Journalism of Courage
Sony first came up with the idea of customising games with their LittleBigPlanet game in 2008,the latest version fo which was released last month in the US. This signalled the revival of a very old idea that had taken the gaming industry by storm when Ataris and the Commodore 64s were the next big thing in the 1980s. Letting the gamer choose and create scenarios wherein he or she could play it as well as share it with fellow gamers was a forgotten idea which Sony chose to revive and was soon followed by a few others.
The latest version of LittleBigPlanet may not revolutionise the gaming industry but it has definitely improved upon the old idea of gamers becoming designers. Two million levels and counting. As described on the official website,LittleBigPlanet 2 is part of that very same dream world; its all one big,ever-expanding cheese-stuffed-crust community,which means each and every one of those two million creations will be yours to play,right out of the box,along with everything youve already collected or built in LittleBigPlanet.
The trend is slowly being adopted by studios across the globe,be it Electronic Arts,Rock Star,Santa Monica studios or even Ready at Dawn Studios. However,for most developers the idea still remains a very nascent one. Chetan Deshmukh of Toolbox Animation Studios says,It will take time for gamers to adapt to the idea. Developing a game that allows gamers to create separate games within the game is not easy and the cost of the same needs to be looked into. In the long run,this will be the next big thing though.
So how exactly does the concept work? You can compare the entire process to a building blocks set, says 3-D graphics designer Jugal Lalwani. Two things go into the game design – one is the graphic design that comprises the visuals,and second part of the game is the interactivity aspect that needs hardcore programming. Games like the LittleBigPlanet,Saw,God of War,Grand Theft Auto and so on let the gamer design and manipulate the surroundings of the game. While it might appear as though the game is designed by the player,the codes for these options already come preloaded with the game. And the gamer enjoys the feel of designing it, he explains.
