First off, we’re making a change. The coolest brick-breaker on PlayStation Network has a new name, and some great new content to go along with it.

What was once Magic Ball is now MAGIC ORBZ!

So, I know what you’re thinking: “That is the greatest name that I’ve ever heard in the history of gaming, and I wish that I thought of it myself.” No, that’s not it? OK, then it’s, “I am so impressed. Everything really does sound much better if you just add a ‘z’ at the end.” Not that, either? How about, “Well, now that it’s called Magic Orbz, I simply have to play it. How could I possibly pass that up?” See…that IS what you’re thinking. You just don’t know it yet.

But seriously, we like the sound of it, and we like to play it even more. And to make you really love the name, we made a new Add-On Pack so you can stay up super-late trying to beat every new level and lose even more sleep while singing the praises of Magic Orbz.

For those of you not familiar, Magic Orbz presents a fresh spin on classic brick-breaking gameplay, enabling players to bust apart bright, colorful 3D environments, piece by piece. Using realistic physics and a super-high-tech system of object destruction, Magic Orbz is presented in stunning 1080p with Multiplayer Online and in-game live voice communication.

The new Winter Theme Add-On Pack is filled with penguins, igloos, polar bears, and lots and lots of snow and ice, featuring 25 new levels to creatively destroy, and new trophies to discover. The Winter Theme Pack will be available for $2.99 this Thursday, January 14th in North America.

For those that have already enjoyed the wonder of Magic B… err, Magic Orbz, a patch is available to properly rename your favorite PSN game!

As always, everyone at TikGames-Creat Studios thanks you all for your support, your feedback, and your purchase. We all work very hard to bring you great games, and we make sure to read everything that comes our way from our fans. We can’t do what we love without you!

I’m both honored and thrilled to announce the release of Booster Packs for the Creat Studios/TikGames titles Magic Ball, Cuboid, and Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom. Here are the details:

• Magic Ball, a fresh spin on classic brick-breaking gameplay in which players bust apart 3D environments, offers gamers new action with the release of the Magic Ball Booster Pack, featuring a whole new world to destroy. Players will be able to smash their way through 25 all-new magical, witch-themed levels, earning a series of new trophies along the way. Custom music support will also be made available via a free patch download.



• Cuboid, a mind-bending 3D puzzle game, will offer gamers three different options for add-on content. The Cuboid Booster Pack contains 33 new levels that will test even the best players’ skills, rewarding gamers with new trophies. The Cuboid Level Editor allows players to become level designers and challenge others with their own custom levels. Players can either create a brand new level from scratch, or improve upon any existing level, created by other players or taken from the original campaigns. User-created levels can be uploaded to the PSN where they will be made available to other players (who have downloaded the free patch). Players can also earn trophies for creating their own levels, and for rating the levels created by others. The Cuboid Bundle Pack includes both the Booster Pack (33 new levels) and the Level Editor. Custom music support for Cuboid is also on its way via a free patch download.
• The Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom Booster Pack features 25 all new layouts to beat in Infinity mode, as well as a level editor that allows players to create their own layouts from scratch and share their creations with other gamers by hosting an online multiplayer game on their custom-created level. Players can then save any new customized level that they have created or played via online multiplayer invitation to their HDD. Also included is a series of new trophies, obtainable by only the most dedicated Mahjong players. Highly-requested mouse support will also be made available via a free patch download.

First up will be the Magic Ball Booster Pack, scheduled for release this Thursday, April 16. The Cuboid and Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom Booster Packs will be released in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for those exciting and highly anticipated releases as well.

On behalf of Creat Studios and TikGames, thanks so much for your unwavering support of Magic Ball, Cuboid and Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom. We listened carefully to your feedback as to what you were looking for in add-on DLC for these titles, and I think we have managed to deliver on almost everything that was requested. How’s that for customer service? Cheers!

But in the meantime, as a token of our appreciation for the tremendous response we have received from our recent releases on PSN, and since we are in such a giving mood, I’m happy to announce the release of FREE Themes for your PS3 available tomorrow on the PlayStation Store! So, instead of starring mindlessly into some wacky swirling color mass on your XMB, why not be the envy of all your family and friends by downloading a FREE Theme from one of your favorite Creat/Tik PSN games? How can you go wrong? Check out some screenshots for the Themes below, and remember, friends don’t let friends have boring XMBs!

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!