Directions For Play

To many outsiders, Little Big Planet may seem like a confusing game. I have witnessed firsthand how someone who has never played the game may find it difficult to understand some of the actions required to complete levels. Little Big planet does have tutorial levels at the beginning to show players some of these actions, and the rest are learned through progression of the levels. So how clear are the subtle instructions in the game, do you need to be a hard-core gamer to progress, or is the game as clear as it can be without stating the obvious and taking away some of the fun?

This is an example of one of the earlier levels in the game. By examining the picture there seems to be an obvious sign showing which way to go. Arrows universally are known as a sign showing a direction. Arrows feature on traffic signs to directions to a toilet. They are seen as being a clear and well established symbol to show direction. Putting an arrow here seems to be giving the player a very easy instruction and most, if not all people would understand the meaning of it. The arrow is also red on a white background, making it stand out in the game. Looking at this from a Saussureian view, it would be said that the arrow is the signifier and the direction is the signified. Meaning the arrow is the signifier, which which represents the meaning and the signified would be the direction that was the intended way for the player to travel.

This second picture shows one of the more difficult instructions of Little Big Planet. Here we can see there is a skateboard, but there are no instructions as to what the players are meant to do with it. If we think about what a skateboard would be used for in real life, we make the connection that a skateboard is usually ridden and so this is probably the desired action for the players to take. For someone who had not played the tutorial levels, this may seem rather confusing. During the tutorial the player is shown that they have to grab objects and push or pull them to get them to move, so the correct course of action that should be taken with the skateboard is more obvious to one of the players. In the scenario shown in this picture, it is in multiplayer mode. In order to unlock later levels the tutorial must be completed. This means that the owner of the game would be able to instruct the other players what to do in this situation as they would have completed the tutorial.

The glowing circle in this picture represents a well know feature is games; a checkpoint. When a player’s Sack Boy dies, it reappears at the last checkpoint to be activated. Checkpoints are activated when a player runs past them, this causes the circle to light up and glow, catching the player’s attention and also signalling that the check point has been activated. Another signal that is given by the check point is the number of times you can resurrect to it, which is demonstrated by how much of the circle glows each time. Some checkpoints have fewer resurrections then others, and this is shown by larger quantities of the lights disappearing when a player reappears. Another feature of the checkpoint is that the light turns red to signal it only has one resurrection left. To someone who is familiar with checkpoints in games, this may seem obvious and they may become aware of the check point early on in the game. Someone who is unfamiliar with games may simply ignore the checkpoint as they do not understand what it represents. This is known as deferred meaning. When a sign is not correctly understood a receiver (in this case the player) may attach an incorrect meaning to it, or simply defer it to later on when the correct meaning can be assigned.

Little Big Planet may be a slightly confusing game for someone who has little experience with games or who hasn’t completed the tutorial. Some of the signs are clear and others aren’t even obvious they are a sign. It will always be able to be played by all as in game tutorial give a good explanation of many of the features of the game, while those more experienced with the game can assist others during multiplayer sessions.