LittleBigPlanet creator hints at controls patch, backflips

by James Ransom-Wiley { Oct 7th 2008 at 4:00PM }

Media Molecule boss Mark Healey admits that LittleBigPlanet's controls can be frustrating. "The Z [axis] movement is an incredibly hard thing for us to get right. There's times when it annoys me actually," Healey told Eurogamer, ~~echoing sentiments shared by other PlayStation 3 developers that have struggled to put games in motion.~~ [Update: Oops! Healey's actually talking about moving between the foreground and background planes (thanks Colin!) -- the motion controls still are wonky though ... ]

Media Molecule seems confident a software patch could do the trick. "There's definitely room for improvement and we've got the channel to be able to do that as well. I'd really love to be able to do backflips and all kinds of things with my SackBoy, and there's no reason why we can't add that and refine that." LittleTombRaider? NinjaBigGaiden? Yes please.

Tags: lbp, littlebigplanet, media-molecule, sackboy, z-axis

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Well Fed Troll @ Oct 7th 2008 4:10PM

Could never get enough LBP.

*Nom nom nom*

Si @ Oct 7th 2008 4:11PM

Cue hoards of brainless Xbots chanting "LOL, LBP is not perfect..."

I wonder how much Microsoft pay them to worship that pile of steaming sh1t the XBox360?

Daniel @ Oct 7th 2008 4:13PM

I dunno, maybe as much as Sony are paying you to bash what is a perfectly good console?

Arnon @ Oct 7th 2008 4:20PM

Daniel owned you.

Well Fed Troll @ Oct 7th 2008 4:27PM

Did you just try and do the "slow clap" at the wrong time?? a la "Not Another Teen Movie"...

As i look down i have yet to see one "MS' paid bloggers" say anything ...much less a horde.

Hey nice preemptive swing & miss though.
*looks around* Maybe the horde waits?

BIGFAT @ Oct 7th 2008 10:24PM

i wanna know how much Joystiq is paying you to test out there heart system. i can barely see your comment.

Ziiiiiiing!!!!!!

DigDug @ Oct 8th 2008 3:30AM

Congratulations, the next time you have a consumer item fail on you, you can thank idiots like Daniel, you endorse companies like Microsoft who made the decision to launch early at the expense of reliability.

Mr Khan @ Oct 7th 2008 4:11PM

Ideally, there would be multiple move sets for sackboy, but you would could be forced to use a different one based on the level in question (or not, as the creator decides)

Allowing for deeper custom stage construction

Vidikron @ Oct 7th 2008 4:21PM

I'd like to see user adjustable physics for at least the character, if not entire levels. I know a lot of people have expressed concern over the floaty jumps the LBP chacters make. Being in the beta I can tell you it's not as hard to control as people (who've never even played it) make it out, but it does put limits on level design as seen in that video where someone attempted to recreate SMB 1-1. If the devs would add sliders to control the physics of the character then that would open up the possibilites even more.

I like your idea as well. Maybe you could basically have series of checkboxes for levels that enable/disabled things like wall jumps, double jumps, back-flips, etc...

343 Guilty Fart @ Oct 7th 2008 5:15PM

I love the Beta so far, but it really would be nice if Sackboy had a slightly bigger repertoire of moves. I wish he could duck, or move along things that he's grabbed onto, or wall jump, whatever. Even just one more move would open up a lot more gameplay possibilites.

Mike @ Oct 7th 2008 4:12PM

Cue hoards of brainless Xbots chanting "LOL, LBP is not perfect..."

I wonder how much Microsoft pay them to worship that pile of steaming sh1t the XBox360?

ExMcCloud @ Oct 7th 2008 4:24PM

What r u guys twins? The 360 is definitely not crap...That's why I have one....along with a PS3 your the idiot, you let loyalty to a company who doesnt give two f**ks about you dictate your opinion....Me along with the rest of my sensible Joystiq brethren (Yes that includes Fenix...lolz) get to play everything and hold an actual valid opinion...

Now IMO I think LBP will be great the creation elements look wonderful....The platforming does look rather crappy so I'm GLAD that the developers realize this and are attempting to fix this said problem. Maybe my opinion will change wen I get to buy and play the game.

Well Fed Troll @ Oct 7th 2008 4:33PM

More "slow clap" error ...

*brushes the intellectual apple on furry pelt*
Trolling's not easy son. Take it from me...

*Drops apple and goes off to cry in a corner ...

nude*

bm @ Oct 7th 2008 4:37PM

If you ask them "you want ice cream cone?" both of them say yes.

Popfrogs @ Oct 7th 2008 11:36PM

+1 for bm. Mario Twins = winnar.

Pumapayam @ Oct 7th 2008 4:15PM

Enter exponential growth of LBP news as TGS and release draw near.

More please :P

Also, we want post ledge grab "climbing"

Colin @ Oct 7th 2008 4:20PM

Actually, the dev is not talking about motion controls at all. He's talking about moving back and forth on the z-axis of the game itself. It's a 2.5D game, with 2-3 levels of depth. (Yes I'm in the beta.)

The only thing motion controls are used for in the game are for aiming where your guy looks or leans. So adding motionplus support wouldn't really fix the problem anyway. :)

-Colin

hplcman @ Oct 7th 2008 5:26PM

You also use the motion control to take off the jet pack! A quick shake will do it!

ogvor @ Oct 7th 2008 4:20PM

While I'm loving the beta, besides some obvious pre-release bugs and crashes, this is annoying, especially when try to perform jumps or manipulate objects in different parts of the Z-Axis.

Still, I got my PS3 for this game and I don't regret it.

peepoop @ Oct 7th 2008 4:20PM

"LittleTombRaider? NinjaBigGaiden? Yes please."

Ugh.

FemaleOrca @ Oct 7th 2008 4:23PM

As much as I am loving the beta, I have been frustrated a number of times to the wonky z-axis controls (continually getting sucked back to the 3rd plane). I am very pleased to hear that they are aware of this and planning a patch.

Also agree on the ledge climbing, or just climbing of grabbable surfaces in general.

Hyams @ Oct 7th 2008 4:32PM

It took me about ten minutes to master the Z axis movements. (In fact, the level I'm working on uses it quite a lot as a way of solving simplistic 'puzzles'.) I'm really surprised it's still giving the devs trouble.

Tango Charlie @ Oct 7th 2008 5:12PM

I've heard people complain about the z-axis issue, but they've done a wonderful job implementing it as it is. In the MM levels, I haven't felt frustrated or like I was getting screwed over by it. Good level design will take it into account.

The climbing on grabbable objects would be nice, but I wonder if it would break any of the levels that'll ship with the game?