The PixelJunk series has been a huge success for us, so to celebrate Q’s 10th anniversary (and also PixelJunk’s fifth), for a limited time we are slashing the prices of Racers, Monsters, Eden, and Shooter to just ONE DOLLAR. Yes, you heard correctly! On top of this, we are also slashing the prices for PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP), PixelJunk Shooter 2 and PixelJunk SideScroller by HALF! You have no choice but to snap them all up the very moment the sale goes live tomorrow afternoon with the PlayStation Store update! Spread the word and let’s go PixelJunk crazy for a week! Actually, make that TWO weeks because after the sale, PixelJunk 4am will be launched (May 15th) and it is simply an incredibly unique experience.

For those of you anxious to get your hands on PixelJunk 4am, we will be hosting a PlayStation PixelJunk 4am Event open to the community on Thursday, May 10 from 6:00 to 9:00pm at Harlot in San Francisco. The first 75 attendees will receive a free copy of PixelJunk 4am when it is live on the PlayStation Store on Tuesday, May 15. Spread the word, Baiyon and I would love to meet you (psst…you must be 21+ to attend).

In the 10 years since I started Q-Games we’ve made a huge amount of games and technology for the PlayStation family and I’d like to highlight a few key moments in our history. Did you know that we made the PlayStation 3 “ribbon” and “sparkly dust” background on the XMB, as well as parts of the XMB graphical frontend? If you let the “About PS3″ credits roll you will actually see the Q-Games logo! Before that, on PSP, we developed some of the really cool technology demos that were shown at E3 all the way back in 2004. We also developed the PS3′s music visualizers, beginning with the “valley” default and culminating in the awesome “earth” visualizer – which was actually developed initially as a possible boot sequence for the PS3!! Ken Kutaragi envisioned a boot sequence similar to the sequence in Kubrick’s “2001 – A Space Odyssey” where you see a simultaneous moon and sunrise, but changed his mind and it became the even cooler “orchestral tuning” sequence that it is now. However, we continued working on it in secret, adding more resolution and detail until they gave in and let us sneak-release it into a firmware update a few years back.

Five years ago, with the launch of PSN, one of the guys at SCEI (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in Tokyo) casually suggested I consider making PSN games. I initially dismissed the idea, imagining SD 480i quality games, but once I plugged my brand-new PS3 into a 1080p TV via a HDMI cable and saw the amazing resolution and color reproduction it clicked that perhaps it represented a chance to rejuvenate 2D gaming. So I got to work preparing concepts for games that took some old ideas, added some new ones, and most importantly updated them to use the incredible extra detail and crisp colors of 1080p. Thus PixelJunk was born!

The first game was PixelJunk Racers, a game designed pretty much to only be playable in 1080p and a game that was impossible in SD because of the hundreds of tiny cars racing around the screen – quite often portrayed as a “black sheep” in the PixelJunk stable, Racers is really quite a unique game and is a great party experience, allowing you to play with up to SEVEN players simultaneously – young kids absolutely love it too and we have plenty of diehard fans which is why we updated it to become PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap. Anyway, Racers launched us into self-publishing here in Japan which was also a lot of fun (suddenly we were not just a developer but a publisher too!), and started our arrangement with Santa Monica Studios to release the PixelJunk series in the West.

We developed the PixelJunk games in parallel and a few months after Racers we launched the smash hit PixelJunk Monsters which has been extremely popular over the years (oh, and the “Deluxe” PSP version will even run on your PS Vita as of May 15th!). Also, during the development of Racers I had the good fortune to bump into a Kyoto-based DJ and artist called “Baiyon” at a party held by a mutual friend and he seemed like an interesting guy so I decided to make our third game a little bit more “artsy” and brought him in to collaborate with us on it, giving birth to PixelJunk Eden! Just look at those CMYK colours – HDMI pushed to the extreme!

For our fourth title we had a naming contest which helped us decide on the name for “PixelJunk 1-4″ to be “PixelJunk Shooter” (yes, “PixelJunk Elements” was also popular but sorry folks it didn’t capture the “sci-fi” spirit enough for me – besides the acronym would be PJE and we already had a PJE in the series…). The concept for Shooter was decided right at the start of the PixelJunk project but the fluid technology took a little time to develop and flesh out, and by the time we had got to the point where we were thinking about music I had persuaded my old friend Alex “The Orb” Paterson to work with us on the soundtrack. He had just started an interesting collaboration with Dom Beken in the form of High Frequency Bandwidth (HFB for short) whose style of music is a kind of retro “b movie dub techno” was a perfect fit for the world we were creating in Shooter. This led us to collaborate on the sequel “Shooter 2″ and our very latest release last year “PixelJunk SideScroller” (which is totally awesome by the way).

Which leads us to the upcoming release of PixelJunk 4am which, although it isn’t a “game” per se, is deeply engaging and a fun experience for everyone. Every time you play you are broadcasting live to the world! It’s really really addictive and you’ll find your PlayStation Move is being used in ways you never imagined!

Well that was a long post, but hey I hadn’t posted in a while – now PixelJunkies, go forth and spread the word, the PixelJunk BLOWOUT sale is ON!

If you’ve picked up PS Vita then you’ve probably been too busy plowing through the dense launch line-up to have spent much time browsing the Settings menu. Luckily, you don’t need to – we’ve spent plenty of time with PlayStation’s new crown jewel and we’ve put together a few favorite tips and tricks we wanted to share. Of course, this is just a start: We want your tips, too!

If you’ve discovered any favorite PS Vita functions, please share them in the comments for all to enjoy this weekend.

1. Order in the court! By now, you’ve probably figured out how to move your game and app bubbles around the Home Menu by pressing and holding one using the front touchscreen, enabling you to drag it around into different frame. You can even change the background color or image by tapping the theme icon in the bottom right of each frame. Get creative and design your own background images (which you can transfer to your PS Vita via PS3) like James Gallagher from the EU PlayStation Blog did here.

2. Let there be light. You can adjust your PS Vita’s OLED screen brightness mid-game without the hassle of jumping into the Settings menu. Just hold the PS button to bring up a quick-access menu that enables you to adjust brightness and your custom music options. Wanna listen to the soundtrack to Armageddon while carving through Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus? Don’t miss a thing, baby.

3. Call for backup. Let’s face it: electronic devices have an uncanny affinity for toilets. We can’t prevent that, but we can help ensure you don’t lose your precious saved game data. Simply connect your PS Vita to your PS3 via the USB cable, open up the Content Manager on your PS Vita, and select the the Back Up option to back up all your PS Vita’s game data and gain a little extra peace of mind.

4. Say cheese! PS Vita comes equipped with a simple but game-changing new feature: The ability to snap screenshots of your in-game exploits. Just press the PS button and Start at the same time: You’ll see a white flash and hear the snap of a camera shutter and the resulting image will be saved and neatly categorized in your Photos gallery. You’ll be able to take screenshots in the vast majority of games, though not every game.

5. Prettier PSP games. PS Vita currently supports more than 275 legacy digital PSP games and more are on the way. You can also improve the way those lower-resolution PSP games look on the PS Vita’s screen by pressing and holding the front touchscreen to bring up a Settings menu where you can activate several options. Checking “bilinear filtering” and “color space” seems to yield consistently smoother results, but experiment with your PSP games to find your favorite combination.

6. Slip into something more comfortable. PS Vita enables you to adopt a custom panel to add a little flair to your PSN presence. To change your PSN panel, navigate to Settings, PSN, Account Information, and Panel to choose from a wide assortment of artwork from first and third-party games.

7. Remote Play renaissance. Ever wish you could log into your PS3 remotely to access a video or initiate a PlayStation Store download? This handy feature isn’t technically new — it was supported on PSP — but thanks to PS Vita’s monstrous OLED screen and more powerful processors, it’s more useful than ever. Protip: Remote Play is compatible with any PSone games you may have on your hard drive, along with a handful of classic PSN games such as PixelJunk Monsters, PixelJunk Eden, and Peggle.

8. Bluetooth bliss. PS Vita supports high-quality stereo Bluetooth for audio output, so if you’ve got a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones (ahem), you can pipe in your game audio without restricting wires. In the Settings menu, touch Network and Bluetooth Settings and you’ll be able to pair your headphones to your new PS Vita. If you get stuck on the pairing code, try “0000.” If that doesn’t work, check the manual that came with your headphones (or look it up online) to find the proper four-digit code. Now enjoy a better life — a life without wires!

9. Silence is golden. Some people like soft jazz, others prefer silence. If you want to turn off PS Vita’s toe-tappin’ menu music, you’ll find the option in Settings > Sound & Display > System Music. While you’re there, you’ll notice an AVLS option. This limits the maximum volume when using headphones — perfect if you share your PS Vita with a little one.

Roses? Played out. Champagne? Too bubbly. Chocolate? A risky proposition. If you really want to make your significant other swoon this Valentine’s Day, grab a couple of controllers and play some games you can both enjoy. Sure, you could choose to pound your mate’s face in the Gladiator Duel in Sports Champions. But you know that’s a battle you can’t ultimately win — any victories now are always paid back with dish-washing duty later. Let’s make a pledge: This year, it’s about nest feathering, not neck-snapping.

Here are some cooperative-focused classics that should brighten up the boudoire tonight, plus some Trophy suggestions to keep things nice and friendly. We also want to hear from you — what games do you like to play with your main squeeze? Be sure to fill in the gaps in the comments.

PixelJunk Monsters
This is the quintessential couples game. PixelJunk Monsters’ two-player cooperative mode is legendary for transforming non-gamers into digital devotees in just a few minutes. If your significant other struggles with the tower defense basics, have him focus on upgrading emplacements and collecting gold while you focus on the strategy. A guaranteed good time for all.

Trophies to shoot for: “Construction Expert” (Build 10 towers in less than 30 seconds upon entering a stage), “Money Grubber” (Clear a stage without losing a single coin)

LittleBigPlanet 2
For starters, Sackboy is freakin’ adorable. Second, the platforming gameplay is second nature to many inexperienced gamers. If your mate has a creative bent, you might also consider building a custom level together — Create mode supports multiple simultaneous users. Or just pick one of over 3.6 million levels and play that — perhaps an enterprising user has already created a good Valentine’s Day-themed level?

Trophies to shoot for: “Complete Story Mode” (Complete the main path of the story mode), “Multiplier 5x” (Score a 5x multiplier in a Story level); “Community Spirit” (Publish a level to the community)

Dead Nation
The couple that slays together, stays together. This is a perfect Valentine’s Day choice for a mate who’s handy with an SMG and a melee attack, as you’ll need some tight teamwork to blast the countless hordes of the undead that infest the sprawling urban environments. Protip: If your significant other isn’t much of a gamer, go with the easiest “Brain Dead” setting to avoid heartbreak.

Trophies to shoot for: “Teamwork” (Complete a mission in co-op mode on any difficulty), “Double the Action” (Complete Campaign mode in co-op Mode)

PixelJunk Shooter
Despite its dual-stick shooting and retro stylings, PixelJunk Shooter is well tolerated by non-gaming significant others. Exploration is emphasized over action, and creative solutions are more important than a quick trigger finger. There are plenty of opportunities for teamwork, too, whether it’s winching your partner away from an erupting volcano or collaborating on hunting those all-important diamonds.

Trophies to shoot for: “Cave Cleaner” (Kill over 100 enemies)

The Beatles: Rock Band
Fab Four? More like Terrific Two. The Beatles: Rock Band is a good option for a non-gaming significant other. If playing the plastic axe or drums is too demanding (or embarrassing), offer up vocal duties. Who doesn’t know the words to a few Beatles songs? I wanna hold your haaaaaaand…

Trophies to shoot for: “Don’t Let Me Down” (Save a bandmate from failing), “Shake It Up, Baby!” (Use Beatlemania at least 5 times in a single song using either Bass or Guitar), “Let’s Get Some Levels” (Calibrate your system for the optimal experience)

Borderlands
An ideal choice for the hardcore shooter couple. Borderlands’ heavy co-op focus works nicely in splitscreen, and infighting will be rare as long as you agree to some ground rules on revives and sharing loot. In fact, the only risk here is that you’ll grind for loot and XP for so long that you won’t leave any time for romance.

Trophies to shoot for: “Group LF Header” (Rescue a groupmate from death in a co-op game), “There’s No ‘I’ In “Team” (Complete 15 missions in co-op), “United We Stand” (Defeat the Rakk Hive, the Vault Boss, Sledge, Krom, or Flynt in a co-op game)

Dead Space: Extraction
Some couples like their Valentine’s Day hot. Others prefer the cold vacuum of outer space, and that’s where this suspenseful sci-fi shooter fits in. Armed with a pair of PlayStation Move motion controllers, you and your main squeeze will nip and tuck the loathsome Necromorph with surgical precision. You’ll find this co-op gem lurking on your Dead Space 2: Limited Edition Blu-ray Disc; it’s also available separately on PSN.

Trophies to shoot for: “Twice The Firepower” (Play cooperatively with a second player), “A Star is Born” (Complete any level with a 5 star rating)

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
Deceptively tough despite the ultra-cute graphics, this 2D PSN beat-em-up is one where having a co-op partner or three will pay off in spades. You’ll want to exploit the tag-team attacks and revives as much as possible. And if the going gets tough, go ahead and steal a life — we won’t tell.

Trophies to shoot for: “The Power Of Friendship” (In a multiplayer game, reanimate another player at least 25 times), “Armed And Dangerous” (Defeat at least 200 enemies using interactive objects)

Time Crisis: Razing Storm
Gaming scholars have long known that lightgun-style shooters are an ideal choice for casual-gaming partners, and Time Crisis: Razing Storm is a natural if you’re packing two PlayStation Moves. The Arcade mode is packed with humongous action set pieces, screen-filling boss battles, and loads of secrets. Don’t overlook the Time Crisis 4 and DeadStorm Pirates bonus games, either.

Trophies to shoot for: “Arcade Master” (Clear Arcade Mode Ranking Play), “Synchronized Shooting” (Reach a Teamwork Level of 100% in DeadStorm Pirates), “Sharpshooter” (Obtain a ‘Nice Combination!’ rating 100 times in DeadStorm Pirates)

We’re happy to announce that today, PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe makes its grand debut outside the PlayStation Network! Yes, that’s right, due to popular request from you, the fans, we have twisted Sony’s arm to release the game on UMD in North America. Even better, we have squeezed the price down to just $9.99 which is an *amazing* value! Think about it: three islands and over 45 stages to play. As Monsters fans know, that means quite literally hundreds and hundreds of hours of incredible gameplay…every minute as addicting and fun as the last.

On top of that, full online play is supported. You can play cooperatively with anyone in the world, or just hang out in the chat rooms and watch the sports-like “ticker-tape” commentary of existing games run by. It’s a very cool new feature, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

And of course, all the money we make from Monsters is being funneled into future PixelJunk games (we have some crazy stuff in store for you!), so that’s an even greater incentive to jump to your local game retailer right now. Buy it for yourself, buy it for your family, buy it for your friends. :-)

For those that don’t already know, starting April 27th, the UMD version of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe for PSP will be available at your local retail outlets for just $9.99! This is by far the best deal ever offered for any UMD title.

So for those that haven’t picked up PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe for their PSP, there’s no better time than now to pre-order your copy at your local retailer. At $9.99, don’t be surprised if your local retailer will be sold out on April 27th.

So, to recap for those who haven’t seen the various blogged reports on it, PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap is a bit of a fan service really – we went back to the original Racers and added Trophies, but we didn’t want to just stop there (just adding the bare minimum isn’t really what we do). So we added a whole new feature – ghost attack. What this does is record how you played whenever you register a new score on the high score tables, so anyone else in the world (including your friends of course) can play against you, trying to best your score.

On top of that we made the single-player tournament a little easier to complete, so you can open up the ghost attack and various party modes even more quickly (and of course gain those Trophies more easily too!).

Just to go on the record – this game *isn’t* really a racing game. It’s as much a racing game as, say, Rally-X was back in the day, really. It is a slot-car based arcade game with lots of fun, wacky modes and ideas in it, and as a result is excellent fun if you get a few people round. And if you can’t get a few people around, the ghost mode opens up a ton of competition with your friends on the ‘net.

Now that I’ve covered off on 2nd Lap, I’m also here to deliver more news to the PixelJunk fans out there. This Spring, we will also be making PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe available on UMD! So, for those of you who prefer to have a hard copy of one of your favorite games … you are in luck. The UMD version of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe will be available at participating retail outlets beginning April 27 for $19.99.

For more information on the PixelJunk franchise, please check out our blog posts here and here. Continue to check back in with us for more information on 2nd Lap and everything PixelJunk here on the PS Blog!

We’ve been holding on to this video interview with SCEE‘s Jem Alexander and I until we were ready to announce PixelJunk Shooter‘s release date. With that out of the way, hit “play” below:

I was a bit tired during that interview, which is my excuse for the over-use of the adjective “cool” (the game *is* cool though! *Very* cool cool indeed)! Here’s the story behind that:

The time was 12am midnight and it was a warm early Autumn night and my heavily loaded car was waiting for me to drive it from Kyoto to Tokyo (estimated 8 hour drive).  This was the start of our journey to the Tokyo Game Show to set up our very own booth for the first time ever.  To cut costs wherever we could, I decided I would drive overnight, lugging the heavier stuff (big TVs, free give-aways, PS3s etc) and saving on train tickets too (by including a couple of Q-Gamers in the drive too).  The car was ram-packed full and weighed heavily down!  Luckily it is a Murano so fairly large and sturdy in the first place, but it’s a wonder the police didn’t pull us over during our trip.
 

 
In Japan the freeways aren’t “free” but recently there is this “ETC” deal which lets you drive on most of them for a single charge of ten bucks or so. Oh and some stretches of road are only 2 lanes (because of the mountainous nature of the country), so as you can imagine there were a few bottlenecks on the way, and one accident that had occurred only a few minutes before we passed it near Mt. Fuji just as it was getting light, that wasn’t the greatest thing to see in the wee hours!  We arrived in Tokyo safe and sound though!
 
Driving through Tokyo on the express way is an interesting experience. You are in Shibuya and below is the ubiquitous maze of tiny streets but you are oblivious to all that as the express way is up above it all in a world of its own, lined by tall buildings.  One minute you are in Shibuya, and the next Roppongi, then you are passing Tokyo Tower and driving over the rainbow bridge, the speed at which it all flies by makes Tokyo seem so small! (It isn’t of course, not by a long shot).
 

 
We arrived 10 minutes later in Makuhari Messe where TGS is always held, grabbed a quick Denny’s breakfast as it was the only place open at 7am and then drove to the conference center.  They allowed us to drive right into the hall and park the car next to our half-finished booth (we employed a company to set up the walls and large prints).  It took us the rest of the day to set everything up, including DIY anti-theft locks for the PS3 controllers! (The problem with Bluetooth controllers is that people can easily walk away with them, and we didn’t want that to happen!)  Once everything was finished it really looked great for such a small booth!  We then went and got some much needed sleep because by that point we were totally knackered!!
 

I might as well use this blog entry as an excuse to talk a little bit about the response last month’s release of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe has been getting – it has been awesome!  Metacritic currently has us at 88 and we’re in the top 10 of all-time best PSP games, which is absolutely incredible for us!  It seems most people are playing the game in offline 1p mode (which of course is engrossing to the extreme), but everyone should definitely try out the online play. It’s a lot of fun and there are lots of like-minded Monsters fans out there to “parlay” and boogie on down with.  It’s also surprisingly fun to simply hang out in a one of the lobbies and watch the blow-by-blow tickertape commentaries of other people’s games. Remember you don’t need a PSPgo to play Monsters Deluxe, it works fine on any PSP!  That’s something we’ve had a lot of mails about.
 
Anyway, I’ll sign off here and write up another blog once Shooter is out!  Remember to post comments!

When the convention center at Makuhari Messe opened its doors, our first meeting was with Q-Games’ Dylan Cuthbert. As is customary with this Kyoto-based team, every time you see them, they’re showing something new. We’ll be reporting on some new PixelJunk Shooter level reveals soon, but first -PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe is complete and ready to roll out this week (October 1) on PSP.

In this interview featuring new footage, Dylan details the new island, new trap tower, new enemies, and online play.

Hey PixelJunk fans,

Well, Q-Games has been busy again, and not just on PixelJunk. You may have noticed some new additions to the PlayStation 3′s XMB (Xross Media Bar) with the latest firmware update to version 3.00.

Well, we’re behind the “star dust” and if you haven’t noticed it yet, you’re in for a nice surprise. We wanted to implement something like the beginning of the movie Gattaca but they wouldn’t let us go quite that far, so we settled on the subtle but pretty dust effect you can see now. If you shake the Wireless Controller, you can move them about a bit, as if they are being carried by eddies in the wind.

Also, there are these new things called Dynamic Themes, and we’re proud to say that this is a system we were involved in developing. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) wanted to spice up the background a bit and static pictures just didn’t cut the mustard. So we collaborated with them to make a system where developers can display what they want and animate and move them around. This definitely adds a little life to the PS3′s background so be sure to try it out.

In fact, go ahead and download our PixelJunk Monsters Dynamic Theme which is now available for $2.99 on the PlayStation Store. Soon you’ll have the little Tikiman running around amongst the trees behind whatever it is you are doing in the XMB. This is actually the very first theme ever made with the system because we used it to test out the features!

So go for it and grab a bit of PS3 history for yourself.

Oh and one more thing…PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe is coming to PSP very soon featuring a brand new island, more maps, new monsters & towers. We’ll have more info on that later!

What’s not on show at E3 however, is the internet co-op play we have implemented so I thought I’d spend a little time explaining what we have implemented as it is pretty cool.

To begin with, in order to meet up with friends (or strangers) you need some kind of lobby or chat room system so we have implemented that – you can create rooms freely, bookmark rooms to go back to easily, set up your preferences for what maps you want to play so people can search for your room more easily etc., all the standard stuff. There is a cross-translated menu for saying simple things no matter what language the other player understands and of course you can type messages in freely. Each room can have up to 8 players in it.

However, we’ve gone a little bit further with a feature we haven’t seen implemented before; when two people start up a co-op game a little running “ticker tape commentary” starts scrolling across the top of the chat window, so the people who aren’t playing yet can read a blow by blow account of what the two players are up to in their game. It’s surprisingly entertaining to watch while you are waiting for someone to start up a game with you. I’m hoping this gives the chat rooms a warmer, more community-like feel so people will enjoy just hanging out in their favourite rooms.

Within the game itself, you can talk to your partner-in-crime by using a new ring menu that gives you a set of simple icons you can string together that are surprisingly effective at conveying what you want your friend to do. It’s a lot of fun running around and directing the other player while you dance on towers.

I’m not sure when it will be going on sale, but when it comes out this game is a must-have for all law-abiding PSP owners everywhere, it’s dangerously addictive and now it has gone mobile you can play it everywhere!