Fireproof studios, one of the extended LittleBigPlanet family members, turns 3 today!

Fireproof are the most excellent artists behind the 3D rendered animated backgrounds in LittleBigPlanet 2, such as the Cosmos arcade background below, and numerous DLC packs including the forthcoming Move pack. I think you’ll agree that those backgrounds go a long way to adding flavour to LBP2, and to all of your levels.

Happy Birthday Fireproof, thanks for being awesome! x

Hey guys, this is just a quick message to say that I’m all fixed, healed and back at work now. I’ve noticed some folks online who stil think i am in mild peril, and so wanted to make sure everyone knew that all is well!

Thank you for all your get well messages and things, they were of course vital to my healing process, so thanks! :)
OK let the blogging continue!

Seeing as it’s the international Ada Lovelace day today I’d like to take a minute to celebrate one of my heroines, a person who is largely unknown to the public but can be said to have something of a cult status within the world of video games.

Danielle Bunten Berry was one of the great innovators of multiplayer gaming and transformed the gaming space with the funky M.U.L.E. from 1983. In the game, four colonists struggle for a new planet’s resources using customisable cyborg mules. But the game is not about a violent struggle, it is about business, and just as in ordinary business you can either compete or co-operate. The game was one of the early titles published by Electronic Arts, a newly founded company dedicated to treating their developer talent as artists and stars, and Danielle certainly was one.

However, Danielle Bunten Berry wasn’t officially a heroine until 1992. He was a hero. Daniel was a male to female transsexual, and in 1992 performed a sex change to finally be the gender she wanted to be.  She later regretted the decision, quoting lost relationships, a disconnection from her old life and a lack of understanding from the people around her.

In 1998 Danielle was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association. Two months later, she died from cancer, never finishing the Internet version she was working on of her 1983 hit M.U.L.E.

Even with her success and career in the relatively open-minded business of game development, Danielle struggled, just like many people living outside of the norm still do. Once, that norm was just being male, and for a big part it still is. For me, recognising heroines and heroes that bring something good to the world while daring to show who they are is a big step in overcoming prejudices. That is why I want to celebrate Danielle Bunten Berry.

Today is International Ada Lovelace Day! An international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. We’re fans of all those things here at Media Molecule so we had to join in the other thousands of blogs worldwide that are celebrating today.

Read more

Mixing politics with fun and games is not something we’re keen to do, but when it comes to a cataclysmic event, such as the one this week that has left thousands of people in Haiti suffering, we think it’s up to every one of us to do as much as we can to look after one another

We will be donating some money to the various charities doing their best to help out, and we’re posting this here to ask if you might do the same. Pwetty pwease?

If you can spare even a small amount, then please check out this page on the BBC to find out how to help. Thanks all.

For our Christmas Party this year, we’re looking for a glamorous swing / rock band to entertain us with some tasty grooves. If you are in an awesome band that plays music we can dance to, and fulfil our oh so stringent requirements, then please apply at once!

Requirements:

• Must be able to play a gig in Surrey, UK in December

• Must be awesome!

• Must be glamorous, to match our party getup.

• Must be able to keep a straight face whilst game developers dance around them.

• Must be prepared for stage invasion at any moment

• Must be up for a good ol’ drunken cheesy sing-along

In return we will give you some money, and the odd glass of champagne! To apply, send an email to jobs@mediamolecule.com ideally with links to some sample music. Thanks :)

If you haven’t then you should go immediately to the Playstation Store and download it. Like Right Now people, seriously – move it, move it, move it!

It’s made by our friends over at Doublefine – they’re awesome. No really, we’re really good friends with them, look here’s a video in which Tim Schafer calls us jerks!

There were screams earlier today in the Mm offices, as a giant (presumed enemy) spider scuttled its way across the entrance hall.
It was really big. At first, Martin claimed it was 6 inches long (which it wasn’t), but it was still pretty big, like.

Anyway, we took some photos of it as it ran for its life underneath a sofa prepared to turn us all in to Human Slaves in an Insect Nation (the spiders are not insects, but in a war they will side with the insects). Ahem.

Sackboy even came and said ‘hello!’. He didn’t seem too phased by its hairy legs and the cluster of eyes on its forehead. It’s probably that big wooly hat keeping his head a bit too warm.

… nobody knows why though.

Come to think of it, kengo is quite a good name for a pup isn’t it? Don’t tell Kengo I said that though, he might come over here, bark a bit and try to hump my leg or something!

It’s no secret that we like stickers here at Mm, and when we discovered Tom’s laptop was in dire need of some more stickering, we reached out to our fans via twitter. Little did we know that we would be sent the motherload.

Kevin Derken, who has chosen to be known as klav9 in the world of internets, sent us a ‘selection’ of various stickers he made for a gallery installation last August, isometric pixely chaps based on famous characters from movies, games and that weird and wonderful place: reality.

The truly awesome stickers were distributed throughout the office; personally I ended up with an Anchorman set, a Ghostbuster, and some members of Team Zissou.

Other things we got sent after talking loudly on twitter: lots of teabags!

Thank you Mm friends, you really are the best people ever!