Nominations for the Independent Games Festival Awards 2009 have been announced today and one of our favorite PSN titles, PixelJunk Eden, has been nominated for three categories. The categories are: Excellence in Visual Art, Excellence in Audio and Technical Excellence. Eden is one of few console games to be nominated in this year's awards, and the only PlayStation Network title to get recognition.
The winners will be revealed at the Independent Games Festival which takes place in San Francisco between March 23rd and 27th. If you want to learn more about all the games on the list be sure to check out Joystiq's IGF nominee run-down. Good luck to PixelJunk Eden, there's some strong competition there.
Looks like more PS3 games are coming to the PSP. The popular tower defense game, PixelJunk Monsters, is heading to the PSP. In fact, there's going to be more content than ever before. This is great news, especially because we're not too fond of using Remote Play to stream games. We can't wait to see more when the game comes out in 2009. To find out more about the game, check out all the news on PS3 Fanboy.
Looks like the Q-Games team is taking their sweet time with the next PixelJunk game. The team has been quite prolific, with three PSN games under their belt: PixelJunk Racers, Monsters and Eden. The brand has managed to garner a loyal following amongst PS3 owners, and we're sure many are eagerly awaiting the next title.
Unfortunately, it can be a long wait for the next PixelJunk game. Dylan Cuthbert told Parallaxed Game that the next game won't be unveiled for quite some time. In fact, nothing might be shown at next year's GDC show: "We can't talk about any of the future titles yet, we might not even show anything at GDC09, who knows! The next title isn't necessary based on the Dungeons prototype work as we develop several ideas simultaneously, finally going with the idea that has the most momentum."
It's going to be a long wait, but so long as their next game can match the addictive quality of Monsters and Eden, we're sure it'll be worth it. Stay tuned.
So ... Did you get that PixelJunk Monsters patch yesterday? Neither did we. The patch is technically live and available for all. The problem is, the only way American users can get the patch right now is to download the game anew. To do that, you'll want to go to the PlayStation Store and click on the "View Downloads" button. Find and install PixelJunk Monsters -- it will already have the patch built in!
If that's too much work, don't worry. SCEA is currently investigating the situation. Hopefully, it won't be long before you can auto-magically get the new challenge and Trophy-enabled patch.
Update: The patch is now available when you launch the game.
Q-Games' popular tower defense game is getting a brand new mode: the Trophy challenge. This mode can only be done in single player, and has you completing levels with new objectives. This should add hours of new gameplay for those that have already mastered the game. The hidden Trophies can be completed in any game mode: just achieve the task.
There's at least one PSN game which is universally loved: PixelJunk Monsters. We recently got a chance to play PJM at Q-Games' studios in Kyoto. However, it wasn't quite the same game we've grown to love: it's PixelJunk Monsters -- with an awesome patch.
The upcoming patch adds Trophy support, YouTube recording, new difficulty levels (Easy and Hard), and adjusts the strength of the towers a bit. For example, you'll have the ice tower available (no gems required!). Also, the Tesla tower's range has been increased.
We want to say more about the Trophy mode, but we're still awaiting approval from SCEA on how much we can divulge about that. We will give you one tease: you won't have to worry about these Trophies being retroactive. Update: So, the PlayStation.blog has just updated with the official details on the Trophy patch, which will be available on October 30th, in America and Europe. Watch Dylan Cuthbert talk about the details in this new video.
Posted Oct 1st 2008 5:30PM by Alan Tsang Filed under: News
Sometimes one interview just isn't enough! PlayStation.Blog has posted yet another interview with the artist that brought you the music in PixelJunk Eden. The guy's name is Baiyon and he also served as the art director for the game. As a bonus, the director of the game Tominaga "Tomi" Shouichi will also be included in the interview. The guys tell you about their favorite music, their influences and even who at Q-Games resembles a little Grimp. Find out the answers to all of that and more by reading the full interview here.
Lastly, the PixelJunk Eden soundtrack will be available for download on the PSN store for $2.99 beginning tomorrow, October 2nd. The soundtrack is going for much, much more on Amazon and Play-Asia right now, so if you enjoy the game's music, this is a great buy.
Our friends at Siliconera have found the creative minds behind the musical landscapes of both PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Eden. The two games are PSN hits, and have rightfully cemented their places in the hearts of PS3 fans everywhere.
Otograph was approached about Monsters. Find out more about his inspirations and how Otograph met up with Q-Games for this interesting collaboration here.
Then, check out the next interview with Baiyon, one part DJ, one part art director. Find out more about his serendipitous meeting with Dylan Cuthbert, and how he was able to create the unique presentation for this most recent Q-Games project. Read it here. You can also order the PixelJunk Eden soundtrack at Amazon or Play-Asia.
Finding the PixelJunk games frustratingly difficult? You are not alone; one of the guys over at TheBBPS wrote an open e-mail to Dylan Cuthbert, executive producer at Q-games, humorously complaining that his wife finds PixelJunk Monsters just a tad bit too overwhelming and requests difficulty settings for the game. Cuthbert acknowledges his prayers, stating that an upcoming free patch to Monsters will include the ability to make the game easier, or harder, than the default setting. Altering the difficulty will disqualify you from online ranking though, for fairness' sake.
Cuthbert also hints a similar treatment in form of a new "more namby pamby" gameplay mode for PixelJunk Eden in a future expansion pack. He feels Eden's "controls are too much fun to waste on just one set of game rules." We can't wait!
This is rather unexpected. Considering this would be a spoiler to many, we decided to put this one after the break. You'll see the last level in action, and you'll find out what really-special-feature unlocks at the end of the game. For the impatient ones, skip to 5:20. (It's best watched with full annotations, here.)
[Thanks, jimb! Amazing video captured by Tntnnbltn]
You simply never can tell what SCEE have planned. Deborah Mars, producer for the PixelJunk series, has stated in the comments of the recent PlayStation Blog post that Eden will be available today in Japan, Europe and America. We would love to believe her, honest we would, but until we see it with our own eyes we simply can't. SCEE has had a hard time understanding the phrase "simultaneous worldwide release" several times in the past, after all.
We'll remain hopeful and will update you with the full PSN release list as usual when it lands. In the meantime, have you tried the PixelJunk Eden demo? If so, you might want to take a look at the trophy list and get practicing. The game launches today, after all. Worldwide! Hopefully ...
The first game to launch with Trophies is almost here. Finally! This stylishly addictive puzzle/platformer/rhythm game will be available on the PSN Store in the US and Japan tomorrow. No word on Europe, but fingers crossed. We thought you might like to take a peek at the Trophy list, in preparation for the game's release.
There's a distinct lack of Gold Trophies in PixelJunk Eden, but plenty of Bronzes to get stuck into. Here's the official Trophy list for the game.
A post on PlayStation.Blog by the President of Q-games Dylan Cuthbert reveals details about PixelJunk Eden's trophy and YouTube support. You will get a bronze trophy for every "seed" in a stage. Other trophies include destroying 500 "prowlers" or collecting 15 "crystal" in a single jump. Another trophy you can only achieve in 3-player mode. We also have a list of leaked trophies, from a NeoGAF post, which seems to be accurate, after the jump.
The YouTube upload feature will allow players to record gameplay and upload it directly to YouTube within the game. The procedure is simple: push one button to start and one to end. There is also no slowdown in gameplay "thanks to the power of the PS3 and its abundance of SPU processors."
Finally, they are thinking about trophies for PixelJunk Monsters as well via a patch. If they do release a patch, it will even include XMB music and "a couple of other things." We can't wait!
Tomorrow's American PSN update is looking to be pretty big. Our good pal Alexander Sliwinski over at Joystiq has just discovered that a demo forPixelJunk Eden will be arriving tomorrow in the US, a week before the full game arrives on the 31st. Our hands are already clenched around our controllers in anticipation. Who knew that the PixelJunk series would have us on tenter-hooks for the next release? After PixelJunk Racers, not us.
There's another fairly specific reason why we're looking forward to PixelJunk Eden; we've peaked, trophy-wise. We've been desperate for another game to satisfy our growing addiction for the glittering prizes, but Eden is the first game to support them since launch. The demo almost certainly won't include any, but at least it'll give us a week headstart to get our practice in.
There's one bit of key advice we learned after out playthrough with PixelJunk Eden at E3 in Los Angeles last week. Simply close your eyes and hibernate until the end of the month -- then you'll be awake with PixelJunk Eden ready on the PSN. This upcoming downloadable title continues the trend of Q-Games' abliity to make quirky, easily accessible arcade games exclusively for PS3. While not as conceptually easy to grasp as their previous titles, Eden has such an imaginative charm that it's hard not to fall in love with it. Having so little time with the game makes us wish we can simply fast-forward time to the game's release on PSN.
Undeniably, many will want an explanation on how the game is played. It may seem unclear from the videos, but the game is rather simple. Simple press X to shoot a web and start swinging around. You'll want to collect pollen and land on various pods. If you have enough pollen, these pods will grow into brand new plants, which will give you easier access to other parts of the level. Simply swing and stick to various plants, as you make your way through the level.
