UPDATE: Hey, folks. Thanks for all the comments. It’s always great to get feedback straight from the fans. I just wanted to give you a short update on Eden.
First of all, be sure to check out the demo when it hits the PLAYSTATION Store tomorrow. Just a hint – if you explore the “main menu” you’ll find access to more than one demo stage. Also, to give you an idea of how cool the YouTube recording function works, here are a couple of videos taken by someone at Sony today.
This first one shows single player on an early stage.
This second one shows some 2-player action on a later stage, although the
demo and the full game feature multiplayer for up to 3 people.
Don’t forget to download the demo tomorrow!
Hello, this is Dylan from Q-Games (the Cuthbert one, not the Warhawk Jobe one – when did all these Dylans suddenly start turning up eh?).
We’ve just wrapped up PixelJunk Eden, and it has been an incredibly interesting project from start to finish. We started off by getting an intern programmer from France to try and implement Baiyon’s out-of-this-world foliage designs, and he did a good job with the help of one of our tech guys, and managed to replicate the look. So after he went back to France, we assigned a proper team and went gung-ho into development. That was around December last year. Back then all it had were plants. There was no player character or any real idea for what the game would become, but over the new year I had some sparks of inspiration and that’s when things really started getting moving, leading to the demo video we played at GDC ’08.
Anyway, this all leads into trophies somehow. Ah yes, because our development cycle is so short, we find ourselves being able to implement all the latest OS-supported features before anyone else can. For PixelJunk Monsters it was Dual-Shock 3 support, but this time there have been a couple of really cool new features and we have put both in. These are the Trophy support and the YouTube video upload support. Both of which are really cool.
Initially we implemented all our own trophy screens etc., but then Sony Computer Entertainment built it all into the OS, which really helped us out. The trophy comparing and your “gamer card” screen really up the ante for those hard core gamers out there. In fact, it might make some of the non-gamer types even turn hard-core as chasing trophies can be rather addicting.
PixelJunk Eden is a short-form PSN title so there are fewer trophies when compared to, say, a Blu-ray title (which can have the esteemed platinum trophy), but we still managed to pack in quite a few. To begin with, you can get a bronze trophy for opening every “seed” in a stage. This is quite a challenge on some of the stages as the gardens are large and expansive. Then there are trophies for a load of other things, such as destroying 500 of the “prowlers,” or collecting 15 “crystals” in one jump. My personal favorite is a trophy that you can only achieve in 3P mode, where you have to “volley” a player between you back and forth five times without him/her landing on a plant, a bit like tennis.
The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionize how people share tips. Up until now it has been limited to people with video capture equipment, but from now on, anyone can record their game and upload it directly to YouTube from within the game! It is as simple as pushing one button to start and one button to stop and upload, and there is no affect on the gameplay thanks to the power of the PS3 and its abundance of SPU processors.
For more info on the YouTube API and PixelJunk Eden and to see it in action, take a look at the YouTube API Blog.
Oh, and we have been totally inundated with requests for trophies in PixelJunk Monsters via some kind of patch. As this goes to press, I can say we are definitely looking into it – you just need to badger Deborah Mars and her team in Santa Monica to get some dates set. If we release a patch, we will not only implement this but we will also implement XMB music and a couple of other things.
One final note about Eden, I really can’t emphasize enough how much pure fun this game is, and I’m saying this as a gamer, not as the developer of the game! My mail box has been overflowing with direct mails full of the same kind of comments from online review sites who have preview copies and I have never had that before, so we must be onto something (fingers crossed)!
@Dylan
Those YouTube videos are very sweet!!!
Very very cool stuff…
Thanks to you and your team for all your work…
Like I’ve told you.. You’ve got my support…
PSN – ThEosSiE
I’d like to see a 2 player vs mode in Pixeljunk Monsters. Maybe where one player gets “monster generators” instead of towers. I’m *really* looking forward to PJM getting trophies. I don’t care about Eden so much — i’m guessing it’s a lot more fun to play than the trailers make it look.
Great stuff Dylan! So unless I didn’t see it in your post and other comments dos PJ Eden support in game music???? PLEASE!
Oh and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get throphies for PJ Monsters and in game music! PLEASE!!
First day pick up for me and my friends!
Oh one more thing in game chat???
Im so buying this!!
You guys are really setting an example with all those features.
I can’t wait to try the demo when I get home tonight. I can picture myself waking up just to play this game in the morning with the morning fog thickening outside.
BTW PLZ ADD TROPHIES to Pixel Junk RACERS too. I don’t even have to mention PJ Monsters …
Q-Games… you people rock!
I will be purchasing this on my next paycheck. ^_^
Oh one more thing in game chat???
What ?
ingame chat for a offline game ?
Trophies FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t wait to dig in these trophies.
sick youtube vids. that feature is sooo awesome. thanks guys!
cheers,
Lh
when does the PSN Update go live? I wanna try PixelJunk Eden so badly!
Direct upload to youtube?!!?!?!?IM SO GETTING IT THEN!
@158
lol
It’s so beautiful!
:)
@ Dylan-
thanks for responding!
I can’t wait to try out Eden, it seems really relaxing and kinda psychadelic…right up my alley!
cheers
this looks awsome like i said in my other post this is a must buy for me ill be show to check out that demo. and the person in the first video sure missed a lot of pollen
Hi Dylan,
I have a question. Will the demo have some trophies?
It looks like a fun great title, I’ll definitely check out the demo today.
the game looks SICK!! (in the good way :D)
Yes! I can’t wait!!
I hope Pixel Junk Eden will have custom music too!!
Please bug Miss Deborah Mars for me!!! I want custom music and trophies for Pixel Junk monsters!!!
nice… trophies owns!
So still no answers about Life With Playstation. Is it still planned to release in the next few days right?
Will it record all games, and how will it work? Is it a program similar to that of Halo’s replay saving?
How much can we save?
When Is it coming?
I gotta QUESTION!
Can youtube uploading be active for other games without building the game from ground up?
Like MGS4 or GTAIv be patched with youtube uploading?
thanks for looking at the question.
Looking forward to the news from Deb Mars and the Santa Monica team regarding PixelJunk Monsters trophies & XMB music support tomorrow on the blog! haha sorry to jump to conclusions.
Very nice Mr. Cuthbert very cool game, but by any chance do you know when sony will release psn cards here in Texas?? or the U.S apart from Indiana and kentucky.
Can’t wait for this one, do we know a price point yet? $9.99 would be sweet. With any DLC being around 1.99
@Dylan
After playing PJM, I’m hooked on Pixeljunk games. Adding trophy and XMB music support for PJM would be aaaaaaaawesome. I’m excited to play through the Eden demo tonight and buy it first thing next week!
wait, what? this does have online co-op right?
PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISN’T TRUE!
i JUST PLAYED THE DEMO BUT NO CUSTOM SOUNDTRACKS! please please!
i WAS SO GOING TO GET IT BUT i’M NOT SURE ANYMORE… =[
I think the trophies will make me buy Monsters since it’s only 4.99 now….when will those trophies be available?
Just played the demo and have to admit I am surprised about the look. It runs much smoother than I expected from watching videos on the internet and the the whole game looks pretty and clean.
Another great PJ Game. I will definitely buy this next week.
Eden doesn’t have 5.1 surround sound? i only get 2 ch PCM. All your other games have 5.1 DD.
Baiyon was very particular about the sound – the originals are mixed and mastered very precisely in stereo. In fact, I think he would prefer it if everyone played this game with headphones :)
(I like to play it with the speakers pumping myself…)