Students + LittleBigPlanet + 24 Hours = Amazing

What can a team of design students create in just 24 hours? How about a complete video game level, crammed with animation, danger, and innovative art?

Last weekend, students from New York City's slightly awkwardly-named Parsons The New School for Design divided themselves into teams to design levels for an upcoming PlayStation 3 game called LittleBigPlanet. In the game, the player controls a little "sackboy" (with what appears to be a hacky sack for a head) as he runs around levels that are designed from within the game itself. The Parsons students were given access to an early copy of the game and had just 24 hours to figure out how to build their own levels. One team, calling itself "Team Sportsmanship," made a masterpiece, a hugely complex level in which the sackboy has to run and jump through the inside of a monster's body to reach its head. It's crazy and beautiful. Check it out:

LittleBigPlanet comes out next month, and you'll be able to access the Parsons levels (and other user-generated content) from within the game.

(Via Waxy.org.)