Greetings again, PlayStation faithful. Scott Hyman from Tik/Creat, dropping by yet again. I hope I’m not catching you at dinner, or breakfast, or while watching Lost or Glee or playing God of War III. But with so much happening here, I just need to keep coming by to tell you what we’re up to.

This time around, I’m happy to let you know how we’ve been listening to you all. We’ve enjoyed the great reaction to Wakeboarding HD, but we understand how some folks like to try before they buy. Sometimes, you want to taste the new flavor of ice cream before you make the purchase, and the same goes for many video games. We’ve read all your emails, and lots of your comments online, and we’ve responded…

TikGames/Creat Studios is proud to offer a free-to-play demo version of Wakeboarding HD in North America and Europe on Thursday, April 29th. Now, you can discover what all the fuss is about by making high-flying jumps, performing insane tricks, and dodging pesky Great White Sharks before purchasing the full game.

We’re confident that after playing the demo, you’ll be craving more. Just like the server behind the ice cream counter, we are more than happy to offer a sample of the latest Tik/Creat flavor. And please stay tuned, as there’s always plenty of new flavors, er… I mean new games to come!

As always, thanks again for everyone’s support. We love making games, and you are the reason why we can do it. Please keep the comments and suggestions coming. As I stated above, we are always reading and listening!

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Hi Folks!

My name is James Marsden and I’m the Managing Director of FuturLab, an independent development studio based in Brighton, UK.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be sharing our story about how a bunch of ambitious Flash developers became licensed to make games for PlayStation, and how we’ve made the move from Flash to PSP!

First of all, let me give you an overview of our upcoming PSP and PS3 minis game, Coconut Dodge, due for exclusive release on PlayStation Store in May.

GAME PLAY

Coconut Dodge is a hypnotically addictive arcade game in which a player must dodge falling coconuts, weave through airborne mazes and play beach ball keepy-uppy to collect giant shiny treasures. As you can see from the video, the game starts quite easy and gradually ramps up to insane levels of coco-bullet action!

RACE MECHANICS

What makes the game so addictive is the combination of the predictable mazes and the random coconuts and beach balls. It makes the experience similar to a racing game, where the first few attempts at a new track are difficult, but once you’ve learnt the track, you can hone your movements to perfection whilst confidently dealing with the other cars.

Coconut Dodge works in a similar way as you learn to memorise and master the mazes. Before long you’re proudly keeping several beach balls in the air whilst elegantly weaving through a hailstorm of coconuts

HARDCORE

Most of the mazes in the game have two different routes; one that is nice and easy, and one that is more difficult. The difficult route always has more valuable treasure in it

So, when you come across a maze you can get through it quite easily, which makes the game suitable for some quick casual fun on the bus. However, to get the most treasure and a high score, you have to learn some pretty complex movements that require good rhythm and very high precision.

Coconut Dodge can therefore be played casually, but don’t let the simplicity and cute artwork style stop you there — this little crab is hardcore!

MAZE MASTER
We have provided another game mode called Maze Master. Maze Master lets you play each of the trickier mazes over and over until you’ve mastered them. You can then return to the main game to test out your skills for the high score!

MUSIC
An overview of Coconut Dodge wouldn’t be complete without giving mention to the music. We believe game music should be just as addictive as the games themselves. As such, we guarantee you’ll be whistling the Coconut Dodge theme tune for months to come

That’s it for my first post, stay tuned for my next article, where I will reveal how we captured Sony’s imagination without any game industry experience, and became licensed to make games for PSP and PS3!

Hint: you can do it by just having good ideas!

Thanks,

James

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Thanks to Jem and the team for having me back so soon.

I wanted to expand on my previous blog announcing that Championship Manager 2010 will be coming to minis with some more details and to show off some new assets.

Championship Manager 2010 will be available to download from the PlayStation Network around Europe as of the 29th of April for just £4.99 (€5.99). That’s less than one week to wait before you can take on one of the toughest jobs on earth.

In addition to the new screenshots you can see here, which also answer a few people’s questions about whether or not the game will contain real player and team names, we’ve also put together a video that shows you a little bit more of the game.

So keep an eye out on the 29th of April for the game to appear on the PlayStation Network and enjoy starting your management career.

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Hello I’m Chris, the Senior Online Producer on SingStar and I’m just bringing you a short update on more great features we are releasing in the June SingStar update, alongside Online Battle.

First though, thanks to everyone who has taken part in our Beta so far, and those who have signed up for the next Beta events, there has been a great response. We have received loads of valuable feedback from you all and been working hard to get fixes and improvements into the game.

Onto the features though…

First up is SingStar Remote, which enables you to connect to SingStar with a PSP during a game session and create a playlist of up to 20 songs. The playlist can be edited whilst someone else is singing, allowing you to queue up loads of songs to play from a carousel on the PSP and move swiftly form one song to the next, ensuring no break in your SingStar party. Ever.

For truly professional SingStar players we have upgraded our gameplay to give the player feedback when you are singing with extra style using your natural vibrato. We suggest honing your vibrato skill on Gold by Spandau Ballet, Street Spirit by Radiohead or one of the tracks from the Il Divo SongPack. Good luck!

SingStar Clubs are expanding, a single club can now have up to 1000 members, and you will be able to join up to five clubs.

We have also made a couple of minor changes to the SingStore - you will be able to view users’ videos in the community galleries directly from a song in the SingStore, and move directly from a song to a corresponding SongPack in which it features.

We hope that you will enjoy all the features coming in the June update and look forward to getting more feedback from those of you that are taking part in the Beta trials. For those of you that aren’t taking part in the Beta, it’d be great to hear your comments on these new features below.

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Hello, it’s Rob Burman here, you may remember me from such blog posts as announcing 3D Dot Game Heroes and showing off a new 3D Dot Game Heroes video. Well, now I’m here to reveal an exciting competition we’re working on with the PlayStation Blog Europe that could see you, yes YOU, winning a super duper limited edition prize and a copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes – which is coming exclusively to PlayStation 3 on May 14th.

But what’s the competition, I hear you cry… well, one of the very cool features of 3DDGH is the character creator, which lets you make your own hero pixel by pixel. If you want to be a monkey in a bowler hat, no problem! A robotic pink pirate? Go ahead. Seriously, as long as you’ve got a little bit of imagination, you can go wild with the character editor. You can even share them with friends by popping them on a USB stick.

To celebrate this awesome tool, we’ve created a simplified online version of the character creator – http://designer.3ddotgameheroes.eu/ - to give you a taste of what to expect from the more in-depth finished product and now we want you to make some fantastic heroes and enter them into a competition. The winner will receive a copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes and a very limited edition foam sword, just like the one used in the game. In fact, there are only 20 of these in the world… even I’m not allowed to keep one . The sword looks a bit like this but does not include me looking like an idiot.

To be in with a chance of winning, just make your own hero in the online character editor, save it as a jpeg and then email it to ukoffice@southpeakgames.com. The closing date for entries is May 11th and we’ll announce the winners on the PlayStation Blog on May 13th. Also, remember to join the 3D Dot Game Heroes Facebook group to keep up to date with what’s happening.

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