It’s tough to distill the concept down to a couple of sentences without doing the experience a huge injustice, but this excellent trailer should give you an idea of the mood and visual direction:

Now take that ethereal aesthetic, and the tingling that you’re feeling in your temples, and fold a layer of smartly accessible strategy elements over it. You’ll be exploring, conquering and colonizing enemy asteroids without the need for messy tech trees or arcane controls. It’s a rare game that satisfies both ends of the art game/strategy game spectrum, but I think that Eufloria nails it. It’s also tunable in either direction – play on the less hectic Chilled mode to revel in the ambiance, or give Dark Matter mode a try to grit your tactical teeth.

Check out my previous post for more game details and a list of some of the huge improvements for the PS3 iteration, and be sure to leave a spot for it in your PSN library if the concept intrigues you. Eufloria will be launching October 4th for $9.99, with a trial and unlock so that everyone can give it a shot. Supporting interesting independently developed games is an important goal for us, especially amongst all the blockbuster behemoths this fall – we love bringing you this stuff, and want to do so all year round. With that said, I hope we’ll see you in a few weeks!

(P.S. The little looping song that plays on the XMB before you launch the game has served as my background music for tens of hours of work throughout the year – as you can imagine, the full soundtrack is absolutely stunning.)

The important part is that myself and a group of other SCEA folk are busy ramping up our Pub Fund program, helping independent developers to bring their games to PSN without the restraints of a traditional publisher. There are no specific criteria, outside of selecting games that we think are interesting and that we’re dying to play ourselves: Joe Danger, Hoard, Explodemon! and Tales From Space: About a Blob are recent examples that came to fruition with the aid of our program. We have a RIDICULOUSLY KILLER slate of titles lined up for the future, and we’re going to try and do a better job of giving you guys a heads-up about them so that you can share in our excitement, and hopefully help support the developers who are trying to do things a little differently.

And that brings us to Eufloria, which we’re thrilled to announce as our next Pub Fund title! Omni Systems are hard at work wrapping up a gorgeous new PS3 iteration of their ambient real-time strategy game, scheduled to hit the PlayStation Store in the latter half of June for $9.99.

The core gameplay revolves around exploring and conquering procedurally generated asteroid fields (which means that most levels will be different each time you play them), using their raw resources to grow seedlings and battle neighboring enemy forces. The ultra-minimalist aesthetic and simple mechanics make for a relaxing, accessible experience, while the devious AI and level design (something these guys know well) give it a strong tactical edge that really carries the experience. I promise that you haven’t played anything like it on PSN before; cull together bits and pieces of flOw, Mushroom Wars and Everyday Shooter and you’re on the right track…but still quite a ways off. Here’s how the developers at Omni-Labs describe the game:

Eufloria PSN isn’t really like other games. It has strategic gameplay, but no technology trees or complicated interface. It allows for exploration and expansion without being punished for small mistakes. It offers challenges that are fun, but in a style that can be described as “ambient gameplay”. There is conquest but there are no space marines in sight. Instead, all of Eufloria’s gameplay is based on growing your strategic and colonising life forms on asteroids that you conquer throughout the game. That is right: you are basically playing a game of intergalactic guerrilla gardening. Oh, and you engage in massive battles against enemy plant life.

The improvements and additions to the PS3 version are numerous – both in huge strokes and tiny tweaks – but a few highlights include:

• New units: A new plant will automate troop movements, while a new tree type helps terraform asteroids (both visually and to change the attributes of the seedlings grown on it)
• Improved gameplay: Including rebalanced levels, improved AI, and a new 2x game speed that works like a fast-forward button
• New collectibles: Ancient Artifacts add flavor to the universe, as well as full Trophy support, natch
• More music: Including 100 additional minutes of completely new music by ambient specialist Milieu (the OST is particularly gorgeous)
• Enhanced graphics: Smoother, faster visuals with much more environmental and color diversity
• Updated controls: Completely redone PS3-specific interface and controls

So you’ll be getting by far the best version of the game for an awesome price, and a demo alongside it on day one in case you’re not convinced. So keep a little brainspace reserved for one of the more interesting games of the summer, and we’ll be back around E3 with some new media and a final launch date. Thanks guys!