user-created-content
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LittleBigPlanet reaches two million user created levels
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/LittleBigPlanet_Reaches_2_Million_User_Created_Levels'; You may not be checking LittleBigPlanet for new levels as obsessively as you once were, but that doesn't mean that junior designers aren't still out there trying to perfect Super Mario Bros. 1-1 or trying to recreate the myth of Sisyphus. The game's community has just reached another big milestone: Two million available levels. It took them nine months to get the first million in late July of 2009, meaning that development isn't slowing down. In fact, it would appear to be speeding up. It's inspired us to dust off our LittleBigPlanet disc and ... oh, wait.
Rumor: Gran Turismo 5 to feature track editor
The site E4G reports that Gran Turismo 5 will include a very exciting option: The ability to create your own tracks or edit the existing tracks. Eurogamer checked in with Sony to confirm this new feature, and, while Sony refused to confirm the news, the company also refused to deny it, in a carefully worded statement that makes the news suddenly seem more plausible: "We haven't confirmed this and aren't offering any other comment at this time," Sony told Eurogamer. We contacted SCEA but have yet to hear back, so this rumor is going to have to remain a rumor. Hopefully we'll find out before the game comes out, although Sony also has yet to announce the release date beyond a possible "early 2010." Okay, we'll simplify the whole thing: Gran Turismo 5 is an unconfirmed rumor. %Gallery-71410% [Original image credit]
Spore Galactic Adventures now has over 100k user-created levels
(click to Galaxy-size) After Spore Galactic Adventures launched in late June, we expected a similar torrent of user-created content that arrived with the original game's release. Though not quite the same in terms of exponential upward curves, the expansion has just surpassed the 100,000 mark of user-created adventures. For those of you who haven't been spending countless hours with the Robot Chicken-created DLC, there's clearly plenty of other stuff to keep you occupied. EA Maxis suggests you check out "The Silent Beacon," "Valley of a Thousand Deaths" and "The Fog," but we know better. How about the only good version of Sonic in twenty years? Sold! %Gallery-42902%
LittleBigPlanet hits one million user-created levels
Awww, little Sackboy, you've come so far! Running, jumping and, um, grabbing your way through over one million user-created LittleBigPlanet levels in under a year -- why that's like, 20 million miles! In fact, according to the PlayStation Blog's calculations, that's about one new level being published every 21 seconds since the game released.In celebration of the game's benchmark achievement, the game's developer, Media Molecule, has created the video you see above -- basically, a montage of various user-created levels, though we're more inclined to point you to LittleBigContra if you're really looking to be impressed. Furthermore, the post teases an August 18 reveal of "something interesting" from Media Molecule. Could it be more downloadable levels for the game? A new game entirely? A brand new car? We'll just have to wait until the 18th of August to see.
Funcom and Stray Bullet license Allegorithmic's Substance Air platform for their MMOs
Two developers have simultaneously turned to a brand new texturing solution for their future MMOs, according to Gamasutra. Both Funcom and Stray Bullet have licensed Allegorithmic's "Substance Air" middleware package, a new set of programs that lets developers keep high resolution textures as extremely small files and even let users modify textures for in-game customization options.Funcom is almost a given for which game this would apply to, as The Secret World is the only game currently on their radar. Stray Bullet, best known as the creators of Shadowbane, is a bit trickier when it comes to saying how it will impact on their new MMO offering.Simply known as the "future fantasy MMO," Stray Bullet has also licensed Simutronics's HeroEngine, the same engine that's currently powering Star Wars: The Old Republic. What they're up to is anyone's guess, but the presence of the extremely versatile HeroEngine and the addition of Substance Air could be pointing to a nice level of user-customization and/or "on-the-fly" developing coming with their latest unannounced fantasy offering.
Scribblenauts gets more awesome with level creation, sharing
We already know that developer 5th Cell's ambitious DS project Scribblenauts will keep us distracted with its purported ability to let us conjure up anything simply by writing its name on the screen. What we didn't know is that the game will also let us confound others by letting us edit and share levels. Seriously, is there anything this cute little game can't do? In Scribblenauts, players will be able to create and share custom obstacle course-style levels with other players, as well as dictate how objects in these levels behave. We might create a whale who loves honey, or a rainbow that attracts flies. Or, as Kotaku's Totilo puts it, things could get weird when Scribblenauts pencils in all of our free time this fall. [Via GoNintendo]
DS Daily: Made of win
The announcement of some actual DSiWare games was pretty welcome, sure, but the real winner out of Iwata's financial briefing is Made in Ore, which is sort of a programming suite for WarioWare games. We can't wait to start designing our own bite-sized games and playing them on the DS and Wii. Do you think the microgame style of WarioWare is too limiting for player-created games? Will it be frustrating to be restricted to the typical WarioWare format? Or do you think the limitation is going to help spur creativity?
MetaPlace closes in on first beta stage
Ever want to tighten up the graphics in your own game or interactive environments without going to a video game design college? Okay bad joke, but that only a small part of the plan with Areae's MetaPlace. The project envisioned by Raph Koster will give users a dynamic platform and the accessibility to create embeddable shared virtual spaces, interactive games, and or a mish-mashing combination. News has been light but there are some new updates on the latest MetaPlace blog. Tami "Cuppycake" Baribeau shares some development accomplishments that took place over the past year and states MetaPlace is nearing the first closed beta stage! What's genius is the planned badge and achievement system intended to encourage user participation. The more users share creations, explore, customize, invite, and participate in numerous other activities they'll unlock badges. No, they won't be stored away in a virtual closed account space all sad and lonely. Instead your friends can check them out and probably earn a badge in the process. Who knows what will end up unlocking a badge, but we love collecting things. All thanks to optional and fun achievement systems.
Lego Universe revamps website and opens the creation lab
One Lego brick after another, you build for months on end in the Lego Universe. You want your creation there with you, physically for your fingers to grapple with. You purchase your creation and an exact replica of every virtual Lego brick you used to mold your online creation is sitting on your desk the following week. That's one of the interesting and genius ideas being planned for Lego Universe, and the website for the game was recently revamped and offers new interactive features for Lego fans of all ages. The one part of the site that stands out is the creation lab. Users can submit their own Lego designs, stories, and even art to help inspire the development team. The Lego Universe is all about user created content, players sharing their own stories through the Lego medium, and the site is already harnessing a strong community. There's also a new Lego Universe logo, and this post that talks about the process the team undertook including tapping into the user submissions and using them as a synergy to get to the final version. The Lego Universe beta is rumored to start in August and those who sign up for the Lego Universe newsletter will be notified when signups go live before the news is announced on the site. Devs, please don't nerf the red bricks in the first patch!
Why user-generated content matters in MMOs
The Social Gaming Summit, held in San Francisco last Friday, has been explored here on the site by our own Akela Talamasca. Today the Worlds in Motion blog has a great writeup of a panel on user-generated content, with an emphasis on how that concept applies to online gaming. Industry luminaries including Three Rings' Daniel James touched base with attendees on what makes user content so compelling, why users create, and what game makers can do to incorporate player creations.Most interesting was their observation that virtual spaces were more important than virtual worlds per se. Jeremy Monroe, Director of Business Development for the makers of Habbo Hotel, offered this: "You have to make sure that you're bringing content that is suitable to all players in the world. So when we bring a piece of content that skews to one demographic we have to make sure that we bring more content that skews to the other demographics. Some games try to create different servers, such as a PvP vs. PvP situation. You have to give everybody equal opportunity and an equal number of tools to express themselves."
User-created content is the heart of Band Brothers DX
Gamers in Japan will likely be delighted to hear this bit of news. Band Brothers DX will allow players to share content they created in the game, namely compositions. By uploading them online, other games may then access and download the tracks. Pretty neat, eh? We think so.Of course, this only works for folks in Japan, meaning that we're incredibly jealous. We hope, nay, need this game to be localized. So, Nintendo, get on it!
Twenty-five moo-cows down a level 70 mage in user-created raid
In an amusing spin on user created content, the Horde guild Eagles Pride on Malygos decided to make their own raid boss encounter. Sound impossible? Not if you take the time to figure out how to balance things out, as this lot of moo-cows did. Twenty-five level 1 Tauren went head to head against a level 70 frost mage. Using macros and set out scripts, the fight had four phases to it, and took about 10 minutes to complete. They describe the encounter as reminiscent of Shades of Aran. The concept is fairly amusing in and of itself, and shows a good deal of creativity. The only problems with the operation of the fight was that they couldn't find a good way to manage aggro, and spell resistance makes casting in this kind of fight next to impossible.Another video of the encounter (with slightly more annoying music) can be found after the jump, and shows it from the perspective of a raider, as well as some of their first few wipes. Color us amused.
Flying Lab unfurls second round of flag-making contest
In the seventeenth century, it was a fairly well known fact that pirates just weren't very creative folk. Swashbucklers? Sure. Dastardly dogs? Absolutely. Drunken, whoring scallywags? Even on their worst days. But they couldn't put a brush to a canvas if their very lives depended on it. Consequently, Flying Lab Studios has put out a bounty on creative pirate-lovers, offering fame and fortune in exchange for flag-designs to adorn the NPC pirate ships in Pirates of the Burning Sea.In a related forum thread, they've given the backgrounds on a number of gangs to offer inspiration to erstwhile flag-makers, as well as offering tips and submission guidelines for those new to the art. We weren't able to track down what specific kind of loot they're giving winners, but the prospect of having user content included in a retail game is almost exciting enough on its own.
Blizzard: no player-created quests for you!
I noticed this post with a good discussion thread about the idea of player-created quests, and it reminded me to mention a blurb I read recently in issue #2 of MASSIVE Magazine (which, if you haven't picked up yet, I highly recommend if you have a general interest in MMOs). In an article on DIY MMOs, there's a sidebar with quotes from Frank Pierce, Blizzard's SVP of product development, in which he states point blank that the company isn't looking into the idea of player-created content for World of Warcraft. "The game is built pretty tightly around the look and feel of the WarCraft universe as well as its lore... and it's important to us and to our players to maintain the integrity of those elements." He does go on to mention that, in general, player-created content could be very successful if the game were "designed from the ground up" to incorporate it. So, while Blizzard may someday put out a game involving user-generated quests, World of Warcraft likely won't be it. What's your take -- do you have dreams of writing your own quest lines? Do you think WoW could benefit from player-created content? Or do you prefer the Warcraft lore to be managed exclusively by Blizzard?
PS3 will see 'user-created experiences' next year, says Harrison
User-created content, which has long been a fixture in the world of PC gaming, has never managed to gain any real traction on consoles, be that due to technological constraints or a lack of online connectivity. With both of those issues out of the way in modern systems, the time is ripe for users to interact and share their creations and experiences. Sony's Phil Harrison gets behind the idea in a revealing interview with MTV's Stephen Totilo, opining* that gaming needs to move away from presenting "closed experiences." If games are to break free (God knows they want to break free), there needs to be a constant flow of communication between Sony and gamers -- more importantly, Harrison insists that said communication flows in both directions (give us money, here's your money). "Next year you're going to see user-created experiences in a number of interesting ways on PlayStation 3," goes the official and spectacularly vague PR line. A Second Life-styled virtual network has oft been rumored, but Harrison fell victim to "line distortion" before Totilo could get any concrete information about it.So, what entails a "user-created experience?" In the worst case, it's a custom wallpaper and a shared photo between friends. In the best case? Oh, it could be anything, from personalized in-game T-shirts to deadly dungeons designed to foil your friends. Be sure to ask us about it next year. * Basis for an awful pun later in the sentence.Read (and be assaulted by Flash) -- Full interview on MTV News
