Play Like A Pro: Gravity Crash’s Editor Mode

Enjoying Gravity Crash and want to delve into the engaging Editor Mode? Here are some tips from developer Just Add Water to help inspire you.

Building levels in Gravity Crash for others to download and play on PlayStation Network is a rewarding and enjoyable experience - and what better way to get the best from the Editor Mode than a few helpful pointers from the game's developer, Just Add Water? So here are 13 tips that will help mould you into a Gravity Crash game design pro in no time.

1. Make smaller levels to begin with, then work your way up to larger levels.

2. Try to vary your landscape. Don't always start at the top with an open space which leads down into a cave. If you want an open space area, use the left or right sides of the map, and go right or left into your level.

3. Experiment with all the objects in the Editor. Get to know what your tools can do, and how you can use them for best effect.

4. Pacing and flow are very important. Experiment by having areas of action followed by calm, or gradually ramping up the enemies and difficulty along a level.

5. Try and think about how the level will be played. Surrounding the start with hostiles and throwing the ship into a firefight can be discouraging!

6. Play through your levels regularly as you create them. Make sure that objectives can be completed, that ships can't get stuck behind closed doors and that there are enough energy crystals placed for the level to be finished.

7. Attention to detail is the key to creating a high quality level. Using the background layer of the terrain editor you can change the atmosphere quite easily, and it can also help to distinguish areas from one another.

8. Avoid creating too many tight passage ways. Try having set piece sections with puzzles and battles to add variety.

9. ALWAYS include restart points. There's nothing more frustrating than having to go all the way back to the start, and we want players to have fun, don't we?

10. Adding Bounding Areas around enemies can create patrolling areas, and ensures they don't stray too far from where they were placed (which can undo a lot of careful design work!).

11. Don't always use the most powerful enemies. This will frustrate players...

12. Pay close attention when including hazardous events. With rising lava, for example, even if the ship dies the lava will continue to rise, so if you placed the restart point in a position that is now beneath the lava... ouch!

13. Finally, there's a lot to be learned from the Gravity Crash community, so make sure to look at other creators levels too. See what works well and what doesn't, avoid repeating their mistakes and maybe they'll even spark off an idea you could use in one of your levels.

Introducing THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS‘Harry Potter’ Theme Park Details: When Will Wizarding World Open?

Weekend Essentials – Issue 18

Final Fantasy XIII and Yakuza 3 lead a bumper week of releases on PS3 and PSP.

All the biggest releases on PlayStation

There's a Japanese feel to this week's two major releases on PlayStation 3. Final Fantasy XIII is the latest instalment in a role-playing game series that needs little introduction. While that game is set in a futuristic world of magic and eccentric hairstyles, Yakuza 3 takes you to the gritty Japanese underworld for an action-packed tale of honour and violence through the eyes and fists of Kazuma Kiryu.

On PSP there are three brand new games to keep you entertained on the go. The Eye of Judgment: Legends brings the card collecting real time strategy game to PSP, while Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake marks the portable debut of the gluttonous royal that first appeared on PS3 in 2009. Both titles are available on Universal Media Disc and via download from PlayStation Store.

What's in store?

If you're struggling to control your excitement for Kratos' imminent arrival on PlayStation 3, the God of War III demo on PlayStation Store may tip you over the edge. You could keep yourself occupied by downloading Mega Man 10 on PS3 or extra content for Resident Evil 5, Dragon Age: Origins and BioShock 2.

To calm down, why not check out downloadable content for echochrome in PlayStation Store. The Ocean Level pack and the Snow Level pack are available for you to download for free; they both offer even more head-scratching wonderment to fans of the time manipulation puzzler on PSP.

A new way around PlayStation Home

This week sees the launch of the PlayStation Home Navigator, a completely new way of finding your friends and travelling through the world of PS Home, with better performance and reduced loading times. Use it to check out the many spaces, ranging from the SingStar Rooms to the Audi Space, and catch up with old friends or make new ones.

Also new this week is a Final Fantasy XIII apartment and furniture for you and your party of friends to hang out in and chat about the latest blockbuster role playing game.

Note: PlayStation Home supports the following languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Stay ahead of the game

On 9 March 2010 the season of games industry events kicked off in San Francisco with the Game Developers Conference. You can catch up on all the breaking news on the PlayStation Blog, including a video of the SCEA keynote speech.

Here at eu.playstation.com, there's still time to enter the Awards Nominated Movies Competition, in which you can win a Bravia LCD TV and a PlayStation 3; the FIFA 10 Ultimate Team competition, where your football knowledge could win you a FIFA World Cup match ball and a PS3; and the minis competition, in which a PSPgo is up for grabs. Head to eu.playstation.com/competitions to get involved.

Be sure to opt in to receive PlayStation emails when you sign up for a PlayStation Network account. If you already have an account, sign in to your PlayStation Network Account Settings at eu.playstation.com/registration or via the XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) and opt in. That way, you can keep bang up to date and receive the latest PlayStation news direct to your inbox.

‘Alice In Wonderland’ Shrinks Box-Office Competition For Third WeekWeekend Essentials – Issue 20

LittleBigPlanet Contraption Challenge finalists

Who are the lucky finalists who have been selected for the latter stages of LittleBigPlanet’s Contraption Challenge 10? Find out here…

The tenth LittleBigPlanet Contraption Challenge has been a massive success, bringing in over 1,000 entries looking to impress the world with their creative and unusual contraptions. This time the challenge was to create an Amphibious Vehicle which could travel across land and water, and you didn't disappoint with your submissions, which were played over a total of 200,000 times in less than a month.

From all the entries, the PlayStation Forums team had the tough choice of picking out the six finalists and their contraptions. These are:

Land / Sea Vessel by falcon-636
Crouching boat, hidden car by Asbestos101
OctoCab by fluxlasers
Haunted Carriage by Orava1988
The Crazy Wheel by monday1235
Transforming Sea Guardian: Artemis by Belweg

You can check out their submissions in the video gallery.

So, what comes next? Well, that's up to you. From these six finalists you can vote in a poll in the PlayStation Forums at community.eu.playstation.com and help choose the winner who will be crowned the Contraption Challenge 10 master. The lucky entrant will also earn a PSPgo system with a copy of LittleBigPlanet for their hard work.

Voting is now open, so if you have a PlayStation Network sign-in ID, head over to community.eu.playstation.com, check out the contraptions and make your vote count! If you don't have a PSN sign-in ID, you can create one ateu.playstation.com/registration.

The winner will be announced on 17 March 2010, so make sure you don't miss out on what's going to be one of the most popular PlayStation Forums events ever.

LittleBigPlanet Contraption Challenge 10 winner‘New Moon’ Star Nikki Reed On Who Should Direct ‘Breaking Dawn’

God of War III - In-store Experience

Try the game for free in selected stores over launch weekend

God of War III, the final instalment of the multi-million unit-selling trilogy, is released on Friday 19th March. Take on the role of the ex-Spartan warrior, Kratos, as he ferociously carves through the massive army of Olympus, and scales through the dark depths of hell to seek revenge on those who have betrayed him.

Head down to one of the following stores on Friday 19th, Saturday 20th, or Sunday 21st March for an exclusive opportunity to demo the game before you buy. Take part in our in-store competition for your chance to win exclusive prizes!

HMV Edinburgh

HMV Manchester

HMV Leeds

Gamestation Edinburgh

Gamestation Birmingham

GAME Nottingham

*Please note this is an 18+ title, all consumers wishing to demo must be 18, you may be asked for ID as proof of age.

Weekend Essentials – Issue 20Lee Daniels Confirms Liam Neeson, Cedric The Entertainer For ‘Selma’

The People vs: EyePet

Nicolas Doucet, senior producer of EyePet, fields questions from the PlayStation community.

Are you thinking of introducing more challenges or a story mode via PlayStation Store? (Eosia, Poland; atomonium, France; PrincessMiu, Germany)

It's something that we've been considering. We wanted to gather feedback on the game as a whole and which interactions people enjoyed most, as there are quite a few. That feedback has been varied. Features like drawing are quite advanced and perhaps most used by those kids who tend to play with their parents.

For the more casual audience, it has been simpler interactions such as the bubble machine that have been received best, and it's that area that we'd like to expand.

So to answer the original question, I can't confirm any new downloadable challenges but we'll keep you posted as things develop.

Will you ever introduce a multiplayer mode allowing people's pets to play together? (ToMi-Ireland, Poland; ghoulachi, France; PrincessMiu, Germany)

Pet to pet interaction is something that we've put a fair amount of research into. We can't confirm we'll be adding it but we are bringing new features that will allow people to share drawings and EyePet styles, so that's something for the community to look out for.

If you're talking about local multiplayer - so two or more EyePets on the same screen - then the challenge lies in rendering multiple pets. We know that we can do it, but it's a lot more difficult than simply dropping in new pets; we also have to consider individual Artificial Intelligence and authentic behaviour.

Another challenge, on top of that, is creating a game structure that allows two or three people to play together freely, without feeling like they're constrained in a game mode. We spent a lot of time structuring EyePet in a way that encourages you to play a certain way, but when you let kids loose on it, that all goes out of the window; suddenly they're sitting really close to the screen and climbing over each other to try and touch the pet. And that's fine, because they're having fun. To make a multiplayer game then we would have to be very clever in our design, in order to minimise the chaos.

Will any future challenges use any other control method, as opposed to the Magic Card? (PHB_fr, France)

There are actually toys and challenges that are controlled via the Wireless Controller... I imagine the question is whether you could substitute the Magic Card for the traditional controller. We didn't do that because our idea was to place an object in the player's hand when they saw themselves on the screen.

Looking to the future and other control methods, we've been looking at the PlayStation Move motion controller; in fact, we've been involved from the very beginning of its development. It's going to allow us to take EyePet to a new level. It makes interaction even more robust and the fact that you have a solid object in your hand makes for a more comfortable experience.

In terms of content, we're repurposing the entire game with PlayStation Move motion controller functionality and we're currently looking at including a selection of brand new toys, designed specifically for that new control method, but I can't commit to any more detail on them as we're still at the prototype stage.

Have you ever considered voice recognition, allowing you to issue commands to your EyePet? (Bonny_Pau_ES, France)

We actually had that in our initial plans and we got it working, to a certain extent. The problem with the kind of voice control you mention is that it can sometimes feel like you're speaking to an interface, rather than a living pet, and that spoils the illusion of EyePet.

Maybe we'll look at it again in the future but I'd like to do more than have the player talking to their EyePet and have EyePet talk to them, but in his own language. It's like in the film Gremlins, where the Mogwai speak in their own language and the kids end up copying them. Encouraging the player to learn a creature's vocabulary could be an interesting thing to explore.

Many thanks to the community at the official PlayStation Forums for their questions and keep an eye on eu.playstation.com for more opportunities to quiz the developers behind the latest games.

Get physical with PlayStation Move‘The Last Airbender’ Stars Promise Fans Will Be ‘Blown Away’

Get physical with PlayStation Move

In 2010, gaming on PS3 becomes even more immersive with the arrival of the PlayStation Move motion controller, explains Shuhei Yoshida, president of SCE Worldwide Studios.

What influenced the design of the PlayStation Move motion controller?
Technically speaking, the essential part of the controller is the sphere. There is a specific requirement to make the size as it is, in a perfect spherical shape. The hardware designer at Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), Yano-san, worked on a design to integrate the sphere and make it accessible and friendly to users.

The second unique feature is the Move button on the front of the controller. With the movement of the arms being such an integral part of using the controller, we feel that it is better to have one big button, making it easier for anyone to understand and press.

The third is to make the controller easy to hold and difficult to lose from your hand when you move your arm around. The concave shape fits snugly in your hand, while at the same time providing a firm grip.

How does the introduction of the PS Move motion controller impact on game design?
It forces fundamental rethinking around how a game should be designed. The game developer needs to throw away a conventional wisdom of how gamers use a controller and instead consider what will provide the most immersive experience and make players feel a direct connection with the game. If this cannot be achieved, players will just be happy to stay with using the DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller.

What types of games are best suited to the PS Move motion controller?
We have been testing with many kinds of titles from many different teams and so far we have not found any genre that does not work well with the controller. Perhaps simulation games, such as driving or guitar games, would be served better by a steering wheel or a guitar controller. Besides these genres, which are already served well by real world simulated peripherals, the controller works well with any kind of game. The high fidelity of motion recognition and real time response are the key for the success of any motion based game input device, and the controller surpasses in these areas anything that is available in the market either at present or later in 2010.

What is unique about the PS Move motion controller?
There are many things that are unique about the controller. To name a few: the precision of recognising a player's motion, the 3D location and orientation of the controller, the response time that is as good as DUALSHOCK 3, the camera and audio input that allows Augmented Reality games as well as introducing a player's image and voice into the game, the sphere colour changing to respond to the game and the Move button on the front, making it easier to interact with, to name but a few.

These features help create totally new, immersive experiences for our all current PS3 owners, whilst also expanding the audience making games more accessible and fun for all ages.

How will the PS Move motion controller change the way people interact with their PS3?
With the new controller, PlayStation 3 will become more accessible to wider audiences, from small kids to even your grandmother. All gamers will be more active in front of their TVs and, regardless of the type of game, the gaming experience will be far more immersive.

How much time has been spent testing the controller in various ambient conditions, such as in different light?
We've been testing the controller under various ambient conditions since its early prototype. Unless it is used in direct sunlight, it is pretty robust in different lighting conditions.

What is the philosophy behind the PS Move motion controller in terms of how PlayStation 3 will continue to engage with existing and new audiences?
The controller is inclusive whether it is our existing PlayStation community or brand new audiences. We can make our games easily accessible and at the same time create enough nuances and depth to the game to satisfy our existing audience of core gamers.

To what level will the PS Move motion controller be integrated into gameplay?
In addition to games being built from the ground up for the controller, many of our new titles will support it as well. We believe we can expand our audience of existing franchises by the use of the controller, making the games more accessible as well as providing an even more immersive experience.

What has been your favourite moment using the controller so far?
Playing the title Sports (working title) and feeling a direct connection between my subtle movements and the game.

Keep an eye on PlayStation Blog at blog.eu.playstation.com and eu.playstation.com for more news and information on the PlayStation Move motion controller.

For the very latest news delivered straight to your inbox, opt in to receive PlayStation emails using your PlayStation Network account details. If you already have an account, sign in to your PlayStation Network Account Settings at eu.playstation.com/registration or via the XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) and opt in.

Obsession Confessions: God of War‘Harry Potter’ Producer Says ‘Deathly Hallows’ Will Be ‘Even More Epic’ In 3-D

Introducing THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS

Master the cards with this beginner’s guide to THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS.

March 2010 sees the launch of THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS, exclusively for PSP.

Building on the franchise’s success on PlayStation 3,THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDStakes the traditional card trading game to the next level, transforming digital cards into on-screen 3D creatures that perform impressive and exciting physical battles.

The key to success is building up knowledge of how to use your digital game cards. Each creature card possesses different abilities, so they can burn, slash or destroy opponents. With this in mind, here is some basic information and terminology that will help you conquer your enemies on your journey through THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS.

The aim of the game is to occupy five fields on the board with your creatures. In total, there are nine square-shaped fields that make up the board, or “battlefield”.

Carefully study each card before deciding which one to summon to the battlefield next.

1. Summoning Cost

This is the summoning cost of the card. You will summon your cards using your reserve of Mana, which is the energy needed to use your creatures and spells. If you don’t have this amount of Mana, you won’t be able to use the card.

2. Hit Points

Hit points, also referred to as HP, are used to attack other creatures, at a cost of one HP per attack. When a creature’s HP is reduced to zero, the creature dies and is put in the player’s graveyard.

3. Attack Power

The attack power is the effect that a creature will have on an enemy. When attacked, the defending creature will lose HP in an amount equal to the attack power.

The game revolves around five elements: fire, water, earth, wood and Biolith. Every creature card belongs to one of these elements, as does each field on the board. Each element is represented by a colour: red is fire, blue is water, green is wood, yellow is earth and black is Biolith.

The colour of the card’s border shows the element that it belongs to. Summon your creature to its natural element and it could gain two HP, but summon your creature to the wrong element and it could lose two HP.

Spell cards are summoned in the same way as creature cards, as they will require a certain amount of Mana. There are various spell cards to collect, which all work differently, allowing you to rotate your enemies so they cannot attack you, or boost your creature’s HP to give them a longer life.

Take this information and use it wisely on your journey across the mysterious world of THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS. THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS Demo can now be downloaded from PlayStation Store, so let your journey begin.

Weekend Essentials – Issue 20Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey Is A ‘Game Changer,’ Creators Say