Art Director
Sony Computer Entertainment

The breadth and scope of Kareem Ettouney’s work reflects his diverse background in interior, graphic, theatre and film set design. Egyptian by birth his work displays many exotic cultural influences which make his work so very distinctive. His eclectic talents found their real home when he joined Lionhead studios in 2003. By combining the languages of architecture, art and design, Kareem quickly established himself as one of that company’s leading concept artists and became the Lead concept artist in 2004. His work can be seen in “Fable”, “Black and White 2” and “The Movies”. He was also part of the smaller prototype teams that worked on “The Room” and “Dimitri”. While at Lionhead, he became firm friends with Mark Healey and Alex Evans and worked with them on the cult hit Rag Doll Kung Fu. When Mark and Alex left Lionhead in 2006 to form Media Molecule, Kareem was their first and natural choice to join them as Art Director and Co-Founder. Kareem has been extremely instrumental in the iconic look of Media Molecule’s eagerly awaited first project, LittleBigPlanet, which is due for release on PS3 in 2008.

The art of LittleBigPlanet

The unique art and design work on the game that the whole world is talking about: LittleBigPlanet™, by Sony Computer Entertainment, for Playstation 3 The LittleBigPlanet experience starts with players learning about their character’s powers to interact physically with the environment. There are obstacles to explore, bits and pieces to collect and puzzles to solve – requiring a combination of brains and collaborative teamwork. As players begin to explore, their creative skills will grow and they will be ready to start creating and modifying their surroundings – the first step to sharing them with the whole community.
Characters have the power to move anything in this glued and stitched-together landscape; they have the power to design, shape and build both objects and entire locations for others to play.
There’s no complicated level editor; all of these skills can be learnt by simply playing the game. Creativity is part of the gameplay experience and playing is part of the creative experience. Players can make their world as open or as secretive to explore as they like.
When it’s ready, they can invite anyone within the LittleBigPlanet community to come and explore their patch – or can go and explore everybody else’s.