A key note involving Media Molecule kicked off this year’s Develop conference and gave some insight on what life is like for any up and coming development studio. I was lucky enough to be in the audience.

 

 

The format of the key note involved Phil Harrison former head of Sony Worldwide Studios interviewing Alex Evans (Technical Director, David Smith the other technical director was not at the key note), Kareem Ettouney (Creative Director) and Mark Healey (Art Director) from Media Molecule.

 

Alex, Kareem and Mark had all met at Lionhead, they reminisced on their time at Peter Molyneux’s studio collaborating on Rag Doll Kung Fu. This was Mark Healey’s pet project, an artist by profession who learned to program in C++ to gain respect or irrate the developers he worked with. These key individuals who formed Media Molecule flirted with Microsoft, Nintendo and even Valve. The story goes that both they and the team who created Portal were working on a portal based game, had Media Molecule joined Valve history may have been very different.

 

Phil Harrison was given the original pitch for LBP.

 

It was Alex Evans friendship with Pete Horley, Sony's director of external development at the time that led to the Media Molecule and Sony relationship. Pete Horley was looking for talented teams, to implement games that were first or best in class. In LittleBigPlanet he saw a title that could be the antidote for the large number of violent games on the market. Alex, Mark and Kareem were looking to leave Lionhead studios at the time, in order to start up for themselves. Mark Healy tells an anecdote that he went on vacation to think over the move, when he returned Alex had already resigned on his behalf. Funny I'm sure in retrospect.

 

The conversation then touched upon the original pitch for LBP, a video was shown of the demo that turned into the final game. It looked like an indie title with simple but effective 2D visuals, the potential was clear even at this early stage. Phil Harrison was someone Media Molecule had to impress, for Harrison it was like a breath of fresh air. Sony funded the project for 6 months, so Media Molecule could flesh out their vision. However it was not all plain sailing, the first demonstration after 6 months was an unfocused disaster. A three month extension was granted providing Media Molecule additional time to crystallize their vision. Three months later LBP was given a green light and the rest is history. Harrison went on to state, it was the best presentation he had seen and during his time at Sony he had seen 1000s.

 

Left to Right, Kareem Ettouney, Alex Evans and Mark Healey from Media Molecule.

 

Sony announced LBP at GDC 2007 along with Home, Harrisons motivation was to demonstrate services and provide a boost that the PS3 needed at the time. Phil Harrison shared with the audience that before GDC a google of LBP brought an expected 0 search results, after GDC this figure rose to 8 million! During the course of the session we learned the original name for LBP was in fact Craft World, LittleBigWorld was then dropped due to trademark issues before rubber stamping LittleBigPlanet. Alex Evans also divulged that Media Molecule was originally known as “Brain Fluff” but thankfully they changed their name.

 

LBP facts and figures