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!

Starting tomorrow, head into the PlayStation Store to cast your vote for your favorite games in nine of the 10 categories and receive a free Gamers’ Choice Awards XMB theme for each vote cast. New this year, you can also cast your vote online in one special community category, Best PSN Indie, and you’ll receive a voucher code to be redeemed in the PlayStation Store for a free exclusive XMB theme. Your votes exclusively pick the winners in every category, and your award winners go on sale.

Don’t go too far because the winning games in each category will be announced right here on the PlayStation Blog in just one week–on March 6, 2012–and that same day, the winning game in each category will be discounted 30% in the PlayStation Store for one week, with a special 50% discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Drum roll, please! The 2012 nominees for PSN Gamers’ Choice Awards are:

Best PSN Exclusive:

• inFAMOUS Festival of Blood (PS3)
• PixelJunk Shooter 2 (PS3)
• TETRIS (PS3)

Best PSN Game:

• inFAMOUS Festival of Blood (PS3)
• Plants vs. Zombies (PS3)
• Resident Evil 4 (PS3)

Best PSN Game Playable Online:

• Hard Corps: Uprising (PS3)
• Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition (PS3)
• TETRIS (PS3)

Best PS3 Full Game:

• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (PS3)
• Assassin’s Creed II: Deluxe Edition (PS3)
• Midnight Club LA Complete Edition (PS3)

Best PlayStation Move Game:

• 4Elements HD (PS3)
• Dungeon Defenders (PS3)
• Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PS3)

Best 3D Game:

• Dungeon Defenders (PS3)
• God of War: Origins Collection (PS3)
• The Sly Collection (PS3)

Best PSone Classic:

• Chrono Trigger (PS3/PSP)
• Parasite Eve (PS3/PSP)
• Xenogears (PS3/PSP)

Best Mini Game:

• Angry Birds (PS3/PSP)
• The Impossible Game (PS3/PSP)
• PAC-MAN Championship Edition (PS3/PSP)

Best PSP Game:

• DISSIDIA 012 [duodecim] FINAL FANTASY (PSP)
• DISSIDIA 012 Prologus FINAL FANTASY (PSP)
• TACTICS OGRE: Let Us Cling Together (PSP)

PlayStation Community Award – Best Indie:

• Dungeon Defenders (PS3)
• LIMBO (PS3)
• PixelJunk Shooter 2 (PS3)

Don’t forget to head into PlayStation Store tomorrow to cast your vote. You decide the best of PSN, so make your voice heard!

PixelJunk Shooter 2 is unleashing its FREE online battle demo via PSN now. Go start the download! Go on. It’ll be done by the time you finish reading this. :) We’re putting big bounties on the heads of higher-ranked players (especially those in our Sun League), and PixelJunk Shooter 2 staff will be in the mix. Join in the assault on our Veteran players this weekend.

So what’s in it for the Veterans? The PixelJunk team would like present you with a new battleground. From July 15th, we will be uncovering a hidden stage for PixelJunk Shooter 2′s online battles. This stage will be made available to all players for FREE as a salute to your battling prowess. I should advise you though that while dredging up this ancient stage, a few blocks might have come loose. You’ve been warned…

As an extra hat tip to our online battling brethren (both seasoned and fresh), we’re going to share some data with you on current popular item trends. From our statistics, we’ve calculated your expected “chance of winning” when equipping certain items:

Magma Resistance – 64.5%
Resurrection – 64.4%
Fluid Converter – 59.6%
Sticky Ship – 59.5%
Mine – 58.8%

As you can see, the Magma Resistance item (which lets you fly through magma) appears to be giving many people a slight edge.

Our Top 10 online battle players have also shown us some more unique play styles which are clearly working for them and deserve a mention. Some of the items in their arsenals were quite unexpected. Certain Top 10 players (we’ll let you figure out who) use the Camouflage or Fluid Converter one in three matches, and there is even a master Thief using the Snatch n’ Grab every two out of three matches!

So is that free Shooter 2 Demo download done yet? Then go get onto PSN for a weekend of intense 1v1 PixelJunk Shooter 2 online battling action!

For one week only, escape the heat and humidity with big discounts on titles that will entertain you all summer long. Check out the full list of PS3 games that are part of this year’s PSN Summer Sale:

• Back to the Future: The Game – Full Series (Sale price $13.99; Plus price $9.79; Regular price $19.99)
• Chime Super Deluxe (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99)
• Dead Space Extraction (Sale price $10.49; Plus price $7.34; Regular price $14.99)
• Hard Corps: Uprising (Sale price $10.49; Plus price $7.34; Regular price $14.99)
• Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99)
• PixelJunk Shooter 2 (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99)
• Risk: Factions (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99)
• Shank (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99)
• Scott Pilgrim (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99)
• Swarm (Sale price $6.99; Plus price $4.89; Regular price $9.99) (Sale price $10.49; Plus price
  $7.34; Regular price $14.99)
• Tales from Space: About a Blob (Sale price $10.49; Plus price $7.34; Regular price $14.99)

Don’t hesitate because this limited-time offer melts on July 19th, and the games will return to full price. Head on over to the PlayStation Store on Tuesday and take advantage of this season’s best deals!

Hey everyone!I am happy to announce a patch for PixelJunk Shooter 2. We’ve changed a few things. Read on for the full list:

1. There was a bug where some enemies would spawn right on top of you giving you that awesome “insta-death” you really don’t want in a game… well, we fixed it!
2. The online connectivity has been tuned to allow you to hook up with other players much more easily. Try it out!
3. If you get matched against a higher ranking player you get a nice large cash bonus (Q space bucks of course) if you win! This gives you a big incentive to challenge yourself more when you get matched up against someone who seems better than you. Hint: stay calm and use strategy, you can definitely take them!
4. We added an option to the pause screen that lets you take a break in the middle of a stage and come back later to finish it off. So when your mom calls you to the dinner table just choose that option, go eat your dinner *and* be nice to the environment by switching off your PS3!
5. Even if you kill a few survivors and get a game over screen you can “continue” – your score will be reset, but if you are just exploring and trying to get as far as you can this feature stops you from being thrown back to the start of a stage just because a few puny survivors happen to have gotten in the way of your missiles.
6. A message on the pause screen lets you know if there are any diamonds still hidden in the current screen. This is very handy when you are searching out that last diamond in order to unlock the awesomely cool secret last stage!
7. Acid walls aren’t as nasty anymore – we gave the giant alien whose insides you are exploring some antacid and he’s feeling a lot better now!

We have another PixelJunk announcement or two for over the next few weeks, so stay tuned…and enjoy the new-and-improved PixelJunk Shooter 2.

We hope you’re having a magma-tastic time with PixelJunk Shooter 2! We’ve been having fun with Online Battle multiplayer, our squishy-cute Dynamic Theme, and kicking back with some sweet, sweet Shooter tunes brought to you by the one and only High Frequency Bandwidth. Without further ado, introducing Alex Paterson and Dom Beken of HFB with a very important announcement regarding THE album you’ve been waiting for!

At long last, you’ll be able to download the Original Soundtrack to both PixelJunk Shooter games! It’s called “HFB: PixelJunked,” and it’s launched on the PlayStation Store among other digital retailers and will set you back $7.99 (less than the price of a beer at the Brixton Academy!).

A huge thank you for all the pleasant comments on PixelJunk Shooter’s music: it helps to have a great game to work with: Lower Frampden’s Sheep Dip FM voted it Album of the Week last month and The Crosby Bugle gave it a five-star review saying, “this is the best thing since sliced bread and won’t be buttered till we can get a USB upgrade for the toaster!” Thanks to the landlord at the Brick and Beaver for paying for this piece of blatant advertorial. We hope you like it as much. Ours’ are pints – cheers.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for the latest info coming out of Q-Games headquarters, and tune into our official podcast, PixelJunk Radio, for behind-the-scenes exposés including an exclusive interview with HFB scheduled to air on episode nine. You can subscribe via iTunes or our RSS feed.

Until next time, peace, love, and PixelJunk!

Hippy In Transit (Paradise Mix)

Hill Film Blue (Mysterious Mine Mix)

Hidden Foto Banks (Original Mix)

High Flying Birds (Cool Down The Attractive Mix)

Godisnowhere (Geothermal Torch Safety Mix)

This Thursday, March 3rd, PlayStation Home welcomes the second expansion to the Home Mansion. This week, everyone will be able to get their hands on the Second Floor with Game Room. Like the previous parts of the Mansion, it comes complete with its own gift machine, ready to hook up your friends with a handful of glittering gold items. Unique to this floor, it comes with its own pool table and dart game.

Landing the same week as PixelJunk Shooters 2 on PSN, PixelJunk is bringing new content to Home related to sister titles, PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Racers. Included are a variety of fun racecar suits for men and trackside attire for the ladies, and to decorate your pad Monster-style, there are more than twenty furniture items, including cute miniature trees and various miniature characters from the game. Head to the PixelJunk Home space tomorrow to check it all out.

From our own collections, this week we bring several wild outfits. Whether you’re into Mech, Battlesuits, or Desert-style camo, you’re bound to want these.

Lockwood is introducing a new brand line. Figment is about being able to stride confidently into any party, room or restaurant knowing you look great. But most of all, Figment is about imagination and the ability to combine separates in ways you hadn’t considered before to produce even more incredible looks and outfits. You may find Figment in the Mall, starting tomorrow.

And last but not least, the Home Community Theater is being updated this Thursday with a couple new videos. First up is HipHopGamer’s newest video, where he enthusiastically reviews Killzone 3. If you stick around for the whole episode, you’ll be granted some blinged-out swag that represent the way only HipHopGamer could before. Next up, Gamer Indepth’s own Doc brings his latest episode where he and Sami interview Luge on her experiences at the record breaking LittleBigPlanet Guinness Book of World Records event in New York City.

See you in Home!

So, the wait is over. The sequel to the technically and critically acclaimed PixelJunk Shooter will be with us later today! It continues where the original left off, leaving you trapped in the deep dark bowels of an enormous alien entity. Fight through the backwash and encounter the weird and terrible monsters that are living in the alien’s gut, force your way through putrid stomach acid and strange slippery bubbly stuff, and be totally grossed out by thousands of iddy-biddy insects that come pouring out of strange pulsating larvae when you mix water with it.

Yes, this is a game you probably want to avoid playing immediately after eating, and you might feel a little queasy the next time you are staring down Sparrow-on-a-stick (a Kyoto traditional cruisine).

But wait… PixelJunk Shooter 2 isn’t all about dieting and worm control! It has vast new worlds to explore that aren’t part of an organism’s digestive track, and new technologies too, such as the Hungry Suit and the Light Suit and a whole load more. Use the new R3 spin-attack to wipe out chains of enemies at a time and revel in the destructive mayhem you can dish out with the upgraded charged missile! But all this wanton damage is in a good cause as those survivors still need rescuing and only YOU can save them!

On top of all this fun, we have added a completely new online versus mode which I have gone over in a previous post, but let me tell you, it’s just oozing with “addictability”, with twenty unique wonderful weapons to earn and use in the battles I really hope everyone gives it a go. It’s not overly aggressive and is a bit of cute cat-and-mouse fun, so even those PixelJunk fans out there who have never played online before, I urge you to give it a few tries (besides, one of the trophies requires you to go up at least one league in the online mode so that should be a good enough lure).

Anyway, I shouldn’t keep you too long, you’ve got PSN wallets to fill and Shooter 2s to download! See you online! (my ID’s PixelMeister so if you encounter me in your league battling, be kind and let me destroy you!)

P.S. There is something extra special for those of you who collect all the treasures… I shan’t spoil it though, last one there’s a ninny!

Over and out! …now where did I place that damn magma ball blaster…

As you probably know, March 1st marks the release date of Q-Games’ delightfully addictive PSN physics smorgasbord PixelJunk Shooter 2. We’re going to celebrate this momentous occasion the only way we know how: with a gigantic PlayStation community meetup and gaming session starring PixelJunk Shooter 2 and Patapon 3! (Protip: Quick, RSVP!)

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, February 28th, come say hi! We’ll have open gameplay for PixelJunk Shooter 2 AND Patapon 3, and Ariel from Q-Games will be meeting and greeting fans at the event — you might know her from the PixelJunk Radio podcast. We’ll also be holding a PixelJunk Shooter 2 Online Battle tournament with fabulous prizes…but you’ll have to show up to see what they are!

Oh, and one more thing: The first 100 gamers to arrive at Mighty on February 28th will get a free copy of PixelJunk Shooter 2, just for being awesome. Mighty can hold hundreds of people, though, so don’t feel discouraged — though you will need to be 21 or older. Here are the full details:

Location: Mighty, 119 Utah St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2011
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Note: You must be at least 21 years old — ID *will* be checked!
RSVP: Sign up to the event on our Facebook Page

Hope to see you there.

Compared to the original, this game is packed even more full of lovely gushing liquid action across three entirely new worlds, and there is a whole new game in itself with the online versus mode we have put in there (over 20 weapons and abilities for you to use against your opponent!). This is why it has taken a little longer than expected to get this into your hands, but we’re really happy that now, after winging its way through the digital tapestry called “game submission,” it has been approved for release!

Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as we have some very interesting things to announce and remember to tune into our PixelJunk Radio podcast if only to hear us talk in dulcet tones!

If you have any questions about Shooter 2, fire away below and either myself or Ariel will attempt to answer them!