Table Of Content1
LITTLEBIGPLANET
A PlayStation 3 exclusive title, LittleBigPlanet was the first game
createdbyMediaMolecule,adevelopmentstudiostartedin2006
in Guildford, England. LBP, as LittleBigPlanet is commonly
abbreviated, was published by Sony Computer Entertainment
Europe,withaNorthAmericanreleaseonOctober27,2008.From
the game’s first public presentation by Sony executive Phil Har-
rison at the Game Developers Conference in the spring of 2007,
LBPhasgarneredalmostreligiousfervoramongfansforitsgenre-
bending style and gameplay. LittleBigPlanet offers a distinctive,
fresh,anddecidedlyunconventionalapproachtowhataconsole
game can be.
At its core LittleBigPlanet is a classic side-scrolling platform
game, but it is original in almost every conceivable fashion e
from the game’s main character (Sackboy, Sackgirl, or Sack-
person) to the game’s physics, presentation style, audio, and
perhaps most importantly, the extensive incorporation of user-
generated content (UGC) into the player experience. A major
component of the game, and no small measure of the game’s
widespreadandpassionateappeal,user-generatedcontentplays
a starring role that in the LBP experience. The revolutionary
‘Popit’ functionality within LBP that enables players to quickly
and easily customize their character as well as their own levels
has resulted in over 2 million user-generated levels being pub-
lishedasofthiswriting.Thegame’stagline:“Play.Create.Share.”
perfectly sums up what legions of the game’s fans are doing
within LBP eachand every day.
IspokewithSiobhanReddy,MediaMolecule’sStudioDirector
and Executive Producer of LBP, about the challenges of building
astudioandagameatthesametime.“Guildfordisasmallpocketof
games development in England,” she began, “and I had been
workingatCriterionthereforsevenyearswhentheMediaMolecule
foundersemostofwhomhadbeenworkingtogetheratLionhead
Studios,alsoinGuildfordeaskedmetocomeaboardasExecutive
Producer. I set myself a challenge to develop a different kind of
studioeonethathadagreatculturethatwasverycomplementary
to creative people, but that was also commercially and creatively
MakingGreatGames.DOI: 3
Copyright(cid:1)2011ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.
4 Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET
Figure 1. LittleBigPlanetrepresentsadistinctive,unconventialapproachtowhat
aconsolegamecanbe.
successful.Basicallyweallhopedtodevelopthekindofplacewhere
wecouldcreatesomethingthatweourselvesallloved.”
DataPoints
Developer:MediaMolecule
Publisher:SonyComputerEntertainmentEurope
Releasedate:October27,2008
Releaseplatform(s):PlayStation3
Developmentengine(s)used:Noneeeverythingwascreatedfromscratch.
Gamedevelopmenttimeline:3½years;startedJanuary2006
Developmentteamsize:27(maximum)
Awards,honors,salesthresholds,etc.:LBPappearedonmultiple‘bestof’
listsfor2008,andthegamehaswonnumerousawards,includingmany
‘GameoftheYear’honors;theteamismostproudofthe2008BAFTA
awardforArtisticAchievement.
What Went Right
Hired the Right People
Finding great people is always a challenge, and starting from
scratch with a new studio makes this process especially tricky.
Reddy viewed building a great core team as a primary challenge
uponjoiningMediaMolecule.Sherealizedthattheyweresetting
out on a very unconventional course: rather than utilizing
a centralized, single-person team leader for their game, Media
Molecule’s co-founderseMarkHealey,DaveSmith,AlexEvans,
and Kareem Ettouney e were planning to collaboratively direct
Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET 5
the company’s creative efforts. Establishing the right culture
wherethisformatcouldworkprovedasignificantchallenge,and
a key piece of the puzzle was making sure, especially as they
addedmoreandmorepeopletotheteam,thattheywerebringing
onthe right people.
It took fine-tuning to get to the point where Reddy and her
teamfeltthattheywerehiringeffectively.Putmorebluntly,early
ontheteamchurnedthroughseveralpeoplewhodidn’tworkout.
At the end of the day, though, Reddy points to these hiring
decisions,andhoningtheirhiringprocessatMediaMolecule,as
critical to their game’s success. “When I look at LittleBigPlanet
Icanseeprettymucheveryonefromtheteam;Isortofseeeach
and every person’s personality in the game itself. The general
direction of LBP is very forgiving in that it is almost like a blank
canvasthatallowspeopletogettheirindividualstyleontoit,yetit
still hangs together. This was by design e we always wanted
people to feel like we had all made the game together. A good
example of this is Kareem, our Art Director, whose role really
evolvedintoworkingwithallofthesefantasticallytalentedartists,
andinsteadof‘directing’themtoconformtoanestablishedstyle,
which is the more traditional way of making games, he set
aframeworkwhenchoosingthecraftlookandeachoftheworld
themes. As Art Director Kareem then encouraged his team to
maintain their unique styles and personalities. He jammed with
them to ensure that their individual styles all fit into the game.
LBP is the kind of game that allows this to happen more than
others.”
It may seem like a counterintuitive notion to inject ‘person-
ality’intoacommercialenterprise,butReddypointedoutthatat
Media Molecule they actively look for talented people who have
astrongpersonalityandadrivetomanifestthiscommercially.“It
canbedifficulttofindpeoplewhoarealignedwiththisbutthey
areworththewait.Ifeeltherehasbeenamismatchinperception
thatif one isworking on acommercial product, then there is no
roomforpersonality.ButgoingallthewaybacktoMichelangelo,
whowasafterallworkingforthechurcheandifyouthinkabout
it, what he put up there in the Sistine Chapel is really pretty
cheeky e even Michelangelo put his personality into his work,
and that is why it has stood the test of time. This philosophy is
partofourcultureewewantedtocreateastudiowhereasmall
group of people can continually get better at their craft, explore
differentthings,andjustbefabulous.Ofcourse,therealityisthat
all of this is underpinned by the fact that we are shipping prod-
ucts, and we need to have milestones; it can’t be all chaos and
fun. So figuring out how to determine which artists and pro-
grammers could fit into this system really helped us build the
game (and ultimately thestudio) that we wantedto build.
6 Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET
“Lookingback,Icanseethatweareaveryoptimisticbunchof
people.Ratherthanlookingattheissuesthatinevitablycameup
duringproductionasproblems,wesawthemaschallenges.One
of the other most interesting things in terms of common
personality traits that I see among the people that have worked
out for us is humor. I know that I can have a laugh with pretty
mucheveryoneinthestudio.Andbelieveme,thatreallyhelpsus
in difficulttimes.”
Figure2. LittleBigPlanetwasaprojectdesignedtoaccommodateawidevarietyof
styles,andthegamestronglyreflectstheindividualpersonalitiesofthepeople
whocreatedit.
Crafted Our Culture
Starting a new studio from scratch meant that Media Molecule
couldcarefullycontrolthestudiocultureasitwasbeingcreated.
ForReddy,thiswascriticalandafocusofhereffortsfromthevery
beginning.Shefeelsthatthisculturethattheyallworkedsohard
tocultivatehadanimportanthandinthesuccess ofLBP.Reddy
highlighted the emphasis that she and the team placed not only
onprocesses,butalsoonthephysicalenvironmentofthestudio.
“This is something I think about a lot,” explains Reddy. “When-
everItraveltoashoworevent,Itrytogoandvisitotherstudios.
At this point I’ve been to loads of studios, in the U.S., Japan, all
overEurope.Ifindthemeverfascinating,andIfeeltheycantell
you a lotabouthow ateam works.”
Reddy brings her analysis to bear on decisions about the
physical environment at Media Molecule. “One of the things we
do here is that we use the environment to communicate to
everyone where we are with the game, both internally for
ourselves as well as for anyone who is here for a meeting or site
Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET 7
visit. We have an open floor plan, and everyone sits together in
one big room. We have tons of open wall space, and we try to
utilizeourwallsas‘workingwalls,’withloadsofartanddiagrams
postedalloverthem.Theseareusefulfortheartistsandcreators
themselves, but also great because they allow the team to see
what’s going on in other areas. I’ve seen other studios designed
around noise levels, or functionally. And it’s not like there’s one
correctwaytodothis,butforus,wewantedtomakeitreallyeasy
for folks to jam with the other people they’re working with.”
Jamming is an important aspect to creative life at Media Mole-
cule; we’ll hear more about that shortly.
Reddy also emphasized the importance of communal, non-
work areas in their space. “This is something that I think most
game teams will identify with,” explained Reddy, “as when you
make a game you end up spending a lot of time together e at
somepointsmoretimethanyouspendwithyourfriends.Wehad
anareawherewecouldalleattogether.Itmightsoundtrivial,but
Ithinkitwasreallyimportant.Therewerelongperiodsofstaying
at the office, working late, and we had a very nice kitchen table,
andreallynicefood.Infact,somefolkswouldwaitaroundjustfor
thefood,eventhoughtheyweren’tworkinglateonthatparticular
day.Itrulybelievein‘thefamilythateatstogether,staystogether’
philosophy, and we lived that e we were like a family, getting
togetherfordinnertodiscusstheday’sevents.Itdependedonthe
phaseoftheproject,butalotoftheworkthatneededtogetdone
were the kinds of thing where people are thinking and creating,
drawing or writing code, and so needed to be in ‘the zone,’ with
the headphones on, so eating together at the end of the day
allowedustocometogetherandvisitandkindofrecaptheday.”
Media Molecule eventually outgrew their space, and this meant
theynolongerhadanareathatwouldaccommodateatablelarge
enough to seat the entire team together. “We’re moving in
amonth,andwehavemadesurethatournewspacehasanarea
large enough for that really nice kitchen table that’s going to be
big enough for ourfamily dinners and lunches again.”
Molecular Structure
The team at Media Molecule that created LBP organized into
what they refer to as ‘molecules,’ small interdisciplinary groups,
eachresponsibleforaspecificpartoftheproject.“Thiswaspretty
muchdirectlyinspiredbyValve,”recallsReddy.“Weallreadtheir
Gamasutra piece on their Cabal structure, and we thought that
sounded perfect for the kind of studio and game we were plan-
ningtomake.Sowetookthatasourinspirationandtweakeditto
fitourownneeds.Atthebeginning,wewereallonebiggroup,but
weeventuallygottothepointwhereitwastoomanypeopletobe
8 Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET
inthesamemeeting,soitwastimeto‘moleculize’intomultiple,
smaller groups. After the greenlight period we formed these
groups, almost like bands, of people working together.It was up
to these small groups, always working with one of our four
creativedirectors,tocomeupwiththeirowngoalsforthespecific
areaof thegamethat they were focused on.
“This felt very natural to me, and was in fact how I had been
working at Criterion. The benefits of cross-pollination are in-
credible, to have smaller groups of people put together with
acommongoal.Infact,itkindoffeltlikea‘no-brainer’forus,but
againthat’sprobablybecauseit’ssoperfectlysuitedtothestyleof
game that LBP is. And for us, one other important detail is that
thesegroupsdochangeovertime,andalsoapersoncanbepart
ofmorethanonemolecule.Thisisespeciallytrueforproducers,
who may work with multiple molecules to help these groups
make their plans visible to the team. But the molecules them-
selveshavetocomeupwiththeirownplan.Theyneedtobirthit
andownitethisshouldnotjustbeuptoproduction.Andhaving
thatownershipwithinthemoleculehasbeenreallysuccessfulfor
us. The molecule owns the conception, and also the delivery.
Production’sjobistotrackwhatthemoleculesaredoing,andto
hold the big picture of how each molecule’s efforts are fitting
togethertohittheoverallgoals fortheproject,aswell astolook
aftertheotheraspectsofbringingthegametogethersuchasQA,
localization, and the generation ofPR/Marketing assets.”
Iwonderedwhich‘molecule’camefirst,thecompanynameor
the label of their process. “The company name definitely came
first,andIthinkthatwasjustacoincidence,”Reddyrepliedwith
achuckle.“Wewerebrainstormingwhattocallthisprocess,and
aProducerwhousedtoworkherecameupwiththenameeit’s
reallyjust acoincidence that it’s our company name aswell.”
Figure 3. Small,interdisciplinaryworkinggroups,or‘molecules,’wereperfectly
suitedtomakingagamelikeLittleBigPlanet.
Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET 9
‘Game Jam’ Design Style
AlothasbeenwrittenaboutMediaMolecule’s‘gamejam’design
style. Reddy feels that this method of working together was
a perfect fit for the kind of game they were trying to make with
LBP. “If you try to make a game as if you’re conducting an
orchestraedirectingfromthefront,andeveryoneinthebackhas
their plan e well it just doesn’t work. To us, and our style of
creating together, it feels much more like you’re a band, and
you’re jamming together, and then hopefully you get something
good outofit.
“WhenDave,Alex,Mark,Kareem,andIweretalkingaboutthis
earlyon,andkindofstumbledonthisbandmetaphor,Ifoundit
tobeaverynaturalwaytothinkaboutit.Itjustreallyfitthework
stylethatthefoundershaveandthereforewasgoingtobetheway
thecompanyworked.Oneofthechallengesisthateverytimeyou
make a new game it’s an experiment. You’re never really sure if
it’s going to work or not. Until we went to the Game Developers
Conferencein2007wetrulydidn’tknowhowpeoplewouldreact,
and to be honest before release we really didn’t know if LBP
would work at all, but we embraced it as the experiment that it
was. Even when we were about to press the final disks, and we
finally turned on the beta test with real users, we were watching
and really not knowing if itwasactually goingto work.”
Reddyfeelsstronglythatthegamejamdesignprocessallowed
themtoreachthatpoint,andtobesuccessfulwithsuchagrand
experiment.“SomeofthebestmeetingsI’veeverbeeninarethe
ones where instead of everyone needing to agree with everyone
else,wejustkindofriffoffofeachother.It’slike:‘OKright,we’re
a group, we’re a team, we know everybody can pull their own
weightelet’sjustjamtogetherandtrustthatsomethinggoodwill
come outofit.’”
I wondered about implementing controls to make sure that
this process didn’t lead the team down rabbit holes. “Well,
anotherwaytothinkaboutthisisground-updesign,ratherthan
atop-downwayofworking.Wehadusedourgreenlightperiodto
figureouttheconceptandsowehadaframeworktoworkwithin.
Theground-upapproachallowedforexperimentationwithinthat
framework.BecauseIdonothaveaspecific,hands-onroleinthe
game,Iamoneofthefewpeoplewhogettoseethewholeproject
as a big picture. At certain points production needs to look at it
fromthetopandmakesurethatthemoleculesareallsyncedup.
The ground-up approach is complemented by the times when
MarkandDave,theco-designers,zoomoutfromtheirhands-on
workandmakesenseofwhatwehave.Thistakesdifferentforms
depending on the phase of the game and what there is to see.
Obviouslythebestwaytofigurethisstuffoutistoplaythegame.
10 Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET
The further we get into development the more often we do this,
butitreallyisthebreadandbutteroffiguringoutwhatyouneed
todotofinishagame.Imean,we’renotjammingtobeaSunday
afternoonband;we’retryingtogeneratehits;we’reacommercial
band trying to make lots of money. But this comes back to the
hiringaspectewhodowehaveintheband?Weneedtohavethe
confidencethattherightpeoplearedoingthejamming,akindof
insurancethatwhatcomesouttheotherendwillbeworthwhile.
Andthereareotherwaysofmakingsurethatwe’renotgoingoff
inawrongdirection.Oneexampleofthisisourrelationshipwith
Sony, which has been great. They really only did it a few times
withLBP,butwhentheydidamajorcheck-intheygaveusreally
useful feedback. Look, you can’t listen to nobody; ultimately we
all want to make a game that will be creatively successful, and
commercially successful, so you have to listen to people outside
as another way ofkeeping it allhonest.”
At the end of the day, Reddy won’t be abandoning the game
jamdesignstyleanytimesoon.“There’snothinglikejumpingoff
into the abyss. Sometimes you land somewhere lovely, and
sometimes you don’t,but you only live once, right?”
Figure4. LittleBigPlanetbenefitedfromthe‘gamejam’designprocessemployed
atMediaMolecule.
We Were Bold
“This is something we got right and wrong,” began Reddy.
“I would say even still it’s not something that we’re amazing at,
butrathermoreofanaspirationforus.Weverymuchwanttobe
bold with our ideas. Being bold is like being determined, in a
way e having the intent to manifest something, to finish
Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET 11
something,tohaveareallycrazyideaandtonotdismissit,butto
findawaytoshowittootherpeople.Thereissomuchoutthere
to be done, and this is what excites me the most about Media
Moleculeewe’vegotagreatgrouptogethernowandwe’rereally
living this out.
“Wewantpeopletotakeriskshere,andtobewillingtomake
things,andshowotherpeoplethings,topresenttheirideas.And
weexpectpeopletobewillingtolisten,eventothepointwhereit
means listening to other people knock their idea down and
making them prove to these doubters that their idea is strong.
AndthisiswhereIwouldsaywe’renotperfect,inthatpeoplewill
have ideas, and maybe they’ll get shot down too early. But our
goalistobeastudiothatcontinuestoinnovate,andtodothatwe
need to continue to be bold and to be brave.”
Reddywantstoencourageothergameteamstoworkwiththis
model,andseesalotofpotentialtoturnovernewstonesingame
creation. “I would like to see the industry evolve as a creative
industry, and sure, not everything is going to sell immediately,
but that’s not always the entire point. It’s a shame when great
ideas aren’t explored, especially now where there are so many
platforms to explore and create for e Facebook, iPhone, DS e
there’s just alot ofroom for new ideas out there right now.”
What Went Wrong
Building Game and Studio Simultaneously
This is a significant challenge for all new games studios, since
they are faced with a twofold task of creating a game, as well as
a company that will (hopefully) outlast the production period of
that first game. While Reddy spoke of the great opportunity this
challenge provided her and her team above, not everything
worked out ideally during the process. “While Mark, David,
Kareem,andAlexhadallworkedtogetheratLionhead Studios,I
had not worked with them before, and they had not worked
together in this particular capacity. We all wanted to create an
environmentwherewewerehappytowork,buttherewerelotsof
newthingstothinkabout.Ittookusalongtimetohireeinfactit
still does e mainly because we are looking for the right fit, the
righttypesofpeoplewhocanfitintooursystemandthrivehere.
Overtimewe’veworkedtoimproveourprogrammerandartand
design and audio tests, but early on these processes were not
establishedanditresultedinanumberofincorrecthires.Wehad
to let a lot of people go in our first year after a probationary
period,and that’s never a fun thing to do.”
This was especially hard early on, a side effect of there not
being a lot of definition around the studio, or the game they
12 Chapter 1 LITTLEBIGPLANET
were making. “When we were first starting out, it was hard
because we didn’t really know what the game would look like in
theend,orwhatthestudiowouldlooklikeovertime.Addtothat
all of the processes that weren’t in place, so had to be estab-
lishedand honedfor ourpurposes. And I’llbe honest,there was
a lot of interpersonal conflict and an incredible amount of
dramathatfirstyearejustgetting usedtoeachother’sstylebut
also creative conflict. And now, what’s helped with this, is we
pretty much have our team, we have our culture, and we’ve
learned how to work really well together. We’ve become more
trusting of each other, and we know what we need out of our
studiospace.Sonowit’slikewe’realmostreadytomakeawhole
new set of mistakes.”
Figure 5. Buildingagameandastudioatthesametimeaddedsignificant
complexitytotheprocessofcreatingLittleBigPlanet.
