Category: PlayStation

Here at Piccolo Studio, we like to say that we “craft” games rather than “make” them. Our logo features a needle and a thread, symbolizing this very approach.

With After Us, our next project releasing on May 23, we tell the story of Gaia, a small nymph brought to explore the outside world for the first time. The universe is a surrealistic version of Earth in the far future, after humans have expunged all life on it. It is a strange, oneiric, but ultimately captivating world where everyday objects float around, some small, others massive, and where a coat of hazardous oil taints the land.

This third person adventure mixes platforming, puzzles, and combat in a nonconventional way. The world is rich, divided into 10 different biomes. “Some parts of the game rely more on puzzles, some on exploration, others on combat, and often we switch up the traversal sections so it stays fresh”, says game co-director Jordi Ministral.

An organic approach to platforming

We invest a lot of time into creating singular experiences. How do we do it? We start with a vision, a holistic idea of how we want the player to feel. Then we take the rules of a specific genre, and we twist them. At its core, After Us is a 3D platformer. Yet, we intended to have many features often avoided when developing a platformer: a camera that is far from the main character, a lush world filled with assets artistically scattered around, and an absence of strict metrics. A designer’s nightmare, right? But we found solutions that worked wonderfully to create the organic experience we envisioned.

In complement, Gaia’s movements are simple to execute. They can be effortlessly chained in a pleasant flow. She dashes at very high speeds – about 70 km/h – so the scale of the world ended up being huge! “Players burn through content so fast that we ended up with more than 100kms of environment!”, explains Jordi. There is a lot of verticality as well. The main character can double jump very high, with an adequate balance between airborne agility and weight. Combined with gliding, controlling falls becomes easy. These motion mechanics have been designed precisely to traverse an organic world without strict metrics.

The innovative capabilities of the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller also add another layer to this aesthetic experience – through the sense of touch. Greeting and petting animals will be possible by sweeping the touchpad, and its triggers will offer resistance as well as vibration when performing Gaia’s Burst of Life! Light under the touchpad will also reflect your life bar, displaying a green color when you are at full health and turning red as you lose vitality.

Choices that yield aesthetic opportunities

Because of our design approach, environment artists had a significant role and freedom to craft the world: there is debris and garbage everywhere, floating objects and cables running all around… Things you would typically avoid in a 3D platformer. To make things even more challenging, the dynamic camera system often frames the world from far away to emphasize the contrast of a tiny character in an epic environment.

“Games rarely use those cameras because handling collisions is hell. But we decided to embrace this decision as it gives the game a distinct personality”, notes Jordi. The camera system is smart enough to get close to the main character when it matters. It allows us to emphasize the scope of the world or focus on specific areas. But we had to iterate many times over the right combination of camera collisions, dithered materials, and transitions to create a smooth, aesthetic experience.

Environmental storytelling

In a world that is so organic, without clear metric-oriented compositions that show you the path, you might think all you’re going to do is get lost. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: we use a wide range of elements to suggest the path ahead in a subtle, yet recognizable way (lighting, color, architecture, statues, props…).

Additionally, there are also full-fledged narrative and design elements. They tell stories while guiding the player. A landmark example is the thousands of statues scattered around, representing humanity. They create a path that is recognizable, without resorting to the usual solutions. But this involved dozens of iterations for every scene. We had to carefully place the assets and “compose” each section.

Finally, the game will constantly tease in the far horizon what you are going to play next and uses verticality to twist the path. At times it feels like a labyrinth and suddenly you are in a big open landscape. The game plays with contrasts all the time. And when it all comes together, the player is seized with a sense of freedom that is unusual for platformers.

After Us is out May 23 on PS5.

Greetings, fellow Cosmonauts! Thank you for tuning into this exciting new announcement. In our first PS blog post, we announced our reimagining of Sega’s arcade and console icon for Single, Co-Op and Versus gameplay – only on PlayStation VR2. The response has been overwhelming.

Today, as promised, we’re launching a free playable demo.

You will be able to pre-order the game at a discount before the full game launches on June 23 2023.

Our game is being crafted by a veritable dream team of developers, artists and musicians scattered all over our little blue ball spinning around in a remote corner of the galaxy – and your support means the world to us. In the meantime, allow us to tell you a bit more about what’s in store – both in the demo and in the full release.

What’s in the demo?

Tutorial

When you first load up the game, you are transported straight into the world of C-Smash VRS. The game is designed to be easy to pick up and play, so you can feel at one with your virtual body and at ease in a stylish space at the edge of time.

C-Smash VRS feels natural. In a few quick steps, the Tutorial gives you some guidance and general tips to play. Don’t forget to learn the Trick Smash, designed to attract the hard-to-reach high balls and hit the ball with larger-than-life power and precision.

A feature to note – if you want to switch hands, you can do so in the menu – left-handed, right-handed or ambidextrous, we’ve got you sorted!

Training

While most training modes are there to teach, this single player mode is a fun, engaging and absorbing challenge.

Smash blocks of different strengths, improve your score and enjoy the dynamic music.

The arena is built of a grid of dots that pulse and ripple with gameplay. This is reflected in the hand and head vibrations, making you feel the impact of a well-timed return as well as the ripple of a missed shot as it returns, ready to serve.

A crisp and beautiful cosmos awaits, the PSVR 2’s OLED display bringing the minimal but vivid color palette to life. Design has never felt more physical and present.

The Training mode gives you a small taste of the full release’s Journey mode, which you will also be able to play Co-Op with a friend. Which brings us to our Demo’s multiplayer mode:

Versus

Play with a friend or face off against players from across the planet.*

Using PlayStation Activity Cards, players not already playing the game, can jump straight in to join friends in multiplayer sessions. Hook up with a friend in the ‘Cosmic Shuttle’ and head out to play Clash, the fast-paced multiplayer VS mode included in the demo.

The aim is to smash the other player’s blocks and protect your own.

The power and speed of PlayStation 5 allows for instant transition into matches with your next rematch only seconds away!

You can play C-Smash VRS seated or standing – the game adjusts players’ heights automatically. We don’t want anyone to feel disadvantaged or left behind.

Unlike many other sports and online games, C-Smash VRS is designed to make you feel good, even when you “lose”.

The great Ken Ishii (Rez Infinite) and Danalogue (front man of The Comet is Coming and Soccer 96) have each written a great soundtrack with dynamic, totally transportive tracks for the game. Never have sport and music felt so good together.

In an ideal world, you’ll never realize you’ve just had the best workout – alone or with a friend – because it feels so much like a night out. In space.

What’s coming?

The demo is a small glimpse at our game, which will have an epic Journey mode, a sweat and joy inducing Infinity mode, and a variety of Co-Op and Versus modes.

We also have more features mapped for the full title, including a 3D audio soundscape and fully using adaptive triggers.

We can’t wait for you to see you in the demo – and look forward to taking you to new dimensions when the full game releases on June 23 2023.

* PlayStation Plus required for online play.

Resident Evil 4, launching this Friday, March 24, is a remake of the acclaimed original. It preserves the essence of the 2005 survival horror while introducing modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics. 

We asked the game’s director Yasuhiro Ampo, sound director Hiroshi Tamura and art director Hirofumi Nakaoka how they leveraged PlayStation 5’s unique capabilities, including 3D audio, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and stunning graphic fidelity to create the game on PS5.

PlayStation Blog: What were your first impressions when first learning about the power and capabilities of the PS5 from a developer perspective?

Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): The enhanced data reading speed allows the game to handle higher volumes of assets, while also generating richer graphics and reducing loading times. Immersive horror is one of the key elements for the Resident Evil series, so it’s extremely beneficial that players can remain uninterrupted during their gameplay even during scene transitions.

3D Audio creates realistic soundscapes in games and it’s an essential component that brings something new to evoke fear and horror. How did you leverage 3D audio in RE4 to conceive an even more terrifying audio experience?

Hiroshi Tamura (Sound Director): 3D audio was essential for shaping the audio for RE4. In moments of quiet tension, we dynamically 3D-layered sounds, such as the irregular cracking of wooden houses settling or other subtle noises over the bass produced by Ambisonics audio (a type of 3D audio format). In intense combat sequences, we made sure most sounds are outputted as object-based 3D audio, so that enemy or object noises can be heard behind the wall or the floor above. Our goal was to create an immersive experience by amplifying the suspense and building a three-dimensional soundscape. In addition, all the music in this game was produced and mixed in 7.1.4 channels.

Game controls in RE4 have also been refined and modernized. How did you leverage unique PS5 features such as adaptive triggers and haptic feedback in the game?

Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): We wanted players to share the sensation that the game’s main protagonist, Leon, was experiencing inside the game. For example, the DualSense controller will intricately vibrate and play sounds when Leon reloads a gun. The resistance of the adaptive trigger also changes depending on the weight of the gun.

Thanks to updated graphics, RE4 enhances the original game’s feeling of isolation and its haunting environments. How did PS5 help you achieve this?

Hirofumi Nakaoka (Art Director): While preserving the distinctiveness of each defining area – which is at the heart of the original Resident Evil 4 – we modernized each location to accommodate the PS5’s capabilities, so that players will feel the chilling isolation when exploring the secluded European village surrounded by a forest. We didn’t just want to make the environment darker to evoke fear, but we put an emphasis on shadows and silhouettes, rather than light, to capture the essence of horror. This requires a console that can output high-quality lighting. In addition to shadows, we also put a lot of work into capturing the dynamic nature of the environment, such as grass and trees moving with the wind or fog to depict stagnant air. These sorts of precise environmental details can only be unlocked with the power of the PS5.

What are some things you wanted to change, or did not want to change in this remake?

Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): I played the original Resident Evil 4 ahead of the remake’s development, and I felt that there was some room to freshen up the game’s controls, the story, and the characters, so they’re in-line with the level of current-gen games. So those are some aspects for which we made modern refinements. On the other hand, we only made small changes to the core gameplay elements of the original Resident Evil 4, such as aiming and shooting, resource management and weapon upgrades. These are still equally enjoyable today, so we just made slight refinements to expand on the gameplay while keeping the essence of the original game’s direction.

As a gamer, which PS5 feature makes you the most excited? Or what do you think makes the game experience more immersive?

Yasuhiro Ampo (Director): Personally, the DualSense controller. You can hear the radio coming through the controller’s speakers, you can feel the gun in your hands with the haptic feedback, and you can see how much health you have left because the controller lights up when you’re playing in the dark. They’re fun little features that add up to create a great gaming experience.

Aloy’s journey continues in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores — an expansion which sees the fierce Nora hunter pursue a sinister threat in the untamed wilds of a far-future, volcanic Los Angeles which has been wracked by violent tectonic activity. Pre-orders for Burning Shores, which launches on the PlayStation 5 console on April 19, 2023, are available as of today.

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Pre-ordering will give players access to the following digital bonuses:

• Blacktide Dye Outfit (available at the first dye merchant)
• Blacktide Sharpshot Bow (available from the first merchant in the Burning Shores)

The story picks up Aloy’s story right where Horizon Forbidden West left off – so, to enter the Burning Shores, you must complete the main quest (up to and including the final quest Singularity) in Horizon Forbidden West. Following the events of Singularity, she will receive a call over her Focus, beginning the DLC.

Aloy will then be able to travel to a dangerous new region south of the Tenakth Clan Lands, where players will experience a compelling new storyline featuring new characters, machines, and adventures – we look forward to sharing more details with you very soon!

Horizon Forbidden West is available now in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog.

The wait for a new entry into the Crash Bandicoot franchise is finally over! Crash Team Rumble is an all-new spin on the Crash formula, pitting players into epic 4v4 competitions, where each team aims to collect and bank more Wumpa fruit than the other. Between the many unique and varied heroes, equipable powers to change your loadout, and map specific relic stations that can cause havoc on the enemy team, there’s a lot to unpack and experiment with in Crash Team Rumble. With all the zany chaos you’d expect from the Crash heroes and villains, the first step to understanding how to Rumble is learning your character’s role: Scorer, Blocker, or Booster.

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Scorer characters

The name of the game is scoring Wumpa! Scorers like Crash are speedy heroes who can easily traverse the map, collecting Wumpa fruit and relics to assist their team. Scorers provide the bulk of your team’s scoring potential, so protecting your Scorers will be crucial to victory!

Blocker characters

The best offense is a good defense! Blockers excel at taking out opponents or defending your team’s Wumpa Bank. They’re extremely powerful combat characters who can easily take on multiple foes at once, and still hold their own.

Booster characters

Support your team by boosting your score! Boosters are specialists who aim to capture the various gem pads scattered around each map to boost their team’s score. Taking control of a cluster of gem pads increases the amount of points scored for each Wumpa fruit delivered to your Wumpa Bank, allowing them to turn the tides in a flash.

To give a better sense of how the developers themselves feel about each hero role, we checked in with the Toys For Bob’s associate creative director Lou Studdert on how each role impacts the game:

What role do you tend to play as?

Lou Studdert: While each role brings something new to the table, Scorer characters tend to be our first pick. They’re well-rounded, and give you the tools to play the way you want, whether that’s collecting Wumpa, or pestering the other team.

Is there a most difficult role to compete against?

Blockers might give new players a bit of trouble. If you’re playing a Booster or a Scorer and find yourself struggling to fight a Blocker head-on, remember that you aren’t alone! Rely on your teammates to help take them down, and don’t be scared to retreat to fight another day. Heroes with more mobility will have an easier time collecting relics on each map, which can be spent at relic stations to give you the upper hand.

Do you play as the same role every time, or do you change your strategy?

Typically we gravitate towards Boosters, but it depends on our mood! Sometimes you just want to wreak some havoc with Dingodile, or drop some pianos with Cortex. Thankfully, there’s always the option to change characters between matches, so if you feel the call to shake things up, it’s easy to try out a different playstyle at any time.

Do you have any advice for playing in the closed beta on April 20-24?

Be sure to experiment with the powers and characters available in beta! Any power can be equipped to any hero, so there’s a lot of room for experimentation to see what play style suits you the best. There’s even more planned for the final launch of the game, so while this is only a small taste of what’s in store, it’s a great chance to see what strategy feels the most fun. We can’t wait to rumble with you when our beta launches on April 20!

With the closed beta fast approaching, what characters are you most looking forward to trying out? Crash Team Rumble is available for pre-order today for PS4 and PS5.

Hi everyone, I’m Phil Crifo, Tchia’s game director and co-founder of Awaceb. We are so excited that tomorrow Tchia launches to the world, and it’s the culmination of an incredible 5-year adventure for a tiny team making a big game.  

As we’re nearing the release, we wanted to give you a final look at how we expanded on the sandbox open-world formula. If you’re new to Tchia, no doubt the below overview will bring you up to speed before you dive in the game on PS4 and PS5.  

To prepare you for the adventure that lies ahead, we also wanted to give you a few early-game tips. And so here are some of the top five items & features that you will be using in the game’s opening hours 

Slingshot  

Tchia’s trusty slingshot was gifted to her by her father, Joxu. It’s the very first tool you’ll receive in the game, and it will come in handy to aim at trees and knock down coconuts or bananas to consume and restore your energy. It’s also a useful weapon to wield against the Maano – the fabric-made creatures that have abducted Tchia’s father – to buy some time as you’re trying to find flammable items to get rid of them once and for all.  

You can also test your aiming skills in shooting range challenges, where reaching the top score will get you a golden trophy. Those will prove very useful for other activities.  

The slingshot also leverages some of the unique PS5 features, such as the adaptive triggers, where you’ll feel the weight of the sling at the tips of your fingers. And if you feel like becoming an expert sharpshooter, you can activate the motion sensor for a more accurate aim.  Give it a go, it’s accessible to toggle on or off in the menu. 

Ukulele  

One of Tchia’s most unique features is the Ukulele. You can harness the powers of this magical instrument with just a few strums. It’s fully playable, customizable, and also a game-changer.  

Gifted to Tchia by Joxu’s best friend Tre, the ukulele can be used for a whole host of things. Through unlockable magical tunes called Soul Melodies, Tchia can affect the world around her, make new items or animals appear to give her the edge in exploration and combat. The ukulele also comes into play at some heart-warming story moments in the game, where you can play along to scripted songs.  

When resting at a camp, you can also style up your Ukulele to suit you, with many options to customize it to your own personal taste. 

For those who want to jam a little more freely, Tchia’s ukulele is fully playable, and you can experiment with an entire musical scale. Whether you want to play chords or a single string, bend notes, pluck or tweak your way to musical greatness – the choice is yours to play whatever you want! We are very excited to see what you do with this feature.  

Soul-jumping 

From the early days of developing Tchia, we always intended to make a game that felt like a toy-box. We designed Soul-jumping with that in mind. Soul-jumping is one of Tchia’s inherent powers and you’ll use this to take control of almost any item or animal you can find in the archipelago.  

As we’ve already covered the Soul-jumping mechanics in detail in our latest video: 

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Here are some new animals you may not have seen yet that you can use to your advantage. 

Seagulls

Birds overall offer one of the strongest traversal advantages in the game. This is also why they will eat your soul-meter quickly! Use their super accessible controls to fly over cliffs and get to your destination in a flash. And if you’re cheeky, you can use “R2” to dump a nasty surprise on unsuspecting inhabitants. Cows also allow you to do the same, but be careful, as their dung is a bit unstable due to the use of Soul-jumping and they tend to … explode! 

Dolphins

Of all sea creatures you can possess in Tchia, dolphins are probably your fastest option… They can rush through the ocean if you sprint, and you can even do cool flips and other stunts when jumping out of the water. Fish are the best way to travel underwater and won’t be using the stamina you consume to hold your breath, giving you time to quickly scout your surroundings for valuable chests & pearls. 

Dogs (or Boars!)

Most land animals have digging abilities, which can prove very valuable when looking for trinkets or other hidden surprises. They are also much faster than Tchia on foot should you need to cover a large area more quickly. Though cats can’t dig, they do have another special ability that we’ll let you discover for yourselves! We’re very proud of the sound effect we’ve prepared when you trigger their ability 😉 

Crabs

Crabs are slow and don’t cover as much ground as the other animals, but they surely pack a pinch! Use their powerful pincers to snap locks off chests and get easier access to them!  

Trinkets & Pearls 

Trinkets and pearls are collectibles that you can find throughout the archipelago and play a critical role in the coutume – a Caledonian ceremony performed as a gesture of appreciation and respect for someone. Whenever you need to do offerings, or buy additional cosmetics, trinkets and pearls are almost always involved.  

You will find a lot of them throughout your journey, and you can identify their locations by activating shouting spots, that will reveal more activities and collectibles around you.  

Once you’ve collected enough of them, make your way to the nearest town or dock and see what kind of outfits or boat customization items you can unlock by spending them.  

Camera 

As you travel across the archipelago, you will meet many inhabitants who will help you on your journey. This is the case of Louise, a young girl from the village of Weliwele, that will give you a camera and ask you to take loads of pictures.  

Tchia is all about finding joy in the little things, and the camera system makes no exception. It was created to emulate the super rewarding process of shooting on film. Select your lens, your film roll, and even set up a tripod with a self-timer to take a cool pose. As you’re shooting on film, you’ll have to find a place where you can develop your pictures and enjoy the surprise of finding out how accomplished a photographer you are.  

A final word on accessibility

This was a last look at Tchia before it releases tomorrow, and we’re so grateful to everyone that has been with us throughout the development of our game. At the heart of Tchia is accessibility, and this is a philosophy that runs through the game in many ways.  

All activities and challenges have been set up so that performance is always optional, and you don’t need skills to progress in the story. Should you get stuck, you will always have the possibility to skip a gameplay segment so that you can discover what lies next with ease. Plus, if you really want to, you can start your journey at any point in the story via the chapter selection menu, available right at the beginning of your adventure.  

Tchia is a vibrant and colourful game inspired by New Caledonian culture. It’s a poetic coming of age story, but it also includes scenes that are not suitable for children. Therefore, if you want to play with your little ones, we recommend that you activate the “family mode”, that will automatically make some of the more violent or graphic scenes in the game suitable for the whole family. 

We can’t wait for you to dive into Tchia! And remember, if you’d like to customize Tchia & her boat to the colours of the other Kepler Interactive games, you can purchase the Oléti Edition (or the Kepler Customization Pack) that includes outfits, ukulele & boat customization items from the games Sifu, Scorn, Flintlock & Cat Quest.  

Oléti! 

Hello, Tourist. Your next adventure awaits in the war-torn, walker-infested streets of New Orleans, with new threats, action-packed combat, and even more walkers. And then there’s the dreaded Axeman hell-bent on retribution.

To help you on your journey, our team at Skydance Interactive has prepared a survival guide for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution. The game releases on PlayStation VR2 tomorrow, March 21.

Pack for the trip

In The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, you’ve got to prepare for anything and everything. Unending herds of walkers, diabolical individuals plotting your every downfall, and an unrelenting, seemingly unstoppable Axeman, to name a few. You’ll face intense challenges every time you set foot outside of base camp, so you’ll need the right resources.

First, upgrade your inventory size as soon as you can. To do this, you’ll need to upgrade the Gear Station at base camp to Level 6, and from there you can obtain the “Deep Pockets” upgrade. This adds nine inventory slots to your backpack and an extra large slot to carry two-handed weapons (such as the coveted chainsaw). Increasing your inventory size will help you in the long run with crafting healing items, weapons and other necessary upgrades.

In addition, upgrading your armor will help protect you against the walkers and enemies you encounter on your missions. Explore the new catacombs near base camp and you’ll find a new Heaving Plating Armor recipe to craft.

Weapons are a given (more on that below), but the right food will replenish your health and stamina when you need it most. We recommend crafting your own food using the recipes available in-game; while eating a can of beans you found could help you in a pinch, there is the likelihood it’ll make you sick, and you’ll need to craft medicine to undo the effects of eating low quality food. Some of the best recipes you’ll want to try are beignets, gumbo, and jambalaya.

Lastly, pack enough bandages and medicine each time you venture out into the city to heal yourself when you’re caught in a bad spot. The new crafting tables at base camp feature upgrades which can make healing, low stamina and curing sickness a worry of the past.

Know your weaponry

You’ll encounter a variety of weapons to help in your battle against walkers, members of the Tower and other dangers lurking around every corner. As powerful as each weapon can be, it’ll be of no use if you don’t know how to use it to your advantage. The most important thing is to take your time with a new weapon, and understand your best way to reload it. Be sure to try it out on a few sparse walkers before you rely on it for a herd.

Some of the most powerful weapons have nasty weaknesses for balance reasons, so you’ll need to understand each weapon’s unique features. They may be great for cutting through a herd but horrible against humans, or very good at range but nightmarish in close quarters.

Noise and light are also a factor when you are trying to sneak around, so keep that in mind as you arm yourself for a sortie. Lastly, not all weapons are paragons of durability in the harsh climate of post-apocalyptic New Orleans, so my advice is to always pack a spare or two.

A few more words should be said about the extra layers of depth in interactions that you will experience moving from PS VR to PS VR2. The new Sense controllers make reloading, healing yourself and revving up a chainsaw extremely precise and tactile, so make sure you are ready for that feedback and finger tracking action.

Explore the world

It’s crucial to make use of anything you can scavenge in the world, so it pays to explore your surroundings whenever possible.

A key way to earn more loot is by completing missions for the Exile trade network. Sonny’s Pawn Shop is a great starting point to take on new missions, which open new options for gathering and crafting essential survival gear.

For Tourists who are undaunted by a challenge, clearing walker-infested areas will help you obtain the best gear. Naturally, we know you’d want to avoid walkers as much as possible, but Chapter 2: Retribution is all about high risk, high rewards. One area in this state is Old Town – clearing this area (and others like it) will unlock Exile trade missions and night mode exploration for that area, featuring even better loot.

Befriend the night

Exploring at night introduces a different way to play in the world of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and can be beneficial to your survival, as certain resources are more prominent at night. With night mode come new rules for scavenging and exploration, not to mention even more encounters with even larger amounts of walkers. Difficulty is high, but we promise, the reward is well worth it.

Your tactical flashlight will be useful here, and switching it to UV will reveal hidden information that will guide you through the darkness, as well as finding items that can only be found at night (such as key ingredients for one of the new crafting benches at base camp). You can also use flares to distract walkers and make your escape.

If you master night mode, you’ll find backpacks full of loot and essential scavenging materials for your crafting station.

–

In The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, there are plenty of things in the world out to end you, but an even greater number of methods to survive your way. We hope these tips will help you as you continue your tour through New Orleans on PS VR 2 starting March 21. Good luck, Tourist.

Hello, I’m Tommy Refenes. You may remember me from such games as Super Meat Boy and Super Meat Boy Forever. I’m delighted to be able to tell you that the Meat Boy universe is returning to PlayStation later this year in the form of a brand new title called Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine! 

Meat Boy has had enough games (for now). Now it’s time for Dr. Fetus to be a star. Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine takes place right after the events of Super Meat Boy Forever (right after the ending, before the post credits scene, to be exact). Dr. Fetus wants to make clones of Meat Boy and he needs to weed out all of the crappy clones from the gene pool to get pure, perfect, killable Meat Boys. I wonder what Dr. Fetus would do with a never ending supply of Meat Boys…hmmm…probably a question for another time.

Buzzsaws, lasers, missiles, and other hazards

What this means in practice is a Puyo Puyo-style match-four puzzler with a unique hardcore twist, courtesy of the nefarious Dr. Fetus’ devious contraptions. As you’re trying to get your color-coded clones to the bottom of the screen and build combos, you’ll have to deal with buzzsaws, missiles and a host of other hazards primed to destroy your clones if you don’t play with the precision that the Super Meat Boy series has always demanded. In other words, what we are doing with Dr Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine Machine is bringing the hardcore challenge Meat Boy is known for to create a one-of-a-kind blend of puzzle and action gameplay. 

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The genesis of this game lies in a long lasting relationship between Team Meat and our friends at Headup. We’ve worked together for almost 12 years in various capacities and we love them. So when they approached us with this idea for a match-four puzzle game, we were pretty busy with launching Super Meat Boy Forever but after that was out we looked at their pitch and prototype and fell in love all over again. We merged their design and programming skills – mainly Niko Panagiotopoulos and Mark Aldrup – with our art and design skills and now we have this wickedly fun and beautiful puzzle game that we never would have even considered making if not for their amazing prototype and desire to make something new and awesome.

It’s time to enjoy dying again

The game has over 100 hand-crafted levels filled with hazards and traps that will test your puzzle mind along with your finger reflexes. It’s a game in the Meat Boy Universe, so expect to die – over and over again. When you have finally died enough your skills will be second nature and you will start beating levels with no more effort than taking a single, simple breath. You will feel accomplished. You will feel…whole. At that point you will then have to fight a boss which will kill you over and over. You will know death. It’s a lot of fun and pretty cute too! 

If you’re already a fan of Meat Boy, first, thank you and, second, there’s going to be a lot in Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine to please you. We’ve got a whole bunch of familiar Super Meat Boy and Super Meat Boy Forever locations like the picturesque Forest, the Hospital, and Salt Factory, all with dazzling backgrounds, animations and cutscenes created by the original Super Meat Boy Forever artists. We’ve also got an incredible soundtrack created by the talented Ridiculon.

It’s been fun to see Meat Boy heading in a new direction in collaboration with a team who showed us a possibility for the series that had never crossed our minds. What’s come out of it is a game that exists in a familiar genre, but at the same time is like no other game in that genre. The move to inject the hardcore meaty DNA of Super Meat Boy into a match-four puzzler is one that I think few of you would have expected (heck, we didn’t expect it when Headup first bought us the idea!). But trust me, it was a crazy enough idea to work and I can’t wait for you all to be able to try and survive Dr. Fetus’ twisted test chambers yourself when the game hits PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 later this year.

Last week, we asked you to travel to the Three Kingdoms and explore Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, sharing your adventures using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

profjpg shares a black and white silhouette fighting with a spear

marka_game shares a griffin-human hybrid mid fight

Mannitugames shares a player leaping on their white horse and brandishing a sword

Nu_Lupo shares a player unleashing a red phoenix-like bird

LemonShiko45 shares an adorable Shitieshou demon that looks like a reverse colored panda

themarkplumb shares a player standing in a cherry blossom forest wearing an ornate red armor set.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: Green
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on March 22, 2023

Next week, we’re seeing green. Share verdant, emerald, citrine, or any shade of green found in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

With the recent launch of Destiny 2: Lightfall, the latest expansion for Bungie’s sci-fi action MMO, players have been diving deep into new activities, exploring a new elemental power in Strand, and discovering the secrets of Neptune’s hidden city of Neomuna. A new Destiny 2 expansion also means a new raid – Destiny’s challenging cooperative adventures designed for fireteams of six, built to test players’ skill, problem solving, and ability to work as a team. On March 10, Guardians all over the world delved into the latest – and arguably most visually stunning – raid to date: Root of Nightmares.

To celebrate the launch of Lightfall’s new raid, we recently spoke with three members of the Destiny team: Associate Designer Kailani Marrero, Staff Designer June Meyer, and Design Lead Brian Frank to get behind-the-scenes insights into what it’s like working on (and giving names to) some of the most mysterious, intriguing, and challenging content in all of gaming.

How does the Root of Nightmares raid move the narrative forward following the initial events of Lightfall?

June Meyer: Root of Nightmares sees players investigating The Witness’ pyramid in the aftermath of the end of the Lightfall campaign. In the raid, players get to see firsthand how the Traveler’s Light terraforms the landscape, bringing new life and disrupting the existing environment. We’ve never had a chance to see or influence this process, and the raid gives players the opportunity to transform the environment through their actions.

Kailani Marrero: It was important to ensure that the lessons the player (and the Guardian) learned on Neomuna translated to their journey in the raid. The Guardian spends some time learning to “go with the flow” – especially when coming to terms with Osiris and learning to wield Strand during the campaign – and we took that mentality into the raid encounter. Without spoiling things for those who haven’t experienced the raid yet, the Guardians know who the threat is, and they know that this entity must be taken out. Even in the face of overwhelming odds, there is work to be done and that confidence in yourself, and in your allies, still should remain true.

Q: What are some specific examples of Bungie incorporating narrative themes into the puzzle-like gameplay elements of Destiny 2’s raids?

Brian Frank: In Vow of the Disciple [from Destiny 2: The Witch Queen], the symbols and their meanings were designed as a system from which gameplay events would build statements about the places and characters in our world. Within the context of The Witch Queen’s themes of deception and illusion, they were intended to be evocative of truths, lies, or prophecies. They also help to illicit wonder from players in having to interpret and communicate them to the fireteam in order to progress through the raid.

KM: Narrative themes are often the bow on top of the experience that adds that extra “oomph” to a raid. Many mechanics are done ahead of time with the general narrative concept of the raid in mind and then more context is given by the narrative designer. The bones are there but then you get to build on top of it to make it even cooler and to give context where needed.

JM: The thematic goal with the mechanics of Root of Nightmares was that only through wielding both Light and Darkness can Guardians succeed in their fight against The Witness. Players begin the activity using solely Light and in the second encounter, both Light and Darkness are required but never combined. By the final encounter, players have learned how to combine these elements in truly meaningful ways.

Q: What are some of your favorite raid names from past expansions, and why?

KM: I’m sure that answer would change with every person you ask! I am completely biased and love Root of Nightmares over all of them. It took us a bit to get to a point of agreement – we had a good laugh about the unintentional “blank OF blank” formula – but Root of Nightmares won out because it was just too good to pass up.

This time around, we wanted a name that sounded both mysterious and sinister, and this was the winner by far. Some players may have also picked up on hidden messages in Neomuna hinting at who they might face in the boss fight, and we wanted to pay that off with the raid name. If you know your Destiny lore, certain names immediately come to mind when you think “Nightmares.”

If I had to pick my top three though, it would be: Root of Nightmares, Vow of the Disciple, and Last Wish [from Destiny 2: Forsaken].

JM: Deep Stone Crypt [from Destiny 2: Beyond Light] will always be a special one for me because of its simplicity. The name of the raid revealed everything about the activity and nothing at the same time. We knew that the most important piece for players was letting them know where they were going, but we thought it was critical to keep the player journey under wraps. This was the first name proposed in our discussion and we didn’t bother coming up with other options because we knew it was the best choice.

Q: What goals does the team keep in mind when naming a raid?

BF: Our goal is for the name to capture a sense of mystery, for it to be evocative of an adventure you can imagine your character embarking on, or of a challenge to endure and overcome with your fireteam.

KM: Naming a raid means finding that combination of words that really capture the essence of the activity. They’re usually meant to toe the line between giving you absolutely nothing and everything all at the same time. It’s a difficult-yet-fun challenge!

Q: What else would the Bungie team like players – new or returning to Destiny 2 – to know about how raids fit into the experience?

KM: For me, Destiny raids are such a unique experience. You see a lot of different raid experiences across MMOs, RPGs, and the combination thereof, but to see it in an FPS, for me, is so cool. It’s a challenge for players who are willing to meet it and as a reward you get cool stuff and more story. Wins all around.

BF: As pinnacle cooperative activities, Destiny raids are designed to foster player stories. We set a high bar for coordination and mastery of the challenges unique to each raid. It is very rewarding to succeed, which requires reliance on your fireteam, when at the outset to achieve victory may have seemed impossible.

Q: How can Lightfall players best prepare to partake in the Root of Nightmares raid?

BF: If you’re up for the challenge, the Legendary campaign is a great way to acquire a set of gear that puts you right at the recommended Power level for the raid. Another approach would be to engage in Lightfall and Seasonal ritual activities that offer Power upgrades.

JM: Run Neomuna activities to unlock your Strand fragments, because grappling and mobility are great ways to stay alive in each of the raid encounters. Also, dungeons are a good opportunity to gear up and to dip your toe into more complex endgame activities without needing to get as many teammates together. 

KM: Finding a great fireteam is paramount to having fun during any Destiny 2 raid. If you don’t know five other players to raid with, don’t worry! You can use the “Fireteams” feature on the Destiny 2 mobile app to either join an existing raid group or create your own from scratch.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is available now.