Tearaway will be available on shelves and on PSN October 22nd! We can’t wait for you to get your hands on, and indeed in, our new game at the end of the year.

In Tearaway you’ll journey through a vibrant, living papery world, with a plucky messenger who has a unique message to deliver – to you!

As the papery world of Tearaway unfolds in your hands, you’ll be able to use your god-like powers to help your new messenger friend, iota or atoi, complete their very special delivery.

You’ll uncover a magical dimension inspired by folklore, and built realistically from paper that unfolds and comes alive before your very eyes. As you explore this world you’ll meet the papercraft creatures that live within it, help out strange new friends and encounter dangerous challenges.

We’ve designed the world of Tearaway to blend with our own through the unique features of the PS Vita, which allow you to help your messenger buddy to solve puzzles using the power of touch, literally breathe new life into this papercraft land, and reach up into the world using the rear-touch panel to see your fingertips appear inside the game! We think this is an adventure unlike anything you’ve played before.

Here’s a little more backstory on how Tearaway came to be from our very own doodle-meister and lead designer, Rex Crowle.

Normally a game has just one piece of box art, but we have two main characters for you to choose from – iota and atoi. Who should go on the front of the box then? It was an impossible choice for us to make, so instead of making it, we made a reversible double sided inlay, so you can decide for yourself! See both versions at the top of this post.

We’ll be back with more Tearaway news soon!

If you go hands-on with the demo, you’ll also receive one of these collectible t-shirts, available in male and female sizes.

Additionally, Dark Horse Comics has provided us with 250 of a limited run of 500 posters featuring cover art from The Last of Us: American Dreams issue #2.

Supplies are limited for all items and when they’re gone, they’re gone. If you want to get your hands on this extremely unique and limited memorabilia, stop by the PlayStation booth and be one of the first to play The Last of Us.

The world of Tearaway will also be at PAX East (booth 1193). Media Molecule will be there, and they want to reward everyone who visits with papery treasures! Complete simple challenges to collect buttons, shirts and papercraft items. You’ll also get a chance to meet the team behind the game and see some Tearaway papercraft concept art.

And, lastly, many titles from our PSN catalog will also have a presence at PAX East. Sportsfriends (one of our upcoming Pub Fund games) will be there — check out the panel, or see if you’ve got the moves to win the official Johann Sebastian Joust tournament!

DrinkBox Studio will have Guacamelee! (another upcoming Pub Fund game) for PS3 and PS Vita playable in the IndieMegaBooth, and Muteki will also be there demoing Dragon Fantasy Book 1 and Book 2 for PS3 and PS Vita (you guessed it — a Pub Fund game). Don’t miss the Do JRPGs Really Still Matter? panel, featuring Adam Rippon of Muteki.

Back in their own booths, Iron Galaxy will have DiveKick playable on PS3 and PS Vita, and FRIMA Studio will have Nun Attack on PS Vita and Zombie Tycoon II on PS3 and Vita.

Are you heading to PAX East this year? What are you going to play first?

Hopefully you all took the time to enjoy the new trailer for Media Molecule’s forthcoming PS Vita adventure, Tearaway, last week. In the eyes of PlayStation.Blog, it’s one of the loveliest titles inbound for any platform, bursting at the seams with invention, wit and creativity.

We stopped by Mm’s Guildford HQ late last month to check up on progress, and grabbed director Rex Crowle for a quick chat about the game’s unusual inspirations and influences. Read on to find out more about the eccentric themes that the team are pulling in an effort to make a truly unique video game…

Paper

First things first: paper. The entire game world is built out of the stuff, and you’ll be manipulating it with your virtual fingers.

“I think it married together the main things I wanted to do with the game – of it just feeling very tactile and being something you really wanted to hold in your hands,” explains Rex.

“And then we also wanted to provide players an interesting way of taking stuff from inside the game, outside the game, so they can build their own version of the experience and expand it out into their own physical space.

Surprisingly, Rex adds that he’s never had any particular interest in papercraft, per se.

“I’m a real doodler. I just can’t stop drawing all over it. It was quite an exciting change of direction for me to think about this surface that I’ve always treated as a totally 2D surface, and fold it so that it becomes a 3D object. It’s kind of like a drawing coming to life!”

Mother Nature

As you may have noticed in the two trailers released so far, Tearaway is a game that’s obsessed with nature and the great outdoors. The environments are lush and verdant, and populated by a colorful cast of woodland creatures, including elks, chipmunks, squirrels and mice.

“Some of the early stuff we were making from paper, we made it in quite a low poly way – that’s how you start making things in papercraft,” explains Rex. “But we soon realised that paper can actually be really high-poly. It’s incredibly curvaceous – it can bend and flex and do all this stuff.

“Our models actually became more interesting as the glue started to dry and the joins started to peel back. That started to show how paper is best-served dealing with quite organic shapes. It’s more interesting making a tree out of paper than it is an office block – that’s just a cube, y’know? So that ‘nature’ feel helped us best exploit the movement of paper.”

The Mail

Tearaway’s story revolves around the efforts of iota – or atoi – delivering a letter to the player. Yes, a letter. Remember those? Why did Rex choose to focus on such a seemingly archaic notion?

“I think maybe I’m a bit of a romantic when it comes to paper and the various ways it’s been used in the past. It feels like it’s slowly disappearing so I’d like to celebrate it a bit before it goes completely.”

Myths and Legends

Alongside all those familiar woodland critters, Tearaway’s universe is also inhabited by a colorful cast of beasts taken straight of popular folklore – including wendigos and mer-men. In general, the game seems to tip its hat to the folk-tale tradition at every turn.

“I wanted to make sure that we didn’t just have a paper world – but we had our paper world,” says Rex.

“We’ve deliberately tried to avoid a lot of the big gaming conventions – the lava planet, the ice world and so on – in part because they don’t make any sense when you make them from paper anyway. So we tried to look at new themes that hadn’t been visited as much in the past.

“I really like Sogport because it’s this little island of paper surrounded by glue that’s getting smaller as its inhabitants rip up the land and use up the resources. It felt like we could get a really nice little ecosystem running on this island in how these creatures play together and fight together.”

Classic Adventure

Tearaway is an adventure in the truest sense of the term – a plucky young hero embarking on a noble quest in an unusual, dangerous world. Think H Rider Haggard or Conan Doyle, shot through with a healthy dose of Terry Gilliam…

“To me ‘adventure’ means having a goal – the big quest of delivering this unique message – but it’s all the little surprises along the way that are really important,” says Rex.

“You’ll meet strange characters and learn about them. A whole mountain range folds up out of nowhere or a river appears – it’s slightly more like the old Odyssey-style stories, where someone is on a big quest and meeting all sorts of strange people along the way.”

Sailors and the Sea

Sogport, the region of the game shown off in the new trailer and the section we got to play through, is packed with nautical references and folk who clearly make their livelihood from the sea.

“I’m from a small little fishing town so maybe I’m channelling a bit of my upbringing into the game at the moment!” he explains.

“But Sogport is just one region in the game. The stuff we showed at Gamescom was a different slice of our paper world and we’ll be revealing more areas as we go on. But each one tries to have an interesting twist on the whole papery construction. In Sogport, it’s the glue – and wind is a big deal too.”

Folk Music

Just as it did in LittleBigPlanet, music and sound play a key role in building Tearaway’s quirky universe. In keeping with that aforementioned ‘folklore’ feel, the game’s soundtrack takes its cues from traditional folk music. Check out the ruthlessly catchy number in the new trailer for reference.

“The thinking behind that is again trying to tie in with the whole forgotten folklore feel,” explains Rex.

“We wanted to create music that felt like it came up from the soil, almost. The kind of music that the characters in the game might have created themselves.

“And then we also juxtapose that with you playing the game as a ‘godly being’ – so when you get to have your big dramatic effects on the landscape of pushing your fingers into the game world, the audio ambience can be very ethereal and different from the more earthy music elsewhere in the game.”

LittleBigPlanet

Media Molecule’s last title was, of course, LittleBigPlanet. Do the two games share any common themes?

“We’re a small team and we all put a lot of our own personality into our games. The biggest link is that a large amount of the LBP team are working on Tearaway, so you will see inevitable stylistic similarities,” confirms Rex.

“But I think the main similarity is a general playfulness in the world, and wanting to play with conventions by breaking the fourth wall all the time and actually referring to you, the player, as a character outside the game.”

It’s been a little while since we updated you on our progress making Tearaway, but that all changes today! We recently showed some new parts of the game to members of the gaming press, and their previews and coverage of that should start appearing today across the web. We introduced them to an area of the game we’ve been working on for quite some time, and today we’d like you to see it too!

Just one of the stops you’ll make as you go on your delivery adventure in the world of Tearaway is Sogport, a mysterious island marooned in a deep sea of glue, and inhabited by some very fishy folk with a fearful obsession with the island’s monstrous local wildlife. See for yourself…

Last August we introduced you to iota, and today we’re really excited to introduce atoi (pronounced like the French phrase a’toi – “ah-twa” )

When you start your adventure, you’ll be able to customize the game to your liking, choosing which messenger will accompany you on your journey, either iota or atoi, and also on the shape, size and color of your god-like fingers.

Look out for previews of Tearaway on the internets today, they should hold some more interesting surprises.

We’ll leave you with one more thing – a creative challenge! We’ve put together the plans for you to make your own Wendigo mask, and what’s more, we’re running a contest – say whaaaaaat? Check out this post on the Mm Blog for info on how to make your own mask, and enter the contest. Do it now!

If you were to visit the Media Molecule studio, you’d see that it’s very us. The pink carpets lead you through to a work space that’s filled with bright colours and interesting or curious things to look at. In a bid to keep our surroundings inspiring and as conducive to creativity as possible, we’re spoiled rotten with creature comforts and toys to play. To a visitor, all of this can make for quite a tour.

As a visitor though, you’d only get to see a brief glimpse of the studio – enough to take in the big picture, but not enough to truly get a feel for the place, and they say; the devil is in the detail. If you were able to spend more time here, you’d start to notice all the little things that are perhaps less immediately enticing as a ping pong table, but are far more interesting, and quite often, downright odd.

It’s the slightly weirder or out of place things that I think truly reflect the creative eccentricities of this merry band of game developers. See that mountain of paper? Have a bit of rummage and you’ll discover that it’s actually Rex’s desk, and its made from a treasure trove of doodles. Siobhan’s desk plays host to an exquisite collection of snow globes, and Alex’s cluttered mess could very well contain the secrets of the universe, if only it could be deciphered.

In an attempt to offer the world a more detailed glimpse inside the studio, I’ve put together a selection of some of my favourite oddities from around the place; purposeful art, random graffiti, endearing decoration, and things of unknown origin. Some can be found in plain sight, others might require looking a little closer, but all of them will give you a glimpse inside the head of the average Molecule, rather than simply the studio they work in.

Make of them what you will!

To set you all a little creative challenge, perfect for the holidays, we’ve given the Tearaway Papercraft Elk a little festive makeover! Once made, we think it makes for a rather unique Christmas ornament, take a look…

So grab your scissors and glue, and build yourself a Tearaway Reindeer using these papercraft plans, to add some Christmas sparkle to your home.

If you do happen to make one, please send a picture to our Twitter account – or post them in the comments below, so we can collect them all for a nice festive gallery.

Thank you all for your continued support of us and our games, and for the constant friendly smiles. It’s been a fairly quiet year from us this year, but next year you’ll be hearing a lot more from us, oh yes!

Merry Christmas,
Everyone at Media Molecule

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Guten tag! What. A. Show. This week’s PlayStation Blogcast comes to you by way of Cologne, Germany, home to the annual Gamescom videogame expo and countless meat products. Jeff and I made the 10-hour flight for good reason: We got hands-on time with loads of great games, from God of War: Ascension to Dishonored to Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, not to mention sitting in on PlayStation’s well-received Gamescom press conference that introduced cool new games like Tearaway, Puppeteer, Until Dawn and more. Good, good stuff.

But perhaps more importantly, we finally got a chance to record a big fat Blogcast interview with Shuehei Yoshida, president of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios. This conversation ranks among my all-time favorite Blogcast discussions for three reasons:

1. Shuhei walked us through his vision for PlayStation’s internal software development, including its focus on creativity and original IP.
2. It was our first (and hopefully not last!) interview to include EU PlayStation.Blog manager Fred Dutton.
3. At two points during the interview, Shuhei says…well, I probably shouldn’t spoil it. You’ll just have to listen.

But that’s just the beginning of this week’s double-stuffed, beer-battered episode. After talking shop with Shuehei, we shift gears to The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s upcoming survival tale, with an eye-opening interview with stars Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson — or, as you might know them, Joel and Ellie. From there, we delve into the development secrets of Sleeping Dogs, United Front Games‘ highly reviewed open-world crime drama set in the mean streets of Hong Kong.

Oh, and we share full details on next week’s jam-packed North American PSN lineup, too. Listen in, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you back in the States next week!

Stuff We Talked About

Gamescom 2012

Sleeping Dogs

Puppeteer

Tearaway

Dishonored

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Need for Speed Most Wanted for PS Vita

The Last of Us

Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

The Cast

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game
details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating
descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

You and iota will travel afar, taking on enemies and helping those in need. You’ll conquer adversity and discover magical papery surprises. But in Tearaway, you’re holding more than just a PS Vita in your hands — you’re holding the paper world itself!

Using the god-like powers inherent to someone who can hold an entire world in their giant hands, you can make your presence felt using a wide range of godly powers that take advantage of all the PS Vita’s bells and whistles — some subtle and some epic. You can shake things up or turn them upside down. A gentle breath from you is a gusty storm. You can even poke your fingers into the back of the PS Vita to tear through into the world and help iota complete this very special delivery.

Check out all this and more in the trailer below…

Anything you see in Tearaway’s papercraft world can be created in the real world from bits of paper! See for yourself — head on over to our Facebook page to get the plans to make your very own customizable Tearaway Papercraft Elk. Be sure to visit us on Twitter too, and show us your creations! For anything else, you can check out Tearaway’s official site.

Check out all the news coming out of Gamescom 2012 on PlayStation.Blog

See the First Trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified on PS Vita

PlayStation All-Stars Gamescom Reveal: Dante, Sackboy, Spike, Ratchet and Clank

Gamescom: New The Last of Us Trailer

Watch the GamesCom Trailer for Killzone: Mercenary

PSone Classics Coming to PS Vita via the latest System Software Update (v1.80)

Until Dawn — New PS Move Horror Game — Announced for PS3

The Curtain is Raised on Puppeteer, a New PS3 Adventure

PlayStation Plus Coming to PS Vita, Online Game Save Storage Getting Upgraded

Are You Ready for the God of War: Ascension Multiplayer Beta?