Greetings once again, opaque and bipedal earthlings! It’s been awhile since I, Orange Blob, have been in touch. You may remember me from my PSN game Tales from Space: About a Blob, where I grew and consumed your world and all its inhabitants.

I’ve been away recently, you see, visiting a strange and unusual planet in a not-too-distant solar system. I was accompanied by my good friend Green Blob. It’s nice to travel with friends, although Green Blob sometimes snores.

Exploring an alien planet is not for the faint of heart. Throughout our adventures, we were often confronted by tricky alien contraptions that required BOTH of us to get past. All this puzzle solving leaves a Blob feeling pretty hungry. Luckily, we were able to sample some local delicacies, i.e. the alien life-forms. They taste exactly like chicken.

Once again, the folks over at DrinkBox Studios have been kind enough to re-create our adventures in video-game form. If you have a friend nearby, toss them a controller and see if you can put your brains together to solve these wacky alien puzzles!

The new Co-operative Map Pack for Tales From Space: About a Blob contains two new levels which require two local players to complete. The pack will be available for download on PSN in North America on July 5th for $1.49.

In the beginning of the game the blob has only his wits, his ability to spit objects, and his infinite appetite at his disposal. As the game progresses the blob also attains the powers of magnetism and electricity.

Since we haven’t focused on it on before, in this post I want to touch on the kind of size changes the blob undergoes in the game. At the start the blob is around the size of a marble, but by the end he’s absolutely huge. As the blob gets bigger he can eat bigger things, jump higher and move faster, and as a result previous threats suddenly become inconsequential. Above, for example, you can see the blob as he starts in one of the levels. He’s about the size of the people nearby, and while he would certainly intimidate me, he’s not monstrous. A little while later however, you can see the blob is able to make things much less comfortable for the people around him.

The blob’s size is potentially limitless, and below I’ve provided a preview of some of the scales you play at. In the game the blob goes from threatening cockroaches, to people, to buildings, to cities, to the Earth itself.

We certainly hope everyone enjoys the game, and you should all know that DLC is forthcoming. There are Home Rewards in the game already, and additional items should appear in PlayStation Home soon. A free theme will be provided to PlayStation Plus users, and of course we’ll have a Dynamic Theme, Avatars, and Wallpapers. Most importantly, there will also be in-game DLC, both free and for-purchase, which we’ll start revealing over the next few weeks. Finally, if you’re interested, every week for the next while we’ll be talking about the process of building the game on our development blog at http://www.aboutablob.com/.

Thanks for reading!

If you don’t already know, in Tales from Space: About a Blob you take on the role of a tiny space blob that lands on Earth. What’s special about this particular creature is that he can eat anything smaller than him, which in turn allows him to grow. As the blob grows he can eat larger and larger objects. The player’s goal is to find their way through all the levels and eventually eat the world.

We recently came back from the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) where lots of people got a chance to play the game for the first time. The feedback was great, and we were extremely happy to see friends and couples have so much fun playing together in co-op. In Tales from Space: About a Blob, two players can play simultaneously and interact by climbing or jumping off one another. Although the goal is for the blobs to work together, players can choose to attack or push each other around if they want, and can compete to see which player is better at destroying the world. Around the office, people usually ping-pong back and forth between working together to solve puzzles, then messing each other up near obstacles or enemies.

Many people asked us which platforms the game will be coming out on. At that time we couldn’t really say, but we’re finally able to announce that Tales from Space: About a Blob is part of the SCEA Pub Fund program. This means Tales from Space: About a Blob will be a PSN exclusive.

DrinkBox Studios is a small independent company. When we started two years ago we three founders opened a bank account, pooled a little money, and hoped for the best. We’re still in our early days, and there’s no safety net. While it’s great to be able to control your own destiny, it can also be terrifying to look into the future and wonder how you’re going to keep the lights on.

Unlike most publishing deals, the SCEA Pub Fund lets us keep ownership of our game. It has provided us with invaluable input and feedback from Sony. Best of all it has let us plan for the future with confidence.

We’re extremely grateful for all the support from Sony, and we’re excited to finally be closing in on the end of the project.

Right now we expect the game to be available early in the new year, and DLC is planned to follow some time shortly thereafter. Over the next few months we’ll release more details about the levels, power-ups, and bosses in the game. If you’re interested, we invite you to follow the game on our development blog at http://www.aboutablob.com/.

Thanks for reading!