First the sound packs. The 80′s pack brings the synth-poppy melodies and digital drum beats inspired by the neon decade when big hair and leg warmers ruled the lands. If that’s too gaudy for you, dive into the dark and dirty world of the Dubstep Sound Pack with the lurching, wobbling, big bass drops straight from the streets of London. Will you dare to combine the two?

Both packs each include new notes, loops, five new Beat School levels, and five Trophies.

And later this month we roll out a special installment of the Milkcrate, our carefully curated collection of Community levels. What’s so special? Well, we asked some of our favorite people to hand-pick their favorite levels, write up liner notes, design custom album artwork, and send them your way – people like:

Pretty rad if we say so ourselves, and there are many more guest-curated Milkcrate albums coming soon. Stay tuned.

Both Sound Packs will be available today for $0.99 each on the PlayStation Store (PS3 and PS Vita), and the Milkcrate albums are coming on May 28th as a free update (they’ll appear like magic when you log in). Hope you dig all this new content, and we’ll see you soon.

Go ahead… open it.

Yup, a Holiday Sound Pack. Do you like it? Five new Christmas-themed instruments from classic carols to create your own holiday tunes – because there’s no such thing as too much Christmas music!

How do you get them? Just turn on Sound Shapes on your PS3 or PS Vita, connect to the internet, and they’ll automatically appear.

Oh really, we’re so glad you like them and we hope you enjoy them over the holidays. Anyway, we need to get going (the reindeer are getting restless) but from everyone here at Queasy Games and the whole Sound Shapes team, we wish you and your loved ones all the best and a happy holiday!

PS… if you create some levels, put #XMAS in the title and we’ll play them while chilling over the break. Talk soon!

The Sound Packs are $0.99 each, and the Curved Terrain Pack is free. You’ll find everything in our new in-game Sound Shapes Music Shop today. (You can also grab them on PSN, as usual.)

Here’s a short trailer with a track we put together using some of the new sounds. And remember, if you create something you’re digging, tell us on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr – we love playing your levels.

Oh, and one (ok, a few) more things… So the community has created over 15,000 levels (!) and we’ve been noting our favorites since launch. But how to share them? We have an idea! Coming in December is the Community Milkcrate – the best user-created content in Sound Shapes gathered and organized into themed albums, so you can find the levels that match your mood or play style. Chill, amped, long, short, tough as nails, and on and on. As part of the Milkcrate, we’ve been chatting with some rad musicians and game industry folks, and they’ll also be putting together collections of their favorites for you (their stuff coming in 2013). The new year will also bring a new vehicle DLC pack but before the big ‘13 we have a little holiday present from everyone here at Queasy — stay tuned!

The DLC Details

Sound Shapes has been out (in North America, at least) a little under a month now, and we continue to be blown away by the response the game has been getting. If you’ve been following our official Sound Shapes twitter (and we hope you have!) you’ve probably been kept up-to-date with our news, but just last week we hit over ten thousand levels in our community (if you’re interested, our ten-thousandth level was Out of the Rain by sunpsyche.)

With so many levels, we’ve been working very hard behind the scenes to make sure that players are able to best find the cream of the crop. For example, not only have we been iterating our search algorithms to ensure the star tab (“Greatest Hits” on the website) is kept up-to-date with the best levels, we also try to make sure if you search you get useful results—oh, and if you missed it, you can search on the website now too! However, we would like to ensure we’re interacting with our community and not just setting up SOULESS SEARCH ROBOTS to do that job for us—so we’re going to try and regularly share with you the community levels that pique our interest. Starting… now.

And I to Fire by jordanbuster

“This level sort of blew my mind a bit” said Jon [Mak], at which point I probably mumbled something like “oh, that’s nice” and went back to doing something else entirely. However, when I finally played this level it was worthy of his praise. To be honest, if you follow the Sound Shapes community you are probably already familiar with this level, so we’re not telling you anything new, but we had to spotlight it because it was the first level we saw that did things that surprised us — and, you know, we made the game. You’d think we’d know it inside out, eh?

Arcade Fireworks by Daftbomb

Here’s a darn tough level with some lovely visual stylings. If you played through our D-cade album you’ll kind of get the theme here—twists on some classic arcade games—but what really sells this one for us is the consistent art (even using a selection of different assets), clever challenges, and general fun times.

Intermission by Zoetroupe

This is a nice short level—an intermission, if we will—that mixes things up by not twisting video games but cinema! It’s musically lovely and genuinely artistic visually, and will leave you wanting more (always a good thing.)

Metamorphose by Tabulator_AT

This level is beautiful but also deserves praise for using one of our creatures in a way that we didn’t expect. It would say too much to pick out which one, but levels which challenge our established view of the game are always winners.

Quick, Dinosaurs! by TheAvengedMarin

Strong themes are always good! This level is an adventure across a dinosaur-filled landscape with a cute ending, with well thought out challenges and lots of cute dinosaurs to spot (we remain impressed at to what you’re all able to squeeze out of our ground shapes!) — it’s well worth a play.

That’s only a very small selection of the levels we’ve been playing—we really do try and play as many as we can manage—and so we do hope to be back soon to share more levels with you (the quality only gets better and better, so we’re sure that there are already new levels that you think we’re foolish to not have included.)

Don’t forget that you can queue up any of these levels to play in Sound Shapes from the website. Simply log in to the site with your PSN ID, hit queue on the level that takes your fancy, and when you load up the community (on PS3 or PS Vita) you can find them in your “favorites” on your profile (once you’ve played through them once, if you don’t choose to favorite them, they’ll be removed from that list.)

Oh! And don’t think we’re just spending all our time playing your levels (as much as we want to.) We’re working hard on getting the first DLC out to you as soon as possible (giving you more to work with!) — we’ll be able to talk about that soon. Happy creating!

PS3 Full Games

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 ($49.99)

Return to Gamindustri and help Nepgear free the captive Console Patron Units from the clutches of ASIC! Meet the other CPU Candidates from around the world and put a stop to Arfoire’s designs!
ESRB: M-Mature // File Size: 3.8 GB

The King of Fighters XIII ($29.99)

With the triumphant return of fan favorite characters like Mai, K’, and Vice, extensive refinement of the core fighting engine based on community feedback, and vastly improved network functionality, The King of Fighters XIII represents the HD entry in the series that fans have been waiting for.
ESRB: T-Teen // File Size: 2.18 GB

PSN Games

Sound Shapes ($14.99)

Equal parts instrument and game, Sound Shapes gives everyone the ability to make music. Play through a unique campaign that fuses music and artwork into a classic 2D platformer. Create your own unique musical levels with all of the campaign content and share with the world. Sound Shapes creates an ever-changing musical community for everyone to enjoy at home or on the go. Purchase the PS3 version of Sound Shapes and receive the PS Vita version at no additional cost!
ESRB: E-Everyone // File Size: 969 MB

PS Vita Games

Sound Shapes ($14.99)

Equal parts instrument and game, Sound Shapes gives everyone the ability to make music. Play through a unique campaign that fuses music and artwork into a classic 2D platformer. Create your own unique musical levels with all of the campaign content and share with the world. Sound Shapes creates an ever-changing musical community for everyone to enjoy at home or on the go. Purchase the PS3 version of Sound Shapes and receive the PS Vita version at no additional cost!
ESRB: E-Everyone // File Size: 969 MB

PS Minis

Farm Frenzy 3 Minis ($4.99)

Manage five farms around the world and try your hand at penguin breeding and jewelry making in Farm Frenzy 3! Features 95 outrageously fun levels, 30 wacky animals and more upgrades than there are ears in a field of corn!
ESRB: E-Everyone // File Size: 32 MB

Bundles

Payday: The Heist Wolfpack Bundle (Game And Wolfpack DLC Bundle) ($19.99)

PAYDAY The Heist is an action filled FPS game for the PlayStation Network that lets players take on the role of a hardened career criminal executing intense, dynamic heists in constant pursuit of the next “big score”. Load out with an array of weaponry and equipment. Navigate six high-stake heists with three other live or A.I. Co-Op partners in crime. Time for a PAYDAY – Cash in Before you Cash Out!
ESRB: M-Mature // File Size: 2.37 GB

PlayStation Store Highlights

After blasting off with the launch of Expendables 2, PSN PLAY continues to bring the heat with the PlayStation exclusive Sound Shapes! Coming bundled with both PS3 and PS Vita versions for one price, you won’t want to miss out on this unique platformer that combines awesome beats with clean 2D visuals. It’s available now and is 20% off for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Also a part of PSN PLAY, this week marks the window to pre-order Papo & Yo! Plus members receive an exclusive theme as well as a 20% discount.

This week PlayStation Plus delivers an update to the Instant Game Collection with the first two episodes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead free for Plus members! This acclaimed series delivers breakthrough storytelling and engaging choices that really matter. If you’re already a Walking Dead Season Pass holder, your purchase is still well worth it as you’ll be among the first to experience the later episodes as they release.

For those of you who never got the chance to play PAYDAY: The Heist, now is an excellent time to jump in — a great bundle is now available, which includes the newly released Wolfpack Add-On. The core game is all about planning and executing the perfect heist across a handful of campaigns, and Wolfpack adds a ton more content, skill tree expansions, and also raises the level cap.

If you caught EVO 2012 this year, you know that The King of Fighters XIII made quite an impression in the fighting game community. If you’ve yet to get your hands on a KOF game, KOFXIII is a great place to start and is available now in the PS3 Full Game section. Download it today and see how refined a fighting game can be.

Lastly, don’t forget to hop back into UNCHARTED 3 to check out Version 1.13 of the legendary game. It’s Naughty Dog‘s biggest patch ever and features a new tournament mode, tons of new items, and more. You can find the tournament tickets in the Add-Ons section of the PlayStation Store which grant you special in-game weapons or items based on how well you’ve played in tournaments.

There’s more great content to review below including getting set for next week’s retail release of Darksiders II by grabbing the Darksiders II Season Pass. Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll see you next week.

PlayStation Plus

Click here to learn more and purchase online or go to the PlayStation Store to activate instantly.

Free Content	The Walking Dead: Episode 1 – A New Day The Walking Dead: Episode 2 – Starved for Help
Discounts	PSN Play – Week 3 – Papo & Yo – Pre-Order (20% Off) – PS Plus Price: $11.99 Sound Shapes – PS3 Game w/ Vita copy (20% off) – PS Plus Price $11.99 Sound Shapes- Vita Game w/ PS3 Copy (20% off) – PS Plus Price $11.99
Last Chance (Leaving Plus This Week)	Mad Riders (10% Discount) – PS Plus Price $8.99 Mad Riders Game The Daredevil Map Pack (Free) Just Cause 2 (Free PS3 Full Game) Lara Croft Guardian of Light (Free PSN Game) Papo & Yo – Pre-Order (20% off) – PS Plus Price $11.99 Sound Shapes – PS3 Game w/ Vita copy (20% off) – PS Plus Price $11.99 Sound Shapes- Vita Game w/ PS3 Copy (20% off) – PS Plus Price $11.99 International Track and Field (Free PS one Classic) Hot Shots Golf 2 (Free PS one Classic)

Preorders

Papo & Yo Preorder Offer (Static Theme Gift With Purchase) ($14.99)

Pre-Order Papo & Yo Today and receive a Free Theme! Papo & Yo is a Puzzle-Platforming Adventure that follows the tale of a young boy named Quico and his best friend Monster, a huge beast with razor-sharp teeth and an addiction to poisonous frogs. When the minute Monster eats a frog, he goes into a violent rage that’s bad news for everyone around. And yet, Quico isn’t afraid to make a dangerous journey through a magical, constantly-changing world to find a cure for his best friend. This is their story…

ESRB: E10+

Sales

Normaltanks – PS mini (now $0.99, original price $3.99)
Payday: The Heist – PSN Game (now $13.99, original price $19.99)
Super Stardust HD Game Bundle (now: $7.99 old price: $14.99)
Super Stardust HD Solo Add-on Pack (now: $3.19 old price: $4.99)
Super Stardust HD Team Add-on Pack (now: $3.19 old price: $4.99)
Super Stardust HD Solo Pack (In Game Purchase version) (now: $3.19 (old price: $4.99)
Super Stardust HD Team Pack (In Game Purchase) (now: $3.19 old price: $4.99)
Two Worlds II Velvet Game Of The Year Edition – PS3 Full Game (now $9.99, original price $34.99)

Price Change

LittleBigPlanet 2 – PS3 Full Game (now $19.99, original price $39.99)

PS3 Add-ons

UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception

• Tournament Tickets (10 for $4.49, 20 for $7.49, 50 for $15.99, 200 for $50.99) – The brand new UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception multiplayer Tournament System ushers in a points-based competition that has three reward tiers which grant you special in-game weapons or items based on how well you’ve played. Once you unlock a weapon or item it’s yours to use until the next tournament period. You can buy into a tournament using tournament tickets. You’ll always carry a balance of ten tickets per tournament period but you will be able to purchase more via the PS Store. A tournament leaderboard will be added to the leaderboards section so you can track your skill level among your friends!

Inversion

• Map “VERGE” ($1.99) – VERGE features two distinct bases as players jump between vectors, and sneak through multiple paths to gain the upper hand. Battle and master the multiple planes in this intense and frantic map.
• Map “RIOT” ($1.99) – RIOT features a dark deserted urban landscape. Fight in multiple buildings, several levels, and an intense sniper’s paradise. Master your Gravlink to pull campers from their cover, throw objects, and gain the upper ground for control of the map.

Darksiders II

• Season Pass ($19.99) – Season Pass provides a discount on the Maker Armor Set (available now), The Abyssal Forge (available soon), and The Demon Lord Belial (available soon). Please note Season Pass does not include any content other than the three items listed above. Season Pass content should be accessed and downloaded in-game, or you may be charged twice. Visit darksiders.com for more details.

Adidas miCoach

• Rugby Pack ($4.99) – A full rugby training programme to add to your miCoach living room experience – train with the best! Train in the comfort of your own home with an all-star rugby training team – Ma’a Nonu and Will Genia. It’s your exercise world, perfectly synced from your PlayStation 3 system, via the web or via your smartphone.

PAYDAY The Heist

• Wolfpack ($9.99) – PAYDAY The Heist Wolfpack is the first DLC for this action filled FPS. Features: New Weapons: STRYK full auto pistol, AK Automatic Rifle, Grenade Launcher and deployable sentry gun. 2 New Heists: Undercover (transfer money to your account from the IRS) and Counterfeit (secret operation in Florida). Hosting Ability: Invite friends to play in the new DLC maps even if they do not own the DLC themselves. New Skilltree: Raise your level cap to 192.

Mass Effect 3

• Firefight Pack ($1.99) – Unleash hell with the Firefight Pack! Firefight adds seven weapons for use in the single-player campaign: the Indra and Krysae sniper rifles, Reegar Carbine, Harrier battle rifle, Geth SMG, plus the all-new Blood Pack Punisher SMG and Adas Anti-Synthetic rifle!

Dragon’s Dogma

• Notice Board Quests – The Savvy ($2.99) – After completing “Reward and Responsibility,” an extra 8 exclusive quests become available at notice boards everywhere.
• From a Different Sky – Bundle Pack ($6.99) – All of the ‘From a Different Sky’ quests in one handy bundle. Can you complete all 100? Check the Pawn Guild to begin!

Record of Agarest War 2

• Right to the Blacksmith Pack 9 ($0.00) – Here is some good news for those too spineless or too lethargic to Convert! Take the following items and get your bad self to Gordon’s place! Shining Blade x 1, Ring of Light x 1, Mysterious Jewel x 1, Genbu’s Bowl x 1, Seiryuu’s Eye x 1, Byakko’s Crest x 1, Suzaku’s Wing x 1, Generation Crystal x 2, Whispered Dream x 2.
• Bonus Point Pack 7 ($5.99) – Thank you once again for your profligate spending habits. Today we have prepared a heaping helping of party points just for you. Included points: 3,000PP. These points can be shared amongst your entire party. Spread the wealth, create a single superhero, or shower them upon a beloved character; it’s entirely up to you.
• Frensberge Specialty Pack 5 ($1.99) – At these prices, you might as well be stealing all of this stuff! Now, the fifth set of Fresnberge-themed goods for your buying pleasure! Keep spending; the town needs the cash! Langguth Sword x 1, S. V. Rouge x 1, Injector Maximus x 1, Lollipop Stick x 1, DESHIMARU x 1, Training Wear x 1.
• Right to the Blacksmith Pack 10 ($0.00) Listen up, all you lazy, cowardly oatmeal warts who can’t be bothered to Convert things on your own! Take the following stuff to Gordon and let him work his magic. ATK Element Ω x2, DEF Element Ω x2, MAG Element Ω x2, RST Element Ω x2, STR Element Ω x2, VIT. Element Ω x2, INT Element Ω x2, MND Element Ω x2, AGI Element Ω x2, DEX Element Ω x2.
• Bonus Point Pack 8 ($6.99) – Thank you once again for your profligate spending habits. Today we have prepared a heaping helping of party points just for you. Included points: 6,500PP. These points can be shared amongst your entire party. Spread the wealth, create a single superhero, or shower them upon a beloved character; it’s entirely up to you.
• Extra Costumes 2 ($2.99) – Here is something for one of the lovely ladies in your life to bathe in! Why not get one of them to put it on now?!
• 3rd Extra Character ($2.49) – Hark! Allies that will share in your joys and sorrows have come in droves! Now, it is time to overcome adversity together!

Persona 4 Arena

• Additional Colors Pack #1 ($1.99) – Additional colors for Yu, Yukiko, Teddie, and their Personas. Each character will have 8 new colors, 2 of which can only be used offline.
• Additional Colors Pack #2 ($1.99) – Additional colors for Chie, Naoto, Akihiko, and their Personas. Each character will have 8 new colors, 2 of which can only be used offline.
• Additional Colors Pack #3 ($1.99) – Additional colors for Yosuke, Aigis, Labrys, and their Personas. Each character will have 8 new colors, 2 of which can only be used offline.
• Additional Colors Pack #4 ($1.99) – Additional colors for Kanji, Mitsuru, Elizabeth, Shadow Labrys, and their Personas. Each character will have 8 new colors, 2 of which can only be used offline.
• Additional Colors Full Pack ($5.99) – Additional colors for all the characters. Each character will have 8 new colors, 2 of which can only be used offline.
• Glasses Pack #1 ($1.99) – Glasses for Yu, Yukiko and Teddie. When selected, the corresponding character will wear glasses during battle. NOTE: Additional glasses colors will be available if you also purchased the corresponding characters’ additional colors.
• Glasses Pack #2 ($1.99) – Glasses for Chie, Naoto and Akihiko. When selected, the corresponding character will wear glasses during battle. NOTE: Additional glasses colors will be available if you also purchased the corresponding characters’ additional colors.
• Glasses Pack #3 ($1.99) – Glasses for Yosuke, Aigis and Labrys. When selected, the corresponding character will wear glasses during battle. NOTE: Additional glasses colors will be available if you also purchased the corresponding characters’ additional colors.
• Glasses Pack #4 ($1.99) – Glasses for Kanji, Mitsuru, Elizabeth and Shadow Labrys. When selected, the corresponding character will wear glasses during battle. NOTE: Additional glasses colors will be available if you also purchased the corresponding characters’ additional colors.
• Glasses Full Pack ($5.99) – Glasses for all the characters. When selected, the corresponding character will wear glasses during battle. NOTE: Additional glasses colors will be available if you also purchased the corresponding characters’ additional colors.
• Navigation #1 (Teddie) ($2.99) – Battle navigation voice for Teddie (selectable in Versus Mode and Network Mode). NOTE: Skilled players can unlock this content by playing the game.
• Navigation #2 (Yosuke) ($2.99) – Battle navigation voice for Yosuke (selectable in Versus Mode and Network Mode). NOTE: Skilled players can unlock this content by playing the game.
• Navigation #3 (Mitsuru) ($2.99) – Battle navigation voice for Mitsuru (selectable in Versus Mode and Network Mode). NOTE: Skilled players can unlock this content by playing the game.
• Navigation #4 (Aigis) ($2.99) – Battle navigation voice for Aigis (selectable in Versus Mode and Network Mode). NOTE: Skilled players can unlock this content by playing the game.
• Navigation #5 (Fuuka) ($2.99) – Battle navigation voice for Fuuka (selectable in Versus Mode and Network Mode). NOTE: Skilled players can unlock this content by playing the game.
• Navigation #6 (Nanako) ($2.99) – Battle navigation voice for Nanako (selectable in Versus Mode and Network Mode). NOTE: Skilled players can unlock this content by playing the game.

Street Fighter X Tekken

• Color Palette Add-On 6 ($0.00) – The 6th color pack (4-color set) for character color customization. Note: This add-on is exclusive content for STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN.
• SF Boost Gem Pack 9 ($0.99) – 10 Boost Gems exclusively for Street Fighter characters. Perform a technical action to activate the effects for these Gems. Note: If you would like to see the effects of the Gems individually before purchase, please use the Store from the game’s Main Menu. The effects of the Gems may be subject to change.
• SF Boost Gem Pack 10 ($0.99) – 10 Boost Gems exclusively for Street Fighter characters. Includes Gems for fighting against Pandora as well as Gems for instantaneous vitality recovery. Note: If you would like to see the effects of the Gems individually before purchase, please use the Store from the game’s Main Menu. The effects of the Gems may be subject to change.
• TK Boost Gem Pack 9 ($0.99) – 10 Boost Gems exclusively for Tekken characters. Perform a technical action to activate the effects for these Gems. Note: If you would like to see the effects of the Gems individually before purchase, please use the Store from the game’s Main Menu. The effects of the Gems may be subject to change.
• TK Boost Gem Pack 10 ($0.99) – 10 Boost Gems exclusively for Tekken characters. These Harmonize Gems activate upon various differing conditions. Note: If you would like to see the effects of the Gems individually before purchase, please use the Store from the game’s Main Menu. The effects of the Gems may be subject to change.
• Boost Gem Trial Pack 4 ($0.00) – A total of 3 Boost Gems that all characters can use. Note: If you would like to see the effects of the Gems individually before purchase, please use the Store from the game’s Main Menu. The effects of the Gems may be subject to change.

Rock Band 3

Build your Rock Band library by purchasing song game tracks. For music credits, visit www.RockBand.com.

• (I Just) Died in Your Arms ($1.99) – Cutting Crew
• Crawling in the Dark ($1.99) – Hoobastank
• Still of the Night ($1.99) – Whitesnake

Rock Band Network – Build your Rock Band library by purchasing song game tracks made available through Rock Band Network

• Anything ($0.99) – An Endless Sporadic. Compatible with Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz.
• (I’m the One That’s) Cool ($0.99) – The Guild feat. Felicia Day. Compatible with Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz.
• From the Blue/Point of No Return ($0.99) – An Endless Sporadic. Compatible with Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz.
• Romancing the Ordinary ($0.99) – Rose of Jericho. Compatible with Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz.
• The Ravenous ($1.99) – I, Omega. Compatible with Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz.

Avatars

Magic 2013 Avatar Pack ($1.99)
Rainbow Moon Avatar – Demon Warrior ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Avatar – Living Gun ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Avatar – Savant ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Zelorus Avatar ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Avatar – Zombie ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Dazed Stare Avatar ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Demon Mage Avatar ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Merchant Avatar ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Serena Avatar ($0.49)
Rainbow Moon Lofi Guard Avatar ($0.49)

Game Videos (Free)

Battlefield 3 Armored Kill Gameplay Premiere Trailer
Dyad Launch Trailer
Sound Shapes Introduces Beck & Pyramid Attack

PS3 Themes

Anne-Dynamic Pirate Theme 3 ($2.99)
Dynamic America City NYC Skyline Theme ($2.99)
Vampires – Bloodletting Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Vampires – Eternal Blood Spell Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Vampires – The Deadly Departed Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Vampires – The Turning Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Vampires – What Lies Beneath Dynamic Theme ($2.99)

Wallpapers

Papo & Yo – Wallpaper 1 ($0.00)
Payday: The Heist Masked Man Wallpaper ($0.00)
Payday: The Heist New Features Wallpaper ($0.00)
Payday: The Heist New Heist Wallpaper ($0.00)
Test Drive Ferrari Racing Legends Wallpaper ($0.00)

Available In-Game Only (Not on PlayStation Store)

Adidas miCoach

• Manuel Neuer ($4.99) – Add soccer superstar Manuel Neuer to your miCoach football training team – train with the best!Train in the comfort of your own home with an additional soccer star for your all-star soccer training team. It’s your exercise world, perfectly synced from your PlayStation 3 system, via the web or via your smartphone.

Rock Band 3

• (I Just) Died in Your Arms ($1.99) – Pro Guitar (In Game Only) ($0.99) – Cutting Crew

Sound Shapes is out on PSN today! It’s the culmination of a long journey for our boss-men Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem, who worked on the concept for… more years than they probably want me to say before the reveal at E3 2011, and having worked on the game for a year myself now I think I can speak for the whole team when I say we just want you to play it. Like… we don’t want you to finish reading this blog post, or even probably watch the launch trailer we made. We made Sound Shapes for you to play! So when today’s update goes live, get yourself over to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or PS Vita and pick it up!

The title is $14.99 ($11.99 for PlayStation Plus members this week only) and part of the PSN Play promotion, so if you buy one or more other of the games in the promotion you’ll get an increasing amount of money back. Most importantly, however — Sound Shapes is a cross-play title. Whether you buy it on PS3 or PS Vita, you receive both versions for one price. We cannot stress this enough. We’ve definitely tried to stress this enough. Both versions are yours when you buy it, and all trophies and community levels are shared between them, whether you own a PS3 or a PS Vita, or both.

If you’re looking for more of a general overview of what Sound Shapes is, why not watch our brand-spanking new launch trailer?

If you’re still here, I guess I should recap the information you really need to know, to be sure you’re making the right purchase when you finally dawdle over to the PlayStation Store. So: Sound Shapes is a 2D musical platformer in which every level is a song. You pick up the notes placed in the level to construct the music, but at the same time the creatures (friend or foe) and interactive objects are instruments too. We’ve worked with different graphic and musical artists on each album of level-songs, with the likes of Shaw-Han in his I am Robot and Proud guise, Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie and Beck working with graphic artists like Vic Ngyuen of Capy, Pyramid Attack, PixelJam and Superbrothers. If the game stopped there that would probably have been more than enough work for us but we also decided that players should be able to use these notes, creatures and so on to make their own songs and levels. Therefore we’ve included a full level editor and online community which will allow you to share your creations across the entire world, reaching players on both PS3 and PS Vita no matter which version you’re using.

Oh, and on top of that we’ve also included Trophies (yes, there’s a Platinum). They’re unlocked by conquering Death Mode, which consists of intense platforming challenges based on our main campaign, and Beat School, which hopes to inspire players in the fine art of beat-making by challenging them to recreate a piece of music in our level editor.

So, we hope that’s rather a worthy offering for your $14.99, if you’re still dilly-dallying. One of the nicest things for us is that although we’re super excited to have you play Sound Shapes, we’re even more excited to play the levels you create in the community. To be honest, this could be a total win-win. We get to make the game we wanted to make, share it with PlayStation’s community of gamers, and then have them make levels that we get to play? Amazing! (And don’t worry, we do plan to support the community beyond launch with DLC. Not that we’re going to say any more than that for now!)

If you do find you want to know even more about Sound Shapes, check out our website here! But we wish you’d just pick up the game and get to making levels. Come on, it’s your turn, we’ve been making them for ages!

Fellows! We’ve are absolutely gagging here to get Sound Shapes into your hands. Gagging! We wish it could be in your hands right now! But unfortunately that can’t be, as this week saw the release of The Expendables 2 as part of the PSN Play promotion, not us. However! If you’re popping into PlayStation Store to pick it up at any point this week you can also pre-order Sound Shapes and get an exclusive PS3 theme. That’s not to forget PSN Play’s money-saving promotion: the more games you pick up, the more money you save. So if you’ve already picked up The Expendables 2, you’ll get a cool three bucks back if you pick up Sound Shapes.

But enough of that waffle. Because we’re excited to get Sound Shapes into your hands, we wanted to kick start your imaginations by having one of our founders, Jonathan Mak, walk you through level creation using our level tools. And if you’re the kind of player who is more excited to *play* than create (and that’s fine, too) we’re revealing our Trophy mode. And yes, there is a Platinum.

So, until this point we’ve been showing you lots of different parts of our campaign mode. Just to recap: we’re providing five different albums with several tracks each, with each album including art and music from a different pair of artists, such as deadmau5 and Pixeljam or Pyramid Attack and Beck. Beating these levels will unlock their components, and then you’ll be able to mix and match them in your own levels!

In the following video, for example, Jon quickly puts together a level that (among other things) includes deadmau5 loops paired with Jim Guthrie/Superbrothers hazards, and he throws in some vocals that you might remember from our recent reveal of the Beck album Cities. He even shows off the player’s ability to record timings and change beats per minute… and it all sounds (and plays!) pretty good:

We’ve tried to make creating a song and level as fun as possible, but also effortless to upload and share. We’ve said this before, but seeing what players do with our tools is one of the things we’re *most* looking forward to. We’re certain that, after a couple of days, you’re going to blow away what Jon did here.

Something that we think (hope?) is going to take you more than a matter of days, however, is claiming our Platinum Trophy. If you’re a Trophy hunter, you’re probably well aware of the pain and glory of trying to conquer the intense Trophy levels in our pal Shawn McGrath’s new PSN exclusive Dyad. Here at Queasy Games, we didn’t want players to be distracted by playing albums in a certain way for Trophies, or trying to “game” our community. Instead we created two things: Death Mode and Beat School.

Death Mode is an unusual twist in our campaign mode. Once you’ve beaten our albums, you can flip each album over to a b-side and experience intense, single-screen timed challenges to collect notes without dying based on signature moments from each of the album’s tracks. Each win unlocks a Trophy, and it’s our hope that these will test the skills players have learned in our levels, making each Trophy win hard fought but deeply rewarding. Beat School is a different sort of challenge: here we challenge all players, even (if not especially) those who consider themselves “non musical,” to create beats on a single screen by listening and matching to a beat we have created. With luck, these levels will challenge and inspire you to go into the editor and make your own beats—if Jon’s video above hasn’t already convinced you.

Don’t forget: Sound Shapes hits PS3 and PS Vita as a cross-play title August 7th, but you can pre-order it now, receiving a lovely Cory Schmitz-designed PS3 theme and the ability to play the game on PS3 or PS Vita no matter which system you buy it on. You get both versions for one price! It’s $14.99 (20% off for a limited time for PS Plus members). And oh yeah, the Trophies are shared between both versions, too. Did we mention there’s a Platinum?

There’s just under three weeks until the release of Sound Shapes on PS Vita and PS3 on August 7th, and it’s time we sat down and had a serious chat with you. You see, we’ve been keeping a secret from you. Yes, here in Queasy Towers, our glittering skyscraper in downtown Toronto, so beloved by the city that they’re building us a moat (they claim they’re upgrading streetcar lines, but we know what they’re really doing), we have been hiding someone from you.

Although to this point we’ve revealed stars that shine as brightly as Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie, and I Am Robot and Proud, it wasn’t until Wednesday that we were able to sneak out the news that Grammy Award-winning musician Beck—mastermind behind Mellow Gold, Odelay and most recently 2008′s Modern Guilt—has been working with us on three brand new tracks for the game.

Beck’s more than just familiar with the world of video games. In fact, with his 2005 album Guero he actually snuck out a wee EP, Hell Yes, which remixed tracks from that album as chiptunes—and we’re thrilled to have him on board. That’s not to say, however, that Beck sent us “video game music.” One of the powerful things about Beck’s music is the variety of styles he’s comfortable working in. Sure, if you’re looking to have a really good cry that lasts about 52 minutes and 24 seconds, you probably want to cue up his (brilliant) album Sea Change, but in the middle of your weeping you decide you want to get “funky” with a capital “KY”, you just have to skip back to Midnight Vultures. It’s cool, Beck’s like that.

As a result, Beck gave us three very different songs that form an album: Cities, Touch the People, and Spiral Staircase. Each song shows off a different aspect of Beck’s creativity, and therefore we had to make sure that we did each of those songs justice. Thanks to Sound Shapes’ level creation tools—the same tools players will be able to use with the in-game editor—this album shows just how well you can build fun levels around song structures.

With each song requiring its own visual identity to match Beck’s musical style, we knew we needed the best artists in the business. Luckily, just around the corner from Queasy Towers, we found Pyramid Attack. They’re an animation, art and design studio that can (and does) bring the goods.

In the following video you’ll hear and see the first track from the Beck album, Cities, and you’ll see the game played on PS3. We’ll also talk to Steve Wilson of Pyramid Attack about the process of turning Beck’s music not only into art but play.

Want more? Say, to hear the other two Beck tracks maybe? Well, then be sure to pick up Sound Shapes. Remember: it’s a cross-play title so whether you pick it up on PS3 or PS Vita, you’ll be able to download it gratis on the other system too. The title launches on August 7th for $14.99, and you can pre-order it starting July 31st as part of the PSN Play promotion and get yourself a bonus exclusive PS3 theme designed by the amazing Cory Schmitz. Oh, and if you’re a PlayStation Plus member, you’ll pick up the title for 20% off ($11.99) for a limited time, including the pre-order period. Bargain!

Look, E3 is here, and we know there’s all kinds of hot news coming at you from everywhere. So over here at Queasy HQ, we’ve decided to kick things off a little early with pretty much the biggest announcement we’re allowed to give you right now: Sound Shapes is coming to PSN on August 7th. That’s… like… a few weeks away! Are you breathing into a paper bag right now to avoid hyperventilating? We are, which is making it kind of hard to type. And if you’re not, you should be, because we’re also taking this opportunity to sneak out the fact that Sound Shapes is, day-and-date, also coming to PS3.

Yes. That thing you have under your TV, or maybe beside it (or possibly on top, but that sounds kind of dangerous, man!). And no, we haven’t been looking in your windows; we’ve been too busy making Sound Shapes and pricing it at $14.99 for BOTH VERSIONS. Buy it on PS Vita or PS3, and enjoy it on either system! We know. We’re freaking out too!

Through the magic of crossplay, you’ll be able to share content between the two systems without even having to really think about it. It’s all thanks to the “cloud” which floats above us like a benevolent data god. Save your campaign data up in the cloud, and download and resume on either platform. Maybe you’ll start creating a song at home on the PS3, but then decide that it’s not really the place to compose your latest masterpiece! Just download it to your PS Vita and make some beats on the bus. Then get off the bus several stops late, in a part of town you don’t know that well, and make some beats there! Then get another bus home, probably.

Oh, and the community is completely shared, so if a friend only has a PS3, or you only have a PS Vita (or any permutation of that) they can still see the levels you’ve made on the other system. And you can therefore see ALL the levels everyone has made and uploaded. Which will hopefully be a ton of levels. We’re really looking forward to what you guys do.

In fact, let’s talk about this a bit: You might be aware that we’ve been collaborating with visual artists and musicians for our campaign levels, and most recently revealed that our pals Superbrothers and Jim Guthrie provided the art and music for Corporeal, a four-song concept album that explores the way in which music can free us from the corporate machine… if it doesn’t crush us first.

It’s been a lot of fun working with those guys and we’re really happy with the way the levels have turned out. They mix up the gameplay and offer a classic Jim Guthrie soundscape that’s a fun contrast to other campaigns. And while the levels themselves are cool, it’s super fun to play with all of the music and graphics in the editor–everything, and we mean everything, from the campaign records can be mixed and mashed up with other records to create your own tunes and levels.

Anyway, here’s a video we made in Jim’s basement where he attempts to clear the levels in his own album (spoiler: he dies). There is also a demo of how the loop-based music system works for remixing campaign tracks in the editor mode. Also featured: One of Jim’s, like, 18 cats. He likes cats.

Is it too late to change the album title to “Chicken Dinner?” The answer is yes. Yes, it is too late.

If you’re coming to E3, we hope you come by and check out Sound Shapes. We’ll have both PS Vita and PS3 on the floor with content from four of our campaign records and we’ll be showing the cross functionality between the two versions. If you can’t make it to E3, that’s okay because if you didn’t notice the game is out on August 7th. Just spend that time regulating your breathing with a paper bag and you’ll be fine.

Alright, back to it. ALMOST DONE! (Seriously, we are almost done making the game.)

Want to see the PS3 version of Sound Shapes in action? Be sure to tune into our E3 2012 livestream — we’ll be showing it off live at 5:30pm Pacific Time during the countdown to PlayStation’s E3 press conference!

It is with immense pleasure that we are announcing our involvement with a video game project known as Sound Shapes. We are extra excited to be contributing alongside sworcery maestro Jim Guthrie. This represents the latest in a series of Superbrothers X Jim Guthrie a/v collaborations dating back to 2005′s musical film Children of the Clone and 2008′s Dot Matrix Revolution, but this will be our first a/v collaboration since 2011′s cult classic videogame Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Much like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Sound Shapes is a made-in-Toronto DIY videogame that is unusually collaborative and has a heavy emphasis on synesthetic audiovisual style. What’s more, the people making Sound Shapes are all basically our very best pals – they’re the folks with whom we play board games, drink the beers, go skating and play hockey. On every level it’s an honor and a thrill to be involved.

The Superbrothers + Jim Guthrie collaboration will take the form of a Sound Shapes ‘album’ – a series of thematically connected & musically-linked levels known as CORPOREAL.

Sound Shapes is coming to PlayStation Vita, and it’ll be available before too long. Get psyched!!!

The collaborative process

After some initial discussion with Queasy, we chose to explore some of the concepts in prior Superbrothers films including Children of the Clone and Dot Matrix Revolution, so our levels are populated by computers, mainframes, office workers and water coolers. My mom was one of the first female computer programmers in Canada and my father worked as a mainframe computer salesman for decades, so it was nice to set aside the skeletons & space babies of sworcey and get to work on 20th century visual concepts. Meanwhile, the video game design takes the friendly platforming mechanics of Sound Shapes and stretches them in the direction of something like Impossible Mission for C-64 & Spectrum.

With this new collaboration the configuration is quite different. The game design, level design and sound integration are being handled by the Sound Shapes experts at Queasy. The order of operations was a little different this time around too. On S:S&S EP, many of the songs predated the project and I was able to create the world & concepts by listening to specific songs, many of them pre-existing compositions from Jim. In this case, the art assets were created without a specific soundtrack, and then it was up to Jim to craft his sounds to fit the look and concept.

Of course, the real work took place at Queasy & Capy, where a wide-ranging assortment of designers & creators – the Sound Shapes experts – put all the pieces together. Thanks so much for all your hard work folks, it has been a pleasure contributing to your efforts!

So, super excited to share this collaboration and can’t wait for you folks to check it out yourselves. If you’re going to be at E3, be sure to swing by the PlayStation booth for some hands-on time!