Craftworld, the 2-D prototype for LittleBigPlanet 

Two months ago, we used our second "Playing in the Dark' column for the U.K. magazine Edge, which appeared under the title "Halo 3.0: From Bungie's Lips to Phil Harrison's Ears," as a jumping off point to examine how LittleBigPlanet could become the ultimate 2-D gameplay creation tool for amateur console developers. Today, we explore how Media Molecule could extend the power of their underlying concept to PlayStation Portable, Web browsers and even mobile phones.

In a previous post, we revealed the developers' coy response when we asked them whether they had any future plans for Craftworld, the equally charming flat 2-D prototype which evolved into the 2.5-D game that is LittleBigPlanet. We also reported their explanation that the same physics engine that powered Craftworld was also driving LittleBigPlanet. This got us thinking about whether Craftworld could have a life beyond that of a cute demo. Obviously, as the flat implementation of LBP--so described because the graphics in Craftworld are 2-D, while LBP's are 3-D--Media Molecule's prototype could find a home on a slew of less-powerful platforms: mobile phones, Web browsers and, of course, Sony's PSP. Even the just-shy-of-ubiquitous PS2 could be a candidate. But something was still missing. Why not go one step further and create a shared description language among LBP and various versions of a commercially released Craftworld?

Here's how it would work. Media Molecule would produce 2-D Craftworld versions of all of LBP's art assets, each tailored technically and aesthetically to both the the capabilities of the specific platform and the visual style of Craftworld. Marry that to our theoretical Media Molecule Markup Language (MMML for short), and we now have a system by which a level created in LBP could be exported as a small data file to Craftworld and vice versa, just as easily as a Web page can be authored once and read in various browsers. As for the fictional premise behind our immodest proposal, Craftworld could be presented to players as the favorite TV show of the Sackboys who populate LBP; hence our "Itchy & Scratchy" reference in the headline.

Properly implemented, this should create an expansive, enduring ecosystem for LittleBigPlanet/Craftworld; one that extends well beyond the PS3 while at the same time feeding user-generated content back to the PS3. Media Molecule has been clever enough to create a prototype and a still-in-development title whose 2-D gameplay makes it a perfect fit for multiple platforms. Why not take full advantage of it?

Games like Echochrome and Spore are, like LBP, partially or entirely built around user-generated content. In the case of Echochrome and Spore, they're also multiplatform, as we're suggesting Media Molecule should do with LBP/Craftworld. Some of those platforms have similar technical specs, like Spore's support for PC and Mac. Others are radically different, as with Echochrome (PS3 and PSP) and Spore (PC, Wii, iPhone, DS). As more developers build games that support user-generated content across multiple asymmetric platforms, it only makes sense to design their file structures in such a way that much, if not all of that user-generated content can be shared across each and every target platform. We've reached out to each of these developers to see whether our thinking is in line with theirs; stay tuned to see what they've got to say about this topic.