LittleBigThings: Welp, Working on Some Stuff

As I sort of imagined, though feared against, I am finding it a little easier than it was on the PS3 to set about actually building a level and getting stuff put down.  Not -much- easier, mind you, but I have a days-worth of progress on something done up versus....well, no progress at all, so that's something.  As is generally the case, that's more or less what I've been doing since I aced the Story Mode, though I have put in some time to actually attempt the whole online thing to get some of the 2-Player required prize bubbles and have met with limited amounts of success.  While I can actually play online as opposed to some games, I'm sure the NAT factor is still in play when it comes to my ability to actually enjoy the online aspect of the game.  Which is marginally strange to me since I apparently have the same on my PS3 but I guess having a cable hooked up makes all the difference in the world.  Regardless, I have taken down about four of the levels with two-person-only Prize bubbles which means great success where I come from.

Create mode in LBPV has been a little bit of a different beast than its console counterpart however, at least in terms of a few things.  Mechanics-wise, it's generally the same aside from a few improvements that I may or may not touch on tonight, but what I'm talking about...well, does sort of matter in that context, as it's about the content available.  You see, LittleBigPlanet 2's big billing thing was "You get -everything- from LittleBigPlanet to carry over!" which means costumes, stickers, bits and bobs, objects, materials, etc. etc. etc.  Everything when it means everything.  Going from LittleBigPlanet 2 to Vita, however?  You get.....DLC costumes that were purchased in either LBP or LBP2 which are appreciated of course, but nothing else that isn't mechanical.  To tell the truth, I haven't really looked, but I do believe that the Paintinator has been completely phased out for the Creatinator which is admittedly basically the same thing but still, that's...something.  Water has been implemented properly, as a core mechanic, so why not bring that along as well?  (I might have overlooked it, however, will probably edit in here after I check when I'm done with the post itself.)

As such, I find it odd, trying to do some things in it as I remember bits and pieces of my excursions with the console versions and the things I used there, only to find that they're simply not here.  Almost disconcerting, even.  To top that, some of the LBP Costumes in the actual storefront on the Vita are for packs that include more than just costumes.....if you buy them on PS3.  For the Vita version itself, you only get the costumes, thought I suppose a theoretical LittleBigPlanet 3 would eventually use all the elements again if you're worried about having to 'go back' to LBP2 to get the full use out of them.  Still, I hold out a little bit of hope that something will be done here in the future to allow us access to the rest of the stuff from the DLC, the materials and the like, though I suppose I will understand if it's just not really possible.  If we're throwing out dreams as well, hoping they are heard by the powers that be, being able to get base things, again materials and the like from LBP 1 and 2 would also be nice, but I'm mostly just concerned with the stickers and materials from the DLC as I would assume they have all the rights they need to bring them over - after all, they were alright enough to tinker with bits of all of them as is.

Anyways, the point was to talk about the creating thing so I should probably do that instead of anything else like whining about not having enough stuff to build with.  Which I suppose is still talking about creating things in a sense but it's a bit heading off the topic an- right, right, moving on.  It's an odd thing, trying to build something in LittleBigPlanet because I have sort of been ruined by the community.  You go into other levels and see things and marvel and wonder at just how the hell they made that, and then go into one of your levels and have a dumpy little outline of a house started.  It's....intimidating to say the least.  I can't help but equate it somewhat to making things in Sound Shapes, where I didn't really -have- that.  Sure, there were nice looking things in Sound Shapes, but the bulk of them were just creative usage of pre-made things.  In LittleBigPlanet, entire levels are literally hand-crafted things and sometimes they are just amazing.  I freeze up just thinking about trying to replicate anything that has the sort of grandeur I've come across or, more importantly, just thinking about what I make in comparison to those other things.  It's.....never pretty.  And unnecessary.  I cannot -not- do it, however.

Still, for whatever reason I have found that it's easier to get past that in LBPV - perhaps because I really don't care about being judged in the same scope as those other types of levels (which I don't think I would, since they're separate entities) or perhaps because I'm getting more confident about being able to make things that look kind of half-decent.  I mean, take a look at the screenshot provided at the top - it's not bad I'd say, for being very early on in planning out.  I have the planters and no idea how to actually put plants in them yet which I can get past, a doormat on the step up, and a doorway with a door that actually has a little detail on it with the knob, the lock and the stickers.  Also in the level is a white-picket fence, a mailbox and a tree with a Tire Swing because -why not-.  It's all very basic yet because...well, that's how you gotta do it.  I have to lay the framework for things before putting anything else down.  Not because I want everything to be perfect because it assuredly will not be, but because I need to try at least, because it's only with trying that you get better and such.

The issue I'm running into with all my levels, not just this basic house one (which will be used as a sort of 'hub' level for my other things) is that I just don't know a whole lot about what I want.  I can't really visualize and I can't really replicate with scale.  Everything looks okay until you put it in contrast with something else.  For example, the planters and the step look a little big when you compare it to the door, and the space of the entry room seems like it might be a little big compared to the door as well, but the door scales really nicely to Sackboy itself - a little taller and a little wider than him, like any good door to a person.  In the end, I'm sure I'll probably just have to not -care- so much about scale since Sackboy isn't really a thing of perfect proportions himself and trying to base around him specifically is something of a fool's errand.  Still, I operate under the theory of doing something right when you do something at all, or at least I pretend I do, so I am trying to stick with that if nothing else.  And I'm not about to publish a level unless I'm mostly happy with it.  And it's done and such.  My House level is pretty good so far for being like 1% done, so small victories here.  When I get some more done with it, I'll do an update here and/or when I start working on the other two projects, I'll do something for them here as well.  With any luck, it will be soon!

"Escape The Factory" is My First Sound Shapes Level

We're going to do something a little different tonight thanks to me finally, finally finishing a project that I claim I will actually finish.  Funny thing, that.  The level that I have been working on in Sound Shapes, "Escape The Factory" is a thing that is done and published and you can queue it up to play with this link the next time you open Sound Shapes, sign into the community (It -works- now!) and bring up your favorites, since that is where things get queued apparently.  Perhaps a subtle hint, hm?  Anyways, if you have a copy of the game, go ahead and do that if you will to at least listen to what I've put together since that's the one thing I'm a bit incapable of offering with my blogpost here about the level.  As promised, and this is sort of what I was getting at in saying music is the only thing I can't give, I'll go ahead and show off all the screens of the level here so you can at least take a look at the style and see if you dig it.  As is probably obvious because of that, this will be a picture-heavy post, so I do apologize if that causes problems.

The first screen of the level, as seen above sets you in what I have styled as a factory which I assure you looks a little more like a factory (or at least a warehouse, perhaps I should've called it that...) in the later screens.  Our little crab buddy offers a little maraca sound to give us a baseline for this screen where the first establishing notes are laid.  They are, as most of the notes in the whole level, fairly easy to get to, as I didn't want to throw -too- much challenge in, because I preferred to have a nice little level to look at, which seems to follow the mood of the actual game itself really well, if I do say so myself.  Which isn't a knock, of course, simply a statement and a preparation for you in that you won't find the challenge you might be looking for with Sound Shapes here.  So, after grabbing the notes, it's a simple enough matter of just...going right to the next screen.

I was trying to go for a sort of derelict look here, what with the shelves almost all knocked over and product laying here and there everywhere, not to mention the faulty wiring in some of the lights that offers quite a bit of danger.  This probably offers the first of two really really not tricky but tricky jumps with the top, right-most note, which requires you to dash and jump pretty near the edge to actually get it.  Again, no real issues and you probably won't even get hit by the electricity jumping for it, but it at least poses the possibility for danger.  For flavor, I have the two coffee-sipping dudes who are obviously people who work in the Factory without hard hats or appropriate attire or anything because nobody -cares- about OSHA, alright?  Anyways, to the right is the next screen, again.  This is a theme, you see.

Once again, we carry over the run-down look with more shelves and product in disarray (I'm not sure what the boxes are actually supposed to be, but short of including sprites for cardboard boxes, I couldn't ask for better) and bring in one of the more notable pieces from "Cities" as well as a dude with a laser because who cares.  I just liked the sounds they offered and there has to be a little bit of separation in justified aesthetic and musical focus.  They offer what I want with the latter, so that's all that matters.  I didn't see fit to add any notes here as the ambient sound of the laser and the Beck vocals did most of what I could hope to add in for this phase of the level.  They're only here for this screen of course (well, in a way), but it makes a difference, I think.

And here is the exit to the factory itself.  I found that I had used the shelves for all my obstacles starting with the second screen and I wanted to bring back the aesthetic of the first screen, if only so that it didn't seem completely out of place.  I'm not really sure what those boxes are supposed to be, to be honest, but they are mechanical whatsits or what have you, and this is a factory, so just go with it.  As you might have noticed on the first screen, or at least do now, I used an outline of sticky material over non-sticky material so that it wasn't that abysmal grey with the red, but also served as something you can traverse.  Also added to keep with the mechanical theme are the two arms that, presumably pick up and sort the various product that seems to be, thanks to the background designs I was able to slap down, all mish-mashed and just fitting the theme of the whole factory itself.  You use these to get up the pipe on the far right, above the second and last piece of music terrain from Cities and above the janitor who has quite a job to do.  The 'flow' machine allows you to get right up to the left-most arm or you can skip it and just roll up the box.  Obviously, you just get to the pipe to get outside.

If there's anything I want to impress upon you from my experience with the editor and with making a level, it's that, if you care about the aesthetic at all, you have to consider the scale of it when you're doing it up.  As you can see, I've got the outside of the factory here and have it basically sheer, with the trashed product and shelves serving as a junkheap to stand upon.  Basically, I picture the Factory itself on the edge of a cliff so that they can dump all the excess right off into the screen below which I will get to in a moment.  And, as you can see in the background, the trash has piled up regardless of what's below, which I think is the primary reason for -why- you wanted to get out of it.  It's all a bit esoteric, I realize, and I'm not trying to sound a snob or anything, but with these types of games where you're only really allowed the minimum of expression, things are left open to interpretation, so I'm giving mine.  Being that I made the level, I think it matters a bit.

This is where the trash sort of ends up when properly dumped - a place to be slagged.  This is where the above clouds come from (which you can traverse) and, despite there being two clouds here, you aren't really going to get anywhere from here.  In fact, if you're on the cliff where my Blobby Guy is, you might just have to throw yourself to the molten metal below to get back up where you're supposed to go.  The proper developers did this type of thing too, so I don't want to hear complaining now.  Still, as I said, this is not where you want to go and instead want to jump off the cloud from the screen before this to the one on the right.

With any luck, jumping off the cloud will land you on the left-most cloud here.  They conspicuously make a path that leads up and to the right and you just jumped a screen to get here, so, that's pretty much the case here as well.  You might notice that in the background, the rubbish has subsided a little, and that's because it's the edge of the hill of crap, so it's tapering down from there.  Replacing it as the pretty background is the clouds and wisps with some sparkly stars at the top because it's nice.  Really sort of sells the whole "You're free of the factory" aspect, which is what I was going for.  Of course, it's pretty easy to land on that cloud that you're supposed to land on, so before checking out the screen to the right, let's take a look below.  Obviously if there's clouds here, there must be more slag, right?

Right.  Once more, there are clouds here and once more you're kind of delaying the inevitable by relaxing on them as I'm doing here.  The slag goes off somewhere underground which may or may not be a -thing-, but much like the other portion of it, you have it bubbling a bit and steaming, but not a whole lot else.  The hill of rubbish does still taper off here, which isn't entirely noticeable, but is enough, I think.  So, dead end, let's go back up and to the right for the penultimate screen of the level.

Proper jumping will land you here on this patch of rather dry looking grass (thanks to the colors, but I liked the sky, so I went with it) along with the only real signs of nature you've seen in the level in the form of some ambient sound creating flowers.  There are no notes, and you might have noticed that I never really repeated any of my notes, so it's about this point that I started letting most of it taper off.  It's a different sound throughout the level that way, but I think it makes for a progressive song as well, if you can call it that.  I'm no musician, however, so it might just be noise.  Regardless, it seems fitting for the nature screens to let that sort of thing sort of drift down.

And here's where it ends.  Much like the screen before, it's just a tranquil looking bit where even more of the notes have faded away, leaving you with just a few stray things that, I think, sound pretty fine.  It's a pretty simple concept, I admit, you escape a Factory and end up in Nature which is....kind of obvious, or at least thematic enough that it seems the obvious place.  It's not ground-breaking or anything, nor am I willing to say that it's awesome, but I'm proud of it regardless.  I think it sounds pretty good and looks pretty good, so that's all that matters for me.  For going on with little more than a crash-course and messing about with the creator, I think I did pretty good to establish something clean-looking at the very least.

Thanks for checking this post out if you read to this point and really took a look at the pictures and such.  With any luck, it plays decently to people who aren't me and hopefully, showing off this here might have interested you in checking it out.  By all means, if you did, let me know!  I need feedback so I can get better as a maker in preparation for LBP Vita.  Again, sorry if all the pictures were a problem, but, well, I wanted to show them off.  And at least they were a little better realized than my first attempt with it that you can see here.  I messed with that damn screen for about a third of the time as I did the whole level, I swear.  But that's the one that gives you the first impression, so that was the point of it.