Echochrome, developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment
Last month, as part of our ongoing obsession with Media
Molecule's upcoming Playstation 3 game LittleBigPlanet, we threw out
the idea of the developers turning their 2-D prototype Craftworld into
a full-on game, while allowing levels to be exchanged between the two
games using a common extensible markup language, or XML. We wrote:
Here's how it would work. Media Molecule would produce 2-D Craftworld
versions of all of LBP's art assets, each tailored technically and
aesthetically to both the the capabilities of the specific platform and
the visual style of Craftworld. Marry that to our theoretical Media
Molecule Markup Language (MMML for short), and we now have a system by
which a level created in LBP could be exported as a small data file to
Craftworld and vice versa, just as easily as a Web page can be authored
once and read in various browsers....
Games like Echochrome and Spore are, like LBP, partially or entirely
built around user-generated content. In the case of Echochrome and
Spore, they're also multiplatform, as we're suggesting Media Molecule
should do with LBP/Craftworld. Some of those platforms have similar
technical specs, like Spore's support for PC and Mac. Others are
radically different, as with Echochrome (PS3 and PSP) and Spore (PC,
Wii, iPhone, DS). As more developers build games that support
user-generated content across multiple asymmetric platforms, it only
makes sense to design their file structures in such a way that much, if
not all of that user-generated content can be shared across each and
every target platform.
At the end of our post, we promised to reach out to the teams behind
Echochrome, Spore and LittleBigPlanet to find out how XML-ized each of
their titles had become. First up is Echochrome associate producer Kumi Yuasa, who's based at Sony's Santa Monica Studio (the game itself was built
at Sony's Japan Studio). As it turns out, PS3 users can share the Echchrome levels they create with other PS3 users, but not with PSP users. Similarly, PSP users can share created levels with each other, but not with their PS3 counterparts. We asked Yuasa about this; here's what she told us via email:
Why aren't the two versions of Echochrome file compatible for user-generated content?
There
is a large size difference between PS3 levels and PSP levels, PS3
levels being 8 times larger than PSP levels. So if a user decides to
create a small PSP-size level on PS3, technically it may be possible to
have the levels downloaded to PSP.
One solution to this would
have been to create a simplified markup language for Echochrome, much
like XML. That way, user-generated levels could have been translated
into small files that either version of Echochrome could properly
render. Did you consider this solution?
The team didn't want to implement the markup solution to
make PS3 and PSP levels compatible because of the basic rule of this
game: optical illusions. This game is based on optical illusions when
you see a level as a whole, not when you zoom in certain parts of
levels. So if you were to convert a level into something 8 times
smaller and transfer to PSP, it would make it very difficult to see
levels unless you can zoom in.
Basically the team wants users to
experience the difference between PS3 levels and PSP levels solely. PS3
levels are larger and more dynamic, whereas PSP levels are smaller and
more condensed/concentrated. Smaller the level does not mean easier it
is to clear. : )
***
Verdict: Fun, but not very XML.
Next: For a look at the data exchanging capabilities of Spore with senior development director Eric Todd, click here.
Loading Menu