For those of you that missed it, there's was a juicy LittleBigPlanet 3 stream during Gamescom earlier today. In it, they gave us our first in depth covered a lot of new tools. Please note that my screen grabs are from a stream and had to be turned into Jpegs so that this page didn't take 40MBs to load. If you want some slightly cleaner images, I've got untouched PNGs here.
Here is where the LBP segment starts in the stream: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/b/557987029?t=176m
Here's where the in-game footage starts: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/b/557987029?t=177m32s
And here's where the show really gets going: www.twitch.tv/twitch/b/557987029?t=180m
EDIT: Youtube version of the Create Mode demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePLtSxYgUGw
First they cover the new depth of the game, what with having 16 layers (5 and a bit times more than any other LittleBigPlanet title), showing a basket-ball court that actually has depth along the Z-axis.
One of the new tools is called a Layer Launcher, and it looks and acts similarly to a bounce pad, but instead of just sending the player up and down, it sends them across layers. You can edit the arc really easily and pinpoint exactly where you want the launcher to send your character. From a glance at the tool options, it seems as though you can also limit how much air contol the character has after being launched. Seems like a great tool for those who like making Rube Goldberg Machine-esque levels.
They then showed slides, which are another way of sending the player through multiple layers. I'm not exactly clear on how you make them, but an interesting note is that the cardboard walls on either side of the slide are angled as well, so it seems that even beyond gameplay utility, we'll be able to make angled materials in the z-axis for aesthetic purposes, something that was never possible before.
They then move on to showing another tool for moving the player (and other things) through layers, the "Bendy Rail". The Bendy Rail is a wire structure that you're able to flex around and through objects and layers. It sounds like it's got a lot of viable functions, and they describe it as the best way to make a rollercoaster level (LBP Rollercoaster Tycoon?). You can attach a "Rail Hook" (basically a caster wheel) to the rail and it will travel along the length of the Bendy Rail at whatever speed you set it to. You can also change the "hook motion" from motorized to (I'm assuming) not motorized.
After riding the rail for a bit (and leading a poor Oddsock to its doom) they show off another potential function of the Bendy Rail, which is to easily draw movement paths for NPCs/Enemies/Objects in the world. By setting the rail to be invisible, it just looks like these Sackbots are flying through the air.
They then move on to show how you can edit character movements and change between characters. They go about editing Toggle's controls to quickly give him/her the ability to fly, and then dress him/her as a gorgeous cheerleader.
Also showcased in this section is a new and pretty awesome tool called the Animation Tweaker, which gives you a lot more control over how a character looks when doing things (for instance, when making Toggle fly, they gave him/her animations as though he/she was "swag" walking underwater). They used a "Character change gate" to change from Sackboy to the edited Toggle, and gracefully swam through the air to the next part of the level, changing back to Sackboy.
They then showed off how the DualShock 4's touchpad is integrated. You can use it to for things like navigating the pop-it menu, or moving objects/sticker around as well as resizing and rotating them with different touch gestures. Perhaps the coolest feature of all is that the sticker creator/painter from the PlayStation Move pack is in LBP3, and while it was previously only functional with the PS Move controller, it can now be used with the DualShock 4 touchpad.
They then move on to a really really cool new feature, the Power-up Creator. It essentially gives players the ability to build power-ups that are of the same quality as the Grappling hook or Paintinator or any of those. The Pumpinator from the E3 reveal (hairdryer looking thing that blew air) was made with the Power-up Creator. Someone is going to make the perfect Gravity Gun. It works with a new creation tool called a Blaster Handle, and whatever you stick it on can be placed in Sackboy's hand (possibly elsewhere as well, if they want to enable players to make hat-like power-ups and whatnot). From there, you sort out your logic and make sure everything works however its supposed to, and then you save it, stick it in a custom power-up pedestal, and voila, you've got a custom-crafted power up.
He uses the new "Drillinator" to drill rocks until they explode, freeing up his path to show off another custom power-up, which is really cool. It's called the "Ballooninator" and it makes use of a new feature that lets you resize decorations and stickers and stuff through logic and whatnot. Using that, it lets you inflate a balloon object to let Sackboy jump higher and much further, and knock objects out of the way with sudden inflation. And it's completely custom made.
The last custom power-up he showed was a giant fork which can spawn a piece of chicken onto it's tines to lure a large alligator-looking Oddsock sackbot over to a mechanism, activating it.
From there, they jump through a portal that takes them to the end of the create mode demonstration.
There's also a demo level with OddSock a little afterwards, which shows off some straightforward gameplay, though there's less to find create wise. The whole thing is worth watching though, especially if you don't know much about what the LBP community has done.
Here are a few extra things I noticed, but weren't brought up:
There were some pedestals during the demo that displayed floating wrenches. I'm not sure what they did, but when Sackboy walked through them, he appeared to change his costume.
Another interesting thing to see that I don't believe they mentioned, was the fact that some materials in the foreground go from being transparent to being solid as the player moves from the background to the foreground with his slide. Because they don't cover it, it's not clear whether that is automated or player controlled, but given that it's LBP, I think its a fair bet that the player will have some control.
One other neat thing, it appears that you can switch between preview view (objects toggled to be invisible are invisible) and normal create mode view without having to go into the start menu. This occurs several times during the stream.
And lastly, they briefly scroll across the tools section of the create mode pop-it, and here's what I could grab. The red stuff outlined is new and unexplained (however, I haven't played LittleBigPlanet Vita, so if something here is something from there, call me on it). New stuff that can be named has been named.
So check out the stream, and speculate about all the sweet new tools we're getting in LBP3. There's a lot to love here.
Here is where the LBP segment starts in the stream: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/b/557987029?t=176m
Here's where the in-game footage starts: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/b/557987029?t=177m32s
And here's where the show really gets going: www.twitch.tv/twitch/b/557987029?t=180m
EDIT: Youtube version of the Create Mode demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePLtSxYgUGw
First they cover the new depth of the game, what with having 16 layers (5 and a bit times more than any other LittleBigPlanet title), showing a basket-ball court that actually has depth along the Z-axis.
One of the new tools is called a Layer Launcher, and it looks and acts similarly to a bounce pad, but instead of just sending the player up and down, it sends them across layers. You can edit the arc really easily and pinpoint exactly where you want the launcher to send your character. From a glance at the tool options, it seems as though you can also limit how much air contol the character has after being launched. Seems like a great tool for those who like making Rube Goldberg Machine-esque levels.
They then showed slides, which are another way of sending the player through multiple layers. I'm not exactly clear on how you make them, but an interesting note is that the cardboard walls on either side of the slide are angled as well, so it seems that even beyond gameplay utility, we'll be able to make angled materials in the z-axis for aesthetic purposes, something that was never possible before.
They then move on to showing another tool for moving the player (and other things) through layers, the "Bendy Rail". The Bendy Rail is a wire structure that you're able to flex around and through objects and layers. It sounds like it's got a lot of viable functions, and they describe it as the best way to make a rollercoaster level (LBP Rollercoaster Tycoon?). You can attach a "Rail Hook" (basically a caster wheel) to the rail and it will travel along the length of the Bendy Rail at whatever speed you set it to. You can also change the "hook motion" from motorized to (I'm assuming) not motorized.
After riding the rail for a bit (and leading a poor Oddsock to its doom) they show off another potential function of the Bendy Rail, which is to easily draw movement paths for NPCs/Enemies/Objects in the world. By setting the rail to be invisible, it just looks like these Sackbots are flying through the air.
They then move on to show how you can edit character movements and change between characters. They go about editing Toggle's controls to quickly give him/her the ability to fly, and then dress him/her as a gorgeous cheerleader.
Also showcased in this section is a new and pretty awesome tool called the Animation Tweaker, which gives you a lot more control over how a character looks when doing things (for instance, when making Toggle fly, they gave him/her animations as though he/she was "swag" walking underwater). They used a "Character change gate" to change from Sackboy to the edited Toggle, and gracefully swam through the air to the next part of the level, changing back to Sackboy.
They then showed off how the DualShock 4's touchpad is integrated. You can use it to for things like navigating the pop-it menu, or moving objects/sticker around as well as resizing and rotating them with different touch gestures. Perhaps the coolest feature of all is that the sticker creator/painter from the PlayStation Move pack is in LBP3, and while it was previously only functional with the PS Move controller, it can now be used with the DualShock 4 touchpad.
They then move on to a really really cool new feature, the Power-up Creator. It essentially gives players the ability to build power-ups that are of the same quality as the Grappling hook or Paintinator or any of those. The Pumpinator from the E3 reveal (hairdryer looking thing that blew air) was made with the Power-up Creator. Someone is going to make the perfect Gravity Gun. It works with a new creation tool called a Blaster Handle, and whatever you stick it on can be placed in Sackboy's hand (possibly elsewhere as well, if they want to enable players to make hat-like power-ups and whatnot). From there, you sort out your logic and make sure everything works however its supposed to, and then you save it, stick it in a custom power-up pedestal, and voila, you've got a custom-crafted power up.
*gif borrowed from LBP Central
He uses the new "Drillinator" to drill rocks until they explode, freeing up his path to show off another custom power-up, which is really cool. It's called the "Ballooninator" and it makes use of a new feature that lets you resize decorations and stickers and stuff through logic and whatnot. Using that, it lets you inflate a balloon object to let Sackboy jump higher and much further, and knock objects out of the way with sudden inflation. And it's completely custom made.
The last custom power-up he showed was a giant fork which can spawn a piece of chicken onto it's tines to lure a large alligator-looking Oddsock sackbot over to a mechanism, activating it.
From there, they jump through a portal that takes them to the end of the create mode demonstration.
There's also a demo level with OddSock a little afterwards, which shows off some straightforward gameplay, though there's less to find create wise. The whole thing is worth watching though, especially if you don't know much about what the LBP community has done.
Here are a few extra things I noticed, but weren't brought up:
There were some pedestals during the demo that displayed floating wrenches. I'm not sure what they did, but when Sackboy walked through them, he appeared to change his costume.
Another interesting thing to see that I don't believe they mentioned, was the fact that some materials in the foreground go from being transparent to being solid as the player moves from the background to the foreground with his slide. Because they don't cover it, it's not clear whether that is automated or player controlled, but given that it's LBP, I think its a fair bet that the player will have some control.
One other neat thing, it appears that you can switch between preview view (objects toggled to be invisible are invisible) and normal create mode view without having to go into the start menu. This occurs several times during the stream.
And lastly, they briefly scroll across the tools section of the create mode pop-it, and here's what I could grab. The red stuff outlined is new and unexplained (however, I haven't played LittleBigPlanet Vita, so if something here is something from there, call me on it). New stuff that can be named has been named.
So check out the stream, and speculate about all the sweet new tools we're getting in LBP3. There's a lot to love here.
