More Web 2.0 in video games: The 'LittleBigPlanet' workshop

For a little over a week now PlayStation 3 owners have been creating thousand of levels in LittleBigPlanet, a platformer where creativity is both encouraged and rewarded using an ever-expanding level making tool set. The only problem is that these tools are relegated to the game, meaning if you're away from your console there's nothing more than a pen and paper for you to design your next masterpiece.

Media Molecule, the creators of LBP are attempting to change that, with new online tools that let you get your creative juices flowing right in the browser. Using simple drag and drop you can rotate, resize, and combine over 40 objects in a large canvas. Included is a simple graphing grid which shows the relative scale of whatever you're building to the characters in the LBP world, and when done you simply print out your creation which can be used as a reference for when you're back home.

To build a level just drag and drop objects from the right onto the canvas. When you're done you can print it out in one giant map which you can use as a blueprint when designing in-game.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

In addition to the blueprint maker, Media Molecule has also turned to YouTube for users to collaborate on level building. While there is no built-in capture mode in the game (despite it being built-in to the Playstation 3 API), you can find a multitude of creations on the video sharing service, and they're being harvested on the LBP site. Users can also go in and manually drop in the embed code to get their creations (or someone else's) in the directory.

Eventually there may be a time when you'll be able to design levels on non-console hardware, then send them home to your machine, but we're not quite there yet. In the meantime, Media Molecule has shown off the option for users to send image files to their machines through e-mail or flash drive for use as in-game textures, but there's no word on when or if it will be available to gamers.

Related: 'Spore' set to mold the future of Web 2.0-enabled gaming

[michaelportent]

This would be infinitely more cool if you could import the idea into the game. C'mon people, it's the future - make it happen!

[Josh.Lowensohn]

Yeah well, if Media Molecule adds in the import via image file you could take these, input them as stickers, then cut away what you don't want...that would be a start :)