Media Molecule surprised by LBP's hype
Didn't expect "a lead title on a platform".
LittleBigPlanet is the PlayStation 3's great white hope for 2008 - an ambitious, abstract physics game built around user-created content - but developer Media Molecule admits that the hype has taken it by surprise.
"We had no expectation that it would become so strongly associated as a lead title on a platform," Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today.
"The reveal at GDC generated the level of excitement that helped us get to where we are now. It was always our ambition to make a big game, but we didn't know if we'd succeed. The transition has been in the perception of the game, rather than in what we set out to do."
That GDC reveal - last March, when then-Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison introduced LBP and PlayStation Home and talked about "Game 3.0" - came quite early in the game's development cycle, given that it's due out in October this year, but Evans believes it was a good move.
"The reaction at GDC was such that we've been able to build on that initial reveal, and talk about more and more features, and one of the nice things for me is that at that early stage we weren't shown very much about the other features - but now when I talk about the game there are so many more elements that I can bring out and discuss," said Evans.
Check out the first part of the interview on GamesIndustry.biz, and for a fuller understanding of the kind of wacky-awesome game that's in development check out our hands-on preview from March.