With LittleBigPlanet released this week and receiving critical success, the whole gaming industry is looking enviously as MediaMolecule’s Sackboy brings game developing to the masses. This is one idea that everyone wish they had on their system and is rightly a time for PS3 owners to find a 360 owner, stick their tongue out and chant ner ner na ner ner.
But, user-created gaming content isn’t going to be exclusively on the PS3 platform forever, there is bound to be a competitor product inspired by LBP appearing somewhere down the line, well some people may have heard of XNA. A suite of software and resources offered by Microsoft, which unfortunately degenerates in to a bewildering array of techno-jargon, but as far as the 360 is concerned it is basically a Visual C# based development tool called XNA Game Studio 3.0. This software enables anyone with the technical know-how to design full 3D games for the PC, 360 & Zune (if that’s still going I’m not to sure!) it will then be possible for premium subscribers of the XNA Creators Club (yes another subscription on top of Live) to publish games for the Xbox Live Marketplace Community games channel launching soon along with the New Xbox Experience (NXE) on 18/11
What has all this nonsense and gobbledygook got to do with MediaMolecule’s masterpiece, well coincidently (during LBP’s release week) more details have come to light about Boku and it now appears to be a cut down version of the XNA Studio, it has already been nicknamed Visual C# for kids (catchy I know) release dates and prices are unknown, but it offers menu and icon driven full 3D game design which is potentially greater in ambition than the level design in LBP.
However as we have seen with the exceptional creativity shown in early LBP levels such as LittleBigGradius, LittleBigCalculator and hundreds of others, although LBP may only be a level creation tool, already the first few days have shown there is no limit to what is possible in Sackboy’s world, and to me the level creation is that big in scope it is game creation.
Looking at the video of Boku it appears it’s not really a game at all, just a series of icon driven menus and tools to create with, also the Xbox Community games created aren’t free to download either, so it means forking out for a live subscription, then a Creators Club subscription and then a charge for the games (us PS3 owners really do have it good) the graphics are simple although the 3D environment will leave lots of room for experimentation
Without a game built around experience it may prove difficult for Boku to gain mass market appeal as LBP has already done, and as we all know there is lots of DLC still to come with LBP such as online Create which will re-invigorate that game further down the line.
I’m amazed at the shear amount of creativity I have seen in one play session on LBP, and I’m sure it will be a very long time before the experience of downloading others creations and sharing your own is surpassed elsewhere.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Haha, this doesn’t really touch ‘ol Sackboy.
The A.I.’s interesting and functional but the graphics lack any kind of charm. I couldn’t sit and play this for more than 5 mins let alone CREATE a level/game in it.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:02 am
nothing will ever be as good as LBP. i really can’t believe the scope and scale of what’s possible. i haven’t even touched the create mode yet, other than to have a quick look at some of the tutorials and am amazed at this game.
I think microsoft are really going to struggle to get anything that even comes close to LBP! horray for PS3
November 6th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I don’t think it’s fair to compare Boku with LBP, and that goes either way. Both are very distinct products, with distinct goals and set of required skillls. The first is a visual programming language, and the second is the easiest and most powerful level editing tool ever made for a platform game. I’d say that both are great, with special attention to Boku for being free and available for Windows, which may help kids and tweens to build their very first computer programs.
cc_star Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
As Boku is aimed at making XNA more accessible and it’s purpose is to make game developing mainstream for the 360 I think the comparisons are inevitable.
Boku may be free to download but to share content across XBLA will cost around 60 quid or more per year, plus 40 quid a year to subscribe to ‘Live Gold’ so you can download the content, and the content produced will cost MS points
November 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I want LBP so bad !
To pay bills or not to pay bills that is the question ?
Hmmmmmm ……
stefhutch20 Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Not to.
cc_star Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Fck bills get LBP*
*Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on it
November 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I really dont think this will be any good.. I think.. as usual M$ will try and do one better than LBP and make it all confusing and will just seem like a cheap knock off, of LBP..
November 6th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Every1 knew they’d get a knock-off out in the open as soon as possible.
I’d rather play this.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/player_03/run
Its actually quite good.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
the zune is still going strong. its better than an ipod actually