Microsoft announces LittleBigPlanet clone

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 8th January 2009
Comments (8) Stumble
Microsoft announces LittleBigPlanet clone

Microsoft's Kodu for the Xbox 360 is inevitably drawing comparisons to Sony's LittleBigPlanet.

CES 2009: Microsoft has announced a new eeriely familiar title for the Xbox 360, dubbed Kodu, which will let players create their own simple games. Sound familiar? That's probably because Sony recently did a similar thing with LittleBigPlanet on the PlayStation 3.

Not that LBP's game creation utilities were totally unique of course...grumble, grumble Garry's Mod...grumble, grumble. Consoles steall all their good ideas from PCs, it seems.

Microsoft's Kodu is set to be unveiled in the coming Spring via the Xbox Live Community Games Channel and will let players create their own levels and games using just the gamepad. At CES yesterday Microsoft's Robbie Bach even got a twelve year old kid up on stage to show how easy it is to work.

Kodu will apparently ship with a number of different games already pre-made in it that players can fiddle with if they want, but if you want to be really creative then you can design your own adventures using upwards of 200 basic building blocks that Microsoft has prepared.

The game will let players manipulate almost anything by the look of it too, from wireframes and timed actions to simple triggers and events. The game will then operate alongside a complex XNA program that will check your creations for programming errors and alert you to them.

Kodu was originally designed by Microsoft Research as a tool for children to play around with, but the company is now keen to make the game as universally accessible as possible.

The ball is in your court now, Nintendo.

Discuss in the forums.
Quote shigllgetcha 8th January 2009, 13:07
next theyll say they invented the idea.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/11/10/microsoft-we-invented-avatars/1
Quote Veles 8th January 2009, 13:56
I don't think comparing LBP to G-Mod is very fair. G-Mod is a sandbox physics builder, not a platformer, you can make a platformer if you like, but it's not primarily a platformer. The original releases were also very simplistic compared to what G-Mod is today and only allowed you to rope objects together and shoot manhacks. LBP on the other hand is a platformer that makes extensive use of physics and allows you to create your own levels. If anything I'd say it's more copying Timesplitters' (a console game released 5 years before the first G-Mod) ability for the user to easily create their own maps in-game.
Quote drlecter 8th January 2009, 14:03
Actually.... I know for a fact this isn't just coming on the heels of LBP... since I saw a demostration at my Uni of a project very similar to this coming from MS about two years ago.
Quote Veles 8th January 2009, 14:09
Well building your own levels isn't particularly a new or amazing idea. It it were a side scrolling co-op platformer where the players control their own bagboys and makes heavy use of physics, then yeah that's a LBP clone, but from what I can see, the only similarity here is the create your own aspect.
Quote devdevil85 8th January 2009, 15:10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
Well building your own levels isn't particularly a new or amazing idea. It it were a side scrolling co-op platformer where the players control their own bagboys and makes heavy use of physics, then yeah that's a LBP clone, but from what I can see, the only similarity here is the create your own aspect.
I agree. Creating maps is nothing special and has been there since friggin' Counter-Strike....from what I have read this game has almost nothing in common with LBP when you compare them side by side other than, like you said, the creation aspect....hopefully both titles can live in harmony and both be forward thinking, new/innovative for industry as a whole.....will this thing cost $$$?
Quote Lilliput King 8th January 2009, 15:18
Quote:
Originally Posted by shigllgetcha
next theyll say they invented the idea.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/11/10/microsoft-we-invented-avatars/1

Then they'll sue Sony for an obscure patent from 1995.

About the "user created content" discussion, at any other time one could happily claim that Microsoft aren't going for an LBP clone, but seriously. A very similar game, announced a few months after LBP, from the PS3s biggest competitors? Its clearly a very targeted release.
Quote Tomm 8th January 2009, 17:46
Well as a 360 user I'm much more excited about the announcement the other day of a possibility of a 360 port for LBP. This Kodu thing looks... dull.
Quote Cadillac Ferd 8th January 2009, 19:13
This is actually the first time I've ever seen a site reporting Kodu as a LBP clone, Other sites seem to have said it was more of some sort of 'Learn How to Make Games, For Kids!' app. I think Robbie Bach's exact words (as liveblogged by Engadget) were "We're shipping a new product called Kodu -- a way to help tech kids how to program, and they can create games and share them with other people." I'm sure it will have similarities to any game that's had a content creation system but to call it a "clone" seems a bit much.

I mean, if they were attempting to make a clone they might've at least tried to make it look a tiny bit interesting and not market it directly at children.

Also, just on a sidenote, what is with MS and naming their products with douchey little short names like 'Kodu' and 'Zune'. Could they please cut that out? I swear recently it's seemed more and more like there's some brainless marketing executive with a thousand brain-dead focus groups making waaaay more decisions than he should be allowed to.
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