New Tools, Features, Tweaks and Even More Goodies!
Over the last few days you've been keeping close to the forums to hear from our talented GameJam attendees as they got a chance to play the game first-hand and have had the chance to post about their experiences with the amazing new tools and features coming with LittleBigPlanet Vita.
Now that the weekend is over and that I'm back at home after having a lovely trip to Sweden, I thought that I would take the time to provide everyone with details of the more important features and aspects of LittleBigPlanet Vita and will open up the forum for any questions that you may still have about the game.
LittleBigPlanet 2 and Beyond!
As you may already be aware by now, LittleBigPlanet Vita isn't just a stripped down version of LittleBigPlanet 2 that's been shifted over to the PlayStation Vita just for the sake of it.
LittleBigPlanet Vita itself is a definite evolution from LittleBigPlanet and you will discover that practically anything you can do in LittleBigPlanet 2 is possible in LittleBigPlanet Vita.
Infact the only things truly absent from the game are a few additions from the recent LittleBigPlanet 2 DLC packs.
Although in the place of the PlayStation Move controls, you will find that the PlayStation Vita Touch Controls are more than enough to keep you satisfied when creating unique and fun gameplay that simply isn't possible on a home console.
Similarly a few other small items have been removed, simply because they have become redundant as the series has progressed, Dark Matter being the most obvious example thanks to the inclusion of Anti-Gravity Tweaker in LittleBigPlanet 2 and the Static Properties previously seen in LittleBigPlanet PSP!
Your New Popit Goodies!
Now that you've skimmed straight past my introduction to this thread and jumped to the most fun looking heading on the page, its time to tell you all about the wonderful new goodies that you've all been looking forward to hearing all about!
New Touch Controls!
The Controlinator is once again your starting point for any control customisation that you may wish to add to your game, which has been lovingly adapted from the DualShock layout that you're used to, to fully utilise the PlayStation Vita and the unique control aspects now available to any PlayStation Vita owner.
The new Touch Sensor and Touch Tweaker tools will enable a creator to specifically allow objects to react to the Touchscreen and Rear Touch Pad controls of the PlayStation Vita.
With the Motion Recorder, you can record your object's movements in the same way that you could with the Move Recorder in the Move Pack, except that this time you will be using the PlayStation Vita's touch controls to move and record your object.
Meanwhile the Touch Cursor tool will allow you to set your own custom cursors to use whilst a player is playing your brand new handheld creation.
Layers can now be adjusted using the Touchscreen controls and you can easily select exactly how many thick and thin layers you want your object to have, whilst the handy new layer user interface will show you which layers are currently being occupied by your object.
New Tools!
Our first new tool detail in the Popit is the Unphysicalise tool.
This tool will allow you to set an object to have no physical properties meaning that Sackboy or any other objects can pass straight through the object.
This allows you to create brand new hazards, one primary example on show at the GameJam is that it can be applied to particularly nasty looking opaque materials which can be placed at the bottom of a pit with some gas behind it to cause Sackboy to perish.
Imagine poor Sackboy falling down a pit into some rather toxic-looking jelly and disappearing into the jelly, before respawning at the previous Checkpoint at the cost of one of his lives.
It's also perfect for creating those secret passages that retro platforming fans will be all too familiar with, as they used to pass through a wall to find some nice goodies and treats for their efforts!
The other new tool to keep an eye out for is the Sticker Scrubber.
Now at the press of a button, you can use the Sticker Scrubber to remove all Stickers and Decorations from an object, without the need to remove them all individually!
So now Sackboy can clean his objects, just as quickly as he can clean himself!
Finally the UV Tool will allow a creator to zoom and rotate the pattern of any material to suit their creations as they see fit!
New Materials!
The game will come with a whole host of new Materials, Stickers, Decorations and other assets that will help any creator with their level designs, however there's two Materials that I feel deserve special mention.
Have you ever wanted a simple way to be able to add weather effects to your level with no fuss at all?
Well, the new Rain Material will allow you to do just that!
This new material is transparent and has a dynamic animation of constantly falling rain, which can be adjusted with the UV Tool to set your rain drops size and decoration however you see fit.
You will also be able to adjust the rain animation speed, much like you can with other dynamic animation materials and your rain drops will certainly react to the general colouring of your level to ensure consistancy throughout your level designs.
Next up! We have the Invisible Material!
This material does pretty much what it says on the tin, it's invisible that's for certain but it also prevents Sackboy from passing through it, which is perfect for anyone who wishes to set invisible boundaries on their level or wishes to prevent Sackboy from changing layers.
Oh and of course, it's quite visible in Create Mode.
So you won't have to remember where you left the darn thing when you're busy creating!
New Logic!
The Memoriser! So awesome that I felt that it deserves its own exclamation mark!
With the Memoriser, a creator will be able to allow a player to save their progress in their level, so that they can come back to where they left off!
Possibilities include allowing a player to keep their collected inventory in the level or perhaps a currency of the creator's own design or maybe they just want to pop out of a certain Checkpoint that the player has previously passed! All of this and so much more is now possible with the Memoriser!
The Note object has also been expanded more than you can possibly imagine!
You remember the Note object, right?
That small bit of scrap paper that you could stick into your level with a few hastily written words on it...
It's about to become so much more popular now though!
With the Note object a creator now has a Fully Established Text Tool that can be used to finally put proper text into their levels without the need to use speech bubbles or stickers!
Using a range of fonts, colours and backgrounds, this text tool will enable a creator to write anything they want in a range of styles to suit their level!
It's also logic enabled, to really allow a creator to use the Note's functionality to its fullest!
New Tweaks!
There's a bunch of brand new Tweaks available in the game and here's a summary of the most jaw-droppingly amazing changes to the game!
LittleBigPlanet Vita isn't the first portable LittleBigPlanet game.
Before it, we had LittleBigPlanet PSP and in that game there was the option to set Materials to be either Static or Dynamic, which meant that respectively your selected Material would either stay exactly where it is, as though it had Dark Matter attached to it or it could obey the physics laws within LittleBigPlanet and can move freely in the game if given the appropriate amount of force. An invaluable tool to all creators that any player of LittleBigPlanet PSP will be glad to see making a return!
Another returning feature from LittleBigPlanet PSP is Multiple Corner Selecting!
Now a creator can select multiple corners at a time and adjust them together, rather than having to select them all individually!
Moving onto Emitters!
We now have a brand new Clean Up When Destroyed tweak!
When this is enabled, if an Emitter is destroyed, it will also remove everything that the emitter emitted during gameplay! Which can be handy for the swift removal of anything that a creator doesn't wish to exist in their game upon the emitter being destroyed!
This will also work on any emitters that emit a new emitter which emits further objects!
A simple tweak is now all it takes to clean up everything object that is emitted by an emitter, provided that Sackboy can find a way to destroy it, of course!
Colours and Shading! With LittleBigPlanet Vita, a great selection of the game's Materials and Decorations can be tweaked to change their colour and shading using LittleBigPlanet's recognisable colour palette that should be familiar to all creators.
Bounce Pads can now be tweaked to remove the bounce sound from them when activated.
They also have an output now to allow you to do new things such as adding a custom sound to the bounce or activating something else altogether. Bouncepads now accept analogue signals with 100% providing the maximum bounce height, whilst 0% will turn off the Bouncepad completely.
You can also Jump Between Tweak Pages on objects by simply touching a new object, whilst the tweak menu of another object is currently open!
New Gameplay Kit Item!
In the Gameplay Kits category of your Popit, there is a new Decoration Spinner item!
It's simple enough, just stick your decoration on the spinner and watch it spin!
Perfect for rotors, cogs or any other decoration that you feel needs to spin again and again!
Download Community Levels!
Just as you could do in LittleBigPlanet PSP...
You can Download All Those Wonderful Community Levels that you love so much and will be able to play them whilst you and your PlayStation Vita are on the go without needing to connect to the LittleBigPlanet server!
Level Achievements!
There will be a brand new selection of Pins and Trophies to earn but each level now has specific Level Achievements to earn too!
During the main Story Mode, somes levels have a specific set of three Level Achievements to earn during the level.
This can range anywhere between completing the level in a certain time, to collecting a full set of hidden items during a playthrough or even finishing the level above a certain score.
Best of all though! This feature is available on Community Levels too!
Creators will be able to set up to three Level Achievements on their own levels for players to complete!
So if you're a fan of side-quests or giving players additional tasks to complete, then you will love coming up with a selection of unique Level Achievements for players to complete in your level!
Popit Changes
Just a quick note on a couple of noticeable Popit changes for everybody!
You may open your Popit to discover that there's two brand new icons on the very first page of your Popit...
These are the Global Settings and Player Settings categories from within your Popit, which have now been moved to the front and given their own sections for ease-of-access.
Back Home Again!
That pretty much wraps up everything that I wanted to get across to the community!
There's still plenty more to discover in LittleBigPlanet Vita though and we've got a whole bunch of awesome creators who attended the LittleBigPlanet Vita GameJam, who will be able to tell you their experiences with the game and can answer any questions that you may have about the game!
You're free to ask almost anything you want!
The only things that myself and the other GameJam attendees cannot answer are questions relating to Story Mode, Music and the Vita Hardware itself beyond the Touch Controls utilised by LittleBigPlanet Vita during gameplay!
Otherwise though, I'm sure you'll agree that LittleBigPlanet Vita is a massive evolution for LittleBigPlanet is most certainly not just a simple port of LittleBigPlanet 2 onto the PlayStation Vita!
We've had 15 awesome creators check out the game now and show us just what can be done with the game and I certainly cannot wait to see the rest of the community get their hands onto LittleBigPlanet Vita to begin creating and sharing a whole range of new and exciting games that simply cannot be achieved on LittleBigPlanet 2!
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