Oct
22

PixelPatch: PJ Monsters Updates Incoming

Posted by Matt Morton // Associate Producer, SCEA-Santa Monica Studios

Hi PixelJunkies! I’m Matt Morton, Associate Producer at SCEA Santa Monica Studio and I’ve had the great fortune of working on the PixelJunk series since the very first title, PixelJunk Racers. We’ve been working hard to keep spreading the PixelJunk Love (as Deb Mars calls it) and wanted to give you a heads up on the upcoming patch for PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Monsters: Encore.

The patch will be releasing VERY soon, with Japan getting the first patch release on October 23. If all goes well with final testing, you will see the patch in SCEA and SCEE territories on October 30. If there are any delays to the above mentioned dates, we will be sure to update the blog to let you know about it, so stay tuned!

The Q-Games team has been hard at work on the PixelJunk Monsters patch and has packed a TON of great features into this great game. I’ll give you a quick breakdown of some of the new features you will expect to see:

Game Difficulty settings
You can now choose between three different difficulties of gameplay! There is a Casual mode, the Regular/Ranked mode, and Hard-core mode. The great news here is that you can use any combination of difficulties to complete your progress through the islands! Is there one particular map that’s too hard? Try it in Casual mode. If you Rainbow the level, that rainbow counts and will remain on the map no matter what difficulty the other rainbows were achieved at! Only the Regular difficulty will register on the ranking boards, though.

Tower Menu selection
You can now set the default menu to appear when selecting a tower! How many times have you sold off a tower and run over to another tower to quickly upgrade it and accidentally sell it by mistake? I know I’ve done that many, many times. Now you can choose which option appears as the default, instead of the last action you selected.

Tower Balancing
Those of you who have purchased Encore know about the reduced cost on the Ice Tower, and balanced functionality of the Tesla tower. This patch applies those changes to BOTH islands, not just the Encore island.

Video Recording / YouTube Support
Ever since Q-Games included this feature into PixelJunk Eden, we knew it needed to be in Monsters as well. You will be able to record up to 10 minutes of gameplay and upload it directly to your YouTube account, or send it to your video folder on your PS3’s XMB.

XMB Custom Soundtrack Support
You can now make your own custom soundtrack to listen to as you play PixelJunk Monsters and Encore! I’ve personally been enjoying listening to the PixelJunk Eden soundtrack while I play Monsters, as well as listening to the PixelJunk Monsters soundtrack within Eden! It’s great how well those fantastic soundtracks work in other games.

With these features being added, and several other small bugs being fixed in the game, we think you’ll have a great time playing PixelJunk Monsters and Encore all over again.

I think that’s about it … But it feels like I’m missing something … Hmm … I can’t quite put my finger on what I might be forgetting. Wait a minute … I remember now …

TROPHIES
Trophies are now added for both PixelJunk Monsters and Encore. We weren’t able to retroactively apply Trophies to the previously played data, but Q-Games didn’t want to force people to play everything all over again. They came up with a great idea by creating Trophy Challenges. These challenges have specific maps with set rules or objectives that will reward you with Trophies if you complete them properly.

Recently, Jeff Rubenstein got to visit Q-Games in Kyoto (the lucky so-and-so) and shot an interview with Dylan to talk more about the patch for PixelJunk Monsters. Check it out …

Tagged //pixel junk encore, pixeljunk eden, pixeljunk monsters, playstation store, psn

Filed: Developer Corner, Inside PlayStation, News, PlayStation Games, PlayStation Network

171 Comments // 5 Replies

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(Average: 4.80 out of 5)

171 Comments // 5 Replies
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abs | October 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 am

Thank you so much for this update. Me and my wife, err especially her, can’t stop playing pjm…

FDPfrankie | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am

Finally!!!! One of my favorite PSN games is PJ Monsters. Can’t wait for the Update.

ftwrthtx | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am

Thanks for the info.

Phoenix8387 | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am

Will PixelJunk Racers ever recieve Trophies?

Clinton514 | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 am

Here’s a question I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone ask just yet(no I didn’t read through all of these comments):

IF I’m playing my custom music while Youtube Recording…will my custom audio be saved into the recording?

Thanks and keep the good games coming!

Dulan Cuthbert replied on October 22, 2008 at 9:18 am

Hi there,

Due to library constraints both features aren’t available simultaneously unfortunately.

bbblackflag | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 am

WOW people are voting this less than 5 stars

I’ve lost all faith in this community

younghustla561 | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am

finnally, i cant wait :D

ROLO_ONFIRE | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am

Great update, this will be my 1st trophy supported game as well as in game music.

Regular is the same difficulty as now default?

SquallSK | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am

Please SCE .. I beg you .. make Team 17 to bring us Project X HD for PSN !! Project X is THE best game ever on Amiga ! Pls let it into our hearts once again ! Thx

Legendbyname | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am

Really thought he was referring to “a lot of males” as opposed to ” a lot of mail” hehe.

Love pixeljunk games, thanks for the continued support!

SquallSK | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am

Yes and Superfrog HD as well pls !! :-) That would be perfect .. Project X and Superfrog in HD on PSN ! World would be ours then ! :-)

BlueSpeed9 | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am

Tower balancing for the first island is something that I have been waiting for you — you guys are amazing!

GGCAN | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 am

Thanks for the update Matt.

Great to have all this coming !

zeke2040 | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 am

oh man this is great news.. but will the game have retroactive on our game save file… i would hate to delete it and and restart all over again… but this is a great update for those people who didn’t get a chance to get the game, and play it… now would be a great time for that now! also thanks for the update as well

Dulan Cuthbert replied on October 22, 2008 at 9:44 am

Your current save file will work fine.

*Most* of the trophies are in a special challenge mode separate to the main game. YOu never know, there might be some hidden ones to find in the main game though ;-)

DwightSchruteDM | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am

Hey Matt do you think Q will ever do a side scrolling platformer with bosses?

stlthriot | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:44 am

So are these PSN Trophies or in-game trophies? Or both at the same time?

Just going by that screenshot of the list it looked like it was in-game.

Dulan Cuthbert replied on October 22, 2008 at 10:01 am

They are PSN Trophies – we just provide a more detailed menu within the game for them which is what you can see in the screenshots.

Solidus_Dave | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am

Woa, thank you!
I would buy Monsters again xD

It is exactly the kind of game, I want to see on psn (instead of uninspired shooter Nr. 22542 like some of these XBLA Ports).

And I hope more people will buy Monsters now to reward your good feedback to us gamers, just like Criterion did with Burnout Paradise.

Rogerjak | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am

Perfect!!

TheInfectedBy590 | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am

Awesome, I love Monsters! Can’t wait for the patch! :)

shima | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 am

Yesss!! Finally! This patch will make me spend a couple of more hours in front of this game. :D

Stinkin Mushroom | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am

Finally! YES YES YES!

When do we get news of your next games?

freemantim | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:05 am

Thanks Dylan

Thanks Matt

zakupilot256 | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:05 am

Thats Pretty good.

decimalator | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am

SWEETNESS! Thanks for the love Dylan! I had almost completed Encore by myself, but my son had been pretty frustrated by the difficulty and had stopped playing with me (he’s 8). He’ll be excited that we can play it together in Casual mode!

Do you have a trophy list to share?

Does this also mean you’re close to having the additional difficulty modes in Eden too?

Thanks again for such a great game — no, SERIES of games! They are by far my favorite PSN games!

Toast | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 am

yay trophies =D

Can’t wait for the update!

Ravage27 | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 am

um Dulan, i know it’s probably not up to you guys, but can i ask if there’s a confirmed date for the asian patch. I know it’s definitely gonna be much later than Oct 30 (as always T_T) but it would be nice to know when at least.

Ravage27 | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am

whoops sorry for misspelling ur name XD

SnoopYTimes | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:20 am

ahhh! PixelJunk Madness!!!

Jeigh | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:20 am

I can’t believe you guys are updating this game- I’d figure the amount of people who still don’t have this game would so insignificant that you couldn’t justify the cost. That must mean you guys really love us. :P

Thanks! Still one of, if not THE, best games on PSN. :D

pauls21 | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 am

The Tower Menu Selection is a great add-on. One that was really needed. And Trophies! Another reason to continue playing this game. Awesome Update

perrandy | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 am

this is a pretty good game, i truly enjoyed the demoand i cant wait to get my psn card in order to buy this game along with superstardustHD.kudos to dylan and the team for this game!

RandomEarthling | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 am

It kind of stinks that the trophies couldn’t be retroactive but with all the updates I don’t mind playing through the game again.

I love the new YouTube feature but only 10 minutes? Why not the ability to upload an entire level which can take much longer than 10 minutes?

Anyways, this is an awesome update. Thanks!

Jeigh | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:27 am

By the way, Dylan: you look tired in the video- be sure to get some sleep. If you die of exhaustion then I’ll have to kill you. :P XD But seriously, take it easy man.

Dulan Cuthbert replied on October 22, 2008 at 5:35 pm

nah, I’ve always had a bit of a sleepy look. I make my games in a half-dream state ;-)

CitizenInsane27 | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 am

THANKS DYLAN!

Yes, now I can go back and beat the crap out of the game again, I am so ready. PJEden was hard, but fun. This patch sounds like it’s gonna revamp my Monsters lovin.

Ghostm | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 am

Great job, great post! Totally awesome game. I cant wait.

Fersis | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 am

@82 RandomEarthling

Read the post again.
The trophies comes from a NEW game mode …
yeah NEW GAME MODE + TROPHIEs + CUSTOM SOUNDTRACK + YOUTUBE SUPPORT = WIN

And the 10 minutes is a youtube limit.

PaNDaSHaT | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am

Thanks for the update! I’ve been waiting for a good reason to replay PJM:E.

mclaren777 | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am

I’ve heard there was a way to get PixelJunk Racers for free if we’ve purchased Monsters/Eden. Is there any truth to that?

VoodooVyper | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am

Awesome patch, terrible video.

toombzie | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am

any idea when eden will be updated to give the new difficulty levels?

SantanaClaus89 | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 am

You guys a Q Games never cease to amaze me! Thanks so much for this I can’t wait to dive back into PixelJunk Monsters, and I’m looking forward to your next project!

JBruno | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am

Great News! but im still waiting for a easy option in Pixeljunk Eden too.

B1ack_Mage | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am

Awesome! PJM is still one of my favorite games on PSN, I look forward to seeing the new features and getting the trophies. Thanks!

DesertChicken | October 22nd, 2008 at 11:30 am

Cool. Always good when a developer spends time post release for updates like this.

One thing I’d like to know about is the possibility of online capabilities for the PixelJunk Games. I’ve recently found myself with a lot of real life friends who own this game. Offline coop is nice when they come over, but it isn’t always easy to get together. I’m finding myself really wanting to interact with my friends though the game somehow.

Ideally online coop would be choice, but I’m sure it’s a lot to ask for. Are the reasons for not implementing it technical, resource based, or audience interest based?

The ways I want to interact with my friends doesn’t even have to be online coop, though. While playing Super Stardust HD, I found that online scoreboards where you can filter your friends made the game very competitive. I found myself playing the game months after it came out just to beat my friends new scores.