Media Molecule Interview

Published 2011-07-04

Gamereactor's David Caballero attended Barcelona's Gamelab Conference last week, and one of the speakers he interviewed was Siobhan Reddy, Media Molecule's director.

Little Big Planet is coming to PlayStation Vita, with the intention of using the hardware's new features. If you were the team behind the project, how would you take advantage of those features?

Well, I'm not really thinking about Vita, as we're not the development team on it. I don't feel like I know enough to really give you tidbits about that. What I know is we would take advantage of them. I think the Vita is a really exciting piece of hardware and everything that we've seen that people is doing with it is very interesting. I totally think that Little Big Planet on the Vita it's a perfect project. I'd love to see what the community will do.

Creations: you already have more than 4 millions user-created LBP levels. User-created content is something that is getting big nowadays and used in games like Infamous 2... Could people end up thinking "I'm not playing, I'm kind of pushed to create"?

We have tried to keep it very much "you don't have to be a creator". Number one you have many levels, you don't actually have to create, you can choose to be a player, or you can even be like the reviewer, you can be the person who leaves reviews on the levels. But I think that the interesting reality is that a lot of people want to create.

What about more Little Big Planet and the PlayStation Move?

The thing is the Move Pack that is coming out this year. The Move Pack comes with a whole load of new gadgets, power ups, etc. It comes with a story mode, whole new minigames, new levels, it also allows you backwards compatibility to be able to play LBP 2 with the Move. It really integrates essential pack. We're desperate for it to come out and people get their hands on it.

Do you think you can take even more advantage of the PlayStation Move features as a creating tool?

To begin with, we're making it more about the gameplay...I'm convinced that within the community that will be something that we've never seen as a result.

Is Media Molecule tied to Sackboy?

We love Sackboy. We're moving to some new things for a little while, but it doesn't mean we will never come back. We can't announce anything yet. We never say never, we love Sackboy.

I remeber a big Sackboy statue on a fountain, in a square in Leipzig, during one old Games Convention. I'll never forget that. What do you thing of the artistic strengths of the character and its design? How much does it add to the success of the brand?

A game can only be a success because all the elements and the people behind it. We have such a brilliant team, they just made it. I think that absolutely, the art and the visuals of Sackboy and Sackgirl were a big part for people really wanting it immediately. Something about this universe is that it actually reminds you of being a child. I think that's the feeling we all enjoy.

Did you take inspiration in Mario games?

We did take inspiration from every aspect of life. We all have experiences, but maybe the crazy television in the 70s, Michelangelo, everything we had interest in.

Being it an awesome creative tool, do you think there's room to make it a better platforming game?

A lot of our efforts are really about making it "everything that you see is something that you can create". We were happy with LBP, but in LBP2 we put a lot more power-ups, the creatinator all those new gadgets, so yeah, with every game that we make we just want to be inventive, improve it. And when you have something that is a success you have to take it and improve it but without breaking it. Change it but keep it familiar. And that's pretty challenging. And particularly if you add backwards compatibility the changes to the levels have to work, so you have to keep the balance.