Savage Moon Coming to PSN Tomorrow!

137 0

SavageMoon - And and Tomas from FluffyLogic

Hello readers! This is Ana (the producer) and Tomas (the designer) from FluffyLogic. We’re a digital media development studio based in Bristol, UK. The home of trip-hop, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Cabot who set sail and discovered America in 1497 (Though I don’t think the Native Americans had reported it lost…) bubum…

For the last few months we’ve been hard at work on our take on the Tower Defense genre. Although here in the UK we spell it ‘defence’ ;-). If you’ve not played any tower defence games, you’re missing out. They are a great off-shoot of real-time strategy games where the player can only build static defences and the enemy is the one on the move. Our art director, Stuart, introduced us to a few of the games on the net and needless to say, work around the office dropped to zero as we got hooked. At the time we had been given a couple of PS3 development kits by Sony to play around with and we thought, “Wow, we’d love to do our own take on this.” We threw around a few ideas then went up to see Sony and surprisingly enough, it turned out that they had been thinking exactly the same thing. Thus Savage Moon, our first game for the PS3, was born. It is due for release on the PlayStation Network store this week for $9.99…we’re very excited.

Savage Moon logo

First off we wanted to give the game a bit of a story. All the tower defence games we’d played on the net were pretty abstract, but we wanted to give the player a sense of purpose and threat. I am a fan of Harry Harrison’s Death World books and have always been fascinated by the idea of a whole eco-system turned against you…so we thought this would be a good way to go. Tomas and I decided to make this the basic premise of the game — humans have landed on an asteroid to mine valuable minerals from it, however as they burrow into the ground, the sentient rock produces its own auto-immune response, much in the same way that the human body produces white-blood cells in response to an infection. Except here, the response is in the form of massive chitinous armoured bugs! (Or Insectocytes as we call them).

In terms of the style of the game – given that we had decided on massive insects – it almost went without saying…we were hugely inspired by ‘Starship Troopers‘ which has been a firm film favourite for years. I especially like the different types of bugs that appeared and this inspired us in the range of different creatures that appear in our game. In keeping with the xeno-biological theme, the Insectocytes evolve throughout the game, with each wave becoming tougher, and the creatures mutating into new forms to meet the human threat.

In response to this, the player needs to research and deploy new forms of technology to meet the escalation of bug toughness. The strategy of the game is a mix of open and directed levels — in some levels the player can place towers to herd the Insectocytes into their cross-fire. In other levels the landscape defines the battlefield and the player must use their abilities to respond to this. The challenge, like your enemies, evolves. The Insectocytes will always protect the place they spawn by seeking out and destroying your mining base. If your mining base takes too much damage, it’s game over. The Insectocytes are strong but not too smart; you need to match your strategy/puzzle-solving skills against their armour (but you also have some serious fire-power on your side!)

So what types of creature will you face? We’re not going to give them all away but some crawl, some run, some bite and some shoot. Here’s a taster:

Savage Moon art1

Above is a ‘soldier’ Insectocyte. They are pretty fast, tough and have powerful mandibles with which to deliver bone-crushing bites. These form the backbone of the sentient asteroid’s defences. They come in a variety of sizes and colours but they all have just one aim — to remove the infection that is humanity…

So what do you get to use? As the commander of the defences, you have the ability to call in orbital drop-pods, each of which lands a fully functional military tower. Towers come in two types; attack towers (that impact the enemy) and support towers (that help the attack towers). Key to success in the game is the use of the right tower at the right time and in the right places to stop the waves of Insectocytes. Here’s an example:

SavageMoon art2

This is a machine-gun tower. As you upgrade this tower, it goes through five levels of offensive power you can deploy. The idea is that as your enemy evolves, you can upgrade your towers to match. Different towers upgrade in different ways – some get an increase in damage, other an increase in the range they can reach, and sometimes upgrades give you a bit of both. As the commander, you will get a feel for the best way to use upgrading pretty fast.

We hope this whets your appetite for some strategy-action on your PS3. As we said, the game is out tomorrow as a direct download via the PSN store for $9.99.

The music and sound in the game is one area we would particularly like to mention. For this we hired a local electronic music producer we knew and had worked with before. He is well known in the breakcore scene and plays under the name Parasite. He gave the game audio the sense of menace we felt it needed.

Comments are closed.

137 Comments

  • I want to live in England!

  • EPGPX Grow some manners scrub. Do you really expect any official answers with that attitude?

  • about time, how big is the dl?
    i have only 10 gb left on my limit…they have to last me 5 days…stupid rogers putting a 95 gb cap a month…
    how big is the dl?

  • pretty cool game

  • Great news!

  • I suck at PixelJunk Monsters–and tower defense games in general. Not sure if I should bother with this. It looks great, however!

  • I saw a trailer for this awhile back and seeing this one makes me really excited for this game. I love tower defense games!

  • looks sweet.

  • looks cool but idk ive never played a tower defence game. so i hope u have a trailer :)

  • Allow me to be the first to say

    [DELETED] Yeah!!

  • i loved monsters and i wish you guys the best of luck with savage! i wanna get it just don’t know how much money i can drop on PSN titles this month with rent a few days away.

    cheers,
    Lh

  • Without multiplayer i will not be buying this.

    I hope more developers realize that online multiplayer = CASH IN THEIR POCKETS.

    SERIOUSLY. Check my PSN collection and probably many others, MOST OF THEM WILL BE ONLINE GAMES.

  • i wanted a comment back Jeff =[ (=D)

  • I must recommend this game if you have a surround-sound system. The chaos of having 6 Mortar Towers blasting bugs screaming like piggies being slaughtered is awesome!
    If you’re worried about the difficulty level it’s easier than PixelJunk Monsters too. Atleast this game can be completed, PJM is impossible for me, even on Easy!

  • good more PSN games

  • Sweet news, even sweeter Killzone 2 countdown clock.

  • kobe bryant all D@y Baby

  • At long bloody last.

    Thank you…

    I’m getting my strategy fix from Valkyria Chronicles and Savage Moon till Killzone 2 which can fill the void of hate I have for COD 4…The people who still play that game have spawn points memorized…which I find loathsome. Yes yes,THAT is a strategy too.

  • $9.99!?

    Killer price! :) This game looks so fun

  • Very good price. Will be purchase tomorrow night after work and school.

    Now bring more PJunk Monster and we’re set!

  • Ive said it once before on a post and Ill say it again. Your works looks really impressive and you guys definitely have your won style going on. Tower defense is great and all, and this is a definite first day buy, but I urge you guys to consider making a full on strategy game I.E. starcraft, warcraft I-III, Command and Conquer etc… We certainly havent seen a decent strategy game in some time, I have a feeling you guys could really do a bang up job at one too. Hopefully Ive given you something to consider, thank you :)

  • GREAT news, been looking forward to this since it was fist announced. Trailer looks sweet btw. Only $9.99, a definite must buy on day one.

  • Day one buy for me. Thanks Floffy Logics, for this refreshing new comer. I know you are starting into this business and we, the PS3 player, want to support you.

    To all PS3 users, if you can buy this game, DO IT, your are suppporting a new developing studio that may be relasing some great games in the future for us.

    I dont force you to buy this game, if you can afford it and if you like this genere ( which is awesome, you must believe me) do it, you wont regreat it.

  • Thanks for the update Ana….I’ve been waiting for this game and the price is just right.

  • Every time I see this I see Sailor Moon and get all excited. I want a Sailor Moon game. ^^
    But this will do. Yay!

  • is it true that they are releasing Disgaea 3 on PSN? cause i cant find a copy of it =s

  • sorry for being off topic, tho this game looks really impressive.

  • The game looks really awesome hope its as good as it looks. =)

  • hey i checked out the theme fot savage moom , pretty sweet

  • Great. When’s the UMD version coming out?

  • hiP Hip Hurray !!!

    i just gave up when i heard it’ll come in a few weeks. but here it is, Yeehh!!

    custom music?
    or at least a patch later for custom music?

    I always come back to playing Super Stardust and Novastrike
    cuz i can choose a new song which makes the experience feel fresh every time.

    And since its music i luv to listen to while i play, its 100% satisfaction, Guaranteed!

  • yea i have a question? is this game trophy enabled?

  • I was into this. But it came a month to late now. Dawn of War 2 is coming.

    sorry:(. Real RTS > Fake RTS

  • To all the haters saying it came too late and they won’t buy now: stop whining :P It looks awesome, and this is a day one buy for me. I’ve been waiting for it for a long time and I can’t wait to play it. I think if the devs add offline or online multiplayer later on it will make the game even more appealling, especially considering that they’ve played PC tower defense games.

  • Kick arse. I was trying to buy the EU version last week. Yes, yes I am a dork.

  • I’m buying this day two (gotta find some PSN cards) really excited though but it would be easier with PSN Cards in Europe *hint* *hint*

  • YESSSSS! Can’t wait to play this.

  • ive been waiting 4 this too….will get it as soon as it hits the store.

  • Kinda like “Pixel Junk Monsters” on steroids! Nice!
    Looks like a lot of fun, oh and I also like Starship Troopers, but only the first one.

  • @83

    I’ll buy it when there’s a disc copy.

  • Thank God this is coming out. Not that I can buy it (not my cup o tea, sorry) but so that everyone can shut up about its delay. I’ve never read so much trash talk about a PSN title before. Have fun blowing up them bugs!

  • Any chance that an update will add multiplayer? How about a little competitive action to set this apart from PixelJunk Monsters in more than just aesthetic.

  • I do not understand… I bought Savage Moon off of the AU PSN on Christmas.
    Please someone tell me what’s going on.

  • The game is not bad, although sometimes a little bit difficult.

    There are however some things which I really HATE:

    – you can not skip the first “fly-over” animation when you start a level
    and
    – you can not skip the first “aliens come out of the hive” animation

    when you begin a level you restart the game quite often (to learn where you place your towers, the path of the aliens etc….so this is really really a pain in the ***

    WHY CANT WE SKIP THOSE ANIMATIONS!?

  • YES! I AM SOO HAPPY!

    i am going to loop the starship troopers theme song over and over again while playing this.

  • This is confusing…

    I already have the game! Did they release it in Europe first?

    …to [btz]…
    You can turn of the level intro animation in the game options menu.

  • i was going to buy some pain update but i may end up buying this game

  • vx_m4rk
    Thank you so much! I only tried to skip them with the start button :-)

  • oh yeah im buying this !!!

Please enter your date of birth.

Date of birth fields