Posted on 10 February by Mayumi Donovan – European Product Manager, SCEE

PlayStation Vita Discovery Apps: Frobisher Says And t@g

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We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the range of amazing games that PS Vita has to offer here on PlayStation.Blog, but you may not know about the great range of Discovery Apps also coming to the system. They are free to download from PlayStation Store and are designed to showcase the unique features of PS Vita through innovative interactive experiences.

Today we want to introduce you to the first two Discovery Apps: Frobisher Says and t@g. But rather than me telling you about them, I’ll leave that to the people who have developed them…

Frobisher Says by Ricky Haggett, Honeyslug

Frobisher Says is a surreal party game, where players must obey the whims of a strange little man called Frobisher, who is terribly spoilt and entirely used to getting his own way. He’s terribly demanding and a bit frightening if crossed, but his orders are often quite whimsical – he might insist on players doing things like “poke an otter with a stick”, “deliver my pudding on a toy train”, or “smile at some ladies (but not at the badgers!)”. He might even ask them to prise open all the clams in his spaghetti marinara – despite the fact that he doesn’t even like clams.

The game showcases all of the features of the Vita – from front and rear touch, to motion, camera, and face-detection, as well as traditional controls. It’s designed specifically to be played with up to 8 friends, but you can play alone for high scores too, if you don’t have any friends.

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There are over 50 games, each with a unique art style – we worked with a large and diverse art team from all kinds of backgrounds, from comic books to pixel art, collage to medical illustration – so that as the games change, the art does too, spiraling players down into Frobisher’s crazy, confusing world.

Frobisher Says is available for free as a pre-order incentive at the launch of PS Vita on 22 February. It will be available to download for free to all PS Vita owners in May 2012.

t@g by Andrew Rourke, Bolser

Taking the massive craze of tagging to a whole new level, t@g on the PlayStation Vita showcases cutting-edge features and brings gaming and creativity together in a splash of virtual ink.

Nothing is out of limits, the whole planet is one giant virtual space and it’s there to be t@gged.

t@g lets budding street artists show off their artistic talents by creating virtual t@gs and unleashing them anywhere in the virtual world. Utilising Augmented Reality and GPS, t@ggers can view a virtual space through their Vita and then apply their own unique virtual t@g.

As t@g only exists in a virtual environment there are no spray cans, just the rush of t@gging bigger, better and more adventurous places than anyone else to earn rewards and respect.

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It’s not just a case of placing t@gs randomly, though. Every t@g placed earns points and valuable t@ggits, the in-game currency. Points help players go through the the graffiti world from beginners to t@gging veterans. There are also special stickers allowing players to improve their rankings and earn street respect.

Global leader-boards show how players are ranked, and if they visit a new area they can check out the t@ggers in that location too.

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To get creative inspiration, the t@g editor provides tools to help t@ggers make their virtual mark. To stay one step ahead, players can use the in-app credits they’ve earned to unlock new features in the t@g store so their t@gs can get more complex and creative as they compete for ultimate t@g supremacy.

There is a strong social element; other t@ggers can check out t@gs and let the artist know what they think by rating their skills. Other players can even overt@g, so it’s a challenge to see who can take t@g to the next level.

t@g will be available to download for free from PlayStation Store in May 2012; it utilises GPS functionality and is therefore only compatible with the 3G model of PS Vita.

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