A little while back Deviant Art ran a swishy contest to create some stupendous LittleBigPlanet art pieces, and we totally missed the end of it… Browse through the entries and you’ll discover a real treasure trove of amazing LBP imagery, and the winners are just super duper! Great work deviant arters, lots of <3 from everyone at Mm.

This post is somewhat overdue, but it’s time to talk about the tragic events that have been unfolding in Japan recently. There’s perhaps no need to go into too much detail, we all know about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that has caused immense devastation, and loss of life there, we all know they face a very tough time ahead, and can do with all the help they can get.

The games industry obviously has special ties with Japan. These people are our colleagues, friends, family, team mates, opponents, compadres, buddies… you’ve played their LittleBigPlanet levels, and they’ve played yours. That’s why people from within the games industry have come together to build the Play For Japan campaign.

Play For Japan aims to channel the passion and generosity of gamers into a relief effort, through events, donations, and auctions of rare and interesting gaming memorabilia. That’s where we will be joining in, with five auctions we hope will raise some much needed cash for those in need. All the money raised will be donated to the Red Cross Appeal.

Own a piece of LittleBigPlanet history!

Four of our five auctions are for framed original concept sketches, each with a signed copy of LittleBigPlanet 2…

We have framed four pieces of artwork by Francis, the chief creator of Sackboy. They show some ideas for the development of our beloved hessian chum, and if we may be so bold, each one is a piece of gaming history. In the words of Indiana Jones, they belong in a museum! There are four of these pieces of artwork, each one is different, and as they are the originals, they unique.

Each framed sketch comes with a very special copy of LittleBigPlanet comes with a special uber rare ‘Mm Special edition’ box art slip that has been signed by the whole team here at Media Molecule. (One of them has even been signed twice by me, double value, not at all a mistake!) There are only a very, very small number of these custom covers in existence, they were originally intended to be owned only by Media Molecule staff.

Go bid on these auctions!

1. Blue Framed Sackboy Artwork and signed copy of LittleBigPlanet 2
2. Red Framed Sackboy Artwork and signed copy of LittleBigPlanet 2
3. Yellow Framed Sackboy Artwork copy of LittleBigPlanet 2
4. Green Framed Sackboy Artwork copy of LittleBigPlanet 2

Buy your way into royalty.

This is an auction for an in-game crown item for your Sackboy. These are very rare, and usually reserved for competition winners and people who go above and beyond the call of duty.

This is your chance to buy yourself into royalty. Some may see this as cheating, but by winning this item you will be aiding people in need, and we think that is worthy of recognition, naysayers be damned, this is for charity!  Bid on the auction for a Crown.

Update!

Ebay took our Crown auction down, so we have re-listed it as something slightly different - it’s an even sweeter deal now, a Regal edition of LittleBigPlanet 2, and a crown too - check it out!

Bid generously!

All these auctions are available now via ebay, 100% of the profits going to charity. Go forth and bid generously, and remember to check out the big list of other items being auctioned by Play For Japan - there are some great chances to own some rare items! Thanks people!

Hello!

It’s Siobhan here - I am doing a talk up in Scotland next Saturday and I am looking to speak to some people who are using or have used LittleBigPlanet in an educational context.
Aside from doing this talk we have always been very excited by this idea and so I’d love to make contact with anyone doing this :)

Please email hello@mediamolecule.com addressing to Siobhan.

Thank you :) xx

It’s that time again! When you boot up your copy of LittleBigPlanet 2 today, you’ll notice a game update available, 1.02. Following the new tradition, it’s got the name of a cake and this time it’s called: Apple Cake. Purely because Charlotte in our Testology team made some very delicious Apple Cake for everyone yesterday morning. Nom!

It’s not a huge update, but it does contain some fixes for some issues that some players have been experiencing. Here are the release notes!

• Fixed an issue where a player that imports a profile from a different user and declines the EULA can still play online. It should no longer be possible for a player that imports another users profile and declines the EULA to play online, selecting an online option should prompt them to re-read and accept/decline the EULA.
• Fixed an issue whereby a client leaving an online create session would hang when they opted to use the “Import Profile” option after being returned to their pod.
• Fixed an issue where some Japanese store text descriptions contained visible HTML tags.
• Fixed an issue where players that had imported beta profiles and were using DLC assets they didn’t own could still use them. In 1.01 we fixed a problem to do with importing assets from the beta trial build which allowed users access to some rare DLC items. Part of the fix was to check for stripped assets and not allow a user to select them in pop-it. The item however would still be visible in pop-it and have an exclamation mark over its icon. Players could highlight one of these items and very quickly press the O and X buttons with it highlighted which would allow the user to still wear it.

The Community made Level Pack Hansel and Gretelbot is out now!  For those who didn’t see it last week, Hansel & Gretelbot is a completely community made pack of 7 playable levels, furnished with a full story, cut scenes, voice acting, original score, and lots of prizes to collect too! It’s a might achievement, and hopefully one that will inspire others to do the same.

It’s completely free and no need to download, just head over to this LBP.me page and queue up the first level!

http://lbp.me/u/Hansel_Gretelbot

The H&G team put together this set of awesome wallpapers to download for your PS3, plus you can read an interview with some of the creators over on LittleBigLand, where you can also download a fourth wallpaper!

On behalf of the guys, we hope you enjoy Hansel and Gretelbot, and please join us in congratulating them on their creation. May there be many more to come!

When you turn on your PS3 and fire up LittleBigPlanet today, you should be greeted by a game update, which we’ve nicknamed Cupcake, the cutest of all cakes, and one we’d like to give you on Valentine’s Day the day after Valentine’s day. We’ve been busy fixing some of the pesky problems that have been making some sackfolk’s games play up. 

Check the list below for the full update list

• Your Craft Earth should no longer obscure the pod when changing your PSN Avatar.
• If your POD was missing, blocked, broken or contained any create objects it shouldn’t have, it will now be reset to normal.
• A more accessible “Reset Pod” option is now available should your POD become broken for some reason! To access it:
• Pause the game / Press START
• Go to the Settings Menu
• Select Profile
• Select “Reset Pod Decoration”
 
• The “Naux” glitch / corrupt Sackboy problem should now be fixed - your Sackboy will no longer be squishy and unable to swim!
• DLC costumes and PODS that have been captured from community levels will no longer be selectable in pop-it. Anyone wearing a “glitched” DLC costume after patching will have it removed.
• Several improvements to overall game stability have been made.
• We’ve vanquished some evil code gremlins that were causing crashes and that has improved overall stability.
• Info bubbles that have long text descriptions (e.g. The sequencer) can now be scrolled in a fixed width text box.
• There is now a visual indicator showing how high a bounce pad will bounce you when tweaking it in Create mode.
• Stickers and decorations that are placed on Sackboy only will not appear in the used objects page.
• Level keys can now be deleted from Pop-it!
• You can’t watch the credits while already watching them after completing the game.
• It should now be possible to re-enter your shopping cart if you accidentally signed out when it had some items in it.
• Players will now be prompted to save the changes made to their level in Create when switching to Play Mode after having changed the Audio Reverb.
• Emitting and destroying spawn points in quick succession should no longer make the game crawl into the corner and weep.
• LBP1 sound objects should now be correctly imported when using the option to do so when booting the game.
• It is no longer possible to access level links to LBP1 Story levels that you have hearted.
• The Clank Costume has green eyes again!

If you have any feedback about this game update and the things we’ve changed, or just feedback in general, you can let us know via Get Satisfaction. Read this post for more info!

We are very proud to present to you the preview trailer for Hansel & Gretelbot, a very special community project based loosely on an old fairy tale, and that’s nearly ready for you to play!

Hansel & Gretelbot is the creation of 12 community members, names you may well recognise: Wexfordian, Comphermc, Morgana25, rtm223, Hilightnotes, xkappax, Catiers, GruntosUK, CENTURION24, Jaeyden, Cuzfeeshe and steve_big_guns.

A few months ago the Community Molecule set them a challenge - could they create a full game experience? Their own complete LBP Theme, using the new LBP2 tools to develop all original story, mini-games, bosses, cutscenes, music, and voices.

The team was gathered, designs were drawn up, themes were picked and building began, now several months later they are very nearly ready to launch their project for you to play!

Once upon a time, in a little cottage on the edge of the Dark Western woods, lived a humble Woodsman, his wife, their son Hansel and robotic daughter Gretelbot. One sad day, the Woodsman’s wife was taken ill, and passed away not too long afterwards. Time passed, but eventually the Woodsman became stricken by loneliness, and he remarried.

The Woodsman’s new wife was a wicked woman, who hated her new step children. They were the reason, so she said, that they had to live in such poverty. They would eat them out of house and home, the Woodsman must get rid of them!  His will weakened by his heartbreak, the Woodsman relented, and led Hansel and Gretelbot into the Dark Western Woods, leaving them to fend for themselves, with no idea how to get home…

Hansel & Gretelbot should be out later this month, keep your eyes peeled for more info!

These amazing LittleBigPlanet shoes are the work of the hardworking and rather fabulous Nick Tonks, the artist behind KyozoKicks, a website dedicated to video game themed shoes. This pair of ordinary boring Vans shoes have been covered in brightly coloured stickers from the various LittleBigPlanet games, all painted on by hand.

The design that would eventually come to make up this pair was taken directly from an experience I had, and continue to have, with the game. Give the sticker tool to someone who doesn’t play games often and they will begin, slowly, randomly and then frantically, placing stickers about the screen. Soon what they are doing becomes lost in a blur, Their eyes widen, they can’t help emit a small, yet audible, manic laugh, like you they too are now hooked. what you are left with once they finally step back from the controller is something not too dissimilar to these shoes I hope. No rhyme or reason to the stickers placement.

They could be yours!

These wonderful shoes can be yours! Nick is auctioning the shoes off, with 100% of the money going to gamer’s charity Child’s Play - a charity that buys toys and games for hospitals. 

Just think how good these shoes would look upon your shelf, in that special place you have saved for this exact sort of thing. Your shelf that longs for exciting collectable items like this to grace its blank surface. Just think, these are the only shoes like this in the world, and you are the biggest LBP fan, how can you not bid… if you don’t then you will surely forever regret the day you didn’t bid on the best shoes in the world. Then one day not too long form now you will find yourself your best friend’s house, and see these shoes on their shelf. Wow, they look so good, why weren’t they yours! Why didn’t you take the opportunity to bid on them? WHY? The jealousy will drive you mad, and you will storm from the house, forever resenting your friend and never speaking to them again.

Do you want that to happen? No? Well then So do yourself and and your shelf a favour, get over to the auction to place a bid!

We don’t like to see unhappy Sackfolk in the LittleBigPlanet community so we’re launching our bug squashing campaign, LBP2 Bug Blasters!
 
We want to make sure players can report issues they’re having and find support from us and other players in the community. We’ve always been really proud of our community and we want to make sure you all know that we really care, and of course get you back playing the game as soon as possible!  The best ways to seek help or let us know of a problem are :
 

GetSatisfaction

The Get Satisfaction channel has, up until this point, been used as our place for feedback and issues relating to the LBP.me website.
However, we’ve now created a new section for feedback on LittleBigPlanet 2. We monitor this site and appreciate your feedback and help, let us know about problems you find.

Send profiles!
If you have something especially weird going on, the best way for us to solve it is to get hold of your profile and see it for ourselves. If you are reporting things, consider attaching your profile, we might ask for it anyway!
 

Official forums

The official LittleBigPlanet forums are a great source of information and there are plenty of other players who enjoy helping each other out. Sign in with your PSN account and join the discussion.

http://forums.littlebigplanet.com
 

Help us out!

It’s really sad to see a tiny number of players exploiting the game for the sole purpose of griefing other players. So, please - do your bit and help to discourage behaviour aimed at disrupting the experience of other players. You can always report bad behaviour in-game by pressing Select and choosing to Good Grief report things.
 

Earlier this week the LBP Community got a brand new resource, in the shape of the LittleBigPlanet Wiki. The wiki was put together and is now moderated by a team of community members from across the community, is hosted by LBPCentral, and is waiting for you to jump in and fill it up with awesome info!

This much needed Wiki has been a long time coming, and with a little help from the community, the team at Media Molecule, and eventually you as well, we’re now delighted to open it up to the LittleBigPlanet Community, ready to welcome your contributions.
This Wiki, much like LittleBigPlanet itself, is community-driven and will continue to expand and evolve thanks to the contributions of none other than yourselves, the LittleBigPlanet community.

We’ve been working hard on setting up the basic style and framework and getting started on oh so many great articles, however it’s now down to you guys to help us fill in the gaps!

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to dive in!

We can’t wait for people to start sharing basic and more complicated create methods into this thing, it should be a great resource for for us all. Some folk here have already started to add bits and pieces here and there…
Check out StevenI’s announcement over on the official LBP Forums.