Escape Plan Message Board

Hi everyone! I can’t believe it’s been a year, but here we are celebrating another PS Vita anniversary! So much has happened since its launch in North America two years ago – many amazing games were released, Remote Play functionality with PS4 was added, and we announced PlayStation Now is coming to PS Vita. The platform has greatly transformed in the past year, and the passionate support and personal stories I’ve heard from our development community have been truly inspiring. Plus exciting things are on the horizon, including the launch of our new slimmer model PS Vita this spring.

In the meantime, we wish a big “thank you” to our fans for being a part of our community. Starting tomorrow, enjoy the week-long PS Vita Anniversary Sale which will discount some amazing titles.

In addition, @HeyPlayStation is hosting a week-long sweepstakes, featuring Vita related games and accessories. Stay tuned on Twitter for more information!

PS Vita Anniversary Sale Title PS Plus Price Sale Price Original Price Castlestorm (cross-buy) PS Vita $4.89 $6.99 $9.99 Castlestorm (cross-buy) PS3 $4.89 $6.99 $9.99 CastleStorm Complete Edition $6.99 $9.99 $14.99 Escape Plan PS Vita (cross-buy) $7.34 $10.49 $14.99 Escape Plan PS4 (cross-buy) $7.34 $10.49 $14.99 flOw PS Vita (cross-buy) $2.79 $3.99 $5.99 flOw PS3 (cross-buy) $2.79 $3.99 $5.99 flOw PS4 (cross-buy) $2.79 $3.99 $5.99 Flower PS Vita (cross-buy) $3.49 $4.99 $6.99 Flower PS3 (cross-buy) $3.49 $4.99 $6.99 Flower PS4 (cross-buy) $3.49 $4.99 $6.99 Hotline Miami (cross-buy) $2.50 $4.99 $9.99 Killzone Mercenary $17.49 $24.99 $35.99 Machinarium $1.75 $3.49 $6.99 Malicious Rebirth $7.34 $10.49 $14.99 Open Me! $4.89 $6.99 $9.99 Orgarhythm $4.89 $6.99 $9.99 Proteus (cross-buy) $4.19 $6.99 $13.99 Ragnarok Odyssey $14.69 $20.99 $29.99 Stick it to the Man (cross buy) $6.29 $8.99 $12.99 Sumioni: Demon Arts $4.89 $6.99 $9.99 Valhalla Knights 3 $14.69 $20.99 $29.99 Velocity Ultra $2.09 $3.49 $7.49

Keep in mind, we also have a Back to 2013 Sale taking place this week with additional sales on Vita games. Click here for more info.

As with any anniversary, we thought we’d take the time to call-out a few of our memorable moments from the last year. Although many great titles were released, these stood out in particular and kept the device in my purse/pocket/hands at all times.

Spelunky

Spelunky is one of the most addictive and lovable games I’ve ever encountered. From the adorable yet macabre art and animation, to the endless hours of replay grinding (ONE DAY I WILL BEAT KING YAMA), Spelunky will never leave my memory card.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

The story immediately sucks you in with a solid plot-line, unexpected twists, and an eclectic set of characters to choosily befriend (Byakuya’s my #1). I’m quite pumped that our friends at NIS America have already announced Danganronpa 2 coming to the US this Fall… it’s still Monokuma time!

Hotline Miami

The game is perfect for quick bursts on the go, controls well with PS Vita’s analogue sticks and touch pads, and its pixel graphics look fantastic on PS Vita’s screen. Hotline Miami is also full of all sorts of fun Easter egg references to the indie community, which ties in so well with PS Vita’s game library as a whole.

Tearaway

Definitely a must buy if you own a PS Vita. With gorgeous art, a killer soundtrack, and Iota/Atoi (your personal messenger and best friend), Tearaway is a truly immersive experience that makes you enjoy the world in a new (and papery) way.

My favorite part of the PS Vita is all the personal adventures it takes me on and the lasting memories they create. I’ve listed a few above, and I’d love to hear yours. Comment away! <:D

Hey, this is Nathan Gary over at Sony Santa Monica with some great news for PlayStation fans. For years, the team here at Santa Monica Studio has been pushing the boundaries of gaming with small, innovative games. Now, some of our best titles are making the jump to new PlayStation platforms — including PS4.

As you may have heard, thatgamecompany’s Flower is coming to PS Vita. Today I am happy to officially announce that it is also coming to PS4 and that both versions will launch on November 15th. Now this beautiful, meditative game can be experienced at 1080p and 60fps.

I’m also excited to tell you that Sound Shapes, the ground-breaking musical platformer from Queasy Games, will also be joining Flower in the PS4 launch line-up on November 15th.

Flower isn’t the only thatgamecompany title making its way to new places. We are also bringing flOw to PS Vita and PS4. This is the first game TGC released — the one that started it all. It will release for both PS4 and PS Vita on November 29th.

But wait, that’s not all. Escape Plan, the dark, funny PS Vita survival game from Fun Bits Interactive, will be making the jump to the big screen and will launch on PS4 on November 29th. We have spent a lot of time reworking the controls for DualShock 4, and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on it.

Finally, these are all Cross-Buy games, meaning if you buy it once, you’ll be able to download it for free on any available system. Oh, and one more thing: if you have purchased these games previously on PlayStation Store, they will be available to you when they release on PS4 or PS Vita at no additional charge.

Enjoy!

Escape Plan‘s Director’s Cut DLC for PS Vita is out today, with new content for everyone! Patch 1.04 also goes live with the new direct controls, and we’re adding new visual stimulation for you costume fans.

After working on the project for over a year we decided to bring back some of our favorite level designs, and needless to say, we love a challenge! This is why the Director’s Cut pack is filled with the most devious and evil tricks that Bakuki ever conceived. Including the Slap-a-ma-tron 9001, and a butt-ton of mind-bending puzzles.

Continuing tradition, we have added four new costumes to the dressing room. Dress Lil and Laarg in a new spectrum of costumes such as Timeless and Lost Clause, with Halloweeners and I’m with Cupid unlocked by playing through the 21 Director’s Cut levels.

We’ve also added a new poke control to allow the player to stop the selected character with the ease of a button, as well as adding the directional pad to start the character’s march. Using your feedback we’ve done our best to get the game to be yours as much as it is ours. Let us know what you think!

Everyone will get the Timeless and Lost Clause costumes with Patch 1.04, as well as the new controls. However, only Director’s Cut buyers will get access to the new levels, trophies and remaining costumes.

Escape Plan Director’s Cut will be available in the PlayStation Store for $4.99 with today’s update.

For those who haven’t experienced the touching adventure of Lil and Laarg, you can play through 16 of the zany levels of the original game by downloading the Escape Plan Demo currently available on PSN. Be sure to try it out and, as always, provide feedback in the comments below. We love hearing it!

Since launch, our fans have chipped in their 2 cents to provide feedback and thoughts on Escape Plan. All of these little nuggets of advice and tips have helped us to improve the overall experience, and we appreciate it. Therefore, for a limited time, we’re delivering The Asylum DLC Pack to everyone…for just 2 cents!

The gameplay of The Asylum picks up right where Lil and Laarg left off toward the end Escape Plan. Lil and Laarg enter a sewer pipe, only to find themselves in Bakuki’s Asylum. This latest conundrum is filled with padded walls, shocking minions, gruesome blades of mass destruction and even more helpless sheep.

The Asylum delivers a ton of crazy content, including the Lil and Laarg dressing room where fans can check out the God and Luchadore Super Pack costumes, with the Poindextor and Super Hero costumes being unlocked by playing through all of the 18 Asylum levels. We are also introducing 7 new Challenge Modes and at last, 4 more Trophies!

Everyone will receive patch 1.02, which will give them 2 Dressing Room costumes for Lil and Laarg and a handful of gameplay improvements, but only The Asylum DLC will open up the new levels and trophies.

After the limited 2-week promotion, Escape Plan The Asylum will be available in the PlayStation Store for $4.99.

Coming This Week: Journey Costume Pack!
We teased about this costume last month and now Sackboy is ready to begin his own incredible Journey with this costume pack based on the awesome game by our friends at thatgamecompany!

This pack also comes with a nice selection of stickers to help you create your own Journey levels in LittleBigPlanet.

However the fun doesn’t stop there for Sackboy this week…

Also Coming This Week: Escape Plan Costume Pack!

If Sackboy isn’t journeying somewhere, then chances are that he’s escaping from somewhere instead and now Sackboy has the perfect outfit for the job, thanks to this great new costume based on the iconic characters from Escape Plan by the lovely folks over at Fun Bits Interactive.

These lovely new additions to Sackboy’s ever-growing wardrobe of popular video game costumes will be available on the PlayStation Store this week!

Mm Picks!

Last week’s Mm Picks saw a wonderful array of levels including a couple of amazing mini-games that really push the boundaries of artistic design, two classic platforming levels for Sackboy and if you’re just looking to relax, why not just play a nice game of Snakes and Ladders with some fellow Sackfolk or against some bots?

Test your Taste! Cartoon [1- 4 Player] by little-big-playe

Cubefield by pate59

Paris is for Lovers by TOBSn08

Neon Nature by iDance360

Snakes and Ladders by NemesisNinja

LittleBigPlanet Wiki – How To Enable/Disable Your Comments and Reviews

With the release of last week’s update for LittleBigPlanet 2, we gave players the new ability to be able to enable or disable their reviews and/or comments via LBP.me

So with the new update, the very friendly folks over on the LittleBigPlanet Wiki published a step-by-step tutorial to help inform the community on how to do just that!

LittleBigPlanet Wiki – Comment and Review Disabling Tutorial

If you’re wondering how to use LBP.me to make the best use of this new feature, then be sure to check out this helpful little tutorial.

The LittleBigPlanet Wiki is an ever-growing community collaboration of information and tutorials for LittleBigPlanet, which anybody is allowed to contribute to!

So if you feel that you have something to contribute to this massive encyclopedia of LittleBigPlanet knowledge or wish to contribute your own tutorials to help educate the LittleBigPlanet community, just head on over to the LittleBigPlanet Wiki and help spread the word to the community!

LittleBigPlanet on the Web

LittleBigPlanet Twitter – @LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/littlebigplanet

LittleBigPlanet Community Team Twitters

Steven – @StevenIsbell
Spaff – @thespaff

Today, Escape Plan owners will be happy to see new content popping up on their Vita for download. The first pack, Bakuki’s Lair, is a FREE level pack that adds 19 prequel-puzzle rooms to the adventures of Lil and Laarg. To download the levels, just update the game from Escape Plan’s LiveArea directly on your PS Vita.

Fans of Escape Plan have helped push the game into the #1 spot on PSN worldwide, and so we’re happy to report that we are improving the experience with a handful of adjustments that were requested directly from gamers. Players can now squeeze Lil while swiping, front and back taps are more precise, earning stars is just based on time and there are some more hints in sticky situations.

Our plan for Escape Plan is to continue supporting fans and community worldwide by growing the game and updating the title with new features. If you haven’t yet picked up Escape Plan, it’s available now on PSN for $14.99.

Good news! On April 10th, Escape Plan owners will receive Bakuki’s Lair, the first DLC Pack for Escape Plan, via download of Patch 1.01. This free DLC Pack adds 19 prequel puzzle rooms to the adventures of Lil and Laarg.

Our hapless heroes’ journey begins anew with Lil and Laarg trapped in a hazardous sausage factory, where they will become bratwurst if they don’t bail. You’ll need to swipe for your life through a handful of dastardly designed puzzles in this latest update.

Lil is doomed…unless Laarg can figure out how this machine works

Bakuki’s Lair is just one of the benefits of the upcoming patch. Escape Plan™ Patch 1.01 is a meaty new addition, with a host of tweaks and improvements based on player feedback. Patch 1.01 allows for more pin-point accuracy on tap blocks, as well as an adjustment to the game’s Star Rating system. We are also laying the foundation for a lot of exciting updates for Lil and Laarg in the future.

Laarg is definitely not in a safe spot

Finally, be sure to check out the five brand new Escape Plan avatars we’re releasing on the PlayStation Store with this week’s publish. For you lucky PS Plus subscribers, these avatars will be free for a limited time, so grab them quickly!
We’re happy that fans are responding well to Escape Plan and we look forward to updating you all with more Lil and Laarg adventures in the near future.

Lil stops short of being blasted by a sausage

If you haven’t yet picked up Escape Plan, it’s available now on PSN for PS Vita.

Steven Holcomb shows he’s an Escape Plan Fan

Just days after the official release of Escape Plan on February 22, 2012, the Fun Bits crew was invited to Lake Placid, NY to watch the 2012 FIBT World Championship (for Bobsled & Skeleton). As avid fans of the high-speed event, it was awesome to be there and witness USA-1 barreling into the finish to win Gold…with a big fat Escape Plan sticker on Steven Holcomb’s helmet.

Steven Holcomb (2010 Olympic Champion and 5-time FIBT World Champion) is a total video game junkie and it was brilliant to see his massively prominent support for our “Lil” game.

After receiving his Vita last week, he told us: “Escape Plan is awesome. It’s all about trial and error and I can definitely relate to that, as crashing at 85mph is sometimes as unforgiving as the mishaps of Lil & Laarg in this game.”

Not only did Holcomb play the game, but he was also given a sneak peek at some of the future features coming to Escape Plan. “You guys are so creative,” he said. “I really like where Escape Plan is going next. The fact that all these characters are also walking around in black rubber suits well, that cracks me up, as they look so…oddly familiar.”

Holcomb became the first U.S. bobsled driver in the history of the sport to sweep every event in one World Championship (2-man, 4-man & Team). At the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Holcomb won the USA’s first 4-man gold since 1948, piloting “the Night Train.” Now that the season is winding down, Holcomb is stoked to get some more time for video games.

Steven Holcomb and Fun Bits Team Lead, Chris Millar

“My schedule is pretty crazy,” Holcomb said. “I’m in a different city every other week, so it’s fantastic to finally have a gaming system as powerful as the PS Vita to take with me for some serious gaming on the go. Thank you so much to Chris and the team for giving me something to look forward to now that the season is over.”

Video feed of the 2012 Lake Placid Event can be seen here.

Big thanks to Steve Holcomb and all the other fans who have reached out with their support on the game. If you haven’t yet picked up Escape Plan, it’s available now on PSN for $14.99. And if you didn’t catch it earlier, we did just drop the words: sneak peek and future features.

#listenhere I've been playing a bit of Escape Plan on the Vita; it's a charming puzzle game that places you in a series of incredibly dangerous rooms and tasks you with helping the two hapless, goofy main characters survive. It's got a neat, clean black & white art style, and a humorously mournful style. More »

It’s a fantastic day for Fun Bits Interactive and our good friends at SCEA Santa Monica Studio as we celebrate the official launch of PS Vita with a brand-new launch trailer for Escape Plan. Check it out below!

We also want to take this opportunity to thank all the lucky people who grabbed the game last week for the pre-order bundle release on Feb 14th. So far, the response has been fantastic and we really appreciate your support for the game!

Exclusive to the powerful and touch-tastic PS Vita, gamers can interact and experience the irreverent dark humor of Escape Plan with tactile swipes, slaps, pokes and reach-around taps. Part of the fun of Escape Plan is taking a moment to figure out all the new ways to interact with the game, as well as exploring the new interfaces of PS Vita’s hardware…all without splatting our hapless heroes all over the place. Never before have players been able to reach into a game from the front and back of a mobile device like this, and have it feel totally intuitive, natural and establish a real connection with the characters.

Right from the start you can tap characters to get their attention, give them a little slap to get them moving, manipulate dangerous hazards back and forth in the world, glide your hand along the back of PS Vita and see your finger leave a ghost trail in the air. Use carefully placed knocks to distract minions, herd and poke sheep around as unwilling little test subjects, and orchestrate all of your carefully placed gestures to guide Lil and Laarg through the bizarre labyrinth of twisted puzzles rooms.

Our eager excitement to get Escape Plan in your hands is peaking, so grab your PS Vita, hurry to the PSN, download the game, pop your headphones on (we truly love the music and sound effects) and help Lil and Laarg escape…or die trying.

Escape Plan is available now on PSN for $14.99. Let us know what you think!

There's no question in my mind that some developer somewhere will make a really great game like Escape Plan for the PlayStation Vita somewhere down the road. That is, after all, inevitably what tends to happen with launch games that display a great deal of promise, but either lack the depth, mechanics, or both to truly be considered a success. Such is the case with Escape Plan, an artfully rendered, if mechanically unfocused puzzler from Fun Bits Interactive. There are some neat ideas of how to effectively use the various touch screens of the Vita, and the art is gorgeous enough to make the game an able showpiece for what the system can do visually. There just isn't quite enough to the game beyond that to make up for some of its more irritating aspects.

I don't want to bum you guys out, but I'm pretty sure he's not going to survive this.

The premise places you in control of Lil and Laarg, two black and white creatures of wildly disparate girth who find themselves trapped in an elaborate industrial prison, headed up by a generically evil jerk who cackles a lot and apparently watches a decent amount of 30 Rock. Why he has imprisoned you is less important than how you'll go about escaping his clutches. At various points in the game, you'll control Lil and Laarg separately, or find yourself pushing them through levels as a team. In any event, you'll be controlling them solely via the touch screen.

This is both Escape Plan's cleverest notion and its greatest source of distress. The touch-focused controls give it the vibe of an iOS game blown up perhaps a bit beyond what it can handle, though it also makes for a puzzle-solving experience that is unlike the bulk of the Vita's launch lineup. You move the twosome by swiping across the screen in the direction you want them to go. Of course, each stage is littered with pitfalls that could easily kill the easily violable pair, ranging from simple spike traps to elaborately designed mixes of electricity and smashing devices. As far as deadly prisons go, this one would rank highly in the guidebook.

In order to navigate these pitfalls, you'll need to touch and swipe the screen in a variety of ways, sometimes in extremely rapid succession. If, for instance, you see a series of unextended platforms in front of you, using the rear touch pad to push each one out will provide a temporary bridge--emphasis on temporary. Many of Escape Plan's puzzles require crackerjack timing that can be a tad flustering, especially when you're forced to tap, pinch, and swipe both screens in rather intense combinations.

Yup. I was right.

This is especially flustering when you're forced to mix screen-tilting into the equation as well. Lil has the ability to hook himself up to various air tanks and blow himself up into a balloon, which then lets him float around obstacles as you tilt the screen to-and-fro. The problem is that to get him down, you have to squeeze him to let air out. The precision of which direction you're squeezing him, and how hard is not quite what it ought to be. It's one of those mechanics that seems like a no-brainer on paper, but it's just not precise enough in execution to avoid frequent, accidental death.

And therein lies the one fatal flaw of Escape Plan. It's not that the controls are bad or unresponsive, it's that it asks for a bit more precision than is really reasonable given the number of different things it often asks you to do. Trying to ensure you're touching the exact right part of the rear pad, while trying to squeeze and pinch the characters on the top touch screen, while maybe even keeping one finger on a hole in a pipe pumping out deadly smoke is a gameplay high wire act that I sincerely doubt too many players are going to be willing to endure.

The good news (or bad news, depending on how you look at it) is that Escape Plan doesn't last much beyond its welcome. It's a relatively short game that actually does a pretty good job of pacing out its more difficult bits with easier challenges sandwiched in between. There's a flow to the game that prevents you from getting too frustrated, and if you really, truly hate a puzzle, you actually have the option to skip over it to get to the next stage, should you just want to progress with the story.

Floating is not a great deal of fun.

The idea is that maybe, someday in the future, you'll want to come back to Escape Plan and try all those puzzles again. In this regard, Fun Bits has bought in wholesale to the iOS methodology of relying on players' desire for achieving ever-higher scores on repeat play-throughs in order to try and prop itself up as a $15 value. To be fair, there are some legitimately great puzzles in Escape Plan that I did decide to go back and play through a few times to try and up my ranking. Unfortunately, the one serious issue here is that the score factors in the number of gestures you use in a given stage, and it registers every minor tap or accidental swipe against the screen as a gesture. This means you essentially have to keep your fingers entirely off of either screen if you want to avoid accidental gesture-tallying, which, as you may imagine, is a tad ludicrous, given how most people grip handhelds.

Still, while Escape Plan is a bit ramshackle in places, it's generally a fun enough game that is certainly a pleasure to look at. The game's black-and-white visual aesthetic is beautifully rendered, and the art style is just quirky enough to make its random spurts of gory cartoon violence seem completely reasonable in context. This is clearly a game that Fun Bits spent a lot of time crafting the look and feel of. It's just a shame they didn't spend a bit more time ironing out the mechanics.

What better day to share a labor of love than just on the heels of Valentine’s Day? Fun Bits Interactive and our partners at SCEA Santa Monica Studio are proud to see Escape Plan release tomorrow as a PS Vita launch title, exclusively on PSN for $14.99.

Since Escape Plan’s global unveil in August 2011 at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, we have been hard at work breathing life into Lil & Laarg, porting the Unity engine to PS Vita, and creating a new style of “survival humor” gameplay that takes full advantage of the unique features of the PS Vita in stunning black-and-white graphics.

As we let Escape Plan loose on the world, some of the biggest critics out there are already sharing their thoughts on the game:

Ryan Clements, IGN: “Escape Plan plastered a smile on my face: the characters, the music, the comedy — even the deaths.” Matt Peckham, TIME/Techland: “Escape Plan looks to be the breakout hit of the launch lineup.” Steven Hansen, Destructoid: “The whimsical musical score, hilariously hapless protagonists, strikingly saturated art style and comedic undertones are just too good to be true.” Stephen Totilo, Kotaku: “This is the PS Vita game I want most.” Alex Navarro, Giant Bomb: “Escape Plan really impressed me quite a bit.” Matthew Keast, Gamesradar: “This PS Vita game has personality dripping off it…” Neon Kelly, Videogamer.com: “It’s weird stuff, but also hugely likeable.”

We’re truly excited about Fun Bits’ first title and we’re hoping this is just the beginning. We look forward to hearing your feedback, and hope you enjoy helping our hapless heroes, Lil & Laarg, find their way out.

As you may have seen from the photo gallery I posted, I spent last week in Tokyo, Japan covering the first launch of PS Vita and finally getting to see this stunning new hardware in gamers’ hands. While I was there, I met up with Shuhei Yoshida, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment and President of Worldwide Studios, to talk about what PS Vita is set to deliver in spades: great games.

PlayStation.Blog: Many view the PlayStation Vita launch line-up as the best in our company’s history. How long have you been planning it for?
Shuhei Yoshida, President, Worldwide Studios: Full development of PS Vita hardware started in Spring, 2008 when the semiconductor was complete. The great thing is that we [Worldwide Studios] were there right at the beginning to express our thoughts and reactions to the hardware that was being proposed. We were there at every stage and with every prototype, and we developed game builds to prove and, sometimes, disprove how each new feature was going to make for a great game system.

When Kaz Hirai took over management of SCEI he brought in the approach of fully integrating software and hardware development. Before that, we made brilliant hardware, no question of that, but our hardware team didn’t have such a good understanding of what game developers need or what features might be useful.

It is thanks to this way of working that you are seeing such a great line-up, using so many of the system’s unique features; it’s because our developers have been working with them from the moment each was conceived.

PSB: How far ahead are you looking now and what can we expect from the second and third phases of releases?
SY: Generally we look three years ahead when we work on games. We have a fairly firm plan right up to 2013 but, because PS Vita gives us the opportunity to work on smaller titles like Escape Plan and Sound Shapes, I’m certain we will end up working on more games than we even know about at this moment. On top of the launch line-up, we have already announced LittleBigPlanet, Resistance: Burning Skies, ModNation: Road Trip, and Killzone.

In the past we launched PSP and then shifted our attention to PS3 when that came on the horizon, which we now concede was a mistake. So with PS Vita we are working on this huge range titles and planning ahead for a constant supply of excellent games.

PSB: Augmented Reality (AR) has already been used in some great games but perhaps games aimed at a younger or more casual audience. What is going to convince hardcore gamers that it’s a compelling new way to play?
SY: One thing I know about hardcore gamers is that they hate it when we try to shove new technology down their throats. There may be a perception that Augmented Reality is a gimmick, so we have to provide something that is robust and genuinely enhances the experience. You’re right that AR leans more towards a casual or a younger audience but I don’t think that’s a bad thing; I think that it helps PS Vita to be more relevant to a wider group of people. The more we experiment, I’m sure that we will see real gameplay benefits for hardcore players.

PSB: As someone involved in unearthing new development talent, does it excite you seeing smaller teams coming up with really compelling download and mobile games?
SY: Absolutely – my personal PS Vita game is a totally immersive experience called Sound Shapes (which is especially great when you’re wearing headphones). It’s made by Jonathan Mak who created Everyday Shooter all by himself, designing the graphics and even composing the music. With this new game he has some huge ambitions: he has even hired a couple of people!

I’m a fan of these small developers – The best thing is that they have experience in every part of planning, developing and releasing. It’s not like they have left school and gone to work in a team of 100, only ever working on one particular aspect of their game. They don’t follow the traditional game conventions; some of them are very vocal about trying to break those rules. They are the next generation and they will be changing the landscape of gaming long after I have retired.

PSB: Is there one attribute that you’re always looking for in a PlayStation developer?
SY: I don’t necessarily work on recruiting any more as there are producers in our studios reaching out and looking for new talent. Each of them has his or her special thing that they look for but passion is the one common attribute. If a developer is asking you what you want them to develop, then that is not a good question; producers are looking for people with conviction in their own ideas.

PSB: PlayStation 3 has introduced predominantly new IPs from Worldwide Studios, whereas PS Vita has a mix of the new and the familiar. What can we expect to see in the long term?
SY: People like to see their favourite franchises, partly because gaming is about learning a mechanic and developing a skill, and players want to use those skills that they have honed. However, when we introduce new hardware with unique interfaces and network options, it is almost easier to work on something completely new. Take rear touch on PS Vita – we’d rather be thinking about how we can make fresh games using that feature than figuring out ways to add it to something that already exists.

PSB: Developers have stated that PS Vita is relatively easy to develop for, but how do you quantify that and put it into some perspective for our readers?
SY: If you’re keeping track of the third-party games that are being developed then you’ll be amazed at how quickly they are coming together. I’ve been working with our internal dev teams on launch games and they’ve had longer cycles because they were also, in part, helping to debug the early prototypes of the hardware and the SDK.

When I saw new developers coming in and getting straight to work on those systems when they had matured, I could not believe how quickly they were getting their games up and running. I have never seen anything like it before. If you want very straightforward evidence to support that, we are launching PS Vita here in Japan with 24 games.

PSB: Which games do you predict will be most popular at the Japanese launch?
SY: Actually, we collect data from retailers taking pre-orders and we know that Everybody’s Golf (note: known as Hot Shots Golf in North America) is the most popular and UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss is number two. I’m very proud that they are both Worldwide Studios titles.

PSB: It’s perceived that Japanese gaming tastes are quite different to those in Europe and the Americas. Do you see them growing closer?
SY: Japanese people traditionally have a strong local preference, particularly with the Manga style look of characters that they love. But as technology and presentation advances in games like UNCHARTED and Call of Duty, they are rightly seeing their quality. Also, it helps that SCEJ paid a lot of money to get Harrison Ford to appear on TV playing UNCHARTED!

#escapeplan Sorry, Uncharted: Golden Abyss and WipEout 2048 and all the rest of you PlayStation Vita launch games. You're not my favorite. You're not the game I most want a PS Vita for. More »

#escapeplan We've seen plenty of Uncharted and Resistance on the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, but we haven't seen enough of the truly creative stuff. In this new video from Sony, Matt Morton from Fun Bits Interactive talks through the creation of Escape Plan, the studio's hilariously violent-looking black-and-white puzzle game. More »

During this summer’s Gamescom, we invited Chris Millar to join us on the PlayStation.Blog and introduce Fun Bits Interactive and their first creation for PlayStation Vita, Escape Plan. Aside from the gorgeous black-and-white, film noir art style that pops right off the massive OLED screen, Escape Plan is truly unique game, thanks to its two memorable characters, LAARGE and LIL.

It’s time to check on their progress. Escape Plan Producer Matt Morton hopped in front of our cameras at Sony Santa Monica Studios recently, and was happy to give us this update on the art-direction, PS Vita multi-touch controls, and to show us why Escape Plan is such a harsh, but addictive puzzler.

I'm one of the lucky ones because I've had the chance to sit down and play all sorts of PlayStation Vita games. I've gotten my kicks with Uncharted: Golden Abyss, relived the greatness of Super Stardust with Delta and played the very first dual analog FPS on a handheld with Resistance: Burning Skies. But whenever I think about all of my impressive encounters with PlayStation Vita, one game is at the forefront of my mind: Escape Plan...

You might think it's a privilege to be among the first to develop for a new platform, and you'd be right. You're getting to play with a new toy, plus there's plenty of extra publicity being a launch title. You get to play pioneer for a couple of years!

But, as Escape Plan developer Fun Bits will attest, being the first on a new console also means pressure. Sure, there was the usual "How do we exploit this tech to get the best graphics?" but, on the PlayStation Vita, there's was a whole new challenge: "What are we supposed to do with all these inputs?"

Hi everyone and guten tag from Cologne, Germany! Some of you may know me as one of the collaborative partners with SCEA Santa Monica Studios for the award-winning PlayStation Network exclusives, Fat Princess and Fat Princess: Fat Roles. I’m not only here to introduce Fun Bits Interactive to you, but to also introduce Escape Plan, as one of the upcoming titles for the PlayStation Vita. Escape Plan made its debut on Tuesday at the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe press conference and I have to express how thrilled I have been to see how well it has been received by colleagues and media alike throughout the week.

Placing bite-sized entertainment in the palm of your hands, Escape Plan features two hapless characters, Lil and Laarg, who have been captured and need your influence, skill and brainpower to escape from a dark labyrinth of irreverent puzzles and traps. Escape Plan takes advantage of the PlayStation Vita’s multi-touch display, rear touch panel and swipe interfaces. Players can swipe, squeeze, poke and slap these guys to interact and manipulate the environment and help Lil and Laarg survive each deadly room before their captor and nemesis recycles them and turns them into his minions … or sheep.

For those of you who haven’t seen anything on Escape Plan yet, watch the video above for a peek of what is in store for you next spring on PS Vita.

I hope you are excited for Escape Plan as much as we are! Lil and Laarg will be as fun to watch in victory as they will in the hilarious agony of defeat. We look forward to reaching out to our fans and will continue to keep you posted on anything related to Escape Plan, so please continue to check back here on the PlayStation.Blog for more information!

Hi everyone and guten tag from Cologne, Germany! Some of you may know me as one of the collaborative partners with SCEA Santa Monica Studios for the award-winning PlayStation Network exclusives, Fat Princess and Fat Princess: Fat Roles. I’m not only here to introduce Fun Bits Interactive to you, but to also introduce Escape Plan, as one of the upcoming titles for the PlayStation Vita. Escape Plan made its debut on Tuesday at the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe press conference and I have to express how thrilled I have been to see how well it has been received by colleagues and media alike throughout the week.

Placing bite-sized entertainment in the palm of your hands, Escape Plan features two hapless characters, Lil and Laarg, who have been captured and need your influence, skill and brainpower to escape from a dark labyrinth of irreverent puzzles and traps. Escape Plan takes advantage of the PlayStation Vita’s multi-touch display, rear touch panel and swipe interfaces. Players can swipe, squeeze, poke and slap these guys to interact and manipulate the environment and help Lil and Laarg survive each deadly room before their captor and nemesis recycles them and turns them into his minions … or sheep.

For those of you who haven’t seen anything on Escape Plan yet, watch the video above for a peek of what is in store for you next spring on PS Vita.

I hope you are excited for Escape Plan as much as we are! Lil and Laarg will be as fun to watch in victory as they will in the hilarious agony of defeat. We look forward to reaching out to our fans and will continue to keep you posted on anything related to Escape Plan, so please continue to check back here on the PlayStation.Blog for more information!

Developers love talking about how their game uses X Peripheral, Y Console and Z Engine in interesting, unique and unheard of ways. Sometimes, claims such as these stand up to scrutiny, and there are other times where you know what's being said is nothing but lip-service. But Escape Plan's strongest selling point is that you truly do get a game that's made with the Vita in mind, a title that couldn't be played on any other console or handheld, whether it be a 3DS, an iPad, or a PlayStation 3...