Out Now on PSN: Blokus for PlayStation Move

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Blokus for PS3 (PSN)

For most of the Gameloft crew, board games are deeply ingrained in our childhood memories. Whether it involved picking up our first chess piece or throwing backgammon dice, we all hold fond memories of playing board games. With consoles like the PlayStation 3 offering a modern twist to various traditional board games, it can be a great way to play familiar titles for that nostalgic feeling.

One of our favorite games we like to play in the office is Blokus. This is essentially an abstract strategy game, so it gets pretty intense when the Gameloft crew faces off against each other. Producer Philippe Laurens is particularly excited to share the news regarding Gameloft’s release of Blokus on PSN!

Jennifer Kye: For those unfamiliar with the game, what is the basic concept of Blokus?
Philippe Laurens: The goal of the game is for each player to place as many of his/her 21 differently-shaped pieces on the board as possible. The strategy to win is to place your pieces so they “block” the other players from placing their pieces!

Each player begins at one of the corners of the board. The players take turns placing one block at a time. Each new piece on the board must touch another piece of the same color, but it can only touch at the corners, never along the sides. When none of the players can place any more pieces, they all count the number of squares that their pieces occupy. This is their final score for the match. It’s a captivating strategy game!

JK: How did the development team work to make the game accessible to beginners?
PL: The principle of the game is really simple so even a child can grasp it quickly. The tutorial is pretty clear but we’ve also added an option that can be handy for beginners. With this option on, once you select a block, all the different places on the board where you could actually place it are highlighted. You just have to choose one spot to place your block. Plus, PlayStation Move controls enable you to move your blocks even more intuitively (Blokus also works with standard control pads).

Blokus for PS3 (PSN)Blokus for PS3 (PSN)

JK: Conversely, how did the development team incorporate challenges for Blokus veterans?
PL: Getting the perfect blocking strategy on Blokus can be tricky. You can, of course, select the difficulty level in the game, but also determine a time limit for each move. Having to choose where to put your block in only 10 seconds is very challenging, believe me!

Also, each of the four game variations requires a totally different strategy. We have created a Career mode which gets progressively more difficult. You can play through 30 rounds, each with a different game type and rule variant.

JK: How did you end up adding a special mode for color blind gamers? And how does it work?
PL: One of our game designers on the team is color-blind, so it became clear that we had to add a Color-Blind mode, if only for him to work on the game! It works very simply: different icons for each different color are added on the blocks to make them more easily identifiable for the color-blind.

JK: What aspects make Blokus such a fun and engaging game?
PL: The principle is really simple and you can play for hours while still discovering a new strategy – it’s quite addictive. With its four game variations, Blokus definitely offers a lot of variety. Based on the game variation, you have the following options: Four players control one color each, two players control two colors each, or four players play in teams.

You can also play Blokus Duo. With only twocolors, the board is smaller and the start position is in the middle of the board. We also added some avatars to the game you can customize as you like. The Multiplayer mode also adds a lot of fun. You can play with up to four riends locally on the same PS3, or play online.

JK: If the development team were to play a Blokus tournament, who would come out as the champion?
PL: I would! I accept challenges! As I’d like to say: Bring it on!

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13 Comments

4 Author Replies

  • Honestly, the Move controls leave a lot to be desired. Seemed like tacked on controls to me. You can’t even turn pieces by turning the move controller, which is far more natural than using those hideous circle things to move them.

    Not very impressed.

    • While this is definitely something to keep in mind to improve the Move experience, we hope you still enjoyed playing Blokus.

  • @Elvick

    So they just use the Move as a “mouse” (pointer)?

    Devs need to realize the Move is not just a replacement for a regular PC mouse …

  • ^Pretty much.

    The game itself is actually pretty neat, but the fact they didn’t really utilize the Move controller kind of kills it for me.

  • What’s up with these board video games characters looking all scary and goofy looking?

    Also, why the UNO characters designs are in this game?

    • Aw, we thought the characters looked cute! Still, your feedback is something to consider for future titles.

      As for character designs being similar to UNO … we did create both games. :P

  • Is their Voice Chat for the online mode?

  • @4: Well, Gameloft made Uno as well. That’s probably why the character designs are similar/the same. [I wouldn’t know haven’t played Uno]

  • Well hopefully they patch it to make move controls better (to allow rotation). Maybe its better top use standard controller for now..

  • I love Blokus (the board game). Maybe this’ll be good…

  • Their Uno game was good, but the fatal flaw it had was it’s unusable for local play. It’s one of those games that unless you’re doing online multiplayer doesn’t make much sense to make at all.

  • I assume by the title of this blog, that this game will only work with the MOVE controller, is that correct?

  • I had never even heard of Blokus until a friend showed me tonight.. And I like it.

    So I have been playing with the trial and am tempted to purchase it.. But I wanted to try on-line and couldn’t get a single game.

    The biggest disappointment is the lack of mixed Online/Multiplayer.. I live in a 2 person household, which either means I have to play 2 player ‘local’, or 4 player ‘online’.. It would be really nice if I could include my girlfriend by allowing us to play online with the 2 of us, vs 2 strangers.

    But I guess unless online improves, neither is an option.

    Only get 20 mins of the trial left, so I need to use this time wisely before it expires.

    Jon

  • omg i love blokus i play this all the time with my girlfriend’s family, can’t wait to play this on my ps3 with move!!!!!

  • This is what makes me confused. me and my wife want to play against each other. I choose my profile where I created to characters (for me and her),so now when we go into game I have my character and she is forced to play with pre made character “Steve” why she can’t choose her own character? It’s kind of big dissapontment :(

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