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December 11th PlayStation Plus Update

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (PS3)

Free for Plus members

Street Fighter IV was already a bonafide hit when it ushered in a new era of 2D fighters. Take that winning formula, refine and balance one of the best fighting game engines, add four new characters (Yun, Yang, Evil Ryu, and Oni), take part in new online modes and you’ve got one of the most complete fighting game packages ever. See you online; I’ll be the guy using this handy guide to my all time favorite fighting game character.

Rochard (PS3)

Free for Plus members

A PSN gem, Rochard brings fantastic puzzle-platforming in the form of taking control of astro-miner John Rochard. Though a humble premise it may be, you’ll be addicted to the gravity control mechanics of Rochard as you solve environmental puzzles and explore new ways to navigate the wonderful trappings of this galactic platformer. It’s a PSN exclusive that, if you missed, you should definitely make the time to play. You can read more on the game from the PlayStation Blog’s coverage. Please note, this title will only be available free in Plus for one week.

That’s it for this week’s update, and remember that the above updates will be in effect once the PlayStation Store updates on December 11th; usually between the times of 2:00pm – 5:00pm PST. Also, for those wondering, we do have PS Vita games on the way in December that will add to the already great library of content on PS Vita Plus. Watch for those to be announced in this space later this month.

Please remember to jump in to the PlayStation Community Forums in the Plus space where you’ll find threads (or start your own!) to discuss Plus. Of course, leave your thoughts here as well and remember, giving specific feedback is always the best course. Enjoy the update, and see you in the comments.

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We’re excited to announce a new program called “Only On PSN,” which features brand new games that are exclusively available on PlayStation Network throughout October. Every week starting tomorrow, October 4, you will find new titles, unique to PSN that are part of this program – games that you’ve likely read about here on the PlayStation Blog, or seen during our showing at E3 2011. You may recall our announcement a few months ago about our Pub Fund – a $20 million investment in exclusive PSN titles, and the Only On PlayStation Network program showcases two titles spawning from this investment: Eufloria and Okabu.

We can’t wait for you to get your hands on the Only On PSN games yourselves, so we’re giving you a few special offers throughout the course of the program. First, to sweeten the deal, we’ll be offering PlayStation Plus subscribers a 20% discount on each game during the first week of its availability.

Additionally, users who spend $60 or more out of their PlayStation Network/Sony Entertainment Network wallet through the month of October will get $10 back in November. This includes any of the Only On PSN games, purchases of games, add-ons, movies and TV shows in both the game and video sections of the PlayStation Store, your paid subscriptions for PlayStation Plus or Music Unlimited, movie rentals or purchases through Video Unlimited and any games or virtual items you buy in PlayStation Home.

Be sure to keep an eye on the PlayStation Twitter feed, as we’ll be giving away download codes for each game in the line-up every week. Don’t miss your chance to get this week’s Only On PSN games for free!

Now, let’s check out the games:

October 4:

• Eufloria – An addictive ambient game of space exploration and conquest, plant growth and bio-mechanical evolution. Explore a beautifully realized universe rendered in a style that is unique and compelling. Conquer asteroids in deep space and use their resources to literally grow and nurture semi-organic plants and creatures to do your bidding.
• Rochard – A fun and original space adventure game that features a resourceful hero, ominous villains, rugged machinery, big explosions, even bigger stunts and sharp one-liners. The game tests players’ coordination and wits as they use gravity to their advantage, changing it at will to solve environmental puzzles and advance through each level.

October 11:

• Sideway: New York – Help defeat Spray, a sinister tagger who wants to dominate both Sideway and the real world in this unique sidescroller that offers you the chance to leave your mark on the city.

October 13:

• Sodium Collection – A more than $35 value available for $9.99, this PlayStation Home value pack includes the SodiumOne Pilot’s Jacket, which unlocks the full 50-level tank combat Salt Shooter game, and weapon upgrades for your SodiumOne tank. Also included is a variety of upgrades for Sodium 2: Project Velocity, a high-speed, free-to-play, futuristic multiplayer racing game exclusive to PlayStation Home, and the wildly-popular Blaster’s Paradise personal space, which hosts a tabletop version of Salt Shooter. Buy from the PlayStation Store and play in PlayStation Home.

October 18:

• Okabu – An action-puzzler, where players will guide Kumulo, Nimbe and four cloud-flying heroes as they battle to save their people and their world from the industrialized threat of the Doza. Dive into a hyper-tactile toybox world filled with a huge number of puzzles, playthings, adorable creatures and devious machines spread across an epic co-op campaign.
• RocketBirds: Hardboiled Chicken – Annihilate an evil penguin regime in this cinematic platform adventure game offering full solo and co-op campaigns with stereoscopic 3D support. Destroy enemies with a slew of weapons and illuminate the secrets to his past while uncovering the real enemies of Albatropolis.

October 25:

• inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood – Vampires swarm New Marais, and revered superhero Cole MacGrath has been bitten. To save his soul and city, he has just one night to find and kill the head vampire. Featuring hours of new gameplay, themed environment settings and new characters/enemies, Festival of Blood explores the darker side of the inFAMOUS universe.
• PixelJunk Sidescroller – Q-Games goes old-school with a completely retro side-scrolling shooter that reinvents the genre from the ground up while maintaining that nostalgic feeling. Dodge flurries of alien bullets and strategically upgrade weapons while battling through sweeping stages full of hazardous fluid and endless shooting mayhem.

Also starting tomorrow as part of Only On PSN, we’ll also be offering a selection of rare classic games in the PlayStation Store: God Hand, GrimGrimoire, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Odin Sphere and Ring of Red.

So head into the PlayStation Store tomorrow afternoon to check out Eufloria and Okabu, and don’t forget: If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, be sure to take advantage of the 20% discounts for the new games each week before we move onto the next week of Only On PSN titles. We hope you enjoy the month of October gaming with these exclusive titles on PSN!

So what is a lone astro miner to do against an invading force of Wild Boy thugs? Well, the two-ton cargo containers are just a start. The intruders find themselves on a mined out asteroid, aka home turf, filled with giant machines built to crush, cut and smash things. And then there’s your G-Lifter, which is able to casually grab objects the size of a small car and hurl them across the room. Nifty little upgrades also allow it to fire off deadly lasers and a variety of highly explosive grenade rounds. Add all this to your ability to thrash around gravity with the press of a button, and you can look forward to putting these Wild Boys in a whole new extra-terrestrial world of hurt!

While these and many other gameplay elements seem to blend together seamlessly when you’re out making short work of your opposition in Rochard, most of them started out as far more disconnected features in their early stages. Our previous PlayStation Blog post, Enter the Astro Miner, revealed that our main character John Rochard started out as a guy floating in space, propelling himself using the recoil of his laser gun. The resulting gameplay turned out to be less exciting than we hoped for, so the gun evolved into the G-Lifter, which then became the guideline for all the interaction mechanics in the game.

Once the G-Lifter’s ability to grab and launch objects had been implemented, the sheer fun everyone at Recoil Games had just throwing things around soon led to some creative new prototypes. A basic in-game volleyball court was set up, allowing two players to serve and smash giant cargo crates towards each other. More than just a funny game for lunch breaks, the time spent catching and shooting objects eventually lead to countless improvements in the handling of the G-Lifter. These opened up the ability to grab and launch consecutive objects in mid-air, allowing players to string together such “G-Lifter combos”. It turned out this had a very big impact for high-skill players, as a sequence of well-placed objects now allowed them to literally fly through sections of a level, without even touching the ground. And rest assured, we left all that in the game for you to get insanely good at!

As the last few months saw the game creep ever closer to its final form, a steadily increasing number of people from outside of the studio were given a chance to play it. Their gaze firmly directed towards the large screen on which they had just taken the role of John Rochard, the journalists and visitors often remained oblivious to the dozens of eyes carefully observing them from the surrounding office spaces. The looks expressed both excitement and concern about the reception of the team’s hard work, as everyone tried to interpret the body language and facial expressions of the person that just entered our carefully crafted adventure. But the response was more than we could have hoped for. No questions about how to handle a G-lifter or low gravity environments. No frowning at repeated deaths or requests for assistance in confusing challenges. Nothing but a silent focus and a determined grin, insisting on making it through the challenge in each consecutive room.

Time and again, people sat down in our office for a solid 6 to 8 hour play through, often forsaking their lunch or even a toilet break in order to finish the game. Soaring through the air in low-G, launching heavy crates at unsuspecting enemies, inverting gravity at will and blowing up large chunks of the scenery with explosives and mining lasers became second nature the instant a big smirk revealed they had just discovered a new trick. Even after repeatedly dissecting and rebuilding each minute detail over the past years, the experience still proved to be as intuitive and captivating as our concept set out to be.

So lo and behold here we are, proud to present Rochard, our game. The past month already saw the game receiving several awards and glowing reviews, lauding its gameplay, flow and style. More than ever there is reason for us to look forward to its reception by our most esteemed critics. You– the Gamer.

So download the game or the demo later today and let us know what you think! We want to hear from you!

The PlayStation.Blog has showcased PSN exclusive Rochard before – we examined its gravity-based side-scrolling gameplay and Team Fortress-esque aesthetic in previous posts. But it wasn’t until the game was right in front of me at Austin’s Fantastic Fest that the premise, art style, and gameplay all came together into a coherent whole. Being able to control your character and the gravity of the entire level takes a bit of getting used to, but after a few minutes, it clicks. While Rochard is packed with clever puzzles, it’s also very much an action game. See for yourself in our new video walkthrough above, which we shot at our Fantastic Fest community meetup and where Blog readers got their hands all over a host of upcoming PSN and PS3 games.

Watching Rochard in action, I was struck by the large number of ways you could dispose of enemies and obstacles: the physics-based g-lifter, the scorching plasma gun, melee blows – even dropping a box on an unsuspecting enemy’s head (netting you a “Death From Above” Bronze Trophy).

Rochard debuts exclusively on PSN this Tuesday, September 27th for $9.99.

Rochard puts you in the shoes of astro-miner John Rochard as he uses his wits and everyday mining tools to fend off space pirates. You must save his team of missing miners and solve the mystery behind the discovery of an ancient alien artifact. The tools and crazy space gravity make for awesome puzzles, but it’s Rochard’s snarky sense of humor that really drew us to this game. Rochard will be available September 27th for download on PSN for $9.99.

PAYDAY: The Heist throws you straight into the action with high-stake heists, including bank robberies, prisoner extractions and armored car hijackings, you are forced to work as a team to control incredibly intense situations. This is a great game to play with a band of friends in search of the ultimate score. PAYDAY: The Heist will be available October 4th for download on PSN for $19.99.

The game can also be pre-ordered from September 20th until September 28th on the PlayStation Network and is included in the PSN PLAY program, which showcases the season’s hottest titles. PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an automatic 20% off every PLAY program purchase. Additionally, DLC expansions will be released later this year.

Sideway: New York puts players in the role of Nox, a graffiti artist sucked into a twisted graffiti world, where you to explore the backstreets of New York City and navigate through a 2D adventure platformer set in a 3D world. While the task at hand is to defeat Nox’s nemesis Spray, it’s a blast using window ledges, drainpipes or graffiti tags to navigate around corners and onto rooftops of the city. Sideway: New York’s soundtrack brings an underground hip-hop vibe, which perfectly matches the theme of the game. Sideway: New York will be available October 11th for download on PSN for $9.99.

We’re really proud of all the effort and hard work that went into developing each of these games. Each game offers something unique and innovative for players and we know you’ll enjoy them as much as we have. So, if you’re lucky to be in Germany and at gamescom, please stop by and say hi to us in Hall 7, Booth 1. If not, check out these cool new videos and screen shots!

I sat down with the game’s producer for a guided playthrough and, while I figured out the buttons and got my brain around the gravity manipulation gameplay, he explained the general premise.

“You play John Rochard an astro-miner at a company called Sky Rig – we’re calling him an everyday hero,” he explained. “The entire company has been down on its luck in terms of finding anything but they stumble upon an alien artefact and, after reporting it to HQ, they find themselves surrounded by space pirates trying to get their hands on it. John is trying to protect his friends and find out what this artefact is in the process.”

Rochard is a 2D platformer with 3D graphics, kind of like Capcom’s recent Bionic Commando Rearmed, but with a more cartoon-like art style.

The gameplay emphasis is less on combat and more on puzzles. You don’t even have a traditional gun at the beginning of the demo; instead you have a kind of plasma grappling line that you can use to grab inanimate objects such as crates and electrical fuses. You aim using the red stick and fire using the R2 button, and when you have an object in your grasp you can fire it with another squeeze of the R2 button, whether it’s to knock an enemy out or create a platform to give you that extra height to make a jump.

At any point you can press the L1 button to turn gravity down a few notches. Not only does this turn your standard jumps into Neil Armstrong style bounds, it affects the trajectory at which fire any objects you have grabbed.

This forms the basis of the puzzles I got to play through, which were mostly physics based and involve strategically firing crates to weigh down platforms and get over to the other side of the stage and progress. Extra complexity comes later on in the demo with the introduction of forcefields. John Rochard can pass through blue forcefields but inanimate objects can’t, and vice versa for red forcefields.

At the end of the demo I unlocked a gun attachment that paved the way for some more action-focused shooting sections.

Rochard is an intelligent little puzzle game that combines an appealing art style with an original toolbox of game mechanics to bring something truly original to PS3. It will be available to download from PlayStation Store later this summer and the demo that I played will also be available ahead of the full game’s release.

Hello Internet, meet John Rochard. John, this is the internet. John is an astro miner, a regular Joe drilling for Turbinium (don’t ask) in deep space. Unfortunately he’s about to have the worst day of his career, and as luck would have it, we’ve made a platformer about it. Expect gravity puzzles, low-g combat and dubious one-liners. Today, I thought I’d share some history of how we came to build the game we did.

The thing is – it’s strange to think that just over a year ago John was a generic human character on screen. His hastily built model had a slightly twisted neck that made him look like a space Quasimodo. Oh, and he had a laser gun. I think the only interesting thing about him was that he moved in total zero-G by using recoil. We figured it’s the name of the company, so it must make for an awesome mechanic, right?

Turns out it’s tedious. Like, seriously tedious. At that point we were getting pretty frustrated. There was an expo coming up and we wanted to show something unique to publishers, but it couldn’t be what we had. We realized our recoil movement was unique, but mostly because it was so unbelievably annoying to play. We tried various other unique mechanics, until we decided that maybe by combining some existing but uncommon mechanics we’d find something for our rubbernecked protagonist to do.

We had already decided to make a platformer that is three-dimensional graphics-wise, but two-dimensional gameplay-wise. We ended up giving John a G-Lifter, which is our version of a gravity gun. While that was already fun by itself, the core gameplay only came together when we decided that the player should be able to control local gravity. In low-G mode, awesome jumps are possible and heavy objects can be thrown great distances. After all, astro miners need to move those heavy rocks somehow, don’t they?

After these key elements were nailed, the rest of the game came together fast. Because John is not a space marine (there are enough of those around already), we wanted him to use his mining tools as much as possible. We put a small force bubble around the objects you pick up, and that made a perfect shield. Since we had both human enemies on the ground and turrets in ceilings, the ricochets from enemy fire ended up causing friendly fire. We wasted no time making that appropriately fatal.

John still had his gun, or the Rock Blaster, as we call it (miners have to… blast, don’t they?), but with that came the concern that the combat would be too generic. Fortunately, that’s when we started playtesting it with outside folks who hadn’t met us and didn’t feel the pressure to say good things to the developers hovering behind their shoulders, chewing their fingernails anxiously with worried expressions. And that’s when we realized people were actually picking crates up and using those to kill the enemies – not because it’s more efficient, but because it’s a lot of fun.

So we concentrated on the G-Lifter. We still had a huge list of untested brainstormed ideas, vague concepts of gameplay mechanics that we had to decide whether to prototype or scrap. In the end, we ended up writing over a hundred Post-Its with ideas and posting them on our huge whitetable (a whiteboard that serves as a table so we can draw ideas really fast). We drew a diagram of dependencies, which told us how the various game mechanics were connected to other game mechanics. Then we threw out everything that didn’t need the G-Lifter. Problem solved.

With the core game mechanics down, we started designing the levels, and it wasn’t until then that we really started finding the best ideas. But seeing as how my plane to GDC leaves in a few hours, I’ll go into that a bit later…