One of the big themes at GDC 2007, as far as I could tell, was user-generated player-created content.
Yeah, can’t call it user-generated anymore. In his presentation of Whirled, Daniel James of Three Rings suggested that we kill the term. “Are they a power source? Are they generators? A battery? And even if they are junkies I don’t want to refer to them as such.” I agree and will gladly help spread the meme.
Of course, many games already allow players to create their own avatars. The Mii channel’s popularity, for instance, is driven entirely by player-created Mii’s. Games like Second Life and Spore expand the concept beyond avatar creation and customization, allowing players to create items and other game assets through easy-to-use tools. GDC 2007 showed the next step: player-created levels and games.
LittleBigPlanet offered the best examples. On the surface, it looks like a regular (albeit very attractive looking) platformer in which up to four players must co-op their way through colorful physics-driven levels. Except each player can manipulate and edit everything in the level. And the levels themselves are entirely player-created. The editing occurs in-game and appears to be highly approachable and easy.
Check it out if you haven’t already. There’s videos of a level play-through, a small area of a level being built, and an impression of the YouTube style community behind the game.
A downloadable version will be released on Playstation Network this year. A BluRay version will also be released later that will include much of the content created by players. Also, special levels may be commissioned from professional designers (such as from Sony’s first-party studios).
Whirled, the next project of the developers of Puzzle Pirates, has some similar ideas behind it. Whirled allows players to create and animate their own avatars and use them as characters in mini-games of their own design. However, unless Whirled gets some really cool editors, its content creation is likely to be a bit less accessible. It requires the full version of the Flash authoring tool and the know-how to use it, but perhaps this high threshold will be compensated by Whirled being a Web 2.0 style website instead of a download on a closed console system, which could probably attract a greater userbase.
Whirled mixes all sorts of different art styles and games, which makes it look amateurish and, well, unattractive, but that’s just what might make it really popular with the general internet populace. The designers appear to be embracing the ugliness inherent to most player created content, as opposed to trying to control the art style like Spore or LittleBigPlanet.
Finally, there’s XNA Game Studio Express, a tool meant to feed Microsoft’s upcoming Community Arcade with hundreds of new indie games. It apparently allows you to create a working prototype for a PC or Xbox 360 game within just a few days. XNA Game Creator Express is an advanced toolset for bedroom coders to create their own games, but that does mean it requires actual programming and design. Even though Microsoft frequently likens its XNA efforts to YouTube, it is probably only the Community Arcade delivery method that will be similar to it. But what’s important is that the XNA Game Studio Express allows people to not just rearrange existing pieces, but build games from the ground up. And as far as I’m aware, Microsoft’s plans are the only ones that include a YouTube style games outlet with a business model that rewards successful creators with an actual share of money, should they choose to go commercial.
A writer at 1UP — I forgot who — compared LittleBigPlanet to YouTube, while comparing XNA Game Studio Express to iMovie. An interesting analogy, though only correct in terms of its ease of use, as LittleBigPlanet doesn’t allow you to just publish anything you want. (Also, YouTube isn’t a production tool.)
In any case, these Web 2.0-ey community developments in games will be interesting to watch.
Hey, my name is Marek Bronstring and I'm Head of Content at Sega. You're looking at my rarely-updated game design blog. I think this sidebar needs some more text so let me tell you what my top favorite animals are: 1) meerkats 2) 
[...] User-generated or player-created content has been a buzz in the games industry for a while. I guess it started with hackers modding shooters which culminated in developers offering free tools to modify their games. This idea saw a more democratic incarnation in Second Life and The Sims, which were designed to offer players the ability to create content with and for the games. The Movies was an extreme version of this trend. And Spore seems to follow the same path of easy access to manipulating the content of the game, and that manipulation being part of the enjoyment of the game. [...]
Tale of Tales» Blog Archive » Player-created gameplay
April 4th, 2007