Sorry for the Blog radio silence since E3, but ModNation Racers has been keeping us very busy. The good kind of busy, as you will see! During the recent Media Day at United Front Games, we opened up our new Yaletown-district studio in Vancouver to the media, giving them a hands-on preview of the Public Beta – which will be out very soon. Check out some of the feedback from the press: 1UP, G4TV, GameDaily, GameSpot, IGN.

We’re really excited to show all of you what we’ve been working on, and we want your feedback! There’s a lot of new features, game modes and weapons that haven’t been seen before – and much more still to come!

Each week in December you’ll see a new ModNation Racers video walkthrough right here on the PlayStation Blog, starting today!

This character creation walkthrough is with our Art Director, Rob Oliveira (aka Robo). He’ll step through some of the basics of creating a Mod, which is just the tip of the iceberg that is character creation in ModNation Racers for PS3. Really, there are so many options!

And next week, Rob dives into some of the deeper features of character creation – like decal layering. Enjoy!

Vinyl art & collector toys were an inspiration for us as we set out to create a game about creativity and self expression. It was in this spirit of creativity that we developed our character, kart and track editors. We wanted to give the user the ability to make whatever they wanted, but do so in a way that felt like playing and not working. For example, you just drive and the track is created behind you, so it’s intuitive and fun.

An expression that came up early in development was “anonymity to superstardom”, which is exactly how we want the user to feel. You create your ideal character, kart or track, then upload and share it with the world. Next thing you know, you’re ranked as one of the top designers in the ModNation community!

In the coming months, we’ll be able to share a lot more information with you.