I’m Olivier Vermeille, Marketing & PR Manager at Zallag (an independent publisher from France) and I’m thrilled to be able to talk directly with the PlayStation Community once again through this blog!

I’m here to talk to you about a game that was just released this week in the minis section (compatible PlayStation 3 and PSP) of the PlayStation Store: SHIFT extended.

It’s actually a very unique platform/puzzle game where you have the ability to reverse each level to find new ways out. It’s all based around this concept of “shifting” and the black & white art style.

Basically, you’re the subject of an experiment and you have to go through the 120 twisted levels using the only power you have: shifting. It lets you completely change the environment and the very structure of the level by reversing the gravity and the colours: black becomes white, plain becomes void and vice-versa. It’s not the easiest thing putting this concept into words, but you’ll instantly know what I’m talking about once you have a look at the trailer.

This extended version of SHIFT was specifically developed and enhanced for the PlayStation 3 and the PSP. The content from the original version was doubled and there are five new gameplay features added as well (converters, mobile blocks, mobile spikes, elastic blocks and a time attack feature) which you can have a glimpse of in this second video.

I was really curious about the making of such a unique game so I asked the developers, Fishing Cactus, a few questions.

Why is the entire game in black and white? It doesn’t seem very complicated to add a few colors so why didn’t you?

The art style is completely driven by the gameplay mechanic. It’s the idea of completely reversing the space, of being able to play in a level and a second later in its negative form, which dictated this choice. Not to mention that a black and white game is much more pleasant to look at than, let’s say, a red and blue game for example.

On top of that, the levels are not overloaded with information. There’s a reason why the levels are so uncluttered: with that original a mechanic, it’s important for the player to be able to focus on the puzzles and therefore everything must be slick and intuitive. Having too many background elements would cause some confusion to the players.

When you think about it, this particular art style contributes to the success of the game: when you see a screenshot of SHIFT extended you just can’t confuse it with another title, it’s what makes the game so unique!

60 in the original version, 120 for SHIFT extended. How do you manage to keep the player interested after so many levels?

Everything depends on the skill of our Level Designers, doesn’t it? More seriously, we introduced a lot of new mechanics since we have had a lot of creative possibilities. Actually, the biggest issue was to make sure that we were not redundant and that each level had its unique look and sequence, despite the recurrent black and white paradigm.

What’s the most time-consuming: the level design or the technical development?

Actually it’s quite the same for me since it is a 2D game with only one-screen levels. The development of the level is made in same time as the level design. The only restriction we had was to fix a well-adjusted curve of difficulty, and to make sure that the player had fully understood the mechanics we had introduced through the game before bringing new ones bit-by-bit.

What are the levels you are the most proud of?

The 20 last levels are among our favourites. Those are also the hardest of the game, so maybe is it linked. There is one we particularly appreciate. We can’t wait to see how long you will need to get through it.

SHIFT extended was released on January 19th on the European PlayStation Store for €3.99/£3.49. You’ll find it in the minis section (as it’s a minis, when purchased, the game is playable both on your PlayStation 3 and/or on your PSP). Everyone from Zallag and Fishing Cactus hope you’ll have a blast playing it!

You can find more information by following SHIFT extended and Zallag on Facebook.

Our official website at Zallag.com is also a great way to keep in touch with news, blogs and many ways to contact us.

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We’re very, very pleased to announce that our second minis game, “Who’s That Flying?!” is now live on the PlayStation Store!

Check out the all-new, full trailer for the game.

With “Who’s That Flying?!” we’ve combined side-scrolling shooting action with elements of tower defence and even some up-close and personal quick-time events for the super-dramatic moments.

What that means is that the character you control, the “Guardian of Earth” is pretty much invulnerable, blasting enemies apart and grappling giant bosses with ease – but the cities you are defending are hugely vulnerable. So your goal is not to survive, but rather to stop too many enemies getting past you and destroying your cities.

The story starts out with the Guardian of Earth on trial for allowing the invasion to take place; each level is played out as a flashback as you submit your version of events… in the most dramatic way possible!

The game is now available on the PS3 and PSP worldwide for the price of £3.99/€4.99.

We’ve piled as much as we could into our latest game – INCLUDING (but not limited to):

• Story mode with full animated cutscenes detailing the trial of the Guardian of Earth!

• Five unique stages and over 40 individual levels!

• 4 Infinite mode challenges to unlock with local highscore boards!

• Challenge mode with 24 unique trials to unlock!

• 17 different enemy types!

• Masses of bonus artwork and awards!

• Huge finishing moves!

• Combos, medals. Power-ups and more…!

The response we’ve had to our previous minis, “Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess!” has been phenomenal – thanks to everyone who’s supported us, and we’re really hoping that with “Who’s That Flying?!” we can raise our bar even higher!

For more information check out the Mediatonic website, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks again for all your help and support! If you have any comments, please drop them below and we’ll do our best to respond!

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Hello! This is Alex from Nordcurrent. I’d like to talk about Urbanix – a minis title that is available now from PlayStation Store.

Core Urbanix’s gameplay is a mixture between Xonix and Qix – you control a tiny little tractor that needs to conquer the playfield. When you are travelling over the unoccupied land, you leave a trail. If the trail is hit by an enemy or yourself – you lose a life. Very simple, yet deep gameplay. To get a better idea of what is going on in Urbanix, please have a look at Urbanix video.

Urbanix takes place in three worlds – Town, North Pole and Moon Base. Apart from the visuals, these worlds are fundamentally different in terms of gameplay. In Town, you just need to conquer and empty territory. In North Pole, you need to clear the area from the snow first, and then conquer it (so you need to conquer the area twice) and in Moon Base you need to conquer the area three times.

Each world consists of 50 levels, so you have plenty of work to do.

We have 3 enemy types in Urbanix – Landrunners, Helisharks and Housecrashers. Landrunners are the easiest and the dumbest ones. All they do is run from one side to another without even changing their direction. If they hit you or your tail, you lose a life. Helisharks are flying after you, and if you’re caught, you need to break away by rapidly pressing the L and R buttons. If you are successful, you will get away; if not, you will lose a life. And finally Housecrashers – they are harmless, but very annoying. They run around and destroy the houses you’ve built. So as soon as you see one, you need to scare it away as fast as you can.

Urbanix has numerous bonuses, both good and bad. Look out for those, as they might determine your success.

And last but not least, we wanted this game to look good not only on handheld screen, but also on TV. That’s why we’ve gone for full 3D that also looks great on PS3.

Thanks for reading this and hope you will enjoy this game.

For more information on our games you can visit our website or our Facebook page.

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To celebrate minis 1st birthday, we’re giving away 10 of the hottest minis around. Purchase just one game from our Must-have minis selection on PlayStation Store from 6-20 October for your chance to win all 10. 10 lucky winners will win all 10!

The Must-have minis selection contains some of our favourite minis both new and old. The full list is:

Young Thor from Frima Studio
You are the young and mighty Thor, god of thunder. As such, you hold more power than you’ve ever dreamed. With fifteen different attacks, eight artefacts to collect and a hundred levels to gain, you’ll have everything you need to defeat Hel and the horde of mythical creatures she commands.

Supermarket Mania from G5 Entertainment
Supermarket Mania is a highly addictive time management game. Running grocery stores can be a lot of fun! Help Nikki keep five stores stocked to the rafters with the provisions customers want.

Cubixx from Laughing Jackal
Classic action puzzle gaming brought into the 3rd dimension. Cubixx is an old school test of skill, requiring lightning reflexes and split second decisions. Evade or annihilate deadly enemies as you attempt to destroy faces of the cube, unleashing the energy within.

Alien Zombie Death from PomPom Games
You are a lone Spaceman doing something or other on a mining platform floating around a random planet. They are the Alien Zombies. Intent on the destruction of all Spacemen doing stuff… in space. How long can you hold off the hordes?

Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess from Mediatonic
Those fiendish and misshapen fools have (as far as we know) made off with your true love – and they haven’t even had the good grace to leave a shred of evidence to follow. Only sweeping accusations and devastating style can save her from the fate she will (possibly) face now!

Carnivores from Beatshapers
Carnivores is a hunting game, which lets players explore huge non-linear locations as they attempt to track down a variety of dinosaurs that are armed with advanced AI; these are dangerous creatures that are able to see, hear and sense the hunter. With 15 different dinosaurs across 5 distinct environments including forests jungles and muddy marshes.
(more…)

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Hi, I’m Al Evans, Senior Producer at Laughing Jackal, and I’m super-excited to announce the release of our latest PSN minis title: Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags!, a brutally tough old-school shooter like they used to make, but with lots of modern-day bells and whistles!

We were inspired to recreate that awesome feeling of achievement to be had from finally burning all the way through games like Gradius, G-Darius, or Thunderforce (to name but three classics), while still injecting the game with our own unique identity.

Ace features an eye-popping cartoon art style, inspired by the greatest sci-fi TV series and cartoons of the 1950s and ’60s (think ‘Duck Dodgers’ for some idea). We’ve really gone to town on this one, as you can see in the seriously epic trailer below:

Pretty exciting, eh?

Ace also features some seriously tight-but-punishing gameplay and a unique weapons system; instead of collecting power-ups, Ace must down enemies using his standard cannons and then hoover up the swirly, colourful leftovers using the awesome power of his Recyl-o-Ray! That done, he can turn the Scumbags’ own weapons against them!

Ace, our hero, must battle against a dozen kinds of Scumbag – psychopathic cephalopods with see-through freaking heads. He’ll need to master a mean-as-hell mother ship, blast through a dangerous asteroid field, destroy a rampaging robot on a factory ship, take down Generalissimo Scumbag on the enemy home world, and then (if he’s still on one piece) enter Dimension X to take down the true menace behind the Scumbag invasion force – clue: this enemy may or may not resemble a HUGE octopus with a see-through head.

Ace’s levels feature wave after wave of evil Scumbags that show no mercy. Expect to seriously exercise your trigger finger – this is a workout for even the toughest gamer. This game is going to hurt your pride before it lets you into its heart.

You can keep abreast of all things Ace-related, as well as our other awesome games by checking out the Laughing Jackal blog

We’ve all worked really hard to make Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags! both great fun and a real challenge to those who fancy themselves as ’1337s4uc3′ gamers.
I hereby lay down a challenge to anyone who can match my awesome skills. I’ll be posting level play throughs on the blog in the weeks after launch, so man up and I’ll see you there! Good luck!

Can’t remember all that? Here are some of AAvtAS’ coolest features!

• Brutally tough old-school side-scrolling shooter.
• Cool power ups – tri-shot, laser, burst, scattergun and more!
• More than a dozen different flavours of Scumbag, and five HUGE bosses to defeat.
• 3 fearsome difficulty levels – sorry, but even ‘Rookie’ makes baby kittens cry.
• Great, cartoon art style and a truly awesome soundtrack!

Ace Amstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags! is exclusive to PlayStation minis and available on PlayStation Store from Wednesday 6 October 2010 for £3.99 / €4.99.

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