Greetings, Sack-folk – another little update on community related fun from the world of LittleBigPlanet for you!

And firstly, something a little different… I’m guessing you might have heard the odd whisper and rumour that there’s a new game out this week by the name of Killzone 3. Now, it’s got a little less in the way of hessian sack, fluffy bunnies and jaunty hats compared to LBP, but it’s nevertheless a pretty awesome game.

To celebrate the launch of both Killzone 3 and LittleBigPlanet 2, SCE Netherlands and insidegamer.nl worked together on a cool competition, challenging players to create Killzone and Holland themed LittleBigPlanet levels. The results were some very fun, creative and slightly surreal levels that are well worth checking out! There is a ‘hub’ level that gives you access to all the levels created for the competition – go to lbp.me to add it to your queue ready for some weekend gaming.

It was awesome to see so many of you responding to James’ ‘Shameless Self-Promotion’ post last week with lbp.me links to your creations – it certainly gave many of us here lots to play with over the weekend! We’re working on a few ideas at the moment to help you guys promote your levels, and to ensure that the best get the attention they deserve – but in the meantime, I thought I’d start by giving a shout out to one level that I particularly enjoyed playing this week – Cogpunks by WillGuitarGuy. It’s a fun platforming level, with a very nicely executed and consistent visual style. Well worth checking out!

Finally – just a quick heads-up that over in the PlayStation community forums, they’re planning a fun little event based around the LittleBigMap for next week; check out the forums on Monday to find out more.

Score:

• 8 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Hi guys! Some cool nuggets of LittleBigPlanet news to start your weekend off nicely…

Firstly, a game update for LittleBigPlanet 2 was released earlier this week. Codenamed ‘Cupcake’, it fixes a number of issues that were making some players’ experience of LBP 2 insufficiently Sack-tastic. Head over here for a full list of updates.

Last week we shared some cool news about “Hansel & Gretelbot” – a community-made level pack for LBP 2. Well, here’s some more cool news about “Hansel & Gretelbot” – it’s all ready for you to start playing! Here’s Spaff from Media Molecule with more details…

The Community made Level Pack Hansel and Gretelbot is out now! For those who didn’t see it last week, Hansel & Gretelbot is a completely community made pack of 7 playable levels, furnished with a full story, cut scenes, voice acting, original score, and lots of prizes to collect too! It’s a might achievement, and hopefully one that will inspire others to do the same.

It’s completely free and no need to download, just head over to this LBP.me page and queue up the first level!

http://lbp.me/u/Hansel_Gretelbot

The H&G team put together this set of awesome wallpapers to download for your PS3, plus you can read an interview with some of the creators over on LittleBigLand, where you can also download a fourth wallpaper!

On behalf of the guys, we hope you enjoy Hansel and Gretelbot, and please join us in congratulating them on their creation. May there be many more to come!

Congratulations to the whole Hansel & Gretelbot team on creating something so impressive and ambitious – it’s an amazing example of what’s possible in LittleBigPlanet 2. I hope you all have fun playing it!

Score:

• 10 Comments 1 Reply
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Hi guys – I’m sure that lots of you LBP fans out there have worked your way through the LBP 2 Story mode, confronted the mighty Negativitron, and are now exploring the intricacies of Create mode and the hundreds of thousands of new user levels.

If you’re hungry for some more Story mode-type Sack-venture, or looking for some creative inspiration and examples of just how powerful the new tools are, then here’s some very cool news for you, direct from Media Molecule…

We are very proud to present to you the preview trailer for Hansel & Gretelbot, a very special community project based loosely on an old fairy tale, and that’s nearly ready for you to play!

Hansel & Gretelbot is the creation of 12 community members, names you may well recognise:
Wexfordian, Comphermc, Morgana25, rtm223, Hilightnotes, xkappax, Catiers, GruntosUK, CENTURION24, Jaeyden, Cuzfeeshe and steve_big_guns.

A few months ago the Community Molecule set them a challenge – could they create a full game experience? Their own complete LBP Theme, using the new LBP2 tools to develop all original story, mini-games, bosses, cutscenes, music, and voices.

The team was gathered, designs were drawn up, themes were picked and building began, now several months later they are very nearly ready to launch their project for you to play!

Once upon a time, in a little cottage on the edge of the Dark Western woods, lived a humble Woodsman, his wife, their son Hansel and robotic daughter Gretelbot. One sad day, the Woodsman’s wife was taken ill, and passed away not too long afterwards. Time passed, but eventually the Woodsman became stricken by loneliness, and he remarried.

The Woodsman’s new wife was a wicked woman, who hated her new step children. They were the reason, so she said, that they had to live in such poverty. They would eat them out of house and home, the Woodsman must get rid of them! His will weakened by his heartbreak, the Woodsman relented, and led Hansel and Gretelbot into the Dark Western Woods, leaving them to fend for themselves, with no idea how to get home…

Hansel & Gretelbot should be out later this month, keep your eyes peeled for more info!

Look out for more details coming soon – and in the meantime, why not share some of your favourite levels (even your own!) in the comments below? Remember those lbp.me links, so that we can all queue them up ready for this evening…

Score:

• 23 Comments 6 Replies
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Hi guys – Today LittleBigPlanet 2 is released across the UK, Ireland and several other European countries, and we’ve got some more goodies to help celebrate!

Launch Trailer

First of all, we’ve got a new trailer to celebrate the launch of LittleBigPlanet 2 – it’s a tribute to the history of videogaming, told from Sackboy’s own unique perspective. All the levels shown in the trailer were also created by community members GruntosUK and Jackofcourse.

Advertising Campaign

On top of that, I thought I’d give you all a look at the LBP 2 advertising campaign. Now, the LBP 2 Story mode is fantastic fun – as you’ve all hopefully spotted already from the numerous other trailers we’ve released. But for the launch of the game, we wanted to turn the spotlight on another hugely important part of the LittleBigPlanet universe – the community.

With more than 3 million levels already created (and fully compatible with LBP 2), it’s all the creators out there that really make LBP what it is – and that’s worth celebrating. We approached some of the best creators out there, and asked them to create some special LittleBigPlanet 2 levels that showed off the brand new features, and also highlighted how diverse and truly global the LBP community is.
The fantastic levels that they created formed the focal point of the LittleBigPlanet 2 campaign – from the TV and press ads, to promotion online.

Here are the levels, and their respective creators (take a bow, guys!) – including links to lbp.me so that you can check them out for yourself…

Wexfordian: Rio Carnival Dance-Off
Rtm223: Penguin Turf War
GruntosUK: Venice is Sinking! (Versus & Co-Op versions)
Jackofcourse: Rogue Panda Rescue
Steve_Big_Guns: Mediterranean Street Racing

And here’s how we made use of them in the press ad…

And the European TV ad…

The guys did a fantastic job of demonstrating ways that you can use LBP 2′s new Create Mode features – I hope you enjoy the ads, and the levels!

Enjoy the trailer, enjoy your weekends, and enjoy exploring LittleBigPlanet 2….!

Score:

• 34 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Hi guys – more LittleBigPlanet 2 related goodness to celebrate launch week – here’s a brand new behind the scenes video that’ll give you a personal tour of the place where the magic happens – the Media Molecule studio.

This video was shot as the game was about to go ‘Gold’ – so right around the time Media Molecule were really starting to get excited about the fact that you guys would soon have LittleBigPlanet 2 in your hands!

Check back tomorrow for more exciting bits and pieces…

Score:

• 26 Comments 8 Replies
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook