Yesterday, the Reuter ran an interesting report about LittleBigPlanet (see excerpt below). I am interested less so about the game per se, but more so in the “moddable” aspect of it. It seemed that a “toolkit” will be given so that players can create and share player-created levels after they are done with the game’s original campaign (about 50 levels or so).

Sony Computer Entertainment America’s”LittleBigPlanet” game, released in North America on Tuesday, lets players create characters and scenarios for the PlayStation 3, taking the Internet’s embrace of community-created sites to video games.

The new game has 50 levels of play in a universe of castles and mountains where customizable sackcloth puppets must navigate obstacles and puzzles to proceed.

What separates it from the pack is a suite of tools, which allows players to create their own game challenges and share them with others online via Sony Corp’s PlayStation Network…

“The three pillars of the game are equal: play, create, and share,” said Ettouney, who co-founded the game’s development studio, Media Molecule.

Electronic Arts Inc has proven that empowering gamers is a good business decision these days. Gamers have populated the new “Spore” universe with over 25 million creatures, vehicles and buildings of their own creation. “Spore” PC and Nintendo DS games sold over 1 million copies worldwide in the first three weeks.

Billy Pidgeon, video game analyst for IDC, believes “LittleBigPlanet” will help Sony drive sales of its PS3. The PS3 lags Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii in total sales, but new games made by Sony exclusively for its machine may help it gain ground….

Came across the Age of Decadence by Iron Tower Studio. Apparently they are building a new isometric, 3D RPG using Torque Game Engine. The game (preview) looks really good!

Below’s an excerpt from an unofficial FAQ from their forum. I am particularly interested in the post-game statistic. Will certainly keep an eye out for this… (More pictures and info available here: Scenic Tour of AoD).

Q: What is the main story drive in Age of Decadence?
A: “The main quest revolves around locating a pre-war temple and dealing with a remnant of another age, exploring events of the past, and dealing with factions affected by your quest.” (Ref)

Q: What happens at the beginning of the game?
A: “The game starts trivially in a small town. Purely by chance, you acquire an ancient map bearing a long forgotten seal. What to do next is up to you.” (Ref)

Q: If I go on a murderous rampage, can I prevent myself from completing the game by killing plot critical characters?
A: “There are no plot-critical NPCs. There is more than one way to acquire plot-critical info.” (Ref)

Q: How many different endings are planned? Will I be forced to fight at the end?
A: “We have seven different endings and only two involve mortal combat.” (Ref)

Q: When I finish the game, will I be able to continue playing with the same character?
A: “No, you can’t play after the game is over.” (Ref)

Q: At the end of the game, will there be a summary of my actions?
A: “Yes, there will be a very detailed (locations, factions, NPCs) summary of your actions.” (Ref)

The long awaited D’jinni “Adventure Editor” is finally available. Great! Those who are interested in modding Witcher (err… creating new adventure for WItcher) can finally have the means to do so.

Unfortunately, what I have learned from my team so far, there is not much of a chance to create a “listener” for it. So… it looks like it will be classified under the “no listening” category with the likes of Oblivion, and Titan Quest. An NWNX clone is not even possible since Witcher is never written with multiplayers in mind.

It seemed Project RED has also released a new Witcher Witcher Dueling MMOG: DuelMail (open beta).

Firaxis has just announced a Modding contest for Civilization IV! There are a total of four categories:

• Best In-Game Asset (art, including units, buildings and/or wonders)
• Best World-Builder Scenario (just a single .wbs file)
• Best Map Script (just a single .py file)
• Best Educational Mod (only educators and schools can submit entries for this one)

The contest runs from Dec 23, 2007 to February 18, 2008. (Read the official announcement.)

Take note that in order to mod Civilization IV, you will need to have some (okay, quite a bit more than ‘some’) knowledge of Python.