Last year we released a special LittleBigPrius level which formed the basis for a popular creation contest. The level was very well-received and has been played more than 300,000 times to date! The winning contest entry, Prius_Eco Adventure, became an Mm Pick and has been played over 88,000 times — pretty cool, right?

Now we’re back again with another custom level and contest, courtesy of our friends at Progressive Insurance. You might have downloaded the free Flo mod, kart, and track content for ModNation Racers, but now everyone’s favorite raven-haired, red lipstick and apron wearing spokeswoman is coming to LittleBigPlanet. It seems that those two salesmen from “A. Nother Insurance Company” have attempted to steal Flo’s bundler tool, with unexpected results!

This level is the focal point of a “Create Your Own Level” contest, which officially begins tomorrow. Play our “LittleBigProgressive” level to collect prize bubble items, and use them to create your own Progressive-inspired level. When you publish your level to the world, be sure to name it “Pro [Your level name here…]” so that it will be easy for everyone to find.

Make sure you get your level built and published prior to the conclusion of the contest at midnight on Tuesday, September 4th. That’s when our judges will take a closer look at the 10 most popular levels, as determined by the LittleBigPlanet community. We’ll judge these levels based upon originality, quality/polish, Progressive brand awareness, and use of the items obtained from our “LittleBigProgressive” level. From these finalists, we’ll pick a Grand Prize winner who will receive a PlayStation 3, a PlayStation Vita with a 4GB memory card, and copies of LittleBigPlanet Karting and LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, as well as both the PS3 and PS Vita versions of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as soon as the game is released. Our four Second Place winners will receive a PS Vita with a 4GB memory card and a copy of LittleBigPlanet PS Vita. That’s a whole lot of gaming goodness right there! The full contest details can be found here.

The Perseids Costume Returns!

To celebrate the annual return of the Perseids Meteor Shower to our night’s sky, we are re-releasing the Perseids Costume for LittleBigPlanet this week.

This rather dazzling costume is free, and will only be available for one week!

Be sure to head on over to the Store later this week to pick up this rather special costume for your Sackperson before it’s too late. Otherwise — much like the Perseids Meteor Shower itself — you will have to wait until next year for it to return.

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita Release Date Announced

Just in case you missed the news, last week we announced that Sackboy’s upcoming portable adventure will be released September 25th in North America!

That means that in just seven weeks, you will be able to join Sackboy on his amazing journey as explores the exciting new world of Carnivalia.

LittleBigPlanet Karting Beta Recap

On July 10th, the LittleBigPlanet Karting Beta opened its doors to the world, and for three weeks both fans and newcomers alike had the opportunity to experience LBP Karting for themselves. With nearly 350 levels published every day and over 125,000 total participants, the LBP Karting Beta was extremely successful and we again would like to thank everyone involved for their participation and feedback.

For those of you who didn’t get to play, we’d like to take this opportunity to share a sampling of some of the most impressive creations that were crafted using LBP Karting’s incredibly deep 3D Create tools. To check out the rest, take a peek at our full Beta recap, which was posted on the Playstation.Blog earlier this week.

Tree Top Tromp by AmazingFlyingPoo

Lava Tubin’ by Argorokx

Lightbeam from Outerspace by ShadowriverUB

You can also head over to LittleBigPlanetarium.com to check out some other great LittleBigPlanet Karting Beta videos, which have been collected and curated by our community for your viewing pleasure.

PAX T-Shirt Contest

Don’t forget you still have a few days left to enter the LBP Karting PAX T-Shirt Contest! This is your chance to design our PAX Prime LBP Karting t-shirt, which will be shared with thousands of fans at the show in Seattle — AND you even win a PlayStation Vita! Check out the contest page for all of the details, rules, and to enter (link to http://us.playstation.com/events/lbpkpaxcontest.html).

Mm Picks

This week we have a nice selection of new Mm Picks, as Sackboy explores Geraldo’s Hideout, Phosphur’s Dream and the Apple Garden in these great platforming adventures created by a trio of talented creators. Whilst our mini-game fans will enjoy a good game of Air Hockey or competing with their friends to see which Sackperson has the best lawn mowing skills!

Geraldo’s Hideout (1 Player Only) by Der_GamEr_1994

Game Studio – Grassive Aggressive: Rise of the Dillweed (2-4P) by

MiniS Game : Air Hockey retro version (update 1.04) by martsack

Phosphur’s Dream by BossVeg

Apple Garden [JPN] by Akinachan