Sackboy/Concept and Creation



The creation of Sackboy, from his prototype form to the version seen in the final game.

Yellow Head Prototype
Main article: Yellow Head

The original version of the character, in the prototype Craftworld, was dubbed Yellow Head and, unsurprisingly, had a large yellow head.

Yellow Head was only a placeholder character, created by David Smith for the prototype. He showed what Sackboy needed to be capable of, and inspired his proportions.

Even as he evolved into Sackboy, early versions of the character retained the yellow head. The first few versions even kept the name Yellow Head.

The birth of Sackboy
When the full game went into development, a full playable character was needed, as opposed to a placeholder. Francis Pang was the first designer for Sackboy as seen in the game. He has been called Sackboy's creator by Media Molecule, and received a "Sackboy by" credit in the game's credits along with Men Lu, whose involvement in Sackboy's creation is currently unknown.

Kareem Ettouney and Mark Healey later joined Francis in designing. David Smith also sketched some designs, he's said to have given Sackboy his "attitude".

Three different versions of him were created, and he eventually gained his "handmade" look to match the game's art style, mostly thanks to Mark:

"I don’t know why but I always drew him with this little mosquito antennae on his head. My designs were always very anatomical, with legs and arms, whilst Francis was exploring body proportions and shapes - how the head relates to the body. It was Mark who was really pushing the handmade look, the buttons, patches, and the hessian fabric."

- Kareem

Mark also came up with the idea for Sackboy's zipper. Originally, before the Moon was created, it was supposed to open up and lead to the creation area, the idea being that "creativity and ideas are all inside you". It was eventually abandoned as too strange, but the zipper remained in the final design.

While Sackboy doesn't speak, Audio Lead Kenneth Young provided the vocalisations for the character on occasions such as the breath-holding noise before a retry.

Sackboy was created on October 1, 2006.