While listening to PlayStation Blogcast in the weeks following GDC, I made a sudden realization: There are a lot of Canadian indie developers working on PlayStation titles right now.

With that realization, the PlayStation.Blog staff began planning a trip to Toronto to meet with Drinkbox Games (Tales From Space: About a Blob), Queasy Games (Sound Shapes), ][ Games (Dyad) and other indies working on PS3 and PS Vita games. Our friends at Sony Computer Entertainment Canada suggested that we invite the media and, well, we thought it only fair to include our Canadian fans in on the fun. That means you!

So here’s the formal invitation: Please join us next Tuesday for our “PlayStation <3 Canada” meetup in Toronto. You’ll get first crack at playing Canadian-born PlayStation titles such as the stereophonic side-scroller Sound Shapes (PS Vita), glorious 8-bit homage Retro City Rampage (PS3 + PS Vita), the brain-meltingly beautiful Dyad (PS3), and more that will be revealed at the event. We’ll have refreshing beverages on hand and maybe, just maybe, a musical act. Best of all, you can leave the Loonies, Toonies, hockey dollars and maple money in your wallet - this event is completely free.

Here are the details:

Facebook invite
When: Tuesday, May 8th from 530-8pm
Where: Camp Oochigeas Downtown [464 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5T 2S6]
What: hands-on gameplay with unreleased games
Admission: $0.00 (that’s $0.00 Canadian)

Our last Canadian meet-up was a rousing success, so we’re looking forward to meeting you again, for the first time.

Oh, and one final suggestion: Bring your PS Vita and a copy of Mortal Kombat. Sid will be in attendance and he’s got a taste for sweet, sweet Canadian blood. Will you be the one to stop him?

Hey everyone, it’s Graham from DrinkBox Studios here again, and today we’ve got some seriously rockin’ news for you soon-to-be PS Vita owners and for you PS3 owners, too.

We obviously want everybody to download and play Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack for PS Vita, and so we’ve decided to release the game at a great price. Starting February 21, 2012 in North America, PS Vita owners will be able to download Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack from PlayStation Store for $7.99. Make sure to watch the official trailer below to check out some of the awesome stuff we’ve packed into the game:

Wait, There’s More?

Heck yes, there’s more! In celebration of the upcoming release of Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, yesterday we created a new bundle for our previous PS3 game Tales from Space: About a Blob, which includes the full game PLUS both downloadable content packs (the costume pack and the co-operative map pack) for only $9.99. The base price for the game has also dropped from $14.99 down to $7.99. We hope you check this one out too if you have not already!

We hope you enjoy the game and please feel free to send us some love via the official Mutant Blobs Attack blog at www.mutantblobsattack.com, @MutantBlob on Twitter, and DrinkBox Studios on Facebook.

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

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

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

Greetings once again, opaque and bipedal earthlings! It’s been awhile since I, Orange Blob, have been in touch. You may remember me from my PSN game Tales from Space: About a Blob, where I grew and consumed your world and all its inhabitants.

I’ve been away recently, you see, visiting a strange and unusual planet in a not-too-distant solar system. I was accompanied by my good friend Green Blob. It’s nice to travel with friends, although Green Blob sometimes snores.

Exploring an alien planet is not for the faint of heart. Throughout our adventures, we were often confronted by tricky alien contraptions that required BOTH of us to get past. All this puzzle solving leaves a Blob feeling pretty hungry. Luckily, we were able to sample some local delicacies, i.e. the alien life-forms. They taste exactly like chicken.

Once again, the folks over at DrinkBox Studios have been kind enough to re-create our adventures in video-game form. If you have a friend nearby, toss them a controller and see if you can put your brains together to solve these wacky alien puzzles!

The new Co-operative Map Pack for Tales From Space: About a Blob contains two new levels which require two local players to complete. The pack will be available for download on PSN in North America on July 5th for $1.49.

It’s the Brady…..er; BLOBBY Bunch!

Today’s mouthwatering patch adds a sweet new Costume Editor to the game for free! Once the patch is installed, head over to the in-game pause menu and select the new “Blob Costumes” button. There, you’ll find a fun in-game editor that lets you dress up your blob with all sorts of tasteful accessories like hats, glasses, ears, skin textures and more!

Kanye Blob approves of 90s Blob’s ugly sweater pattern.

You’ll probably notice that some costume accessories aren’t available right away. Never fear! These are unlocked by collecting the yummy little points that are located throughout the levels. Finally, a new reason to snag those hard-to-get floating blue dots of joy.

Bird Blob does NOT approve of Pig Blob.

And if that wasn’t enough, March 8th will also see the release of a Premium Costume Pack for anyone who wants to show off a REALLY stylish blob. This pack doubles the available accessories for a fashion feast fit for a king. We hope you enjoy it!

In the beginning of the game the blob has only his wits, his ability to spit objects, and his infinite appetite at his disposal. As the game progresses the blob also attains the powers of magnetism and electricity.

Since we haven’t focused on it on before, in this post I want to touch on the kind of size changes the blob undergoes in the game. At the start the blob is around the size of a marble, but by the end he’s absolutely huge. As the blob gets bigger he can eat bigger things, jump higher and move faster, and as a result previous threats suddenly become inconsequential. Above, for example, you can see the blob as he starts in one of the levels. He’s about the size of the people nearby, and while he would certainly intimidate me, he’s not monstrous. A little while later however, you can see the blob is able to make things much less comfortable for the people around him.

The blob’s size is potentially limitless, and below I’ve provided a preview of some of the scales you play at. In the game the blob goes from threatening cockroaches, to people, to buildings, to cities, to the Earth itself.

We certainly hope everyone enjoys the game, and you should all know that DLC is forthcoming. There are Home Rewards in the game already, and additional items should appear in PlayStation Home soon. A free theme will be provided to PlayStation Plus users, and of course we’ll have a Dynamic Theme, Avatars, and Wallpapers. Most importantly, there will also be in-game DLC, both free and for-purchase, which we’ll start revealing over the next few weeks. Finally, if you’re interested, every week for the next while we’ll be talking about the process of building the game on our development blog at http://www.aboutablob.com/.

Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,

We’re building up some momentum in 2011 with our second PlayStation Plus publish of the year, offering three featured games along with a handful of discounts on PlayStation Network exclusive titles – all coming to you on February 1. Mix in an automatic download that gives early access to an upcoming PSN-exclusive, and this update is sure to have something for everyone.

Kicking off this PlayStation Plus update with an auto download of a demo of Tales from Space: About a Blob, PlayStation Plus subscribers will be getting the first look. This upcoming PlayStation Network game developed by DrinkBox Studios follows a race of alien Blobs that encounter a foreign planet and are looking to devour everything. As a reminder, PlayStation Plus subscribers can turn on the Automatic Download feature under “System Settings” on the XMB. This feature will update your PS3 with firmware updates, patches to recently played games and other select videos or game demos.

In addition to the early access to Tales from Space: About a Blob, we are also discounting several PlayStation Network exclusives. PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive 50% discounts off both versions of Fat Princess, the comical, multiplayer brawler. After storming the castle with your friends, be sure to download Kung-Fu LIVE for 20% off. You too can join Jeff and Rey as you show off your Kung Fu skills with this new PlayStation Eye game. PlayStation Plus subscribers will also be able to download a full game trial of Assassin’s Creed II Deluxe Edition, which includes the two DLC sequences (Battle for Forli and Bonfire of the Vanities).

Finally, we are also offering three featured games on the next PlayStation Plus publish, including the updated classic Digger HD from Creat Studios; the new mini from StormBASIC Games, Karimogi; and Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, a great follow up to our previous featured title, Spyro the Dragon.

Be sure to check the full list of new items as well as items that are being taken down from the PlayStation Plus storefronts below:

PlayStation Plus Highlights for 2/1:

Full Game Trial
Assassin’s Creed II Deluxe Edition

Automatic Downloads
Tales from Space: About a Blob Demo (Free to PlayStation Plus subscribers)

Featured Games
Digger HD (Free to PlayStation Plus subscribers, regular price $9.99)
Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage (Free to PlayStation Plus subscribers, regular price $5.99)
Karimogi (Free to PlayStation Plus subscribers, regular price $2.99)

Discounted Games & DLC
Fat Princess (PS3) (PlayStation Plus price $7.50, regular price $14.99)
Fat Princes PSP (PlayStation Plus price $10.00, regular price $19.99)
Mega Man 2 (PSone Import) (PlayStation Plus price $3.00, regular price $5.99)
Kung Fu LIVE (PS3) (PlayStation Plus price $11.99, regular price $14.99)

Featured Themes & Avatars
PlayStation Plus Dynamic Theme (Free and exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers)
Junebug Bench Static Theme (Free and exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers)
Ghouls and Ghost Avatar Bundle (17 avatars) (Exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers for $1.99)
Bionic Commando Rearmed Avatar Bundle (10 avatars) (Exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers for $0.99)
Atomic Blast Static Theme (Free to PlayStation Plus Subscribers)

Last Chance, Get Them While You Can – Coming down on February 1:

Featured Offers to PlayStation Plus Subscribers
Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
Spyro the Dragon
Pipe Madness – minis
Underwater Disco Theme

Discounted Games/DLC
MX vs. ATV Reflex PSP (PlayStation Plus price $15.00, regular price $29.99)
Tom Clancy: H.A.W.X. 2 – All In One Pack (PlayStation Plus price $7.49, regular price $9.99)
Modern Combat: Domination (PlayStation Plus price $5.99, regular price $7.99)

For the last few months we’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on our upcoming PSN platformer Tales from Space: About a Blob. I’m very excited to announce that the game’s release is now just weeks away! In North America, the game will be released as a PlayStation Plus exclusive on February 1st, with a general release to follow a week later on February 8th.

First, a quick recap for those of you who may have missed our previous PlayStation.Blog postings: Tales from Space: About a Blob is a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer about a race of alien Blobs that land on an Earth-like planet and start eating everything around them. The game features a retro-inspired art style, local co-op gameplay, a monster-movie theme, and a healthy dose of humor.

Collection is a big part of the game. As you make your way through the levels you must find and eat objects that are smaller than you, which causes you to grow. Little by little you get larger and larger, eventually becoming large enough to absorb cars, people, buildings, etc. Collectible points and hard-to-find “Blob friends” are also scattered about the levels. These are used to provide secondary achievement targets to players looking for an extra challenge.

The Blobs have a variety of abilities at their disposal. Basic abilities include jump, absorb, slam,
and “run” (if you can call what a Blob does when it moves fast “running”!). From the start of the game, player Blobs can also spit out objects they’ve already absorbed and then pull them back from a distance using a special “attract” ability. In co-op play you can use the spit/attract abilities to pass objects back and forth between players.

Over the course of the game, the Blobs are given a couple of additional powers. The first of
these, “Magnetic”, allows Blobs to pull toward and/or push away from metal objects. In-game, these objects are outlined with a purple glow. If a Blob uses its magnetic ability near a fixed metal object like a steel wall, it will be pulled toward or pushed away from the wall. Blobs can use this ability to hover in mid-air around certain areas. When used around loose metal objects, the magnetic ability causes these loose objects to fly away from or toward the player.

A second special Blob ability – introduced a bit later in the game – is the “Electric” power. This ability allows Blobs to pull electricity out of special machines (outlined in blue) and push it back into other machines. This can be used to manipulate objects in the environment: Turning moving platforms on and off, for example, or causing platforms to rotate. The electric ability is particularly useful in some of the puzzles found in the second half of the game.

The full game features a healthy amount of content. Each of the game’s seventeen levels contain special speed run and collection achievement targets. We have also included online leaderboards to track top speed run times for each level.

There will be a free trial version of the game from day one. If you decide to give it a try: Grab a friend if you can – co-op is really a lot of fun. I hope you guys have as much fun playing the game as we did making it!

Novus Prime, the recently released space combat game exclusive to PlayStation Home, also receives an update this week. Pilots who have earned the rank of Airman or Captain will receive pilot jacket rewards upon reporting for duty on Thursday, December 16th. Earth Fleet is also proud to announce the new Mini-Mech companion (there’s no longer any need to walk alone!).

Sodium celebrates its one year anniversary with a special sale and new rewards. Watch this video to learn more.

Konami is throwing their first event this weekend, and you are invited! Check out the Konami Penthouse in PlayStation Home this weekend for a Soccer-themed party. Wear your Konami gear and earn more points. The more Konami Soccer items you wear, the more points you get!

This Thursday, December 16th, the PlayStation Home Mall will receive an enormous update. Just in time for the peak of the holiday season, our friends over at Doublesix Games will release some hilarious Burn Zombie Burn costumes.

Speaking of the holiday items, Codename releases some festive tops for the guys and the gals as well as a White Christmas mini-game. And check out this ridiculously awesome “Santa on a Reindeer” costume from Codeglue!

Also available this week from the PlayStation Home Mall: New Ghostbusters and “Mad Scientist” furniture items (these can be found in the LOOT store), a musical “Ballerina Box” for your personal spaces, and nDreams’ epic “Bling Reaper” costume (also pictured below).

Those of you who pick up the full PlayStation Network game, Tales From Space: About A Blob, when it releases next year, will be able to unlock special rewards in PlayStation Home by successfully completing select levels in the game. See the below for a sneak peek of some of these exclusive rewards.

The PlayStation Home Community Theater receives another update this week, with episode 7 of Replay with Doc: CastOffs, now playing in-world (in this episode Doc interviews War Princess from the Tester 2). Also airing this week in the PlayStation Home Theater is a full episode of Buso Renkin, the popular anime show from Viz Media. Be sure to log in to PlayStation Home this week to watch these awesome videos and pick up rewards (including the new Tester 2 “Game Over” shirt, available from the Tester 2 Theater, and the PlayStation Home 2-Year Anniversary shirt, available in the Community Theater).

On that note, we want to invite all of you out to a live event in the PlayStation Home Theater with the finalists from The Tester 2 on Monday, December 20th between the hours of 6:00pm and 8:00pm PST (9:00pm and 11:00pm EST). Chat with the finalists of the latest season of The Tester and hear about their experiences firsthand, only at this exclusive PlayStation Home event.

Finally, I want to remind you all that the holiday celebrations continue in the mega-popular Winter Wonderland space, now accessible via PlayStation Home’s Navigator. Be sure to visit the Winter Wonderland daily between now and December 25th for new games, quests, and rewards.

See you in Home!

If you don’t already know, in Tales from Space: About a Blob you take on the role of a tiny space blob that lands on Earth. What’s special about this particular creature is that he can eat anything smaller than him, which in turn allows him to grow. As the blob grows he can eat larger and larger objects. The player’s goal is to find their way through all the levels and eventually eat the world.

We recently came back from the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) where lots of people got a chance to play the game for the first time. The feedback was great, and we were extremely happy to see friends and couples have so much fun playing together in co-op. In Tales from Space: About a Blob, two players can play simultaneously and interact by climbing or jumping off one another. Although the goal is for the blobs to work together, players can choose to attack or push each other around if they want, and can compete to see which player is better at destroying the world. Around the office, people usually ping-pong back and forth between working together to solve puzzles, then messing each other up near obstacles or enemies.

Many people asked us which platforms the game will be coming out on. At that time we couldn’t really say, but we’re finally able to announce that Tales from Space: About a Blob is part of the SCEA Pub Fund program. This means Tales from Space: About a Blob will be a PSN exclusive.

DrinkBox Studios is a small independent company. When we started two years ago we three founders opened a bank account, pooled a little money, and hoped for the best. We’re still in our early days, and there’s no safety net. While it’s great to be able to control your own destiny, it can also be terrifying to look into the future and wonder how you’re going to keep the lights on.

Unlike most publishing deals, the SCEA Pub Fund lets us keep ownership of our game. It has provided us with invaluable input and feedback from Sony. Best of all it has let us plan for the future with confidence.

We’re extremely grateful for all the support from Sony, and we’re excited to finally be closing in on the end of the project.

Right now we expect the game to be available early in the new year, and DLC is planned to follow some time shortly thereafter. Over the next few months we’ll release more details about the levels, power-ups, and bosses in the game. If you’re interested, we invite you to follow the game on our development blog at http://www.aboutablob.com/.

Thanks for reading!