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PixelJunk 4am: Your Virtual Audio Canvas is Live Today

Rowan Parker — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:51:24 +0000

Do you have a PlayStation Move motion controller? Do you like music? Are waffles delicious? If you answered “Yes” to any of the above questions, I have some delicious news for you!

PixelJunk 4am will be released later today on PSN for $9.99! The FREE PixelJunk 4am Viewer app will also be available to download today, and will enable you to stream the full library of 4am visualizers and songs from performers around the world.

If you’re not already familiar with PixelJunk 4am, it’s a Virtual Audio Canvas that uses PlayStation Move, giving you the power to craft music in a unique new audio-visual experience. Your creations are broadcast live on PSN around the world to viewers who can stream (and cheer you on!) in real time.

You can look forward to seven songs and six visualizers with 38 variations, 10 events and over 190 different sounds to play with. PixelJunk 4am supports both in-game Twitter and Facebook connectivity, enabling you to promote your performances with personal messages and start to build your own persona and audience. You can also use 4am as a stand-alone visualizer (no Move required) and play your favorite music from your PS3.

For anyone still yet to see 4am in action, we’ve been playing with it lately in the office here and did some raw filming. Here’s a peek at what can be done with just one song & visualizer!

4am also supports two two Move controllers, meaning you can mix simultaneously with a friend live, or dual-wield by yourself like a pro. :) We took it up onto the roof in the rain last night. Phat bass filtering down into the streets below… :D

Watching players in the early access live beta, we’ve already been blown away by people’s creativity. Some of you have been uploading performances to YouTube in suits and masks or adding your own digital GUI overlays. And that was just with the one song the Beta offered! o.O I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with using the full release library!

So please, show us how it’s done. We’ve provided the platform, it’s up to you guys to stand on it. Surprise us and show us what you can come up with! We’ll be streaming wherever you are in the world.

Monstrous PixelJunk Sale Tomorrow, San Francisco Community Event Thursday

Dylan Cuthbert — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:44:56 +0000

Hey everyone, it’s been awhile since I wrote a Blog entry but today I have a really good reason to. In order to celebrate TEN years of Q-Games we decided to set up the ultimate BLOWOUT PixelJunk sale!!

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!

PixelJunk 4am Hits PSN May 15th, Beta Coming Soon

Rowan Parker — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:01:33 +0000

We’ve been developing PixelJunk 4am for quite some time now. It’s hard to know if you’re done with no other measuring sticks lying around to use as a gauge, however I think we’re almost there! I’ll just leave this here. :)

PixelJunk 4am and the free PixelJunk 4am – Viewer will be released and available for download on the PlayStation Store from May 15th.

Lots of you have been asking for more details regarding the kind of ‘actual’ musical freedom you can look forward to using with your PlayStation Move. So here we go.

We’ve created various different events you can choose from to play live. Different events will present you with different mixes of songs, visualizers and a new mood to go with each one. You then take this event live on PSN and make it your own, crafting and performing it however you want.

Here’s some numbers for everyone. Each song has 4 track instruments you can use: a Drum, Bass, Rhythm and Synth. Each track then has 4 different looping samples and four one-shot sounds in space around you that you can use. All of the loops and samples are different for each song as well, meaning events can have up to (4 loops + 4 one-shots) x 4 tracks x 5 songs = 160 different sound samples to pull from and mix however you like. :)

Then, there are the Effects that you can apply on top of those. Each of the four tracks has unique Effects living on different axes in space around you (like a giant 3D Kaoss pad for those of you into DJing and synths). Using these effects (reverb, low/high pass filter, flanger, ringmod, chorus and more), you can modulate the original sound samples into something completely different. All Effects run independently on each track instrument using the power of the PS3’s SPU hardware, so you could have up to 16 Effects simultaneously modulating all your music!

For people who really want to hack the songs, you can even dub your Move motions into a loop and play that recorded path of motion back through the music. That means any cool sounds or rhythms you make could become the new bass line in a song.

PixelJunk 4am supports up to two PS Move controllers for performing together in an event. So you COULD have your friend over and mix beats side-by-side with them. OR you could rock it dual-wielding a PS Move in each hand… :D Our Live Viewer browser makes it easy as well to spectate the same events as your friends when you’re both online.

Finally, we’ve been getting asked for over a year now if 4am can be used just as a music visualizer on your PS3. The simple answer is, “yes!” PixelJunk 4am can be used as a stand-alone music visualizer to play your favorite music from your PS3. You won’t even need a Move if you just want to fire up and run a playlist to the visuals. All five original 4am visualizers will be available right from the start. To get some of the rarer visualizers, though, you’ll need to unlock them through regular play first. I’ve been running my work-time playlist through the PS3 here at the office lately just to watch the visualizers. Nothing better for ruining productivity. o.O

Very soon we’ll be holding an early access Live Beta for PlayStation Plus members. A limited number of codes will be given to PS Plus members who own a Move, allowing them to get a first taste of performing in 4am. There will also be a 4am Free Viewer beta download available to ALL PlayStation Plus members. During the course of the Live Beta, we’ll host some special live performances from around the world, including DJ Baiyon performing live from Japan. Any PlayStation Plus members with the 4am Free Viewer are of course welcome to spectate. The PixelJunk 4am Live Beta will start from May 1st and run for two weeks, so keep an eye out for further details very soon on how you can get in.

We can’t wait to see what everyone makes once 4am goes live, or what kind of performers will make a name for themselves. Surprise us! :D

PixelJunk SideScroller Live on PSN, Your Questions Answered

Sid Shuman — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:57:28 +0000

PixelJunk SideScroller is finally out in the world! This retro-styled side-scrolling shooter plays like a love note to the arcade games I grew up with in my youth, and serves as a quasi-epilogue to the PixelJunk Shooter series. Before you pick it up on the PlayStation Store, get a closer look with this handy new Q&A. Q-Games President and Executive Producer Dylan Cuthbert took to Twitter to answer your most burning questions. Read closely and you might learn a few helpful secrets!

Q: How many levels come with PixelJunk SideScroller? (via @wildbillhickock)
A: There are 13 levels (called “Sectors”) in total. This includes four absolutely amazing boss battles (Note: Expect an “old friend” from the Shooter-verse to make an appearance, but you’ll be seeing loads of new faces as well). One thing that’s so great about SideScroller is that it has four difficulty modes, and the experience will change depending on what difficulty mode you select. New enemies crop up in Hard difficulty mode, and expect certain encounters to get a whole lot more harrowing because of them. Bullets fly at you faster, the overall look of the game changes, and for those of you brave enough to venture onto Brutal difficulty mode, expect to get “revenge” bullets flung at your ship every time you kill an enemy. Needless to say, SideScroller is a game you can enjoy on many different levels by giving it a replay or two (or three, or four)! Also, the only way to unlock the “true” ending is to complete the game on Brutal. Good luck!

Q: Is there still an emphasis on exploring, or is it more “on-rails” than the PixelJunk Shooter series? (via @VofEscaflowne)
A: SideScroller is a complete departure from the Shooter series. Instead of exploring and puzzle solving – staples of the Shooter-verse – you’ll be using upgradeable weapons to spray bullets in every direction possible! Yes, SideScroller is more of an “on rails” experience, because we’ll push the player onward into really tense situations at a brisk pace. It definitely ups the tension. There are also scenes in the game where the scrolling stops and you have to defeat mini-bosses and any other enemies we throw at you. Mark my words: just because the scrolling stops doesn’t mean the game becomes any less intense!

Q: Any unlockables and cool things to work for? (via @AuburnRDM)
A: There are hidden items scattered through the entire game. For any collectors out there, searching for these items and finding them will certainly be a rewarding experience. They also net you a hefty amount of bonus points, which will be a big help to you competitive players out there who absolutely NEED the #1 high score on the Online Leaderboards! Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on your combo count. The skilled players out there will be able to string together combos from the start of every Sector until the end, so play strategically. If you’re good enough, you might even get a Platinum Medal ~~Trophy~~ for your efforts!

Q: Will my eyes begin to bleed because of so much awesome? (via @bergasche)
A: A resounding YES! Okay, okay, your eyes may not actually bleed, explode, or otherwise become unusable, but SideScroller has a whole lot of awesome contained within its digital casing. It’s on the PlayStation Store now, so what are you waiting for? Go and buy it!

PixelJunk Sidescroller Coming to PSN October 25th

Dylan Cuthbert — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:58:42 +0000

PixelJunk SideScroller is not far from your hands! Yes, it has kind of crept up upon us, but the release date is ~~1st of November~~ October 25th in North America. I really can’t emphasize enough how really, really good, old-school fun SideScroller has turned out to be. I’m sure some of you have played the “bonus” stage in PixelJunk Shooter 2 called “The Road to Dawn”, well that is what gave us the urge to make an entire side scrolling shoot-em-up game! Back in the day I used to love games such as R-Type and Darius, and going even further back there were games such as Scramble and Defender that inspired me as a child. So…we decided to dip our toes in and see what PixelJunk could bring to the side-scroller world.

We used the same engine as for the two Shooter titles, but the game itself is entirely different. To begin with this is a single-stick controlled game rather than the dual-stick control we had in Shooter, which makes it even more addictive and easy to control. And of course, you can only face to the right as you fly your craft! The only similarity really is that a handful of enemies from Shooter have been “re-imagined” for SideScroller, but to add to them we created a whole slew of new enemies and bosses for you to try to destroy also.

The back-story of the game is that SideScroller is the game the pilot of PixelJunk Shooter is playing on his old computer console in his ship on the way home to Earth after the ending of Shooter 2. This explains the cool “retro” look we have designed with the curved CRT (cathode ray tube) screen and the monochrome look of the interface. However, during its orbit of Apoxus Prime perhaps the computer has been infected… a little?

Some people reckon PixelJunk games are a little tough, and well… yes, they are a little because I think games should be a challenge. However, what we’ve done this time is scattered loads of checkpoints so even if you do die, you’ll restart really close, and we also give you the option to downgrade your difficulty setting if you get a Game Over too. We’ve created 4 difficulty levels so everyone is catered for (I hope!).

Oh and did I mention, the bosses are AWESOME! Maybe I should mention that again…

I’ve got to head off and start finishing off PixelJunk 4am, so I’m going to leave you with the really cool trailer for SideScroller we created (see above). Definitely check it out, because you might be able to spot one of the AWESOME bosses in there!

Remember everyone – October 25th!

PixelJunk Lifelike Becomes PixelJunk 4am

Dylan Cuthbert — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:02:08 +0000

So here we are creeping up onto yet another Tokyo Game Show and we have a big announcement to make… and an unusual one at that! We are announcing a name change – I’m sure many of you have seen information about PixelJunk Lifelike over the past year or so, including some live demo performances we did during E3, and a few of you might have noticed how much the core concept of Lifelike expanded and shifted since it was first announced as we explored more and more ideas. Well, after long deliberation we are changing the name to “PixelJunk 4am” to better match the atmosphere we are trying to create. And for more information about that, I have asked some questions and translated Baiyon‘s answers for you:

Why the name change?

Baiyon: PixelJunk Lifelike was originally conceived as an extension of the PixelJunk Eden world. Our idea was to create a kind of living speaker for people to play their music through, using natural imagery and taking strong visual cues from Eden. There wasn’t even the concept of a “player.” We’ve since moved far beyond that simple idea to new and uncharted waters, both visually and musically. The style has evolved now into something that is really quite different from anything we’ve ever made before. It was only natural that we’d want to chase this new concept and capture it with a new title.

Why 4am?

Baiyon: 4am represents the exact mood and feeling we’ve captured. 4am is that deep night hour. In clubs, the music drifts to a new level entering a deepened state that often seems removed from reality. Whether you’re in a club or not, 4am always feels like the night has gone on forever, where there’s still a little time left before dawn. This late night feel better represents our current visual and musical style.

So what can we expect now?

Baiyon: PixelJunk 4am is something unique that has never been tried before, so we’re treading in new territory. We’re using the PlayStation Move in truly experimental ways to give people control of making their own style of music. Being able to stream your music live on PSN also gives people the chance to broadcast a new kind of online performance. We can’t wait to see people playing 4am deep into the early morning hours.

So there you have it, from the horse’s mouth so to speak. To get an even better sense of this “4am” atmosphere Baiyon is talking about, check out the completely new trailer we made above and see Baiyon himself creating an awesome track.

New PixelJunk SideScroller Trailer: Engage Your Eyeballs

Ariel Angelotti — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:14:25 +0000

Hi there, PixelJunkies! I have an important update for you. What’s orange, magenta, and glowing all over? Why, it’s PixelJunk SideScroller, of course! We’ve released a brand-spankin’ new trailer for you. We hope it whets your appetite until you can get your PixelJunk-hungry hands on it.

We don’t have an official release date for PixelJunk sidescroller yet, but rest assured we’re hard at work making it oodles of fun all the while incorporating retro goodness, love, and a little bit of cheese(?) into it. What treasures does this veritable pantheon of old-school gaming hold? We can’t go into the details yet, but expect to get riddled in alien bullets, science fiction in-jokes, and if you’re a tried and true PixelJunkie, you may even notice an Easter egg or two we’ve included just for you!

Need some deep space, missile-flinging fun to tide you over until PixelJunk SideScroller is released? Hop on the PlayStation Network and download the FREE PixelJunk Shooter 2 demo today! Check out our Online Battle Tutorial video to become an Online Battling stud in no time. Did I mention the demo is free? What are you waiting for?

PixelJunk Shooter 2 Free Online Battle Stage GET

Dylan Cuthbert — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:00:10 +0000

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!

PixelJunk Shooter 2 Patch is Live Now

Dylan Cuthbert — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:10:09 +0000

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:

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!

The online connectivity has been tuned to allow you to hook up with other players much more easily. Try it out!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

E3 Replay: PixelJunk sidescroller Brings Retro Homage, Particles Galore to PSN

Dylan Cuthbert — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:04:22 +0000

I’m back in Kyoto after a rip-roaring time at E3 where we revealed not one but two games: PixelJunk lifelike, which you can see a bit of in this previous blog post, and PixelJunk sidescroller — a title no one was expecting and took a lot of people by surprise just as we intended!

When we were wrapping up PixelJunk Shooter 2 a number of us here at Q-Games felt an undeniable urge to create a homage to the old school side-scrolling shooters that we grew up with…so we did and here it is! We went totally overboard on the special effects though and even threw in an incredibly realistic simulation of an old CRT monitor for good measure. The effect is so realistic that at E3 people’s heads were turning and we were questioned as to why we were using such an old TV! It looks really retro-awesome! :-)

Give the video a look to see it in action! We’ll be back soon to share more before PixelJunk sidescroller lands on PSN later this summer.