Magic Ball (available today, January 15 for $9.99 on the PS Store) is another addictive game from Creat Studios and TikGames and it’s filled with fast action, great humor and giggle-inducing fun.

While the game doesn’t have an overall storyline like Cuboid, we have created comedic scenes for each level – so in a way, each level has its own little story! Each of the scenes is divided between two visual themes – Pirates and Knights – and each theme has its own mini-story scenes.

Magic Ball boasts a vast number of trophies that players can try and achieve – each of the trophies requires the player to overcome a specific challenge. It was a blast trying to come up with the trophies, and we tried to keep a lot of them consistent with the humorous themes of Magic Ball. For example, we have the “25 in a row” trophy where you need to complete 25 levels in a row and several “Goodbye Cruel World” trophies where the player needs to pick up 5 skulls while completing the level.

One of the strategic elements of Magic Ball is the random Power-Ups that fall from pieces of the level that are broken up by the Magic Ball. The Power-Ups are completely random, and the challenge is trying to get your paddle over to where they are falling, while also keeping the Magic ball in play!

But be careful – not all Power-Ups are beneficial! As you complete levels, you will unlock new Power-Ups, so keep an eye out for them! Here’s a hint – try to get the ball through gaps in the objects so that the ball will bounce between the objects. This will break them up quicker, which makes less work for you! ;)

Magic Ball for the PSN is a unique twist on the “ball-breaker” type of game. We have true 3D environments and superior physics and graphics, and every object in the playing field is completely destructible. All of these elements combined really push Magic Ball to the next level.

We’re also excited about the look and feel of our mini-scenes. We think they are really fun – and Magic Ball also has multiplayer with VOIP support! So what could be more fun than smashing up some objects and scoring points and Power-Ups with your friends!?

We all loved the original Magic Ball and were inspired to make our own version with our own unique twists, including new takes on some of the classic levels and adding some bonus ones as well! During the development of the game, we were able to bring in some focus groups that allowed us to make tweaks and adjustments that really helped to round out the fun-factor for each of the levels.

One of the areas that really got an overhaul during testing was the difficulty level of the game – apparently it was too easy! Man, you PSN players are really hardcore!

We are quite proud of our levels, and our lead designer and lead artist worked on them constantly during the development cycle. We had originally planned for a more casual game, but testing proved that players wanted more action. So we rebalanced and are really happy with the outcome.

Two of the other areas that were reworked completely were the SFX (special effects) and VFX (visual effects) of Magic Ball. The power of the PS3 allowed us to do many things that we had originally thought we might have a hard time with, but special effects such as waving grass and flowers are easily handled by the PS3 and the real-time physics with several hundred – even thousands! – of objects were easily managed. Once we saw how much more we were able to do graphically, we could then re-budget our development time and concentrate on gameplay.

We had a blast developing and playing Magic Ball, and we hope you will too. Let us know what you think!

Cuboid is a stunning 3D puzzle game (available soon tomorrow for $9.99) in which players navigate ancient ruins and lush environments, maneuvering a rectangular block through mystical exits. Cuboid will bend your mind with its addictive puzzles and engage the senses with amazing graphics and soothing music, immersing you in a surrealistic puzzle world. We at Creat Studios and TikGames are pleased to offer players 66 twisted levels with premium packs coming soon that will include additional levels and a custom level creator.

Cuboid is set in three major mystical places, beginning on the roof of an ancient temple, transporting the player to the inside of a magnificent church and ending up in a mysterious chamber. Within each area are 22 distinct levels, increasing in difficulty and complexity, adding new gameplay mechanics like triggers and special tile types the deeper and deeper you go.

So, if you haven’t guessed by now, Cuboid is more than just rolling a block from one end of the screen to another. ;) It requires careful thought and planning to effectively use the environment tools at your disposal. I wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about them and the thought we put into design. To start off, here’s a short list of some of the tools you’ll find throughout the game:

Switches
When the Cuboid either lies or stands on this kind of tile it triggers some action, like adding or removing tiles somewhere else on the level. Some changes are permanent, but some can be returned to the initial state by hitting the same switch again. How to tell what impact the switch will have? Hint: look for tiles of different materials or colors than the ones around them.

Vertical Switches
These tiles work almost the same as the ordinary switches, except that the Cuboid must stand on such a switch vertically to activate it. You’ll have to plan your approach carefully to activate these on your first try!

Weak Tiles
Think of them like thin ice – spread your weight around or you’ll break through. The Cuboid can only lay horizontally on two of such tiles; any attempts to stand the Cuboid vertically on one of these will drop you right back at the beginning. Oh, and the weak tiles will also reappear upon restart to challenge you again.

Splitter Teleports

After standing on a splitter-teleport tile, the Cuboid is split into two cubes. Both cubes are automatically moved to predefined tiles for each game level. Now they can be moved independently and you can select either of them at any time to activate other triggers or navigate obstacles throughout the level. Never fear, you’ll see your Cuboid again! If moved onto adjacent tiles, they automatically join together again to re-form the Cuboid.

All of these tools and the level designs themselves combine to form the world of Cuboid for you to enjoy. But, I must say, an exceptional level is hard to make with just tools alone; it requires a vision. Mike Kharlamov (Creat designer) was that vision for us. In fact, Mike also came up with the majority of the levels and designed the Level Editor that we plan to release in the coming months, allowing players to try their hands at designing the perfect Cuboid challenge themselves.

Just so you know, there isn’t one single solution for the levels we’ve designed; you’re free to explore and be as creative as you like. However, there is a master solution that we use to set the initial leaderboard high watermark, and you can always check out the online scoreboard to compare your time and number of moves taken with other players’ scores.

In a completely non-biased way, I think the game is very fun. ;) I can only play the Beginner levels, but the programmers love the Expert levels. My favorites have to be “Climacis” and “Muscipulae” – they appear early on in the game, but they have a neat, hidden catch to them. The bonus levels are pretty interesting as well, but I won’t spoil the surprise for you.

I’ll leave you with a piece of advice for playing Cuboid: Remember, there is a solution to every level, so take a moment to plan out your approach. If you ever get stuck, go back to the beginning and try other variations. Sometimes walking away from the game for a bit and giving your mind a rest is just what the doctor ordered!