Back in 1998, while I was still a student, my boss asked me what I wanted to be doing in 10 years. I said: “help to run a games studio” and my boss laughed, spurring me on to prove him wrong. I was just a naive youngster but I fell in with the right crowd and just three years later, I was ready to try it for real with a heap of enthusiasm and three talented and experienced friends. As the four of us quit our stable jobs, we held on to the thought – we love games; how hard can it be to make games the way we think they should be made?

During a wild spring break vacation in Cancun, we dreamed up the foundations of the studio. A place where real gamers could use their talent to make ‘proper games’ that everyone would enjoy. A month later we showed our first demo to Evolution Studios. Somehow, they saw potential in a bright blue car driving around a plain grey square, and Bigbig Studios was born. Before long we were hard at work on a series of demos including a prototype F1 game, a streetwise car-modding racer and a free-roaming action secret agent game where players could jump between vehicles and kick out the enemy drivers.

Our first game began with one of those “Eureka!” moments in the pub – wouldn’t it be cool to fight on a moving vehicle like Indiana Jones, and as far as we could tell, it had never been done before; something that’s incredibly rare in the games industry. After a lot of hard work, we had a great looking demo, but the marketing guys needed a new twist to make it stand out from the crowd. Sony was looking for teams to create games for its new handheld console, the PSP, and loved the idea of an action movie-styled cop chase game, so Pursuit Force was born. We worked like crazy, hired a load of talented new artists, coders and designers and in what seemed like a flash, our first game was released and selling very well.

When you work in a small team making ambitious games, there are always tonnes of ideas that you can’t fit in the first game, so when it came to the sequel we wanted to make it bigger, better and more explosive in every way. The team pulled out the stops and created what’s still one of my favourite action games, Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice. Cheesy Hollywood script, massive bosses and even better vehicle-jumping-car-chase gameplay. You know your studio is in a good place when you’re making games the entire team wants to play!

On our next game we had to rethink our strategy. We decided to create a PSP version of the PS3 classic, MotorStorm. With Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, we were determined to make a true sequel, and so we evolved the gameplay and came up with a sub-zero setting, adding a splash of retro ’80s style. We also took a more streamlined approach to the way we worked and, thankfully, released a great game with the minimum amount of pizza fuelled all-nighters.

While we were adding the finishing touches to MS:AE, we had our second “Eureka!” moment behind closed doors. A secret team within Sony was looking for cool things they could do with their new handheld – codenamed NGP. We pride ourselves on originality and, while dual analog sticks were the obvious choice, we took up the challenge of creating something cool for the console’s unique Rear Touch pad. The original concept was called “Cloth Ball” where the idea was to push up the landscape and roll a ball around. Our tech demo showed off this Rear Touch pad control innovation, and we buffed up the demo with some real character and next-gen graphics, resulting in PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida giving us to go-ahead for Little Deviants.

As the game progressed we found that NGP offered huge potential through its extensive control inputs. So we set out to use every input and Little Deviants became a series of action packed mini-games, each showing off the NGP hardware in cool ways, and telling the story of the mischievous Little Deviants. You may have seen our tech demo at the NGP announcement, and we’re due to show off even more as we reveal four of our mini-games at E3.

So that’s what we’ve been up to these past 10 years. We’ve been so busy making games that we only recently realised that the studio needed a revamp. We’ve got a new logo, upgraded our offices and have relaunched our website, www.bigbigstudios.com. The new website is now in a blog style which is ideal for sharing quick, friendly updates and hearing what you guys have to say. If there’s time at E3 we’ll be doing a live Twitter feed, but NGP is going to be big, so we’ll be spending most of our time talking the talk to journalists on the show floor.

So, enjoy what Sony has to offer at E3, and I’m sure you’ll hear more from us soon as the launch date for Little Deviants and NGP draws near.

We’ve got a spread of Motorstorming skills – from Andy F who’s very very fast, to me, who can just about get around the track without crashing So there should be something fun for everyone.

We’ll be setting up games on our favourite tracks, including Time Tickers. The event takes place on the EU server at 17:30 GMT until 19:00 GMT.

We’ll also be doing a live commentary on Twitter – check out twitter.com/bigbigstudios for live updates on how the carnage is going.

Race against the World!
We did something a bit different for a PSP racing game – as well as ad-hoc, you can play against anyone in the world with internet multiplayer. You can race on any track in the game against 6 people, you won’t believe the crazy routes people will take to win! Also there’s Time Ticker where it’s all about staying close to the front of the pack – the first person to 999 points gets the win.

All the races are ranked, and you get rewarded for your achievements – beat a full grid, or more experienced drivers and you’ll rake in extra points. As you get better at racing you’ll climb up the leader board, and probably meet some Legendary players along the way. If you want to see the current standings, take a look on vip.motorstorm.com.

Time Trial Tactics
Another way to compete with MotorStorm players around the world is by working your way up the time trial rankings. The aim is to get the fastest lap on the track of your choice – you can race against the times set by the Bigbig team, or download the communities fastest times and ghosts. The advantage of downloading someone else’s ghost lap is that you can spot all the shortcuts, hopefully find a way to gain a few seconds and then speed ahead.

How to Look Good Racing
So that’s the racing aspect, but true Motorstorm legends want to look good whilst they’re boosting past the opposition. Sure, the default vehicles look good, but if you want to stand out, you need to create your own stylised set of vehicles!

The further you get through festival mode, the more cool customisations you can unlock. If you head over to the Garage and customise your favourite vehicle, you can use all your unlocked parts, sponsor logos and patterns to make something really unique. You can do the obvious, by changing wheels and spoilers, but if you really want to stand out, you can go into more depth.

Freak or Unique?
Not everyone’s spotted the depth of the visual customisation, so here’s a tip: From the Paint Job menu, you can scroll right to choose an interesting Pattern, then press triangle to choose some stand-out colours. If you go right again, you can choose the Side Logo and Top Logo and position them how you want – for example, putting shark’s teeth on the front of the vehicle, or stretching your country’s flag across the rear. Whether you create something sleek and stylish, or aggressively ugly, the design will be unique to you.

And finally, if you really want to stand out online, if you can track down a copy of the Collector’s Edition, you get the exclusive Mirage Rapide rally car to play with.

The Arctic Edge Challenge – Beat the developers!
For those of you who like a challenge, the Bigbig team will be racing online on Motorstorm Arctic Edge on the evening of Wednesday 28th October. There are no physical prizes, but imagine the kudos you’ll get for beating us at our own game! Check the Blog on Tuesday 27th October for the full details.

Skills = Badges
The badges look cool, and are the equivalent to trophies for experts at Arctic Edge. Some of them need skill e.g. Win a race without boosting and others, such as getting a 1080 spin on the bobsleigh corner are just plain fun. The question is – can you get them all?

15 More Maniacs
Some of you may have noticed that the enemy racers in Arctic Edge have real personalities, and you’ll see them challenging you over and over again in the Festival. Each of the 15 maniac racers has their own recognisable vehicles, so when you get smashed into the wall or overtaken on the last corner, you know who to blame!

You may also have spotted the empty slots in your character select, and if you put the time into getting golds in the Festival, all15 characters and all their paintjobs will be yours.

Show it off with Photo Mode
Photo mode is a cool addition to Arctic Edge, here at the team we’ve used a special version to create all the screen-shots you see in the magazines and online. It’s also great for showing off your crazy or cool vehicle customisations – share the pictures with your friends and see who can come up with the most awesome vehicle!

Top Secret – Killzone, Pursuit Force, Wipeout and Little Big Planet in Motorstorm Arctic Edge!
Here’s the big reveal for this post – we’ve hidden some extra special prizes in Motorstorm Arctic Edge for true arctic explorers. We’ve got custom paintjobs for some of the vehicles, game themed stickers and emblems, and even a couple of characters from these classic PlayStation games.

And how do you get a piece of that action? 20 of the 24 tracks in the game have an emblem hidden somewhere in the scenery. You’ll have to look all around you in Photo Mode, and if you can photo 5 of a particular emblem, you’ll get a prize. Watch out though – some of them are really well hidden. Get together with your friends and see if you can track them all down, then get on Multiplayer to show off your rewards!

For our third and final post, we’ll be giving you some tips on customising your off-road vehicle, and how to get the most out of Multiplayer. And remember – I want to see some of those secret paint-jobs in the online games when I get back

What makes the game stand out from the crowd on PSP?

Motorstorm fans will love it because it’s a full-on Motorstorm game you can take anywhere (I was playing it on the train yesterday). Racing fans new to the series will love the sense of freedom (there’s a great choice of vehicles and routes) but there’s still a big emphasis on finding the best line amidst all the explosions, crashes and aggressive mayhem. – Richard Ogden, Game Director

What did you enjoy most about making MotorStorm Arctic Edge?

The fast cars, the women, the rock and roll lifestyle…. were not available while working on Motorstorm (well, the cars were!). With that in mind we had to console ourselves with the fact that we were bringing a widely respected and loved PS3 franchise and making it portable. That alone was quite an awesome task that had the team ready to give 110% to ensure we did the fans, and indeed ourselves, proud.

I personally enjoyed working to the PSP’s hardware specs and trying to push the console to its limits. 6 player On Line and Ad-Hoc races, uploading and downloading of ghost vehicles, 10 racers on screen during single player, over 100 events, full vehicle customisation, Photo Mode, Avalanches, Ice Bridges, Weather effects and so on. A complete Motorstorm package where ever and whenever the players want it. That is what I enjoyed making, and more importantly that it is what the fans expected – and I feel that we have delivered that and more!

– Robert Shaer, Game Designer

Any cool stories from the research trip to Alaska?

After seeing Alaska’s stunning scenery and witnessing the unpredictability of the terrain and weather we were certain that this was the perfect location for the next Motorstorm festival. The Denali range contains one of the highest mountains in the world, being set down by our plane amongst some the peaks thousands of feet above sea level, in the middle of winter was a very memorable moment, especially as we watched out ride home disappear off in to the distance without us! Luckily he came back, and we used our thousands of stunning photos as an inspiration for the game.

– Matthew Brown, Environment Artist

As you can see, the team is really proud of Motorstorm Arctic Edge. If you’re lucky enough to own a copy, we’ll be telling you about some hidden secrets in our next post. If you just want to check it out, look out for the demo hitting PSN soon!

Simon Bursey, Art Director – Motorstorm Arctic Edge, Bigbig Studios