This was briefly, and graciously touched on by TheGreatDave in the Edge thread, but I have my hands on the magazine myself now, and there's more info and enough new stuff to come back to it..plus Edge features/previews are pretty great!
Edge again refers to it, as they did in their first preview, as the PS3's most important title. It looks like they paid a visit before E3, so things like AI brains didn't seem to be on the agenda, but they go through and explain certain things that none of the media at E3 adequately did. They were shown some of the more advanced stuff. They start by saying MM has been successful in creating a good modelling tool that's also friendly and 'empowering'. Everything is physical/mechanical, everything is mapped to physical objects.
e.g. If you want text in your level somewhere, you just open the Popit, select a mouth, and stick it wherever it's needed, and add your text. So you can use this for hint boxes, stories, cut-scenes etc.
Adding music you add a music box. There was some confusion about music and sound editing possibilities from the E3 coverage, but this seems to be how it is according to Edge: the options on music boxes are to control the song, the audible range, and the volume level of each of the instruments in the music. However, you can also have music boxes that just play a given sound effect. For example, Edge describes granite whoopy cushions that sound a fart when jumped on.
Scripting is object based too. As Edge says, this is where LBP could have risked losing a lot of players - "the boss battle where people get stuck on and just give up". But, they say, it's not - it's simple stuff that can let you trigger enemy attacks, locked door behaviour or NPC behaviour. Switches are the main object for scripting. They give an example of a basic Zelda style puzzle made in 15 seconds - a switch tied to a motor. Flip the switch and motor can raise a locked door.
However, there's more kinds of switches than just manual. Motion sensitive ones can act like more conventional passive triggers. E.g. you could have an enemy drop down from the sky when you pass a point - all this behaviour control by cogs and pistons linked to the switch.
There's a lock-and-key switch based on stickers. Use the right sticker(s) to flip the switch.
There's magnetic switches. Which is totally new to me. You have a pair of switches that can be split between two objects. The switch only triggers when they're brought together. As Edge says: "in a single move, the colour-coded keys and gateways of Gauntlet and a hundred other RPGs are suddenly brought within reach".
As Edge says, simple building blocks, the complexity that can emerge from which is 'staggering'.
One example of the magnetic switches: finding a baby belonging to a meerkat blocking a door. The mother and the baby both have either parts of the magnetic switch. Find the baby and bring them together, and the switch triggers, activitating pulleys which take the mother into a standing positiion and opening a door at her feet.
The mechanism for chaining levels together is also revealed - keys. When you build a level, a key for that level is added to your inventory. If you want to link that level to another you're building, just place the key at the end, and players will be warped from one to another. The capability opened by this is pretty great also, in that it needn't just be warping players from the end of one level to the beginning of the next. You could have worlds of multiple depth..e.g. have a key to a doorway of a house, to warp your players to another level representing the inside of the house.
Like TheGreatDave mentioned, the team has apparently implemented RPGs, complex platformers, hub worlds, puzzle games like Tetris, and even a rudimentary homage to Outrun. Edge says if you know what you want, and you can think of a way of implementing it mechanically, you can probably do it in LBP.
Popit they say is the perfect interface for all this, taking only a couple of seconds to find anything you need at a given moment.
They address the issue of 'creative freeze', people just having a brain freeze in the presence of the possibilities offered by the tools. Mark Healey says he thinks it's less intimidating that MySpace, and that they haven't come across this problem in Beta testing. They say part of the reason for the craftworld aesthetic was to welcome imperfection.
Edge describes its own efforts with 5 minutes using Popit..a rudimentary assault course made out of rock. As they say themselves, their results were hardly brilliant, but they say they could have happily messed about in it for hours. The emphasis in the create mode is on enjoyment rather than speed, even for those not very good with it.
For those wonder 'WHERE'S MY READY-MADE GAME?!?', Edge says this was the real surprise for them on their visit. From what they played, they say it should be a 'devestatingly effective' 2D platformer out of the box, even if not very revolutionary. They say the mix of precision jumping and simple physics is very reminscint of 16-bit gaming. They had relatively low expectations for this part of the game, but they walked away with the impression that they had been playing with the 'purest' 2D design since Super Mario World.
They talk about the company for a bit, the team, their reaction to the expectation and pressure (Healey says "I don't think that's really true", when asked about the PS3 being tied to the fate of PS3), the way there seemed to be a hint of "lottery winner's confusion" among a team almost surprised by what they've created. However, Healey cautions "The game hasn't even been released yet - it might be crap. Never one to believe in Hype myself"
Edge concludes that the game may well even outshine Spore in terms of ambition, that it could be "that special game that finally demonstrates that control and freedom don't always have to be at odds".
their visit was before e3, so some of this was already known, but they've gone into more detail and do talk about features previously only hinted at.
cliffs:
-everything, including game logic entities, are physical
-can use a "mouth" object to have in-game text for cutscenes, hint boxes, and credits etc.
-music box lets you customise the sound design of your level. you can adjust the volume and audible range. you can have music or sound effects in these music boxes. someone even showed off a music mixer level at e3:
-"switches" are the basis for scripting in LBP. in the past they've cited complex, multi-stage bosses that have like 200 "switches."
-manual switch - a button you press with sackboy. eg. flip switch to open a passageway or fire a cannon
-motion sensitive switch - triggered by proximity/location. eg. walk past a certain point and trigger an enemy spawn or level event
-lock-and-key switch - based on stickers. use the right stickers to flip the switch.
-magnetic switches - two-part switch triggered when both pieces come in contact. this is what you could use to have a 'key' in your level required to open a door or whatever.
-keys - system to link multiple levels together. you can basically create an entire game from this. after beating level 1-1, you can send the player to 1-2 etc. you could also use this to have levels of multiple depth--doorway to a house leads inside the house.
-mentions the LBP the team has apparently implemented RPGs, complex platformers, hub worlds, puzzle games like Tetris, and even a rudimentary homage to Outrun. all with the switches and other systems available to players in LBP.
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talking about the included levels that will ship with the game, edge describes it as the "purest' 2D design since Super Mario World" and "devestatingly effective" 2D platformer. -edge even says LBP may outshine spore
