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Ungreth
Psychological Creator
Interview conducted by TheCountessZ
"Ungreth is a person. He likes some things and not others. He lives in a place and is of a certain age." This is what Ungreth uses to define himself in LBP. Beyond that, he is also great at creating an atmosphere of fear, humor, or frustration in his levels. He creates the mood and then allows the player's imagination to move him/her forward. Whether it's in an old diner, a depressing tenement, or on an alien spacecraft, Ungreth takes you there. And you believe it.
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Wibble Wobble Jelly On The Plate
All right, this one isn’t really a question, but if you would be so kind, please list the levels you’ve published to date and any statistics you’d like to share with us, i.e. plays, hearts, how many rocket animals per level, etc. Whatever you feel like sharing.
Gothic Reverie (765 plays)
Gothic Reverie 2 (567 plays)
Tenement (825 plays)
Sackboy Proves He’s Got Stuffin’ (5,447 plays)
Scrumpy Sack (949 plays)
Space Assassins: Vol 1 (10, 480 plays)
Now, tell me... of these levels, which is your favorite? And why?
Sackboy Proves He’s Got Stuffin’, because watching my sackboy get splatted in a head on collision with a juggernaut never gets old for me. Also I’m a bit of a perv and I like peeking up skirts.
How long have you been playing LBP?
Since February 2009. I was so deeply engrossed in Fallout 3 when LBP was launched, that I missed the first boat. Shame on me.
What was the first full level you ever built? And what was it like?
My first complete level was Gothic Reverie. It looks antique now, as it remains untouched, still in it’s original form with all it’s quirks and flaws. I felt really proud of the level at the time, because I had taught myself through trial and error, and built it without any help from friends or forums (although rtm helped me to jazz some logics up soon after it was published). Funnily enough, esteemed creator GrantosUK spotted this level on the GameFAQs board in 2009 and suggested that I should join lbpcentral instead, thus here I am today. I would feel quite embarrassed to release a level in that kind of shabby state now though.
What creators and levels (if any) have inspired you to create?
Well, until recently I rarely played other peoples levels. The create bug had taken hold of me and I spent well over a year living my life only in create mode. It became an unhealthy obsession and I think if it wasn’t for the company of some good friends giving me a reason to poke my head out of my bubble, I would probably have become a drooling, twitching sackbot, devoid of all former humanity. By the time I started to play other peoples stuff, I had already developed an individual style and art direction that I felt happy with and needed no inspiration from others.
If you pushed me on this matter though, I would have to admit that rtm223 has always inspired me to work on strengthening my weakness – logic – and to try stuff that is more advanced than my limited brain capacity can realistically handle. Also, I don’t think I had fully recognised the potential of mood lighting as an aesthetic until playing Morgana’s visually stunning levels. So, yeah....rtm223 and Morgana25...that’s about all really.
Aside from drawing inspiration from other creators and levels, is there anything in the world outside of LittleBigPlanet that inspires you? This could be a hobby, profession, or even a particular movie or type of music. Pretty much it can be anything in your personal life that has contributed to your experiences as well as inspired you as a creator.
Oh, for sure. Outside influences have always shaped my levels more profoundly than the work of other creators. Gothic Reverie 1 and 2 were inspired by the music of 80’s band The Cure. Scrumpy Sack was inspired by life in a small farming community, in my rural home county of Shropshire. Space Assassin’s was inspired by 90’s sci-fi show Lex, and also by stuff which I had read about sinister cults and secret societies. (I’m amazed that I haven’t received death threats from the Church of Scientology yet, since the references are pretty thinly veiled if you know what you’re looking for). As for Tenement...well I don’t know where that level came from. The darkest recesses of my mind I guess. It’s an abomination and it should be destroyed. Also, I think the work of film director David Lynch has always been a strong influence in everything I do, and there’s even a room in Tenement that serves no gameplay purpose, but simply stands as a tribute to Eraserhead.
What are some of your favorite video games (excluding LBP) - new and old?
Shadow of the Colossus, Shadow of Memories, Shadowhearts: Covenant. Anything shadowy I guess.
Many of the keystone titles like Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, GTA, Legend of Zelda, Doom... I could go on forever naming the big franchises I’ve enjoyed. I also have two all time favourites that are hardly known by most gamers... SOS: Final Escape and Haunting Ground.
I should mention the Music 2000/MTV music generator games, as I spent years composing my own songs and recording them on these titles, and so I felt like a fish back in familiar waters using LBP2 beta’s music tools. Once the final game is released I might well focus my attention on soundtracking and take a backward step from building levels. Depends on how well my music is received I guess.
If you could list your favorite things about LittleBigPlanet, what would they be?
The community
And your least favorite thing(s)?
The community
What’s the worst thing that’s happened while creating?
The “160 hour” bug. It killed every one of my levels at some point during the creation process. Also I spilled a glass of milk on myself while shaking my fist at a wobble bolt.
On a sort of similar subject, have there ever been any great ideas you had that failed or for any other reason you never implemented?
Well, a while ago I created a torrential rain storm effect using rtm’s waterfall formula on a massive scale, then I began to develop it into a level set in a spooky old chapel and graveyard. However, Space Assassins began to form as a concept in my mind and the project got abandoned.
I spent weeks making a creature that was able to swim independently using only locomotion and the momentum of its limbs, with no other power source to propel it through the water. It looked like a cross between a camel and a frog. It actually worked really well until the wobble bolts decided to spaz out after a few minutes of swimming. Because it wasn’t reliable, I didn’t take that project where it originally intended to go.
CCubbage and I began to work on a top down UFO shooter long before lbp2 had even been announced. After I showed him my prototype design and explained the concept to him, he went away and perfected the logics to make it mechanically efficient and reliable enough for gameplay. I think we both got distracted by other projects though and it never came to fruition.
If you worked for Media Molecule, what would your first order of business be? This could be anything from adding materials or tools to eradicating H4H.
I would want to add z-axis rotation into the mix, turn the extra glitch layers such as theck, thack and bakscratch layers into an official feature of the game, give sackboy a wider range of animations and emotional expressions, design some kind of inventory system so sackboy can store items to pull out and use later. I’d also try to convince the team that some kind of age grading system is needed so that the game can more effectively accomodate the needs of both younger and older players. Ultimately I would be looking towards developing LBP3 as a 3-D game.
I would also pee in the coffee machine as revenge for those guys making Space Assassin’s an Mm pick for thousands of spiteful noob kids to swoop upon like little vultures.
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Spiggle Nuts and Froofy Lugs
Spiggle Nuts and Froofy Lugs
Anyone who’s come across you knows you have an extraordinary sense of humor. I think a prime example of that is your Scrumpy Sack level. I have found this to be a great multi-player game…one of those laugh out loud kinds of levels best played with good friends. The enemies were so well created and so clever. It’s also distinctively different than your darker levels. I know Shropshire was part of your inspiration, but explain how the characters, set, and gameplay elements came about.
I have always found amusement in picking things up, swinging them around a bit and then chucking them as far as I can throw. Such as my daughter, for example. Well, I started work on the rough concept of a survival challenge where the player would throw various food items into a giant mouth while a timer counted down. At the same time I was experimenting with the layer glitch to create a detailed pastoral vista, inspired by my surroundings here in the Shropshire hills. Then at some point I had a discussion with old friends about the days we used to go apple scrumping in a local orchard, and that was when I decided to combine my concurrent projects.
To begin with, the player only needed to throw apples against the clock, but then I learned how incremental bolts could be used in cyclical toggle logic and began to think how I could introduce a series of hazards into the level, designed to slow the player down. I wanted these to fit with the rural theme, and so came the exploding sheep, trigger-happy hunters, pesky giant wasps and flying cows who carpet bomb the player with toxic dung balls....dangers which I personally face each morning as I walk outside to use the outhouse. As for the UFO, I had recently played a level by littlebigdude which featured frogs with sticky tongues that grab sackboy and pull him towards their open mouths. Once I understood the method by which littlebigdude had exploited jetpacks to achieve this mechanic, I began thinking about how this could be used to create a tractor beam effect from a flying saucer. I eventually made a successful prototype and it somehow seemed right for Scrumpy Sack, so I threw it into the mix. Don’t ask about Rufus (the big guy in the nappy). I don’t know where he came from. I think he must have smelt the cider and wandered down to the farm.
Scrumpy is possibly my most logic intensive level and still to this day I’m not sure how I achieved most of the gameplay mechanics. I have always taken a trial and error approach to logic, and sometimes I have to accept the fact that something works, even though I don’t know why it works. I know that lbpcentral’s logic pack and rtm223’s demitters came in very handy though.
In the end, the level was a huge commercial flop because 95% of players couldn’t comprehend how to throw the apples, but the other 5% who quickly picked up the technique...well they loved it and reported to find it strangely addictive. Scrumpy was a tough level to get to grips with though, requiring a lot of patience and practice, so I admire the tenacity of certain players who stuck with it and achieved some astronomically high scores. Also, the lag caused by more than a hundred compressed doll’s heads didn’t make things any easier for the casual player. Ahem. (First person to comment that aesthetics are no substitute for fluid gameplay gets a kick in the imagine Ungreth wrote knee here).
I’m amazed at the amount of detail you put into levels. One in particular was Sackboy’s Proves He’s Got Stuffin’. It’s simply amazing…almost like looking at a photograph. The details of the diner and also the roadside motel, and the vehicles were amazing. Can you share with us how this level came about and what your inspiration was? Also, would you mind sharing with us your background in art?
This was first conceptualized as a full, playable level. A 1950s love story like Grease. It ended up as a cruel practical joke on the community. I built the diner first, and decided to start the level with a street race, but then I got distracted by the fun of crashing my car at high speed into oncoming traffic and totally lost focus. The storyline quickly became abandoned in favour of setting up the most spectacular RTA in LBP history, and once the trap was set for the player, all that I needed was some classic American roadside scenery, such as the motel and roadhouse. I used google images as inspiration for every building featured in the level, and so I can assure you that somewhere in America all of those places actually exist.
The final touch was to get the player all psyched up for the race, by introducing NPCs who goad and insult sackboy, challenging him to prove himself, and then to give the player a huge slap in the face when they epically fail at the task. At first I set up the scenario so that if the player bailed out before the truck hit, then an army of giant robots would come and obliterate them, but then I decided to replace these with a steamroller. I love watching players’ reactions when they think they’ve outsmarted the trap, and then suddenly....SQUISH! Watch this space though, because I plan to remix this level for LBP2 and I’m plotting even more unpleasant little surprises for the player who thinks he got away.
There’s also a secret of sorts in this level, where if you stand and gaze up the waitress’ skirt for long enough then she will comment that you’re a pervert, and it amazed me to see that so many players had discovered this. I really do worry about the mentality of the community sometimes.
As for my background in art? Well I took 2 years of an art degree before I quit, feeling disillusioned by the pretentious elitism that dominated the art scene. Now I work as a psychiatric nurse, a job which I hate, while I have a box of paints and an easel gathering dust somewhere. My ambition is to get into professional games design but it’s not easy to find the time and money to study for the right qualifications when you have to work and pay the bills. I’m actually thinking of starting a window cleaning business.
You mentioned that the community is your favorite and least favorite thing about Little Big Planet. Please explain a bit deeper about your community experiences here and also on PSN. Perhaps some stories on how you’ve met some of the people who have commented to you about your levels.
I love the community as far as LBP Central goes. Here I meet a lot of interesting folk, I learn from people with more experience than me, I find levels by creators who show talent and imagination, I get valuable feedback from people who can express themselves articulately and maturely, and most importantly I can have a laugh. Also, I have some very close friends online who I would probably never have met if I hadn’t joined the forums. However, outside of LBP Central I have also encountered a lot of idiots. H4Hers, spammers, and plagiarists. Creators who feel so embittered that their “5 minutes to make” level didn’t get any attention that they come around insulting me because my level had a little exposure. That’s the side of the community that really bugs me. As a general rule I refuse to accept anyone into my friends list who isn’t stationed at Central, and those few others for whom I made an exception, I have always encouraged them to sign up here.
It does irritate me though that so many people message me telling me to change a level just to make it easier for them. For a long time I took the attitude, “to hell with them” and refused to compromise on the difficulty, but now that Space Assassins is an Mm pick and I’m no longer in a position to get by on niche appeal, I have now given in under massive pressure and toned down the level to the point where my grandmother could easily complete it (in spite of the fact that she passed away many years ago). Some might call it an improvement...I call it diluting the juice. So yeah, I kind of sold out there, but having the only 3 star rated level on the first page of Mm picks is quite an embarrassment to be frank.
Space Assassins was a “thinking” kind of level. You didn’t give away many clues how to get through the level, and you encouraged people to spend the time to figure it out. You’ve been criticized by kids in your level comments about the level being too hard to finish. How do you personally handle this kind of criticism? Also, is that the kind of level you prefer to play?
It wasn’t until publishing Space Assassins that I realised just how successful the New World Order has become in its’ attempts to “dumb down” society. I felt dismayed to discover just how many numbskulls are out there in the online community, and how the need for lateral thinking has essentially died in gaming as whole. I was raised on a diet of games like Myst, Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Ico and Tomb Raider, games where you often had to send your brain into hyperdrive in order to progress. Unlike the majority, I actually enjoy being “stuck” for hours in a game. The satisfaction for me comes from finally working it out as one grey cell connects with another, and this is an element that I have always tried to incorporate in my own levels. The “where do I go and what do I do...no idea, but I’ll see what happens when I pull this” factor. Nowadays it seems that every game with a simple puzzle tells you how to solve it before you have even had time to fire up the grey cells and every game with exploration elements highlights the interactive areas with a conspicuous glow. I understand though, that game designers must do this to guarantee their commercial success, because they cannot afford to appeal to a niche or to alienate the mainstream demographic. Video gaming has now become the fastest expanding entertainment industry and it is no longer a hobby for the nerdy elite. If glowing ledges and constant hint messages are what the public want, then that is what game developers must provide.
Personally, I don’t like signposting in levels. I prefer to credit the player with enough intelligence to observe what’s around them, to think outside of the generic template that has been established by the Mm story levels and to experiment with creative approaches to a situation. If they cannot do that or don’t want to do that then I would suggest that they avoid my levels like AIDS. Although I may have compromised on Space Assassins due to its wider exposure, all my other levels hold onto the “figure it out for yourself” philosophy. Compared to most old school puzzle-platformers though, I think my levels are actually dead easy to figure out and so, I’m amazed at the number of people who couldn’t even get off the ship in the beginning of the level. I think maybe part of the problem is that in LBP people have become so conditioned to “pull the lever”, it doesn’t even dawn on them that something which looks like a computer console might activate something when you interact with it. More experienced gamers generally have enough sense to try something unobvious when the obvious fails, but a lot of kids just quit and say the level sucks or that it’s broken.
Admittedly, I don’t handle this kind of criticism well. Constructive criticism is extremely valuable to me and I will gladly embrace it, because this is what helps me to improve as a creator. However, comments such as “worst level ever” “u suck” or “this is too hard, make it easier” just make me feel angry and disillusioned with the general mentality of kids today. I know that it’s best to ignore it, but more often I tend to respond with a smart-arsed counter-comment. Just take a look at Space Assassins’ comments box, if you ever want to see what an angry, indignant Ungreth looks like. Strangely though, I have often given abusive players a sharp lash of my tongue only to find that they come back full of apologies and asking to be my friend. Go figure! When you keep fighting against an endless torrent of negativity though, there comes a point when you run out of steam and drop your sword to say “fine, you want it easy...well, have it easy”. And besides, now that I realise how much I hate the nursing profession and I’m seriously thinking about training for a career in game design, I will have to accept that making levels can no longer be simply about expressing myself. I must also consider what might hold a broader appeal to a wider audience and be willing to adapt.
On the positive side, it did warm my heart to discover that one kid had built a full replica of Space Assassins as a tribute and he asked if I would test it with him. I felt really honoured by that. All the abusive comments suddenly seemed insignificant, knowing that I had inspired just one person to create.
It was great to hear that Space Assassins was an MM pick. That’s quite an honor! The level has since been enjoyed by thousands of players. However, my understanding is that you’ve also been bombarded by threats and all sorts of problems since then. Can you share with us what your experience has been from this?
Bah, Mm pick indeed! I think they must have done that just to spite me. Um...actually, that sounded a little bit paranoid didn’t it? Well, whatever. It’s great that the guys at Mm liked my stuff, and it was a real buzz seeing my level up there, but it does surprise me how they couldn’t see that that the bomb surviving, rocket cheetah riding masses would soon be grabbing their torches and pitchforks to run me out of town. You wouldn’t believe the anger this level has generated from some players. It would be a gross exaggeration to say that I’ve been bombarded by threats, but one kid sent me a private message stating that his level should have been chosen instead of “that piece of ****”, that I didn’t deserve to live, and that he would kick the **** out of me if he ever saw me in the street. Another kid ominously commented “are you a wise guy? I know how to handle wise guys”. That’s aside from all of the comments calling me homo, psycho or whatever banal profanity that people too illiterate to read the urban dictionary can throw at me. Actually, I think it’s pretty cool that my levels can incite such rage in people. Clearly, I must be doing something right.
To be fair though, it hasn’t all been negativity. I’ve also had a lot of “this is the best level ever” type comments to balance things out, and it seems that Space Assassins is a lot like Marmite. You’ll either love it or hate it.
It looks like you use quite a few custom stickers. That explains some of the awesome views in your levels like Space Assassins. I like quite a few of the patterns you utilize with custom stickers. Quite a few even seem to be organic patterns. Could you tell us what inspires your sticker creations and your process for making them?
Considering thermo limitations on shapes, custom stickers can add a lot of detail to a level at very little cost. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour for me to make a single sticker. One method I use is to photo a material or object that has an interesting texture or pattern, then place that photo onto a different textured material/object, so that on the final sticker you see two different patterns overlaid. For example, the inner walls of the long corridor in Space Assassins. Here I made a collage of overlaid circles cut out from the fossil-like rock material, covered it with a photo of some purple stickered sushi material, took a photo of it all, and then stickered that photo over the rose material from the valentines pack. The assassin’s ship is covered all over with a photo of a snail shell, viewed through green glass and illuminated by a fairy light, while the dark walls of Space-Org are covered in a photo of black, plasmified tiles. I use a lot of “texture/pattern” stickers like that in my levels. Also, I’ll often build a complex object that would normally take a lot of therm, then I photo that, strip down the object to its most basic shape, and then apply the sticker to add the same detail without all the vertices. The wurlitzer jukebox from the diner in Sackboy Proves He’s Got Stuffin’ is one example of that, where I made a fine detailed replica of the object, made it into a sticker, and then applied it to a basic jukebox shape. My favourite custom sticker and the one which took most work is the flaming phoenix that can be seen on the hood of my replica Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, which is the prize given for a high score on the hard version of Scrumpy Sack. I don’t think anyone ever won it though.
Could you explain your level building process? Do you plan ahead, knowing exactly how you want your story and game play to be? Or do you, like others, start off not knowing and just allow the creation and story to unfold as you go?
I don’t sketch things out on paper or make any kind of preparations like that. I simply start with a loose concept and then build organically from there. I never know where a level will go, what it will look like or what gameplay it will include. I just begin with a story I want to tell and an atmosphere I want to evoke. Sometimes I’ll have a random thought while I’m driving, eating or taking a imagine Ungreth wrote taking a walk and I’ll think “yeah, I’ll throw that into the mix”. I don’t even start at the beginning and work towards the end most of the time - for instance the first thing I made in Space Assassins was the final death scene.
You tend to create quietly by yourself, avoiding outside influences that could distract you. You're also a perfectionist, and I'm amazed how much you update and try to perfect your work. Do you ever feel your work is truly done? Have you ever been completely satisfied and felt a level was complete?
Yeah, I try to avoid playing other people’s stuff too much, mainly because I like to keep my levels fresh by drawing from my own internal, psychological resources and I’m afraid of being subliminally influenced by anything else I’ve played in LBP. Having said that, there is a handful of creators whose work I really like though, and I just can’t resist playing their levels. But yeah, in terms of the constant urge to tweak and fiddle with a level, still months after publishing it, then I guess you could call me a perfectionist. It’s impossible to ever “complete” work on a level though. All you can do is try to make it the best that thermo restrictions will allow. I don’t have a single level that I feel totally satisfied with, because I always feel there’s one more detail to add.
You stayed very busy remaking old levels and creating new things in the LBP2 Beta. Could you explain your experiences (good and bad) in the beta? Could you also tell us the tools and materials you were most impressed with?
The beta was frustrating in terms of transferring old levels. After porting my profile I found that everything I had made was broken or unplayable in the beta, with a lot of issues around the new lighting and global settings. I spent a long time repairing and refurbishing my LBP1 levels, often needing to change things again each time a new update came along. I was really pleased with the way Tenement eventually turned out in the beta though, and it seemed that sackbots were a secret ingredient which the level had been missing all along.
Because of the disposable aspect of beta creation (nothing is for keeps), I saw the beta as an opportunity to try some ideas that were essentially un-ungreth, and to step outside of my own box for a while. My beta projects included a top down vehicle shooter set in a jungle war zone, a musical pole dancing mini-game and a “live” 1960s jukebox featuring Roy Orbison. At this point I haven’t decided whether to stick to the weird, dark and twisted stuff that people probably expect from me or to branch out and start making more accessible levels that appeal to a broader audience. Although I love making the kind of stuff that makes people think “what the hell is this guy smoking?”, I don’t want to become a stereotype of myself as a creator either and I like to be diverse, so...I dunno, we’ll see.
It’s hard to say what features I was most impressed with in the beta, since it felt like being a kid in a candy shop, overwhelmed by the vast scope of new possibilities. The music sequencers are a dream come true, since making my own tunes in LBP is something thing which I’ve desperately wanted to do since working on Tenement, a level which was crying out for a gloomy, atmospheric music score. I’ve since worked three original pieces of music into the beta version of Tenement. I also love the new “hologram” which an amazing material with so many different uses. I was also struck by the variety of new features to make the process of level building less frustrating. Stuff like being able to make layers transparent for working behind them, or the ability to zoom in and out while you have a wire selected. Small things that can make a huge difference and cut a week’s work down to a day.
Have you solved the mystery of the Glass Orb? Do you know who demanded that you turn it over? Have you delivered it to the hotel room? Or, have you kept the Orb for yourself? If so, is it in a safe place?
We know nothing of the orb. It is certainly not stored in a booby-trapped casket inside a sealed vault within the winding catacombs beneath the hidden citadel. The brotherhood will take extreme measures to ensure the silence of those who dare to even speak of the orb. So be quiet and don’t ask stupid questions.
Finally, is there anything you, as a creator, would like to add to this? Or any other experiences you’d like to share? If not, I’d like to ask one more question of you: If you could give any bit of advice to new creators out there who are thinking about entering the wonderful world of creating, what would it be?
Um...I would recommend new creators to make bomb survival levels and levels with rockets attached to lumps of sponge that might bear a vague resemblance to an animal when viewed through the eyes of a blind man. Also, if you’re feeling frustrated at the lack of plays for the level that you poured your blood, sweat and tears into making, then why not simply copy and publish someone else’s work as your own. Even if you get caught out, remember...the only bad publicity is no publicity.
For real though, the only advice I can give is to dig down deep inside yourself and draw from your own personal experiences for inspiration. There are a thousand Super Mario clones out there, but there’s only one you.
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Og Pog Eggy Noggy
Og Pog Eggy Noggy
On a dark and stormy night, Jww and Taffey have to rely on public transportation for their next spotlight. What they didn't realize, that was the least of their worries.
For those of you with fancy iPads and iPhones, here's the direct link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ9vmK2bnZY
There's only one Ungreth and he's in Little Big Planet. He's a treasure and when he opens up you're delighted by his bizarre sense of humor, his beautiful artistic side, and his warmth. And you're reminded that it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, and I'm glad I'm in a world that Ungreth is in.
Well, that's all, folks! We hope you have enjoyed this installment of the Creator Spotlight. For past spotlights, please visit this link. See you in two weeks!
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