Students, Newbies Create Costumes for Sackboy in Design Challenge

In a whimsical Game Design Challenge, the weekly developer-building exercise from GameCareerGuide, readers designed new costumes for LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboy. The site, an affiliate of Gamasutra’s, has just posted some of the best artwork and descriptions, alongside the names of those who submitted the quirky ideas. (Art on this page by David McClure.) The Game Design Challenges allow aspiring game developers, including game development students, to creatively think about games and game design in different ways, without taking any hard risks. (Professionals in need of 15-minute workday break are welcome to participate, too.) Manveer Heir, a game designer at Raven Software, is the lead author of the challenges. Each week when the winners are named, Heir comments on the realities of game development, and what takeaways are warranted from each challenge. For example, in designing costume packs for Sackboy, intended for in-game sale, the design principle that’s most important to remember is that the designs must match the style and sentiment of LittleBigPlanet, which is childlike, charming, and sweet. He adds, “Costume packs are fun little ways for players to spend more money to get aesthetically appealing items that let them customize their characters any way they want. They usually don't change gameplay in any way, which is important to remember.” The costume’s showcased on GameCareerGuide range from the absurd (based on the idea that the designers misheard the word “Sackboy”) to the philanthropic (see page 4 of the article). And the first-place entry echoed children’s Halloween costumes. Although the LittleBigPlanet challenge has ended, the site has posted a new challenge this week: Come up with a unique game concept for the Wii Balance Board. Professional developers are invited to participate. See the article for details of how to submit an idea.