Siobhan talks to Kotaku about the early days of LPB

Our Studio Director Siobhan was over in Australia recently taking care of important business down under, and while she was there she sat down with Kotaku Australia to talk LBP! Siobhan looks back on the very exciting, early days of LittleBigPlanet, sharing what it was like to unveil a concept so new and never-before-seen to the world. It's a great historical read for all LBP fans out there so why not grab a cup of tea, get comfy and head on over to the Kotaku website to read the interview in full!

“LBP’s development came from the C64 experience that Mark the game director had,” explains Siobhan. “As a kid he had the C64 and he put his whole career down to the fact that he had one and started making games for it.”

Wouldn’t it be cool, Mark thought, for people to create a video game that provided the same experience he had with the C64?

But LittleBigPlanet’s aesthetic took inspiration from another English icon: a show called Hartbeat with Tony Hart. The Australian equivalent? Probably Mr Maker: a television show that inspired children to create their own art, a show that respected children and provided a call to action. Siobhan, Mark and the team wanted to provide that same sense of empowerment.

It was shows like Hartbeat that convinced Media Molecule that people would want to create in a video game. That a creative impulse lay dormant in children and adults.

But no-one knew for sure. Not Siobhan. Not Sony, who had placed a lot of hope (and capital) in LittleBigPlanet’s success.

– Kotaku Australia