1up’s Thomas Puha posted the following preview of LittleBigPlanet, one of those rare games both young and old can enjoy, online or offline, up to four people can share in the fun simultaneously come this October excusively on the PlayStation 3.

You start out in your space pod — a personalized hub of sorts. On one end lies a massive Sixaxis controller (or is that the DualShock 3?); through the windows, you can see a huge planet, which is where you’ll access the game’s story mode — though much of the details are still under wraps. So far, we know that the story mode will provide ways to unlock new items and act as a tutorial for creation techniques. Next to the planet is a small moon where you’ll build your own levels.

The creation tools are incredibly simple, yet powerful. You literally drop into a level, for which you can preselect a theme, and then off you go. (Expect to see some familiar Sony franchise-based themes, like Killzone.) The pop-up interface is simple to use, with numerous options to scroll through split into manageable categories. While it’s easy and fun to simply mess around and create an object here or there, you’ll want to take the time to plan out your designs in the long run. And though the amount of flexibility you have can be daunting at first — each object even has its own physics, and you have tons of building tools — Sony is banking on people investing time and creativity to share their creations with the LittleBigPlanet community.

As further evidence to LittleBigPlanet’s flexibility, the PlayStation Eye camera can snap photos for you to use in-game, where you can then manipulate the shots: Blow the photo up, draw on it, and then attach it to an object. You can put a cardboard box on your character’s head and then map a photo onto the box. (Go for those bunny ears you’ve always dreamed of.) And since every object has its respective physical property, a flower attached to a character’s head will bend as it hits a sturdier object.

Want to create a spider monster? Find a spider sticker from the image bank, slap it on a wall you just drew, and then use the cutting tool to extract the spider. Here’s where it gets interesting: You can attach a small “motor” to objects, adding movement. So, you attach the engine onto the spider, which makes it move, and then put it a bin that the player can fall into. Finally, you grant the spider player-damaging attributes, and voilà — a spider monster.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can attach sound effects (and music) to your objects. Enhancing your newly made spider monster with a creepy sound effect is practically a given, but there seem to be plenty of sounds to choose from. LittleBigPlanet’s music library ranges from eerie Danny Elfman-esque themes to mariachi tunes. To avoid cacophonous levels, it’s thankfully possible to set the music so it triggers based on a player’s proximity, as well as mute channels if you want to get rid of overly bombastic percussion.

It’s frankly mind-boggling what you can create in LittleBigPlanet. We saw a huge wooden fire-breathing dragon chase the cute characters in one demonstration’s premade levels and a racing grounds in another. And players can seemingly reproduce any of those creations using the in-game tools, provided they have the motivation. Several types of “gameplay kits” will allow you to build levels around mechanics such as racing, which basically requires you to set the starting and ending points. You can also designate which objects in the level are collectable for points. Developer Media Molecule’s 20-year-old Swedish designer created a skipping game in which you drop off a plank and jump over a spinning rope that twirls faster and faster. The longer you can hold on, the more points you’ll score.

What you use the kits and tools to make is up to your imagination — and that’s where LittleBigPlanet’s community features come into the picture. Through the game’s sharing functionality, you can download user-created objects and levels to either learn from them or to modify and repurpose them for your own uses. Sony tells us the system will work similar to YouTube, with users rating and therefore governing the content, theoretically allowing the most creative pieces to rise to the top. Each piece will clearly denote its creator and even allow you to search for more pieces from the same player. If you find someone whose work you admire, simply “heart” (yes, you read right) the profile to bump up its community visibility. We’re certainly anxious to see if LittleBigPlanet earns hearts come October.

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