Hello readers! This is Ana (the producer) and Tomas (the designer) from FluffyLogic. We’re a digital media development studio based in Bristol, UK. The home of trip-hop, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Cabot who set sail and discovered America in 1497 (Though I don’t think the Native Americans had reported it lost…) bubum…
For the last few months we’ve been hard at work on our take on the Tower Defense genre. Although here in the UK we spell it ‘defence’ ;-). If you’ve not played any tower defence games, you’re missing out. They are a great off-shoot of real-time strategy games where the player can only build static defences and the enemy is the one on the move. Our art director, Stuart, introduced us to a few of the games on the net and needless to say, work around the office dropped to zero as we got hooked. At the time we had been given a couple of PS3 development kits by Sony to play around with and we thought, “Wow, we’d love to do our own take on this.” We threw around a few ideas then went up to see Sony and surprisingly enough, it turned out that they had been thinking exactly the same thing. Thus Savage Moon, our first game for the PS3, was born. It is due for release on the PlayStation Network store this week for $9.99…we’re very excited.
First off we wanted to give the game a bit of a story. All the tower defence games we’d played on the net were pretty abstract, but we wanted to give the player a sense of purpose and threat. I am a fan of Harry Harrison’s Death World books and have always been fascinated by the idea of a whole eco-system turned against you…so we thought this would be a good way to go. Tomas and I decided to make this the basic premise of the game — humans have landed on an asteroid to mine valuable minerals from it, however as they burrow into the ground, the sentient rock produces its own auto-immune response, much in the same way that the human body produces white-blood cells in response to an infection. Except here, the response is in the form of massive chitinous armoured bugs! (Or Insectocytes as we call them).
In terms of the style of the game – given that we had decided on massive insects – it almost went without saying…we were hugely inspired by ‘Starship Troopers‘ which has been a firm film favourite for years. I especially like the different types of bugs that appeared and this inspired us in the range of different creatures that appear in our game. In keeping with the xeno-biological theme, the Insectocytes evolve throughout the game, with each wave becoming tougher, and the creatures mutating into new forms to meet the human threat.
In response to this, the player needs to research and deploy new forms of technology to meet the escalation of bug toughness. The strategy of the game is a mix of open and directed levels — in some levels the player can place towers to herd the Insectocytes into their cross-fire. In other levels the landscape defines the battlefield and the player must use their abilities to respond to this. The challenge, like your enemies, evolves. The Insectocytes will always protect the place they spawn by seeking out and destroying your mining base. If your mining base takes too much damage, it’s game over. The Insectocytes are strong but not too smart; you need to match your strategy/puzzle-solving skills against their armour (but you also have some serious fire-power on your side!)
So what types of creature will you face? We’re not going to give them all away but some crawl, some run, some bite and some shoot. Here’s a taster:
Above is a ’soldier’ Insectocyte. They are pretty fast, tough and have powerful mandibles with which to deliver bone-crushing bites. These form the backbone of the sentient asteroid’s defences. They come in a variety of sizes and colours but they all have just one aim — to remove the infection that is humanity…
So what do you get to use? As the commander of the defences, you have the ability to call in orbital drop-pods, each of which lands a fully functional military tower. Towers come in two types; attack towers (that impact the enemy) and support towers (that help the attack towers). Key to success in the game is the use of the right tower at the right time and in the right places to stop the waves of Insectocytes. Here’s an example:
This is a machine-gun tower. As you upgrade this tower, it goes through five levels of offensive power you can deploy. The idea is that as your enemy evolves, you can upgrade your towers to match. Different towers upgrade in different ways – some get an increase in damage, other an increase in the range they can reach, and sometimes upgrades give you a bit of both. As the commander, you will get a feel for the best way to use upgrading pretty fast.
We hope this whets your appetite for some strategy-action on your PS3. As we said, the game is out tomorrow as a direct download via the PSN store for $9.99.
The music and sound in the game is one area we would particularly like to mention. For this we hired a local electronic music producer we knew and had worked with before. He is well known in the breakcore scene and plays under the name Parasite. He gave the game audio the sense of menace we felt it needed.
(Average: 4.61 out of 5)
137 Comments // 8 Replies
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1
mywhitenoise | January 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
heh, it’s about time.
2
Berae | January 28th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Great! I ve been waiting for it for a while :) like many others
I hope it rocks!
Thanks
3
Schnacky | January 28th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
finally, cant wait
4
FlyRice | January 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Will multiplayer be added in as future content? No multiplayer, no buy for me. :(
5
Unknown_Hero | January 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
WHOO only 4 weeks late
6
Hpedni | January 28th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
….I spent the money in my psn account 2 days ago -_- I’ll still buy it though. You should have said “next week” instead, then I would have saved. :( Don’t worry I’ll buy another psn card, I’ve been wanting the game for too long to pass up.
7
filthyvillain | January 28th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Well, I must admit, I’m not a big fan of tower defense games, but I will be picking this up first thing tomorrow. The inclusion of a story, and great visuals make this a day one buy for me. I hope to see some DLC and dev support for Savage Moon in the future:)
8
jayyy91 | January 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Nice Killzone 2 countdown, Jeff!
Jeff Rubenstein replied on January 28, 2009 at 4:29 pm
You noticed! :-D
9
theJETbomb | January 28th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
TURRET D FOR LIFEEE lol but seriously trophys?
Daimion Pinnock replied on January 29, 2009 at 9:23 am
Yes trophies are available
10
DonnyG | January 28th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
The EU version has trophies so I’m assuming this will too.
11
TheGuardianFID | January 28th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
OMG Our moon has been invaded by giant bugs, quick quick somebody call the Pentagon, the White House, ORKIN!!! :P I will enjoy defeating these fowl vermin, honey where’s my space suit??? I’ve got a planet to save!!! >:( O_o :D *que 2001 theme*
12
jipmg | January 28th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Woah amazing game
13
anevilgerbil | January 28th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Sweet! i can’t wait for tommorow!
14
wocyob | January 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
will there be some kind of demo?
Daimion Pinnock replied on January 29, 2009 at 9:24 am
Watch this space for a future announcement regarding a demo.
15
VenomXv | January 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I have been waiting for this game since forever. Good to see it’s finally coming!!!!
16
Thegodslayer | January 28th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
iv been waiting for this bout time. purchasing for sure
17
borntowheel | January 28th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Will there be a demo?
18
CrashSpyro | January 28th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I’m looking forward to playing it tomorrow.
19
SpyDudeFX | January 28th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
It has trophies, and good price.
20
BZKlint | January 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Kind of reminds me of the PC Battlezone series only you know, without the FPS element ;)
WBFS
(Will Buy For Sure)
21
Moosehole | January 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I would go on and on about how it’s about time and I’m outraged and all that, but I’m just so relieved to hear that it’s actually coming out tomorrow that I’ll refrain.
Hooray.
22
ittech | January 28th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Holy Space Invaders in 3D.
23
Ocelot420 | January 28th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
i so want this psn game, but i cant sign in, so [DELETED]
24
Xoombie503 | January 28th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
hell yea finally
25
Link01 | January 28th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Awsome.. took a while… those themes were there and the game wasn’t :p.
but I was wondering…… will it have custom music? Or any other special features ;)
KILLZONE 2 BABY IS COMING
26
Link01 | January 28th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Oh, and how many silver or gold trophies does it have?
27
smokey_vols | January 28th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Positive this time? We have been told this before.
28
sNsKid | January 28th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Finally I can spend some money!! :D
29
VincentVendetta | January 28th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
So you are from Britain?…
Well that explains the release date.
30
Darkos87 | January 28th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Is there any sort of multiplayer in this game?
Daimion Pinnock replied on January 29, 2009 at 9:29 am
No we don’t have multiplayer, however there are global online leaderboards.
31
i_like_toast | January 28th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Love me some TD :D
32
luiginut | January 28th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Eh, no buy for me. I still have to finish PJ Monsters.
33
trav54 | January 28th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I’ve been waiting for this one.
34
ANUBUSNYC | January 28th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Hell Yeah, been waiting for this immediate buy for me, can’t wait!!!
35
Ftwrthtx | January 28th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Better late then never.
Thanks
36
ajpfeif | January 28th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Small Question.
In the picture what are the controllers plugged into??? =D
37
Enforcer_X | January 28th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Yes about time!
SCORE!
Funny you talk about infection as I got sick this morning so I will most likely stay home from work tomorrow and be playing this game while I fight my own infection.
Thanks and keep up the great work!
Can’t wait!
38
Ehahneli-13 | January 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Awesome! I’ve been looking forward to this game. PSN is going to get a lot of love from me in the coming weeks. I’m going to pick up this game, Flower, and Noby noby boy.
39
BlindsideDork | January 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
About frickin’ time!!!
GAME OF THE YEAR!!!
40
GUINNESSS | January 28th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Why no demo?? All new games released should have a demo too, so we can decide on whether we like it or not!
41
TakiFuGu | January 28th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Isn’t this game similar to Pixel Junk Monsters?
Jeff,
It would be nice if you were to post a blog validating that all PS3/PSN games coming out in 2009 will have Trophy support. It’s a bit tiring seeing this question in 2009. I know I read somewhere prior that Trophies are mandatory for all PS3/PSN games starting in 2009. Right?
42
Cioden | January 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Huzzah!! I’ve been looking forward to this game for quite sometime now!
43
rbanke | January 28th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Releasing this game later than EU cost you a few sales from me and my brother in law. I’ve heard less than good things about it from people who own it…but would have bought it day one had i not.
44
TakiFuGu | January 28th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
By the way, great price. $9.99 is the sweet spot for me!
45
ClinToN | January 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Interesting audio! I’ll be getting this tomorrow. Congrats on getting the game finalized for NA.
Chalk that up to one less thing that people on the blog won’t be crying about anymore :lol:
46
Jeigh | January 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Of course it has trophies. This isn’t really something to be marveling about since it is standard on the platform as of January 1, 2009. The real question: In-Game Music? I get a pretty strong feeling that’s big ol’ “negatory” but it makes the justification of buying the game a whole lot easier. I’d like to think that at some point in the future we could at least have downloadable PSN games standardized with in-game music, since I realize full games are a whole other deal.
On somewhat of a tangent, PSN is looking freaking AWESOME as of late: Savage Moon, Flower, Fat Princess, Cuboid, Lumines Supernova, and Noby Noby Boy among several others are making the service look very good. Great job, all of you. :)
47
CrimsonFox13 | January 28th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I’m American and I didn’t know anyone spelled Defence as Defense. Haha.
Well, I probably won’t be getting this, since I’m not that good at Tower Defence games… That, and I find them a bit boring. I hope this game turns out well, though.
48
Arcturian | January 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
“some crawl, some run, some bite and some shoot.”
Does this mean we don’t have to watch out for anti-air tech time? :D
49
EPGPX | January 28th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Off topic but, starting today, I couldn’t log into the PlayStation Blog with my PlayStation id on the PSP no more. That and I still can’t access the PSP forums on a PSP. What the deal motherflockers? That ain’t right, I remember a time I could access the PlaySation Blog (yesterday) and the PSP forums (in December) on a PSP and actually post on them but now I can’t. That ain’t cool you savage animals (no pun intended and not directed at Fluffy Logic ltd), that ain’t cool. Fix that you rotten mongers.
50
Schitthammer | January 28th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Oh my god. This post made my day! Day one buy for me and looking forward to any DLC you guys have in the pipeline. Thanks!
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