Media Molecule Co-Founder Alex Evans has said that Phil Harrison’s influence during the conceptual stages of the studio’s forthcoming LittleBigPlanet was “completely key and pivotal.”
Speaking with Gamesindustry.biz, Evans stated, "Obviously that then transitioned into Sony, and especially the team at Liverpool, and Michael Denny – I don’t want to downplay their roles as well. But certainly with Phil, at the very beginning, the amazing thing was that he got it.”
Evans went on to describe how the team struggled to put the game into words before the project actually took shape, and initially felt that publishers would not grasp the idea, “let alone champion it.”
"But the interesting thing with Phil was that when we pitched to him, we actually played down what became the Game 3.0 things that he talked about,” he explained.
"We pitched much more of a platform game, the physics and so on, and he was very instrumental in telling us to think about what it would mean to have user-generated content – to think about what that means for the community."
"I think that was his influence on the game early on, and I think it was hugely useful to have that degree of focus in the right place, and the right time."
Despite Harrison’s recent move to Infograms, Evans stated that Sony is fully supportive of the title, and feels there will be a continuation of “good patterns" that were established during the development process.
LittleBigPlanet is due out exclusively on PlayStation 3 later this year.