When kids are growing up, they envision game development studios as places where people are free to do what they want as they work on a game. That couldn’t be further from the truth for most studios, but it does seem to a pretty apt description of Media Molecule.

Sony’s Media Molecule – the studio behind LittleBigPlanet and upcoming Vita platformer Tearaway – is the subject of a new video that goes behind the scenes at the game development studio. It’s a fascinating look at the kind of open work environment the employees enjoy as they’re free to engage in what could best be described as mini-Game Jams.

Some of the best games of the past few years have come from indie development studios that encourage the kind of experimentation and creativity that led to the creation of games like LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway. Now, that kind of work environment could have been replaced by the design by committee workplace that’s seen so often in big game studios these days. It just adds another reason to be thankful that Sony didn’t implement such drastic changes when it acquired the studio a few years ago.

If you want to see the results of Media Molecule’s efforts, you’ll be able to pick up Tearaway on November 22. The game is exclusively available for the PlayStation Vita, and it was built with the platform specifically in mind from the looks of it.

[Image: PlayStation/YouTube]