Kodu is the new Boku: Xbox Live's 'LittleBigPlanet'

by James Ransom-Wiley on Jan 8th 2009 12:15PM

Microsoft pulled no punches during its CES keynote, shuffling an "actual 12-year-old girl" onstage to demonstrate its newly renamed Xbox Live Community Game "Kodu." Apparently too reminiscent of the failed 80s-era adult juice, the former name, Boku, was dropped in favor of the less associable two-syllabler. But we digress. Kodu is still easily described as a LittleBigPlanet-esque effort, but on a much simpler scale -- and probably far less "brilliant," in the Brits' all-purpose sense of the word.

Sparrow, that 12-year-old we mentioned, apparently did create a "pretty impressive" game using Kodu, described by Engadget as, "Katamari meets light-cycles from Tron. It's totally bizarre -- now her and Robbie [Bach] are using cycles to steal rocks from each other." Actually, sounds brilliant to us.

Kodu was originally designed as a learning tool for kids, but Microsoft promises it's compatible with people ages "seven to 70." Players reportedly create their game worlds in mere minutes using a pool of 200 building blocks designed to drive simple gameplay concepts like vision, hearing and time. Kodu is scheduled for release this spring and has yet to be priced.

Update: Video after the break, and more details here. [Thanks EvilDud!]

Source

Tags: breakingnews, CES, ces-2009, community-games, kodu, PC, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xbox-live-community-games

Reader Comments (86)

**Sackboy reads title.......** "Kodu is the new Boku: Xbox Live's 'LittleBigPlanet'"

Sackboy then comments saying "really?? I didnt see a 'wheel of fire', paintinator, crazy looking farting/belching characters or prize wielding bubbles anywhere...." **Sackboy then falls in the floor laughing only to be crushed by giant ball of fire**

We all appreciated your effort at humor ... it's just that ... the execution was what failed.

yea.......I know......lol......

nonono — NOT lol.

Please research what the use of "..." means. It's so annoying to see it after every few words. Yeah, I know you said it was your style, but that doesn't make it correct to use instead of periods in every post. (Saying it's your style to do something incorrect is basically a cop-out.) Sorry to bust on you like they did yesterday, but c'mon already.

Buzz Killington declares this joke buzz-kill'd.

You just ruined the funny of MS comparing Kodu to LBP.

"Please research what the use of "..." means."

Look duke...some of us like to type...like Shatner talks...we can't help it. It's still...above...txting. ur shur? ya rly.

Take it from someone who knows:You are trying to hard pal.

"Kodu" means "Home" in Estonian.

WINNAR.

Oh, I got served. LMAO.

KODU = Ken Ober Drinks Urine

Borland, you gotta work on your Shatner impression. I thought you were going for Walkin.

Hey aggie, it's okay.

You have some allies here. Let them be defensive for you... please. And learn from them.

Those "..." are called elipse.

Good to know right.

hmm this sounds like a good idea but ill have to see it to belive it, o btw i love how it says "actual 12 yr old girl"
like we wudnt belive them if it just said "12 yr old girl"

I was thinking the same thing. It's like prefacing a statement by saying "honestly."

I too thought the "Actual 12 year old girl" was strange, but when you consider the alternatives
"12 year old girl
or
"Girl"
I think I would have went with the actual as well.

knowing some companies in the 21st century, im' not surprised they'd do that. There are a too many sneaky bitch ass companies out there. Everyone does it, whether it be Sony, MS, Apple, Time Warner Cable, ATT Wireless, Verizon etc...

Point in case,I guess apples iphone commercials were removed from the air because the activities shown on the phone are capable of being done at the speed they show. And this was apples reply "Plaintiff's claims, and those of the purported class, are barred by the fact that the alleged deceptive statements were such that no reasonable person in Plaintiff's position could have reasonably relied on or misunderstood Apple's statements as claims of fact."

(god i love my chat logs, only took 10 seconds to find). Anyways, so apples stance was this "oh c'mon, only an idiot would believe us at face value".

Not beating on apple by any means here, but EVERYONE does it. I wouldn't be surprised if a company tried to demo a product like that, and said this is a 15 year old kid when it reality it was andy milonakis

this could be a add on for community games.

I wasn't a huge fan of LBP, and while this seems to be a little too kiddy, it does seem to be more my thing. I love using those programs like RPG Maker, and it should be possible to do some pretty cool things with this.

Imagine that! Snowblind would prefer a MS version of a more kid centric LBP. Who would have ever THUNK it.

"Exactly. Calling it "Xbox's version of LBP" is just stupid and blatant flame bait."

But isn't that what journalism is all about?

Readme -

You made a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

For the record I *do* own a PS3 and LBP.
Feel free to add me. PSN: WinterSnowblind

I wonder... will this be a failure if it sells less than 4 million on day 1?

I AM ACTUAL 12 YEAROLD GIRL.

eNrique = ultrapwnwin

How is Kodu like LittleBigPlanet? That's like calling LBP the PS3's RPG Maker; just because they both allow you to create things doesn't mean they are anything alike.

Exactly. Calling it "Xbox's version of LBP" is just stupid and blatant flame bait.

"How is Kodu like LittleBigPlanet? That's like calling LBP the PS3's RPG Maker;"

"Exactly. Calling it "Xbox's version of LBP" is just stupid and blatant flame bait."

THIS IS SPAR... JOYSTIQ!

Flamebaits!? In mah Joystiq's!? No way!!1

They're not "pro Sony," you dolt. Just like they're not pro-Microsoft every time they make fun of the stupidity and uselessness of PS3's "Home" atrocity.

but flamebait keeps Joystiq alive!

Dude, it sounds, looks, and plays like LBP. The core mechanics may be slightly different but generally they look and feel the same.

SUN SHINE LOLITA POPS

a/s/l?

16/Koopa/In ur Mooshroom Kingdum, harrasing ur sexed-up Mario...

Gamers need to expand their horizons. This is much more like Scratch or Alice than LBP.

I have to agree with others that the comparisons between Kodu and LittleBigPlanet are slim (if even existent).

That said, Kodu looks promising. If only Microsoft had used a less "vibrant" color scheme in their keynote demo and they used more images like the ones from their research website.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/

I thought the comparison was not direct but rather comparing that both allow the end user tools to get involved in the game's creation and evolution. In that sense, I think they are loosely comparable.

Would it be more appropriate to say that it is Microsoft's answer to LBP?

@Dirty:

I almost typed that exact thing myself. To me, it definitely seems to be more of an answer to LBP than a version of it.

But style-wise and content wise, these two look to be worlds apart.

XNA isn't for everyone. But for those who aren't up to hardcore coding work, this is a great way to get into the swing of design. In fact, I hope this is robust enough for rapid prototyping.

This IS the next big thing and it blows LBP out of the water in my opinion. Look at how she spins through the menus like a pro. The concepts really mesh with her. Mark my words: this will be huge.

That's because she is either a child prodigy or because she had been practicing for 2 straight months.

You have never played LBP huh? Navigating the menu is as easy as in XMB...

An actual 12 year old girl?

No way, they're faking it...

THE CAEK IS A LIE

yup, i think it was a robot.

The question is: Is Boku going to be avalible in all countries? XNA isn't avalible in some Regions.

I prefer the title of Chicken Kicker more.

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Kodu is the new Boku: Xbox Live's 'LittleBigPlanet'

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