Do you have a PlayStation Move? Do you like music? Are waffles delicious?

If you answered “Yes” to any of the above questions, I have some delicious news for you!

PixelJunk 4am will be available for download tomorrow on PSN for (EU) €7.99 / (UK) £6.49. The FREE PixelJunk 4am viewer will also be available, allowing you to stream the FULL LIBRARY of 4am visualizers and songs from performers around the world.

If you’re not already familiar with it, PixelJunk 4am uses the PlayStation Move controller and a Virtual Audio Canvas giving you the power to craft music in a unique new audio visual experience. Your creations are broadcast live on PSN around the world to viewers who can stream and cheer you on in real time.

You can now look forward to 7 songs and 6 visualisers with 38 variations, 10 events and over 190 different sounds to play with. 4am supports both Twitter and Facebook from within the game letting you promote your performances with personal messages and start to build your own persona and audience. You can also use 4am as a stand-alone visualizer (no Move required) and play your favourite music from your PS3.

For anyone still yet to see 4am in action, we’ve been playing with it lately in the office here and did some raw filming. Here’s a peek at what can be done with just one song & visualiser!

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We’ve started our early access PixelJunk 4am Live Beta, which available to all PlayStation Plus members now.

What is it?

4am lets you create your own music using a unique Virtual Audio Canvas to mix tracks, experiment with audio effects and control your composition using the PlayStation Move‘s full range of motion. You can then stream your performances live to the world through PSN.

4am is kind of like a radio broadcasting station for PSN, except you guys will be making all the music! Those of you with a Move and a Beta code will be the first in the world to stream your music and visuals live across PSN.

We have limited this early access Beta to just one visualiser and one song. In the full release though, you can look forward to 7 songs and 6 visualisers with 38 variations, 10 events and over 190 different sounds to play with.

I don’t have a PS Move, can I still join in?

Even if you don’t have a PS Move, as long as you’re a PlayStation Plus member, you can download the Free 4am Live Beta Viewer and stream everyone’s Beta performances. It’s a small taste of what you’ll be streaming once 4am is released in May.

During the course of the Live Beta, we’ll host some special live performances from around the world, including DJ Baiyon performing live from Japan. Keep your eyes on the forums for further details.

What do I do?

Seeing as we’re using PSN in some radically new ways, we’re asking all of you in PlayStation Plus for some help in ensuring everything works smoothly. We’ll be testing the broadcasting over the next two weeks making sure that PSN doesn’t explode when we try this. I kind of want a giant red lever to pull when we send this live for you guys. It feels dangerous… dangerously awesome!

Please file any bugs you find using the provided bug report guidelines.

Bug report form

Thanks guys for being a part of something revolutionary.

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We’ve been developing PixelJunk 4am for quite some time now. It’s hard to know if you’re done with no other measuring sticks to use as a gauge; however, I think we’re almost there. I’ll just leave this here…

PixelJunk 4am and the free PixelJunk 4am – Viewer will be released and available for download on the PlayStation Store from May 15th.

Lots of you have been asking for more details regarding the kind of ‘actual’ musical freedom you can look forward to using with your PlayStation Move. So here we go.

We’ve created various different events you can choose from to play live. Different events will present you with different mixes of songs, visualizers and a new mood to go with each one. You then take this event live on PSN and make it your own, crafting and performing it however you want.

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If you’re a fan of sports then the irony is that the summer of 2012 will most likely be among your most inactive, with the European Football Championships soon followed by the 2012 Olympic Games in my home town of London, England all over your TV sets.

Earlier this week I read the first details of the inevitable official game of the 2012 Olympics, and I admit I always look forward to them. They take me back to the days of playing International Track and Field as a schoolboy and pioneering new ways to break world records (such as wearing a sock over your hand and using one finger to rapidly alternate between the X and Circle buttons in the sprint events. We called it the ‘getting biro off the back of your hand’ technique.)

I have no idea which events will be covered in the 2012 edition, nor which control schemes the development team is dreaming up. So, this week’s question is:

Which Olympic events would you include in your game of the 2012 Olympic Games and what would be the control mechanic?

Bonus points for the weird and wonderful, of course. The best 15 answers as selected by an independent judge will get a voucher code for PixelJunk Sidescroller. These will be sent via private message at http://community.eu.playstation.com.

Marks, set… comment!

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PixelJunk SideScroller is finally out in the world! This retro-styled side-scrolling shooter plays like a love note to the arcade games I grew up with in my youth, and serves as a quasi-epilogue to the PixelJunk Shooter series. Before you pick it up on the PlayStation Store, get a closer look with this handy new Q&A. Q-Games President and Executive Producer Dylan Cuthbert took to Twitter to answer your most burning questions. Read closely and you might learn a few helpful secrets!

From @wildbillhickock
How many levels?
A: There are thirteen levels (called “Sectors”) total. This includes four absolutely amazing boss battles (Note: Expect an “old friend” from the Shooter-verse to make an appearance, but you’ll be seeing loads of new faces as well). One thing that’s so great about SideScroller is that it has four difficulty modes, and the experience will change depending on what difficulty mode you select. New enemies crop up in Hard difficulty mode, and expect certain encounters to get a whole lot more harrowing because of them. Bullets fly at you faster, the overall look of the game changes, and for those of you brave enough to venture onto Brutal difficulty mode, expect to get “revenge” bullets flung at your ship every time you kill an enemy. Needless to say, SideScroller is a game you can enjoy on many different levels by giving it a replay or two (or three, or four)! Also, the only way to unlock the “true” ending is to complete the game on Brutal. Good luck!

From @VofEscaflowne
Is there still an emphasis on exploring, or is it more “on-rails” than the PixelJunk Shooter series?
A: SideScroller is a complete departure from the Shooter series. Instead of exploring and puzzle solving – staples of the Shooter-verse -, you’ll be using upgradeable weapons to spray bullets in every direction possible! Yes, SideScroller is more of an “on rails” experience, because we’ll push the player onward into really tense situations at a brisk pace. It definitely ups the tension. There are also scenes in the game where the scrolling stops and you have to defeat mini-bosses and any other enemies we throw at you. Mark my words: just because the scrolling stops doesn’t mean the game becomes any less intense!

AuburnRDM
Any unlockables and cool things to work for?
A: There are hidden items scattered through the entire game. For any collectors out there, searching for these items and finding them will certainly be a rewarding experience. They also net you a hefty amount of bonus points, which will be a big help to you competitive players out there who absolutely NEED the #1 high score on the Online Leaderboards! Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on your combo count. The skilled players out there will be able to string together combos from the start of every Sector until the end, so play strategically. If you’re good enough, you might even get a Platinum Medal for your efforts!

From @bergasche
Will my eyes begin to bleed because of so much awesome?
A: A resounding YES! Okay, okay, your eyes may not actually bleed, explode, or otherwise become unusable, but SideScroller has a whole lot of awesome contained within its digital casing. It’s on the PSN now, so what are you waiting for? Go and buy it!

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