In Space We Brawl Coming to PS4, PS3

Hi there, PlayStation.Blog readers! I’m Alessandro and I handle marketing and PR here at Forge Reply. I’m with you today to talk about our brand-new game, In Space We Brawl.

Here at the studio, we have always enjoyed couch multiplayer games. In fact, that’s what we do in our lunch breaks: playing together and laughing, yelling and taunting each other. Eventually, these emotions drove me to join Jacopo, one of our game designers, in a brainstorming session that ended up with a sketch on a napkin. And so the basic elements of In Space We Brawl started falling into place.

In Space We Brawl is a local multiplayer, twin stick shooter with a lot of innovative features. Another source of inspiration has been the classic versus beat ‘em up genre, because of the diversity in the characters and the fighting styles. We decided to elaborate on this and went for a diverse roster of spaceships and weapons: In Space We Brawl lets you try 100+ different combinations, between 11 vessels and 11 tools of space-destruction.

Are you going to equip an agile (but fragile) Pulsar ship with a deadly plasma sword? Or do you want to fully take advantage of the energy generators of the Cypher ship? The sniper rifle would be a nice match, considering that its insane damage output is balanced by a high cost for each shot. If you feel like a pro, you can pilot a Striker and use asteroids as weapons. Or you could go for the Grinder — a ship that lets you ram your enemies with its chainsaw – and pair it with a flamethrower.

Define your style and put your skills to the test in 8 different battlegrounds, each one defined by specific space hazards such as solar winds, black holes, and nasty alien nests.

After defining the concept, we worked on a playable alpha. We immediately realized that the key to achieve the best fun formula would be to employ a lot of playtesting, as well as a great care in balancing all the spaceship/weapon combinations.

That’s how a crazy idea came to our minds: to meet our future players ‘live’, in order to create the best game possible, for them and with them! We took a laptop with us, four DualShock 3 controllers and a small table with a set of camping chairs… and we set off for Milan, Turin, and Florence.

That was all we needed to re-create the ‘couch multiplayer’ atmosphere, in squares and hangout places. It was an amazing experience that filled us with enthusiasm and inspiration. Last but not least, we gathered a lot of invaluable feedback that helped us improve the game. This video shows what happened (hint: we had fun!).

Italy was only the beginning and the second stage of our Street Playtesting Sessions took us in other European cities: Krakow, Glasgow, and Munich. And now, we would like to visit other countries as well! If you think that a Street Playtesting Session could fit in your home town, or if you know a special venue that would do, please tell us on Twitter at @InSpaceWeBrawl or Facebook.

In Space We Brawl is coming exclusively to PS3 and PS4 (with juicy “next gen” special features).

In the upcoming weeks, we’ll share many details about spaceships, weapons, and battlegrounds, so follow us and check the official site. It will be updated soon with a blog filled with insights about the game and its development.

In Space We Brawl is fun, competitive, and brutal — and we can’t wait to show you more.