A little while ago, Media Molecule said they were going to give crowns out to people who did things that were “outstanding in the littlebigplanet” community. The community was buzzing about how one would obtain the elusive crown. I’ll be honest. I’d love a crown. I’m not good enough at anything to get me a crown, though, unfortunately. It seems that everytime I do something in LittleBigPlanet that could possibly be considered “good” or even “all right” someone comes along and makes something that is 100 times better than mine. Anytime something gets me sad or down, or even super angry, that little inner fox comes out and wants me to make an animation. You guys know who I’m talking about. I haven’t done an Atom Kappa or Kitsune animation in a year and a half, but I’ve turned my anger and disappointment into the animation you are about it see. I hope you enjoy it ^_^
Last night, while driving home from Patrick’s house, I had my “wedding playlist” playing in the background. I spent an entire day making that playlist, and completely forgot to play it at the wedding. The songs on that playlist are all songs that cause very strong memories or emotions inside of me, and what’s weirdest about it is that they are all really specific and strange memories. I’m going to list a bunch of songs here that are in that playlist, and just to show you all how my crazy memory works, I’ll list the specific memory that the song brings back.
1. Jack and Dianne by John Cougar Mellencamp this is one of the earliest songs that brings back a memory. I think the only one that brings back an earlier memory would be Ebony and Ivory. When I listen to this song, I remember driving in my father’s truck back in the year 1983 or 1984. I would have been five or six years old. I am in the truck with my friend Dianna and my father, driving past his place of employment, PG&W. There was an old video tape rental store, and we stopped there and rented the Wizard of Oz.
2. Ebony and Ivory this song isn’t even on my ipod, but yes, it does bring back a specific memory, so I suppose I’ll list it. This one’s really old and really weird. I’m at Ponderosa steak house with my parents and my grandfather, and we’re walking out to the parking lot. I am telling my grandfather how I love that song. That’s all I remember. I don’t know when that song was popular, but I had to have been really really young at the time.
3. Crashing Down by Soul Asylum this song, of course, is my favorite song of all time. The memory associated with this song is not a pleasant one. I was on a field trip for French club or Art club, and my best friend at the time had pretty much told me that she hated my guts and that I was annoying. We were at some sort of mall when this all happened, and I was in 9th grade. I had gone to the music store and purchased the cd that this song was on, and on the way home on the bus I sat there, lying on the seat and crying, listening to the cd. Track 4 came on, and I hit the repeat button, and that was how I pretty much spent the next two days.
4. It’s the end of the world as we know it, by REM Each time I hear this song, my memory wanders to a snow day in 12th grade. My mother and father took me to the Steamtown mall for the first time, which seemed like a very faraway and exotic place to me back then, because I couldn’t drive yet. I discovered they had a Suncoast video that carried VERY rare anime. I bought Maris the Chojo, and then got some chinese at the food court.
5. Toxic Toast by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones I think this one is from 11th grade, but it might be 12th. I can’t remember exactly when this CD came out. This song brings back two memories. One is of me sitting in front of the television in my basement, playing Final Fantast 6 and being in the town of ZoZo. Another is driving to some weird convention that my mother had to go to in Reading. We dropped her off, and then headed over to some farmers market. I was with Amanda and she and I bought pumpkins, gourds, and all sorts of halloween related stuff. It was sometime in late september or early october.
6. Someday I Suppose, by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones This song reminds me of my very first Macintosh computer, which I got back in 1994. It reminds me of sitting on it for hours and hours and drawing covers for my comics. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I could actually be a famous comic book artist or animator someday. Hah. The dreams we have when we’re kids.
7. Where is my Mind, by the Pixies You’d think that Crashing Down would remind me of the Crystal Cave, but it is this song that brings back the memory of my trip there. And yes, the Crystal Cave is real. Amanda and I went to an orientation at Kutztown back in the fall of 1995, our senior year. After Kutztown, we saw a sign for a place called “Crystal Cave” which was right outside of KU. My father took us there, and my mother went to some mall to shop. I remember the cave being less than spectacular, but I went to the gift shop and bought a crystal, which I still have today. It’s actually the crystal that my character wears around her neck in the comic, the Ghost Crystal. My level in little big planet, the crystal cave in autumn, is also based on this trip I took back in 1995.
8. Jason’s Head by the Dead Milkmen This song will infinitely remind me of Thanksgiving. Actually, the Dead Milkmen in general will always remind me of Thanksgiving. In 1993, my grandma Hedy was very close to death. We didn’t know this, but it was our last Thanksgiving we’d spend with her. I remember her at Thanksgiving dinner that year, and her eyes were so bad that she accidentally started to eat her napkin, and then started crying. I think even she knew. After dinner I went home and played Shining in the Darkness and listened to the “If I had a Gun” EP by the dead milkmen. That one was kind of a sad memory.
9. Drivin’ on 9 by the Breeders I went to a lot of college orientations, because my parents had made me apply at a bunch of stupid schools that I didn’t want to go to, nor did I care about in the slightest. If it were up to me, quite honestly, I would have never gone to college. This brings back a memory of driving to one of the many pointless college orientations, this time in Mansfield, which is out in the middle of NOWHERE. It reminds me of antique shops, getting stuck behind plows, and a whole lot of farm land. We didn’t have a CD player in the car, so I remember carrying some sort of portable stereo with me.
10. Nevermind by Nirvana I’ve gone and saved the most excrutiating and heart breaking memory for last for some reason. This entire album brings back probably one of the saddest times in my life. I’m referring to my grandfather’s death back in 1992 (i think that was when it was. All that stuff has blurred together in my mind now) My parents didn’t seem to want to tell me that he was dying. I don’t know if they thought that my puny brain couldn’t handle it or what, but in hindsight, it was the worst possibly way that they could have handled it. People tend to hide things from me, and it’s always much worse when the truth comes out. They were at the hospital all the time, and I was naive. I would always say “I will see him when he comes home” … my parents never bothered to correct me and say “he isn’t coming home”. I loved him. He was quite honestly my best friend in the entire world, and I never got to say goodbye to him. I’d sit at home, completely aone while my parents were at the hospital. Nevermind would be on in the background, and I would be playing Final Fantasy 2. That was what I buried myself in, and I think it’s why it’s my favorite game of all time. That game saved my life, and that album was right there with it, keeping me from going insane. I can’t really help thinking about those times when I listen to that album, but I don’t feel sad when I listen to it, so I guess that’s a good thing.
Well, to the two people who read this blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed my crazy rantings. I figure I’ll do more at some point in the future, because I have many more songs that bring back weird memories. If anyone else is weird like me, feel free to leave your songs and the memories they bring back in the comments section.
Ah, the Crystal Cave. As I gaze at it, I know it means my salvation. Salvation from an obsession that has eating away at me since October. What am I talking about? Well, I’ll give you a hint. It starts with Little and ends with BigPlanet.
You see, I haven’t been able to think about anything else. I haven’t been able to do anything else. All I wanted to do is play this game, and I’m not sure why. It was almost like I needed something to make me stop. And that something happened two weeks ago.
You see, my levels, The Fall of Winter and What’s The Matter have very few plays, and I started to feel really bad about myself. I posted a comment that said “Media Molecule hates me” … A few hours later, I received a message from my friend ZX497, creator of the level Anti-Color. The message said simply this: “Media Molecule doesn’t hate you, in fact, they hearted your level, The Fall of Winter” … to which i replied “WHAAAAAAAAA?!” … I went to media molecule’s hearted page, and there it was, right on the first page of their hearted levels. Kink the pumpkin, the icon I chose for that level, was staring right back at me! I was so excited!
It was then that the change occurred. It was then that I was able to say to myself… I’m almost feeling like I can kick this habit. I’m almost feeling like I can finally walk away. There was one final piece of business that had to be taken care of though, before I could be completely okay with it. That piece of business was to finish the Crystal Cave in Autumn.
The Crystal Cave in Autumn was a level that we had started immediately following Centralia. The premise: You travel through an autumy landscape to find yourself in a cave. You go through the colors of the rainbow until you reach red, and then that would be the end of the cave. Larry and I did prototypes for this back in November, and the thermometer was eaten up completely by the time we got to the blue section, and we were both not very happy with it at all, and scrapped it. The level also fell apart, and that was pretty bad, too.
I started the level up again in december and I completely redid everything to make it more compact, but I was still a little emotionally destroyed from the brokeness of cool levels, and a few nasty comments left on the Fall of Winter. But as soon as I found out that Media Molecule approved of The Fall of Winter, something snapped inside of me. I became focused, and I called upon Larry to help me finish the level that I knew would make it so I could finally walk away from the game. Well, from create mode, at least.
The level fell apart a few times, it turned to gas a few times, things kept shifting and breaking for no good reason, and trees kept ungluing, not to mention the mysterious ghost rock that moves every time we do anything in create mode. I didn’t care though, I was finishing this damned level even if my playstation exploded.
I had a few close friends testing it along the way, and somehow, in a very short amount of time we were able to finish it. Not only did we finish it, but it actually ended up looking like I had things planned out from the beginning, which, surprisingly enough, I did not. I don’t really map out my levels before hand (larry does, but i don’t) and this level was just full of happy accidents. I started at one side, ended at the other side, and somehow it looks like maybe I drew out where I wanted things. I’m going to post the few scans I have, jjust so you know I’m not bluffing:
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Above is an area that didn’t end up happening due to space. This level was supposed to be extremely multipath, but the thermometer just wouldn’t allow for it. Also, Box Ghost is saying “What Happened?” at the bottom, and everyone knows that “Happened” is a swear word in this game, so that wouldn’t be able to be utilized, either
The above picture is actually a section I DID map out. Larry got mad at how haphazard my level was, so he told me to draw him what I wanted for the last few parts, so I did. Kind of.
This was me trying to figure out the boss chase, and also the yellow section.
Above is what turned into the boss. I had a completely different one before, but I like this one better. I do draw out enemies, beause I’m better at designing them than the mechanics. I’m terrible at those.
All in all though, with how unplanned this level was, I’m very happy with it. I can stop creating for a while now and finally focus on the comic (like I’ve needed to for months) … I’m still ahead on the comic, but I’d like to be even farther ahead. This game has been a blessing and a curse at the same time, and I’m happy for it to finally be over.
I am not going to stop playing, far from that, but I can be a bit more casual with that, hopping on early in the morning to play with friends from england and germany, and not having to worry about what I have to do to top my last creation. Centralia and Crystal Cave are the two levels that I really wanted to do, and I did them. I have no regrets, now. Of course that’s not to say I won’t make a joke level or two when I get bored, like Fall of Winter of What’s The Matter.
Anyway, here are my youtube videos of Crystal Cave in Autumn. It’s about twelve minutes if you watch both of them, and it explains a lot about how we work, why we did certain things, etc.
Video 1:
Video 2:
Well, I hope you enjoyed the videos. As they say in LittleBigPlanet, Happy Gadding, and I’ll see you all in LBP. Oh, and the next comic will be online this Sunday, the 22nd, by the way! Hurray!
I saw the Michael Jackson video on youtube the other day where they recreated two of his videos (kind of). I said to myself, “Hey, I can do that too!” and I set out to create a little big planet music video. Normally, I would have a youtube link for you all to look at, but apparently YouTube knows when you’ve uploaded a video containing a song that has been bought up by a major record label. Even if the song is 25 years old and no one like it but me. Meanwhile, that michael jackson video sits proudly at the top of everyone’s youtube playlist. I just don’t get it. I will say this though: I put up with the record industry’s DRM bullshit, and up until now, their tomfoolery wasn’t affecting me. The minute I try to pay tribute to my favorite song, though, I’m not allowed to. I’ve never seen an industry that hates it’s paying customers so much. That’s a rant for another day, though
Back to the main reason I’m writing this…
Anyone who knows me knows of my sordid love affair with the song Crashing Down by Soul Asylum. Anyone who doesn’t know about it can read about it here.
It is as if the song were written for me. Any song with a ghost and a crystal cave in it is all right with me. It is only natural that I would choose this song to do a little big planet music video.
All the levels and objects that are seen in this video are created by me, with the exception of the dinosaur. I won this in a level called “Totally Awesome Two”, but this is not the original creator of the dinosaur. This video depicts what I think the song is about, and what it means to me. I’ve had this idea in my head for a long time, and little big planet has given me the perfect venue to express myself.
I have to also state that if my comic were ever made into an anime, the song used in this video would be the song I would want as my theme song. ^_^
This will most likely be the last thing I do that is little big planet related for a little while. This game is destroying me, to be quite honest, and I’d like to not be destroyed. I will still be active in forums, I will still do reviews and promotions for levels and I’ll still play online, but if I continue on the path that I am on right now, I will probably explode or implode, whichever one is worse. I need to take a breather and focus more on the comic. It’s not that I’ve ever stopped focusing on the comic, but honestly, I’ve lost too much sleep/time/etc on this game. I don’t know about the rest of the level creators out there, but I’m spent. Just totally and utterly spent.
All that being said, please enjoy this video that i’ve made. If you can’t understand the words, please refer to this post, because it also has the words to the song in it. And now, without further ado, I present to you…
I was going through my book where I keep my sketches for my comics, because I needed to scan in the covers for the next two comics. While I was flipping through the pages, my early sketches for our LittleBigPlanet level, Centralia, fell out. Here is the first sketch. It’s of the enemies that I wanted to have in the level:
Sadly the Couch Monster, the Witch, and the Octopus on a Skateboard did not make it into the final level. And I am not sure why there is a picture of a Fairy. I really regret that I cut the witch out of the level though, because that thing was HILARIOUS. It kept tipping over and we had to make a black cat out of metal to keep it from doing that!
This next sketch is my first attempt at what I thought the layout of the level should be. All I have to say about this one is … I’m glad that Larry did the level design and not me. :O
the captions say, from left to right, top to bottom: “Perhaps some stuff over here”, “Stuff up here”, “Sticker or Points”, “Perfecting gets you pumpkins, collect all gifts gets???”, “Graveyard Zombies”, “Skeletons”, “I wish we could have a basement”, and finally “Let’s have a Riddle or something” … So… yeah, glad larry took over the level design on this one. Originally we had started centralia right on the ground, so there was no way to have an underground part. In a very risky move, we moved the entire level up so we could do the mine part. The first time the entire level turned to psychedelic gas, but the second time it worked.
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Of course that’s not to say I won’t make a joke level or two when I get bored, like Fall of Winter of What’s The Matter.
