PixelJunk Monsters Set to Launch Next Week

67 5

January is a MONSTER month; at last you will all get to play PixelJunk Monsters! So here’s another note from us here at Q-Games in Kyoto, Japan with some hints and tips to start the ball rolling. Believe me, once you start playing this game, say goodbye to any other titles you thought you might be playing for a few weeks – this is going to keep you coming back again and again until your eyelids start fluttering uncontrollably. Of course, that might not necessarily be a good thing!

Anyway, let’s dive into the scenario – you have to protect your island and its villagers from the monster horde and you begin roughly in the center of the island where there are about 20 villages to defend in 3 areas; designated easy, medium and hard. In each area there is a special end stage that gives you some kind of ability or power-up when you complete it.

If you save all the little villagers in a particular stage a rainbow will be displayed and collecting these rainbows allows you to unlock new areas to explore.

For the easy set of levels there are ten waves of monsters. There are quite a few types, but to begin with I feel it’s a good idea to warn you about the spiders – they are FAST!

When monsters are killed, they drop coins for you to run around and collect and this money lets you build more towers. Occasionally they will drop little gems that are pretty important.

The gems have two purposes: the first is that you can use them to upgrade existing towers, up to four times each. The second purpose for gems is to allow you to research new types of tower to build:

Pixel 1
Ice Tower: Slows down monsters within a small splash area – handy against spiders. This can slow down whole groups when it is upgraded.

Pixel 2
Fire Tower: Basically, a tower that fires napalm – once it fires it keeps firing for a while but doesn’t track the monsters so is good for taking out long lines of enemies. It takes a while to reload though, which can let monsters slip through

Pixel 3
Tesla Tower: This tower charges up and fires out simultaneously at all the monsters nearby with electric plasma, it can be tricky to place but at the same time it can be really effective when used by skillful players.

PixelJunk Monsters - Laser Tower
Laser Tower: This fires out a straight and very long single laser shot and is only effective against flying monsters; if you can place this tower where it can catch the monsters in a line it is very powerful as the laser will go through all of them

PixelJunk Monsters - Hive Tower
Hive Tower: You can only build one of these but it creates little flying creatures that will congregate around you and attack any monsters nearby. This is a very esoteric tower.

PixelJunk Monsters - Mortar Tower
Mortar Tower: Basically a very powerful cannon, this has huge range and an equally big explosion – upgrading one of these babies all the way will make you pretty formidable.
Working out which towers are most efficient against which enemies is the key to this game – but it’s not as simple as it sounds!

We’ve put a lot of effort into the design and balance of the various stages and each one requires you to try out different strategies and combinations of towers, and this is where the game is thoroughly addicting. Some might initially think the game is hard, but that’s just because we have tuned it to give you that Tower Defense-like “just.. one.. more.. go” experience. Before you know it, it is 5 a.m. in the morning!

On a final note, did you all see the new Earth Visualizer that we made? If not, definitely check it out by downloading the latest firmware update. We’ll keep trying to think up other cool demos or visualizers that show off the power of the PS3.

Feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to reply to some of them as always. Good luck getting all the rainbows!

Comments are closed.

67 Comments

5 Author Replies

  • I’m always glad to hear about fresh original games for the PS3 instead of remakes. I’d be more than happy to keep getting originals that i’ve never played before rather than what I consider a cheap way for someone to get more money out of the consumer for something that doesn’t require much effort. Yeah the Wii has alot of old school games…but how many original games do they even have? And thats not just the downloadables…whats the last original Wii game they’ve had thats not a sequel or remake? uhhhh….I draw a blank.

  • Hey, the game looks cool. Also wanted to say that the earth visualizer is my new favorite…. i always love having space photography on my PC desktop and this 3d version is awesome. You should expand the theme and do all the planets of the solar system, nebulae, and even made up distant worlds etc…. go with it!

  • so no answer on 1080 support?

  • juanleche check out the http://pixeljunk.jp/ and click on the butterfly. By that video and the fact racers was 1080p I would say it will be. hope that helps.

  • I got to say I am really looking forward to this title a lot! I will be getting this game next week

    Is PixelJunk Racers going to get a DualShock 3 Patch?

    I also like the Earth Visualizer too, its an amazing visualizor for the music. Keep up the fantastic work!

    Finally, I made a list of ten features on the Firmware Update 2.10 blog entry that should be on the PLAYSTATION 3. If you wish to read the features and the reasons why, goto the 397th Comment and read from there. I assure you’ll find them interesting!

    Heres a Link where I originally wrote it up

    http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=95330

    Thank you very much and keep up the good work!

  • Yes, the whole PixelJunk series is designed primarily for 1080p. Monsters is still perfectly playable in SD (more-so than Racers), but I think HD-gaming is the way of the future.

    In fact, HD is the entire reason why I decided to make some 2d games again, it gives us the chance to re-invigorate that genre with new experiences.

  • well it’s good to hear this is playable in SD, as i still have a 10 year old 23 inch SD setup to play on, anyways my big question is what makes this so different from the legions of DTD games out there, and what makes it different from even something like the countless UMS starcraft mods of this type

  • Good question!

    Well, what we have tried to do is take Tower Defense from being a niche genre constrained to mods and flash web apps, and expand it into a full game that can stand on its own two feet.

    As a result, there are actually a lot of differences between Monsters and “standard” tower defense games. If you read my previous blog I list up a few of them.

  • q games made the XMB, Music Visualizer, and the background Waves of the ps3… they are cretided in the “about ps3” section. AND THEY MAKE AWESOME GAMES. i was desprate for a credit card and i did’nt have one, so when i heard this game was coming out this week i bought a pre paid credit card with no hesitation. can’t wait, keep makeing 2D classic style games and i’ll keep coming for more

  • i hope this game cost around $6-$8 becuase it looks like all game in the PSN cost $10, excluding specials of course. i mean $10 is’nt alot but those $1-$4 makes a difference when i wanna buy add ons to games. PLEASE MAKE ME HAPPY

  • Dylan/All,

    I just wanted to thank you guys for reaching out to your fans and responding, involving yourself in the community. I was wondering, have you guys considered having a presence of some sort at SXSW 2008?

    Also, I would like to suggest for PJ Monsters II, a competition system, where the co-op player can control the monster attacks :).

    Anyway, great job! Good work on everything, looking forward to the next firmware update.
    (How can sony continue to offer free updates with no direct core system revenue?)

    I Love my ps3….

  • Oh, this occurred to me: Is PJ Monsters the first PS3 RTS? ?

    No wonder I like it so much!

  • PixelJunk Monsters is as fun as I hoped it would be. However, I hope you guys could add a freeform mode where you create a maze with the towers, in the style of Desktop Tower Defense. I wouldn’t mind buying that in an expansion pack for a couple of dollars.

  • Seriously game is freakin awesome tho…

    My friend on my forums gave the it’s proper name.

    PIXEL JUNKIE MONSTERS…

    Game is crack man–nuff said, GO GET IT!

    Everyone get this awesome game so they can make part 2 with a map editor and maybe even a PvsP mode!!!

  • Hello Dylan,

    If you still check this messages. Please answer my question.

    If there is a future update.

    Is it possible to include changing the music background similar to the Super StarDust update?

    Thanks

  • >>69 SILV3R_

    For Monsters it would require a little too much work to implement. Of course, if Monsters sales go through the roof and we actually start to profit from PixelJunk we can be far more flexible in the no. of features we implement.

    We will definitely consider this and a no. of other ideas for a second Monsters game, but nothing is concrete yet.

  • Loving the game, thank you so much!

    One request: Online co-op =)

    Cheers!

  • Hi Dylan,

    I’m really enjoying this game, and a number of us have set up a friendly leaderboard using the filter by friends option on the online scoreboards.

    We’re trying to figure out how the scoring system works though. I can usually get a consistent score on the first easy level regardless of how many towers I use, the overall tower strength or gold etc left at the end of the level, or even how quickly I defeat the last boss.

    What are the main factors that contribute in scoring? I’m guessing if your home base isn’t compromised at any point that is a big factor but not sure what else.

    I’m really enjoying the game, and it’s good to see a developers making alternative genre games to that of the mainstream.

    Thanks!

  • Dylan,

    Thanks for answering the Q.
    Love to see what is the next Pixel Junk #3.

  • great game guys, keep it up. my wife loves the game

  • Dylan,

    Great job! This is by far my favorite downloadable game.

    A lot of us are debating how the scoring system works. Is it a combination of the number of golds at the end & number of villagers left? Or is the matrix more complex than that? Please divulge a little….

  • Upgrading with 5% then 10% etc gold seems to make a big difference on the overall score, even if you lose some of your flock. I’d have rewarded the player more for saving the entire flock, and perhaps using efficiency (least money spent, least towers used etc) as a measure of strategy but it’s still a fantastic game and at the price very much a bargain :)

Please enter your date of birth.

Date of birth fields