How do you give people the tools to create what they want but keep the style cohesive? That was one of the challenges faced by Media Molecule when developing LittleBigPlanet, explained the developer’s art director, Kareem Ettouney, and co-founder, Mark Healey, at the Develop conference in Brighton.

Determined to deliver on its ambition to empower users, the developer looked for a universal creative language. The team came to the conclusion that “a handmade world” could deliver both visual versatility and a cohesive style.

Media Molecule was keen to target as wide an audience as possible. “We wanted to invite and empower people,” said Healey.

“We tried to avoid scary language [in the game],” like vertices, polygons and UV mapping, said Ettouney. Polygons, for example, became lumps of material.

“The visual style is integral to the game,” he added. “When a look stops being a look it becomes part of the game.”

Healey concurred, saying that the choice of a handmade art style was much more than a visual decision; it was a “philosophy.”