Game | Similarities | Differences |
Conventional platformer (Super Mario World) | The basic gameplay is similar to any platformer. It's a side-view game that scrolls as you move. There's a world map. You collect items by touching them, ride platforms, climb ladders, go through doors, etc. | - The game is playable in an HTML5-capable browser, so it's (hopefully) cross platform, which is not common for many of the platformers of the past.
- Editing the game is encouraged. Few platform games have editors, and fewer still (if any) encourage editing of the game down to the level of changing graphics and introducing new types of creatures (sprites) or backgrounds (tiles).
- Editing is flexible. Even for games that do have editors, the editors are designed for that particular game whereas the software used to edit this game is a general-purpose scrolling game creator, and can be used to define a wide range of graphics and behaviors with very little need to write code.
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MineCraft | - The elements are pretty basic to start with - blocky/simple graphics.
- The world is open-ended as people are encouraged to contribute to and change it.
- The game involves on building things out of resources that you find.
| - This game is currently 2D, and will probably stay that way.
- Building within the game does not currently involve much changing of the environment, just building robots.
- Building outside the gameplay process is much more flexible, encouraging users not only to edit the blocks/tiles, but also all the ingredients: graphics, recipes, enemy behaviors; you could embed an entirely different kind of 2D game within this one.
- Because editing during the gameplay process is limited, it's possible to define much more elaborate puzzles and stories with specific constraints that can't be circumvented by players. For example, in MineCraft, it's very hard to trap a player because they likely have the resources necessary to build or dig their way out.
- The world is (currently) 100% created by players instead of generated.
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Little Big Planet | - A multitude of players contribute their own content to the game universe.
- There is a separate mode for designing versus playing levels so that the player is constrained to certain rules while playing.
- Players can define how the environment and other creatures behave in their contributions.
- Contributions are shared with all so anybody can play.
- The intent is to (eventually) have a rating system so players can easily identify the best content to play with.
| - Players are encouraged to integrate their content seamlessly into others' content rather than having independent modules/levels.
- Players can contribute modifications and enhancements to graphics and fundamental functionality. Although Little Big Planet allows players to take pictures, and develop music, and define behaviors based on a pre-defined set of functions (pistons, logic gates, etc), it does not let you define objects at the same level as which the initial game was developed. In this game, every player has a power to create equal to that of the initial creator.
- The graphics and mechanics in this game are currently flatter than those in Little Big Planet.
- The physics in this game are not as realistic as Little Big Planet; they are more tile-based.
- This game is free to play and edit on any HTML5-capable platform (not limited to a game console).
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