Archive: 11 posts

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This is related to my other thread - https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=1660 Didn't have enough space on there though ;/ Full Interview! Q: How do feel PlayStation Network is evolving to meet your needs? Obviously Microsoft has worked hard on getting Xbox Live ahead of the curve in terms of console connectivity, but now Sony's got a comprehensive service of its own. Alex Evans: I can't comment on Live, because I've never programmed for it. I've used it as a gamer, and both PSN and Xbox Live have their strengths and weaknesses, and Microsoft has a reputation that precedes it. But I think for us, the thing about PSN is that two years ago it was still a book that was being written, so we felt very able to experiment and I think that's a great strength. The other important thing for PlayStation Network is that it's free, and I think that the LBP community is going to be so vital to the game. YouTube has a tag line: "Broadcast Yourself" - the majority of people who actually use YouTube are just watching it, and with LBP a lot of people get hooked on creating because it is a really cool part of the game. But I have a feeling that a large majority of people will just play the levels and rate them - rank them - helping you to find the most popular stuff. And those guys need to be as numerous as possible, so the fact that PSN is free to everyone means that we can hopefully get really good sign-up rates, really good online penetration. I look at LBP as more of a service than a game. So there's a Blu-ray that you buy, but then you're hooking in - you expect email to improve over time, and it does. But games have a stigma about them, don't they? Except for MMOs - you don't mind getting a new client and having new worlds added, and I think that's another thing where PSN - it's not really a technical thing, more of a vibe thing for me - but PSN feels open and it will expand. I can't comment on Xbox Live at all, but on PSN it felt to us as if we could fit within it and it would grow as well. Q: Have you had any influence on the way that PSN has developed - has Sony consulted you about it at all? Alex Evans: There's a whole consultative thing going on within Sony with all their first party studios... second party studios... I never know quite what to call ourselves. But yes, they consult us a lot, although I can't say if there's direct influence, For example, the cross-media bar - I'm not sure I can say "That was me" - but they certainly listen to the game developers. Actually more than I expected. This is my first company, my first relationship with a publisher where I was on the front line, and I've been really pleasantly surprised. I don't know if it's just Sony, but in my experience they've been very open. They have all sorts of discussions, and I presume they do with other developers as well, about what's going right and wrong. It's cool. Q: Sitting in the E3 press conference, when you were going through LBP, the game felt very British. Do you think the game has a kind of cultural identity? Alex Evans: I think that's a good question. We set out for LBP to have an identity in how it looks and feels. When we were designing it Karim - the art director - was losing sleep and hair on the subject of letting people have their own imprint. So if you're making a level on LBP and you're a Goth, or whatever, you want your imprint on it. But we, as the developers, want the game to be instantly recognisable, so how do you marry those two points together? So we came up with this art style that he calls "collage" and it has a certain hand-made aesthetic to it, which I think appeals to a lot of people. So I think what you're getting at there is that we really did try and put a strong flavour on it - it's not a blank, neutral slate. It's like a fun little environment for you to build and express yourself in - you can still be the Goth. I think Jack Tretton could have built a Jack Tretton level, and run us through it. Q: But because you built the level, it had a British vibe to it? Alex Evans: Yes, and I think Sackboy has an identifiable style as well. But I think it's interesting, because the biggest compliment we've had so far during development is that when we showed the game at Tokyo Game Show, the feedback - they did little focus tests, asking people what they thought of the game - they thought it was developed by a Japanese developer. That's a huge compliment over there, because Western-developed games don't typically sell as well, so I'm watching the bottom line and hoping we'll sell more copies... [laughs] But what's nice is that the disarming style obviously translates, and I think it appeals to different people. If they see it as British, that's fine by me, as long as they don't see a stamp that they find intimidating. It definitely has a flavour - it's not your Margherita pizza... it's got a few bits of pepperoni on there as well. Q: Tell us a little bit about your plans for the community side of the game. Alex Evans: Well, you can go online obviously, you can find levels and you can search. We tried to take inspiration from millions of websites. My current favourite that I use all the time is Last.fm. But the thing is taking all of those ideas and turning them into a console experience. [Media Molecule co-founder] Mark Healey is really useful there - I don't know if he's playing the fool, or is just a fool, but we have this tagging system in that's really cool... except he kept saying he didn't understand, he didn't know what tagging was, so he wasn't going to do it because he didn't see the point. But he was really useful, because basically he took these ideas I knew from the web and tried to turn them into console things. Like if you just mash X, we think you should go somewhere interesting - that doesn't apply to the web, but it does apply to consoles. So we've got the standard webby features, and my favourite one is the photos in the game - you can take screenshots, but as with everything in the game it's physical, so you can frame a shot, take it, then you can stick it. But then you can upload it as well, and we use it in a variety of places, so every level has a feed of photos. Say you design a GamesIndustry.biz level - anyone who goes in that level and takes a photo, that photo will go on the feed. Anybody searching for that level will see the feed and be able to judge if it's a good level. But it gets even cooler, because that feed also applies to people, so it's a bit like somebody's subscription channel on YouTube. Creators are just as important as levels, so as a creator we have world rankings of who's the coolest creator, or who's the coolest community-minded commenter or sharer. So you can be a little bit competitive if you want to be, and you'll have feeds of photos of you - levels that you've been in, photos people have taken of you. Then we take it even further, like Facebook. In any photos we know what kind of Sackboys were in it, who they were logged in as, so we put a box around their face which you can click and go and see that person. So if there's a cool level with a guy wearing an awesome costume, you just D-pad up to him and hit X, and now you can see his levels, his favourites. My favourite features are how you navigate around in a social way - so rather than just being a type-in text bar, which you can do but is a bit clunky, it's much more that you play a level, it will find more recommended levels like that, then you see a cool guy, click on him... it's that kind of jumping around. That's the most obviously different feature set. The nicest bit about the online side is that we treat it as a service, so if we can iterate. I love the way that people abuse - in the good sense of the word - features, that the community will find and start building up around, and we want to support that. We'll add features to the community side that are specifically for the community. Q: And will it be possible for users to monetise their content? Alex Evans: I didn't answer that question at GDC Paris, and I probably can't answer it now. David Reeves gave an interview which caused a bit of a kerfuffle, but thankfully he followed up on it. His point, which I can confirm, is that LBP can do X, Y or Z - and that's where it was misinterpreted, that we will do X, Y or Z. There's so much that could be - we could do auctions, or competitions, there are so many ways that people could monetise their content, and I'd love to reward creatives. As a game designer you're constantly thinking about how you can reward people - even when they're playing a game. How do you make a high score table awesome, how do you make it feel great to collect the fiftieth item? Games are all about reward, we're like dogs being given cookies when we play games. Q: Which is why Xbox Live achievements work so well? Alex Evans: Exactly, and PSN trophies, and so on. If we can find a way to make money a genuine reward, then I'm all over it, because I think it will make the game better. It's just funny that a small number of people misinterpreted it as a stick rather than a carrot. So if we can find ways to incentivise people to make fantastic levels, we'll do it. Q: But it won't be a barrier to entry? Alex Evans: It can't be, the last thing we want to do is **** anybody off, or reduce the size of the community. Q: And there's an element that you'll need to wait and see how the community reacts to the game first, before you can put a system in place? Alex Evans: Yes, so we're investigating all sorts of different routes, not just commercial routes. We're investigating, as with any developer, where we take this next, and we've got these ideas bubbling away, but which one we throw the most weight behind? I don't want to answer yet. SOURCE - http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/littlebigambition-part-two

2008-09-17 18:58:00 Author: DrunkMiffy Posts: 2758

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Very nice interview. Good find.

2008-09-17 19:15:00 Author: Mark D. Stroyer Posts: 632

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That was a good read, thank you for the find.

2008-09-17 20:06:00 Author: Darth_Spartan Posts: 813

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Very nice, some interesting stuff there. Interesting how he basically admits he dodged the question of potential monetising user created content, and then dodged the question again! I can't see it taking off myself. Why would you want to pay ?1.99 for a sackboy skin made by a user that you could then go and make yourself? I understand developer lead things and if add ons were there, i'd pay for them, but i'd be unlikely to pay a fellow user for content, especially with other free stuff out there.

2008-09-17 20:08:00 Author: flakmagnet Posts: 1084

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Very nice, some interesting stuff there. Interesting how he basically admits he dodged the question of potential monetising user created content, and then dodged the question again! I can't see it taking off myself. Why would you want to pay ?1.99 for a sackboy skin made by a user that you could then go and make yourself? I understand developer lead things and if add ons were there, i'd pay for them, but i'd be unlikely to pay a fellow user for content, especially with other free stuff out there. Well if it is really good what was created, than I can see people buying it. I look at stuff on other sites that you can buy 3Dmax stuff and that is stuff people can make in 3Dman but choose to buy it instead. What would be different? Look at www.turbosquid.com and see that people pay for stuff that can easily be made in 3Dmax or other programs. So you may not buy it but there will be people who don't want to create and just play and pay to have some more stuff.

2008-09-17 20:12:00 Author: Darth_Spartan Posts: 813

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Think about micro-payments too... That's the most likely succesful approach I see. You make great levels, you get rewarded with more slots, eventually you decide to make one that you charge people to play (hypothetically speaking if this becomes allowed of course) and you charge say 20 cents, or 50 cents. 100 people download your level, you just made 20-50$, 1000 people download your level, you just made 200-500$, 10 000 people download it - 2000-5000$... If you have already established a reputation as a great level creator, I see this as Extremely possible. Why wouldn't you pay less than a dollar to play a level you KNOW is going to be at least good, possibly great?? I'm ALL for this, I don't think it should be pricing over 1$ (or respective currencies). You then get rewarded accordingly. You won't make 5000$ if you haven't already proven yourself, but if you have, if you're seen as one of the top ten creators for example, I don't see why you couldn't even make more than that. - my 2 cents

2008-09-17 21:05:00 Author: KAPBAM Posts: 1348

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Think about micro-payments too... That's the most likely succesful approach I see. You make great levels, you get rewarded with more slots, eventually you decide to make one that you charge people to play (hypothetically speaking if this becomes allowed of course) and you charge say 20 cents, or 50 cents. 100 people download your level, you just made 20-50$, 1000 people download your level, you just made 200-500$, 10 000 people download it - 2000-5000$... If you have already established a reputation as a great level creator, I see this as Extremely possible. Why wouldn't you pay less than a dollar to play a level you KNOW is going to be at least good, possibly great?? I'm ALL for this, I don't think it should be pricing over 1$ (or respective currencies). You then get rewarded accordingly. You won't make 5000$ if you haven't already proven yourself, but if you have, if you're seen as one of the top ten creators for example, I don't see why you couldn't even make more than that. - my 2 cents Yeah, but it'd be harder for those who aren't in the top 10 to get recognised, and it'd just be a few people making major money ;/ What could be done is if MM buy take the levels off them, sell them as DLC, and they get a %age of every DLC So say 20p for every DLC pack bought, people would still make money, no elitism, and you don't HAVE to pay for anything

2008-09-17 21:14:00 Author: DrunkMiffy Posts: 2758

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Yeah, but it'd be harder for those who aren't in the top 10 to get recognised, and it'd just be a few people making major money ;/ What could be done is if MM buy take the levels off them, sell them as DLC, and they get a %age of every DLC So say 20p for every DLC pack bought, people would still make money, no elitism, and you don't HAVE to pay for anything Actually, I'm all for that option as well! I guess I'm in the same mindset as Alex Evans mentioned in the interview... Many possible directions, many of which look promissing!

2008-09-17 21:41:00 Author: KAPBAM Posts: 1348

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DO NOT PUT PRICE TAGS ON LEVELS! Seriously, I would not play LBP anymore if they did.

2008-09-17 23:39:00 Author: THE-FAT Posts: 143

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Think about micro-payments too... That's the most likely succesful approach I see. You make great levels, you get rewarded with more slots, eventually you decide to make one that you charge people to play (hypothetically speaking if this becomes allowed of course) and you charge say 20 cents, or 50 cents. 100 people download your level, you just made 20-50$, 1000 people download your level, you just made 200-500$, 10 000 people download it - 2000-5000$... If you have already established a reputation as a great level creator, I see this as Extremely possible. Why wouldn't you pay less than a dollar to play a level you KNOW is going to be at least good, possibly great?? I'm ALL for this, I don't think it should be pricing over 1$ (or respective currencies). You then get rewarded accordingly. You won't make 5000$ if you haven't already proven yourself, but if you have, if you're seen as one of the top ten creators for example, I don't see why you couldn't even make more than that. - my 2 cents Minuscule payments are not as reasonable as you state. In the words of Dan Ariely, "The difference between 1 and 2 is quite small, but the difference between 1 and 0 is gigantic." Free is a thousand times more pleasing that having to pay even a couple pennies, and I think that it will "put off" a large section of the community. I mean, how much would it suck to have to pay additional money to play the only good levels that people made. Basically it is adding a price tag to the LBP PSN, which is very stupid in my opinion. I really like Drunk Miffy's idea by the way. Sounds like a really great alternative. Edit: Sorry for Double post, on other forums it connects the last 2 if the 2nd was made right after so I assumed the same. Sorry again.

2008-09-17 23:44:00 Author: THE-FAT Posts: 143

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Very nice interview. I really like reading interviews with Alex, he is always very informative.

2008-09-18 13:50:00 Author: Unknown User

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