazing creativity is still a rarity, as in any art form, but LittleBigPlanet shows that just because you are not a professional does not mean it cannot be done well. It is, however, difficult to find a well created level, like finding a needle in a haystack, but the developers have said that “the cream will rise to the top.” After enough time, the best levels will be seen more often than the poorer ones. I hope that in the future the users that really put time into creating the most creative levels possible will have their chance at LittleBigPlanet stardom, and everyone else will be able to find and enjoy these gems.

I really think LittleBigPlanet is as close to a new art form as a video game title can hope to get. This seems like an evolution from Nintendo's Mario Paint, and even Maxis's recently released title, Spore. I hope more titles appear in this same vein, allowing games to hang on the user's creativity. Whether it's using a paintbrush or using virtual rods and gears to get a monster machine to roar, there are creative people out there, and I think LittleBigPlanet, and the community supporting it, is proof of this.

2 comments:

Dan Jorquera said...

If you own LittleBigPlanet, check out my level: the title is "Glass Bottles in the Backyard." My author name is Nightmare_Taco.

Soon, videos of my levels will be uploaded to danjorquera.com/LBP.

Thanks! :-)

Dan Jorquera said...

UPDATE: Levels are now being removed because of copyright infringement! Half the community of LBP is really angry, the other half is excited that there will finally be some completely original levels that don't rely on already published stories and ideas. I think they should allow homage levels at least, but I am excited to see how the new LBP world will look with levels that rely more on gameplay than famous video games or movies.