User:DavidG185/Level making tips

Here are some tips on creating your perfect level in LittleBigPlanet Karting;

Start off with a plan
Making the perfect track in LittleBigPlanet Karting isn't easy as it sounds. You want to make the player feel engaged and able to enjoy the track to get those hearts or a thumbs up online. So it is best to start planning. Just like the developers who made tracks in Story Mode, they always start off with a plan that isn't included in the game just yet.

For making great tracks, create a plan. It is even better if you do that on a Paint program on the Computer and draw a draft of the track from there. Then if you think it is all right and you found the perfect name, create the track in the game and make it closely similar to your plans.

Find A Theme
A themeless track is like a canvas without paint. So you will be looking for a theme. It is easy as it sounds. When you are going to start making a level on My Moon in LittleBigPlanet Karting, you'll be able to choose a theme. If you want more of an outdoors theme, choose themes that are closely to the bottom of the list. Otherwise, it would be a little bit more harder to create indoor themes (although you can adjust the global lighting settings while in Create Mode).

Each has 8 different terrain colour options under the terrain part of the Popit. Although you get a unique terrain colours for each theme, if you change the theme while in Create Mode, you also change the background. So be more considerate. But if you like the theme but want to change the colour just a tad, go to the global settings and change the lighting. Fog makes the background and parts of the track thick like a foggy night or morning in a cold day. Ambient changes mostly the lighting that appears on the terrain and the track and the Sun changes the colour of the sun aswell as the positon it is set. If you want a very dark night, change most of the lighting colour options to 0 for each r,g,b colour set. But leave some light so that the player sees where they are going. The players don't like racing in pitch black darkness.

Simple or Complex - Break & Take
If you want to make a race-track more exciting, consider the gadgets in the Tools Bag and track options in the Popit. If you want to make the track simple but remains to be more exciting or more complex for players to brag about, it makes sense using these options to good use. Break part of the track by selecting terrain or make it a No-Respawn Zone by painting it. Both are in the Road Category. But remember that No-Respawn Zone removes the terrain underneath it and remains you with red dots going up, knowing that the track is still connected.

With gaps like these, you will need to find a way to getting to the other side. So you can use a Launch Pad (the purple jump pads or the launch ramp) or you can use the grappling sponge. The grappling sponge like LittleBigPlanet 2  allows you to grab and swing it using a Grappling Hook. It has three different coloured lines. The yellow one shows the angle that the hook will swing from and the red and dark red lines shows the hook's directory when released or grabbed onto. These can be tweaked too by tweaking the sponge. Remember to include a Powerup for the Grappling Hook Sponge to work. But if your level has a lot of things to grab onto, you may need to use a Powerup Gadget that can be tweaked and placed on the spawn point. The player will be able to use the Powerup throughout the game entirely, even when there is a Powerup Remover. So put these to use. Or you can stick to the jump and tricks.

TIP: ''You can also do tricks before or after the grappling sponge. The boost will count from the tricks you did at those points.''

Simple or Complex - Breadcrumbs & Branches
No! We are not just eating cookie crumbs while we are sitting on a tree! Breadcrumbs allows players and CPU's/AI's to take off-road sections of the track that aren't mentioned on the mini-map. This makes the track feel more unique and add the gameplay fun to the experience. These acts like shortcuts, so include something in the mix like a launch ramp or a super powerup. It is easy to make in Create Mode. Remove a few fences for where you want the breadcrumb to start and finish, and select Breadcrumbs from the Track Section of the Popit. Start a point and draw out the track. You can edit the breadcrumb track with an option to tweak the existing breadcrumb to make it bigger or smaller or even higher or lower.

If there is a problem like while you race through a path in a breadcrumb trail that unfortunately got yourself exploded in mid-air due to the 'Out of Bounds', you can edit the track in Create Mode with tweaking the trail. Consider where your trail is, so that you get it just right where you want if you are creating a breadcrumb trail that includes a jump. This may take a few attempts in Play Mode.

TIP: ''You can check out legal areas of the track by going into the Pause Menu and tick the box that saids about showing parts of the track that is allowed in the Settings. This can also be turned off. When turned on, all the roads and breadcrumb trails that are counts as legal parts of the track will show up bright tealish green and red outlines.''

Branches are like branches in a tree, except that in LittleBigPlanet Karting, branches are additional parts of the track that you can create forks in the road. Place a start flag (yes, that is green) on any part of the track (where the fences are, so pick your sides) that is green. Select it and the game will automatically try and create a path, so all you need to do is place a finish flag (it's green! No it's not! It is red) and the path is created. Unlike our counterpart breadcrumbs, branches does fill up the track gauge. So if you are making branches, don't make it too long (or the game will notify that your track gauge is full (like the thermometer in Create Modes). When it comes to branches in racing, CPU or AI's will take the most direct route out of the main and the branches. So make it more convincing to take either routes, so make it balanced. Breadcrumbs does the same to, did you know? You can also modify the branches, just like it is your own track, but like breadcrumbs, they don't show up on the mini-map. So please be considerate when it comes to shortcuts.

How about altering the terrain to make a breadcrumb trail more difficult for players to go through! The limit is endless in LittleBigPlanet Karting. Or include bits of hazards in the trail too!

Simple or Complex - Item Placement
That is Boost Pad's and Weaponators Placements. These are things that you need to be so considerate about. Like placing score bubbles and prize bubbles (cute), where you position your boost pads and weaponator's position on the track. Hide some in sets of four for weaponators and place boost pads on up hill sections of the track for players to go up quickly. Use the Random Weaponators for most of the main paths and put Single Exact Weaponator in tricker sections of the track. Put hidden boost pads for players to get a surprise out of it for your opoonents to see, oh my gosh! Who though about it? Oh! That was for everyone!

Don't place too much of those, otherwise the gameplay will be just as boring as... I don't want to say it. Kicking a can into the gutter. It may also cause lags, in some cases. Remember that you can only hold one item at a time. So don't get too crazy and insane!

Remember to Save Your Progress!!!
When making levels, especially Battle Arenas, your game will froze and you can't control it and you turned the console off! The disaster and pain of loosing your best work yet. It is like someone has greedly stolen candy off you! Well, not that way! So that is why you MUST Save Your Progress from the Pause Menu. You can name your level by editing your level's details from the Pause Menu. It is much easier to save your progress at any point of creating your levels. But please don't save your level everytime you place a new object. It is not pleasant and is time consuming. Save your level at certain points of level making, especially in the arena's. Always have the back of your mind the risks of losing a level that you made just because the game has frozen. But by saving, you can get your candy back and you can get back to racing like it is just as new as a... new lollipop from a new factory!

Hide The Sponge, not the Water
Do you hate the looks of the grappling sponge being floated in mid air with nothing but gravity to hold on to? To be honest, it is not appealing. But if you cover the sponge with a different object on it, you can still grab it like it is the actual grappling sponge. But remember to put some signs or stickers to show that you need to grab this object to continue. It is more helpful and convincing. If possible, put something around the object to look like it is hanging, like a giant jungle tree that you can create using your custom objects.

Creating Alternate Tracks
Making perfect tracks can take a lot of hard work. So while you make the original track, consider making alternate tracks for your courses. It is fairly simple to do. Here is a few handy hints when it comes to making alternate tracks; These little tips will help you decide on what to do with your tracks for alternates. Hopefully you can create new design and bits of the track to enhance the feeling of excitement and joy.
 * Copy the Track First - Well. It is obvious. Remember to rename the copy so that is different from the original track. Otherwise, it will be like playing the original's alternate instead of having the alternate and the original separate.
 * Change the Setting or Light - if the original track is set at daytime, set it to a different time of day like night-time. You don't necessary have to change the time of day. You can keep it in daytime but make it more lively or settling at either time of days. The good thing with the Threshold and the Progress Gadgets is that you can change specific things at specific moments of time. So for example, you can open up a shortcut in Lap 2 or change it to night-time in Lap 3.
 * Add Difficulty - if you like evil, increase difficulty by including hazards in the track. Make specific areas more hazardous by using the Danger Tweaker. Tweak them to be fire or plasma, or even the most frightening of all, lightning!! (Oh! It's Electricity. Even frightening!). These sort of tracks in comparison to the original are known as Extreme Tracks. Tracks that has been increased in difficulty. Change the CPU's difficulty a little higher and decrease it if you have any difficulty of winning the first place. There is four difficulties for AI's that can be selected in Game Settings (Easy, Normal, Hard & Expert). There's the devil now!
 * Speed Things Up - if you are not the sort of devil but want a challenge, speed things up with a Speed Track. This is great with the use of Kart Tweaker. Make it faster or slower, easier or harder to control. Experiment to find things a little easier or harder for players to control. Make it fair and put it on everyone (especially you!).
 * Make Parts Of the Track Different - for alternate or Extreme Tracks, change parts of the track with the Re-roll tool from the Race Track/Battle Arena button of the Popit. You can re-roll sections of the track to make it take a different route. The Re-roll tool will also re-roll branches into different shapes or form (remember that it will use your track limit as it is part of the track).

A Baby, A Doll, A Joyride or A Journey
Well. I did spoil you there for Journey. When making your tracks, consider the length of the track. It isn't exactly the best idea of all, but considering how big or how small the track is in shape brings in game play chaos for race tracks. A good racing total time (that is when the player finishes all the laps) to enjoy racers in a race event is anywhere between ''3 - 5 minutes. ''Any longer and it will bore them like it is a boring journey to the finish line. You can change the amount of laps the player must complete in the Game Settings under the Global Settings section of the Popit. As usual, you have been defaulted to three laps in a race. But you can adjust it to make more laps, up to a maximum of 99. But who wants to race in a 99 lap race. It is utter riot for Sack Racers. Consider the total race time and the track layout for the laps. Treat them like its the important ingredient in a cook book. More Laps for small tracks and Less Laps for extensive tracks. Challenging tracks vary, depending on the challenge. Consider the shortcuts too friend. There has to be more ways to the finish line than meets the eye. Put these into consideration and you can turn a race track into a fight in small tracks, and brawlish circuit tracks in longer tracks. Only one person cross the finish line.