Interviews// ModNation Racers: William Ho, Director

SPOnG: I guess the big questions on everyone's lips is; why aren't we creating and playing with Sackboy?

William Ho: (Laughs) Well, ModNation is very much its own universe, and is complimentary to the LittleBigPlanet universe. In fact, Media Molecule and United Front are really supportive of each other's respective games. We're all in this Play.Create.Share mission together. So we have a design for the Mods and how they should be, and I think similarly Sackboy belongs in his own universe too. Although we do have Sackboy as a downloadable character. He comes with his own cardboard box kart too (laughs).


SPOnG: Can you put stickers on the kart, LittleBigPlanet style?

William Ho: Can you with that one? (Thinks)... that particular one you can't actually. There are certain... restrictions on that one.


SPOnG: You hope that ModNation will be a universe, and potentially a series, of its own. Is there a danger of clashing with Media Molecule's interests? What if you two wanted to tackle different genres using the same characters. Do you think there's room in the Play.Create.Share mantra for them both to co-exist?

William Ho: Absolutely. I think even though both games can be mentioned in the same breath because they appeal to all audience, the aesthetics of the two are quite different. LittleBigPlanet is based in real world materials, arts and crafts, and that's extremely cool. But ModNation is based on urban vinyl and designer toy culture. There are comparisons between the two games, and the two look good side by side, but they are also very different when you really dive into them.


SPOnG: How many journalists have mentioned LittleBigPlanet to you now, and are you getting sick of it?

William Ho: (Laughs) Plenty of times, but no, I'm not getting sick of it. It's a compliment! It's always a compliment to be mentioned in the same breath as games we both respect and play. I still play LittleBigPlanet a lot because it's so fun.


SPOnG: Are the PSP and PS3 versions of ModNation Racers able to connect to one another?

William Ho: I think to the credit of the PSP team - San Diego Studios are doing the handheld version – they didn't want to do a port of the PS3 game. The handheld version really should be optimised for the portable experience, and there are certain strengths in that regard.

There are a lot of surprising similarities, in that the story, cutscenes, basic features and publishing/creating capabilities are the same. But there are a couple of exclusive features like a mode called Last Kart Standing, a sort of elimination race mode. You also have a unique ability on the PSP version called Stomp, which allows you to crush opponents underneath you when you're in the air.

It's pretty cool that the San Diego Studio has been eager to put their stamp on the game, and technically the game is quite different from the PS3 version. Because of that, the two versions don't talk to each other directly, but I believe there is some bonus content that is unlocked when you go online with both games under the same PSN account. Hardcore ModNation Racers fans will be rewarded for their loyalty (laughs).


SPOnG: You mentioned your relationship with Sony and how that grew when pitching ModNation Racers. Do you think that bodes well, as an independent studio, to continue to work closely with Sony in the future? Do you see yourself working on more potentially exclusive PS3 content in the future?

William Ho: ModNation Racers can only really work on a PS3 because we wanted to give people virtually unlimited creation. So to have the hard drive save hundreds or even thousands of creations is only possible on PS3. To have people sharing creations and playing online multiplayer for free is only available on PS3 too. So we're pretty happy to be making the game just for PS3 for now and seeing how far we can take that.


SPOnG: With your enviable job of monitoring the community, what kind of creations and events have really impressed you the most about the activity on ModNation Racers?

William Ho: What's been pretty amazing is that so many users have used things like the sticker system in the Mod and kart studio to make intricate designs that even our artists wonder 'How did they do that?' To have the professional designers reverse engineer the user-generated content and say 'Wow, I never knew you could do that' is a great thing to see, really.


SPOnG: Have you seen any Marios or Spidermen driving around during your watch?

William Ho: We've seen just about everything (laughs).


SPOnG: Do you have to remove them on sight as a copyright precaution?

William Ho: No, no. All the user-generated content is user moderated. So Sony doesn't take any action unless a critical mass of users actually report it, then it's actually reviewed. For a lot of these things, no action is really taken against them.


SPOnG: So you can't have a phallic car bombing it down a tunnel, but a user-created Kratos is OK?

William Ho: Yeah, exactly. If enough members report any obscene content, then we'll take action, but there isn't someone lording over it and eliminating creations just on a whim. Nobody carries a big stick around (laughs).

ModNation Racers will be hitting the PlayStation3 and PlayStation Portable on 21st May.