Tash’s E3 Interview: Little Big Planet 3
Now that the post-E3 hangover has finally worn off, we’ve got one last interview for you. I was lucky enough to get a hands-on preview of Little Big Planet 3, and have a chat with Jason Stewart, one of the producers on the game. While I wasn’t initially excited about seeing a new Little Big Planet game, Sackboy’s new pals quickly won me over.
Tash: So I must admit, and I’ll be honest here. When I got into E3, and I saw that Little Big Planet was playing, I went “mehhhh, you know… yeah, yeah.” And then we just had a demo of the four player and the two player, and it was so much fun! I loved it.
Jason: It’s great. I think the new characters give it more possibilities for Little Big Planet than we’ve ever had before. The extra depth, I mean it looks better than it ever looked before. On Playstation 4, full 1080p. The textures, the materials, are all four fold in the quality. They look really tactile, touchable. And I think that the new tools we’re going to give the creators, once it gets out there, the creative community is so important to the Little Big Planet franchise, and the reason why we’re supporting the 8.7 million levels that have come before. It just amazes us. Can’t wait to see what they do.
Tash: And I suppose that area of creation means if you buy the game, and you hate all the levels on it, even if you hate all of those levels on the game when you first buy it, you can go in and take a look at all the other creations.
Jason: You can create what you want. Possibilities are endless. Your imagination is your limitation, and everything that we used to create Little Big Planet 3, the creators will have from day one as well. They’ll be able to use all the same tools, and they never cease to amaze us with what they come up with. And they’ve got that extra depth that they’ve never had before. They’ve got extra characters with new abilities to base their levels and creations around. I can’t wait to see what they build.
Tash: With those four characters, can you tell us a little bit about them, and what makes each of them special?
Jason: Well, for special abilities, obviously we’ve got Toggle. Toggle can go from big to small, with a touch of a button. That’s why he’s called Toggle. In his big state, as big toggle, he’s heavy, he’s strong, but he’s also slow and cumbersome. So he can’t jump as far. Little Toggle is fast and flighty. He can jump farther and he’s very light. He can walk on walls and he can be blown up in a jet stream. Also, he doesn’t have the strength of big Toggle, so he can’t push big blocks out of the way or break objects and materials like big Toggle. Swoop, swoop can fly. Swoop can also pick up objects and other characters, depending on their weight. And Oddsock is the fastest of Sockboy’s new friends. Oddsock can sprint, and also wall jump. So again, it just gives much more possibilities to the designing of levels.
Tash: What does it mean for the interaction, when you have four players and everyone’s doing their own thing?
Jason: In the story mode, you will be playing as a single character throughout Little Big Planet. Different levels and different themes will require you to use specific characters. But within multiplyaer, if you play multiplayer through the game, you would be using four of that character, or one to four of that character. So you wouldn’t jump in with all four different characters in a Sackboy themed zone, or an Oddsock themed zone. However, the UDC and the creative community, they’re going to create levels that will have all the characters interacting, a lot like what we did with the press conference demo, and build things that require all the different characters’ abilities to complete. Again, the possibilities are endless.
Tash: With the Toggle themed areas, or Sackboy themed areas, they play to the strengths, like we saw with that demo?
Jason: They play to the strengths and the abilities or each character, yeah.
Tash: I’m gonna make you do it. What’s your favorite character, out of the four?
Jason: Well, I like them all. And Sackboy will probably always be everyone’s favorite. But I suppose, out of the new characters, I think Toggle appeals to me.
Tash: Yeah. I have to say, I’ve been playing Toggle…
Jason: Maybe it’s because I’m sort of like Toggle.
Tash: Awwww he’s so lovable and I loved him! He’s just so much fun to play. And it’s a very vibrant game. I mean, the graphics just absolutely pop.
Jason: It looks fantastic on the Playstation 4. It’s the best platform for it. As you can see, all the textures and materials just look so much more real than they ever have before. And all the user developed content that’s come before automatically will be uprezzed to this new quality.
Tash: It’s Little Big Planet 3, but that shouldn’t deter people who haven’t played one or two? They can still jump in and have just as much fun?
Jason: We’ve made it really accessible, really easy just to jump in and have fun, as you’ve seen today. You pick up a controller, play with friends, so much fun to be had.
Tash: Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for that, and following my sample of play, I’m really really excited about it.
Jason: Cheers.
