Hi Everyone!
My name is Paul Croft and I’m Director of Games at Mediatonic. We’re a small indie games studio based in London in the UK.
I’m posting here on the PlayStation blog about ‘Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess!’, our brand new title developed specifically for the new PSP Minis service.
In the game the player controls a massively powerful (and slightly unhinged) aristocratic demon known as ‘The Duke’ who wakes up to discover his Princess is missing. Without a single clue to go on, he can only assume that monsters were (probably) responsible, and sets out to track her down by beating up monsters largely at random in the hope that it will (somehow) reunite him with his beloved.
At the centre of the game is the Story mode, which follows the progress of The Duke as he beats down monsters across six different levels in the quest for his Princess.
The real challenge of the game comes into play in Score Attack mode which contains eighteen unique levels, each unlocked by breaking target scores in the preceding levels. The Duke is a flamboyant character who likes to reward himself based on how stylishly he managed to complete each level and destroy his opponent.
Through moving the Duke from platform to platform in an unbroken chain the player can build up a combo which increases both the amount of points earned and also the speed of the game. To gain the maximum amount of points for each level the Duke must touch every platform and still defeat the monster before he escapes!
This is our first PSP title. We’ve been really excited about the potential of Minis since we heard of the program and have really enjoyed building the game. It’s packed full of humour, little details, rewards and a few secrets!
We’ve been working on the game for almost four months now and we’re all really excited about the launch in February – we hope you all like it!
To keep up with the latest news on our games you can follow Mediatonic on Twitter.
40 CommentsAdd Yours
1
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 5:49 pm by V_Ben
ooh. this looks pretty sweet
looking forward to it 
2
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 5:49 pm by vicheous
Games with strange names should be a new tab in the PSN Store!
Blame it all on the monsters!!
3
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 5:52 pm by Ravenblade86
Looks very interesting and the art-style looks really good, would of been nice to see a video of the gameplay though. Definitely looks to be on my “to buy” Minis list though
Can you tell us anything about the price yet?
4
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 5:53 pm by td_rules
wow, how come its ALWAYS Indie titles with AMAZING artstyles, look at Machinarium on PC for example.
I guess this title may be breaking my minis virginity haha, can’t wait
5
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:07 pm by Mediatonic_Paul
@Ravenblade86
Alas no final price I can confirm yet – it should be around the middle of the current range I think.
Great to hear you all like the look of the game!
6
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:26 pm by edgefusion
Is that…. Comic Sans?
7
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:28 pm by Spammer4Life
sooooo its like icy tower?
8
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:28 pm by Mediatonic_Paul
@edgefusion
Nope, not Comic Sans. We strongly dislike fonts of this nature.
9
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:30 pm by Mediatonic_Paul
@Spammer4Life
It’s similar in that it’s a vertical platformer, however the levels in MPSMP are finite and each follows a specific design, so when playing them there is more planning/strategy involved in terms of your route and where you tag the monster.
10
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:34 pm by Ravenblade86
@Mediatonic_Paul
That’s a good enough answer
The middle of the Minis price range in the UK I have no bother with. Some of the titles at £3.99 I would buy if they were less, thats normally the puzzle/casual games though, something like this I’m happier the pay for.
11
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:35 pm by Spammer4Life
but you jump in the same way?
12
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:40 pm by Mediatonic_Paul
@Ravenblade86
Great, it should be less than 3.99
13
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:42 pm by Mediatonic_Paul
@Spammer4Life
No jumping doesn’t work in the same way – you don’t build up momentum to throw yourself platforms, instead it’s more like a traditional platformer where you can jump / double jump at a consistent level
14
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:53 pm by crusher915
a little fail but the minis are available at the ps3 to.
15
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 6:59 pm by Mediatonic_Paul
@crusher915
I can confirm the game will also be available on PS3.
To the people that mentioned footage – we will be releasing a trailer and gameplay footage shortly before launch
16
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:05 pm by Spammer4Life
oh ok, well it still seems fun!
i think ill buy it
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:07 pm by Paul Croft
Awesome!
There’s a bit more information about the game here:
http://www.monstersprobablystolemyprincess.com/
– On my proper account now
17
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:08 pm by Ravenblade86
Good to hear there will be a gameplay video.
Couple of quick questions, in the screenshots the bar on the left hand side of the screen? Is that indicating how far you have progressed up through the level? And is that an Egyptian themed level in the last screenshot?
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:24 pm by Paul Croft
The bar on the left is your progress up through the level, it also indicates the position on the monster.
It’s kind of an ancient temple level but it does have a bit of an Egyptian vibe to it
18
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:10 pm by Sir_Magnum
Liking the look of this, this may be the first mini I purchase.
Roughly how long would you say the story mode takes to complete?
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:27 pm by Paul Croft
Great to hear you like it!
Story mode will be a relatively quick play through – it’s an introduction to the principles of the game with some basic levels, then the real challenge comes in score attack.
At the moment we’re finalizing the level designs so it’s tricky to give a better time estimate than that. Hope it helps!
19
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:24 pm by npro681
This is one of the minis i have been looking forward too. I heard that it would be released in February, is this true? Could you give me a specific date on when it will be released?
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:28 pm by Paul Croft
Yes the game will be released in February.
We don’t have an exact date yet (we’re waiting to confirm this with Sony), it’s looking at the moment to be around the middle of the month.
20
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:25 pm by SmokingGnuMkII
It’s great to see you guys branching out
Are you planning on other things for the service, like Gigolo Assassin, Meowcenaries or Must.Eat.Birds?
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:31 pm by Paul Croft
We do have ideas for other PSP Minis in the pipeline but as yet nothing definite – we’re completely focused at the moment on finalizing everything on Monsters.
We’ve been talking about Must.Eat.Birds and the best way to do it on the PSP – the control scheme is difficult to translate so we’re not too sure at the moment.
Gigolo Assassin and Meowcenaries are games we made for Adultswim so it will be their decision on bringing them to the PSP
21
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:29 pm by Joe382
woah your website is awesome! Game looks great, if its a good price then I will buy it.
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:33 pm by Paul Croft
Awesome! We’ll be updating in the next couple weeks with more information on the game
22
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:41 pm by almighty-slayer
Looks like a pretty sweet game. Good work
23
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:42 pm by MaikelSteneker
The art style looks great, but I’m not sure if it’s my type of game. I hope you’ll post again on the blog if you have some footage, because this looks pretty good! It might be my first Mini as well.
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:52 pm by Paul Croft
Awesome!
We’ll hopefully be making another post on the blog in a few weeks with some footage and a bit more background about the making of the game.
24
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 7:45 pm by Bonyman
Awesome! I’m (probably) going to get this!
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 8:18 pm by Paul Croft
Great to hear you like it!
25
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 8:31 pm by Tonks01
Minis were a bit slow to start, but things really seem to be snowing balling now! Looks like we might be spoilt for choice (that would be nice!)
How has the experience been for you guys? Although not so much now, early on we got a lot of complaints that the PS3 wasn’t the easiest thing to develop for – first hand experience from developing for a Sony machine? Also much support from Sony getting Monsters to see the light of day?
I was impressed by the 4 month turn around, what roughly is the size of the team Mediatonic?
Not sure why I’m interested in these kinds of things….guess I like to know how things are made
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 9:34 pm by Paul Croft
The experience in making the game has been great for us.
Compared to the iPhone we’ve found it quite a lot more complex technically – essentially you have to do a bit more groundwork before you can get started and it takes a bit longer to prepare art an animation assets.
On the whole the process have been pretty smooth, Sony have been on hand to help us when we get stuck
At Mediatonic in total we have a team of 20, on this game in particular there have been about 8-10 people involved in the project at various stages, with a core team of around 3 – 5.
We’ll hopefully be doing a blog post in a few weeks focusing a little more on the making of the game and the thought process behind it
26
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 9:52 pm by MatthewSFC
Looks good, chances are I’ll buy this.
27
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 10:09 pm by maddymad
It does look fun!
I am glad that new dev team put more effort in making great psp games. PS3 got a lot of love from the developers, it’s time that PSP get the same.
28
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 10:12 pm by EpicMcDude
Nice! Always like when Indies developers make games. Some turn out to be better than some retail games. Hope to see new footage!
Cheers.
29
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 10:20 pm by EpicMcDude
2 quick questions though; How did you get started? How did you come up with this idea?
Cheers!
(sorry for the double post)
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 10:46 pm by Paul Croft
Awesome!
We’ll be posting again on the blog in a couple of weeks with details on how the concept came about and a little about the making of the game – so that should answer your questions in detail
30
Posted on 19 January, 2010 at 11:55 pm by bow7
Looks intriguing. Would like to see a video of it in action please.
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 12:29 am by Paul Croft
The trailer should be ready to go in a few weeks time, we should have lots of footage by then
31
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 12:21 am by Prem-aka-Prince
Hooray for London!
32
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 1:07 am by waypoetic
I’m looking forward to this
Good luck to you guys!
33
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 1:30 am by bgand
Looks super neato, that’s for sure! Do I detect hints of Earthworm Jim in there somewhere?
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 1:09 pm by Paul Croft
Great! We’ve not talked about Earthworm Jim when making the game but we’re all big fans of it here
34
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 8:56 am by pb-live
Looks good.
Good luck to you and hope it sells well, nice to hear of devs who really enjoy their work and I really hope it pays off for you.
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 1:12 pm by Paul Croft
Thanks for your support!
35
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 8:57 am by almighty-slayer
Have to thank you not only for the awesome looking/sounding game, but for replying to everyone’s comments and questions; not only on here but on the US Blog too
It’s good when a developer gets involved in the community. I hope your game sells well because it looks like it deserves to.
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 1:16 pm by Paul Croft
Thanks! we love to get involved
36
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 10:22 am by Pray07
I did a weeks work experience at Media Tonic a few years ago, nice place
This game looks cool
37
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 12:22 pm by divine1000
Looks great so far, the artstyle is cool. I’ve picked up a few Minis so far, I gues I’ll be getting this too.
38
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 4:17 pm by billsmugs
Really looking forward to this, this will be my first experiance of PSP Minis. This has probably the best game name and story ever!
39
Posted on 20 January, 2010 at 10:05 pm by xxPIETROxx
Looks like a definite buy
Any info on Media go for Mac?
40
Posted on 28 January, 2010 at 12:30 pm by ukhan91
Hey sony i am a psp man
but there are some flaws in the psp system
don’t say that i haven’t got a life but i do
I have already draw sketches on what the new psp is going to be like what it is going to have and i mean i have done a lot of research. i have already come up with snappy name for the new psp and no its not psp2 or whatever. i have already sorted out the media storage troubles
ie UMD or digital download i have got the solution. please if you do start production or research for the next psp, please contact me (ukhan91 psn tag) please i want to see my hard work go far. (i’ll even do it for FREE!!!)
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