Magic Ball for PS3 Available Today

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Hello once again, and welcome to the Magic Ball blog!

Magic Ball (available today, January 15 for $9.99 on the PS Store) is another addictive game from Creat Studios and TikGames and it’s filled with fast action, great humor and giggle-inducing fun.

While the game doesn’t have an overall storyline like Cuboid, we have created comedic scenes for each level – so in a way, each level has its own little story! Each of the scenes is divided between two visual themes – Pirates and Knights – and each theme has its own mini-story scenes.

Magic Ball boasts a vast number of trophies that players can try and achieve – each of the trophies requires the player to overcome a specific challenge. It was a blast trying to come up with the trophies, and we tried to keep a lot of them consistent with the humorous themes of Magic Ball. For example, we have the “25 in a row” trophy where you need to complete 25 levels in a row and several “Goodbye Cruel World” trophies where the player needs to pick up 5 skulls while completing the level.

One of the strategic elements of Magic Ball is the random Power-Ups that fall from pieces of the level that are broken up by the Magic Ball. The Power-Ups are completely random, and the challenge is trying to get your paddle over to where they are falling, while also keeping the Magic ball in play!

But be careful – not all Power-Ups are beneficial! As you complete levels, you will unlock new Power-Ups, so keep an eye out for them! Here’s a hint – try to get the ball through gaps in the objects so that the ball will bounce between the objects. This will break them up quicker, which makes less work for you! ;)

Magic Ball for the PSN is a unique twist on the “ball-breaker” type of game. We have true 3D environments and superior physics and graphics, and every object in the playing field is completely destructible. All of these elements combined really push Magic Ball to the next level.

We’re also excited about the look and feel of our mini-scenes. We think they are really fun – and Magic Ball also has multiplayer with VOIP support! So what could be more fun than smashing up some objects and scoring points and Power-Ups with your friends!?

We all loved the original Magic Ball and were inspired to make our own version with our own unique twists, including new takes on some of the classic levels and adding some bonus ones as well! During the development of the game, we were able to bring in some focus groups that allowed us to make tweaks and adjustments that really helped to round out the fun-factor for each of the levels.

One of the areas that really got an overhaul during testing was the difficulty level of the game – apparently it was too easy! Man, you PSN players are really hardcore!

We are quite proud of our levels, and our lead designer and lead artist worked on them constantly during the development cycle. We had originally planned for a more casual game, but testing proved that players wanted more action. So we rebalanced and are really happy with the outcome.

Two of the other areas that were reworked completely were the SFX (special effects) and VFX (visual effects) of Magic Ball. The power of the PS3 allowed us to do many things that we had originally thought we might have a hard time with, but special effects such as waving grass and flowers are easily handled by the PS3 and the real-time physics with several hundred – even thousands! – of objects were easily managed. Once we saw how much more we were able to do graphically, we could then re-budget our development time and concentrate on gameplay.

We had a blast developing and playing Magic Ball, and we hope you will too. Let us know what you think!

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112 Comments

47 Author Replies

  • I’d be better able to understand it IF there actually was a reason given for the delay?

    Now this was announced for everybody and later we get “Except for you guys, you get it 3 weeks later, sorry”???

    That’s sad.

  • Hi again Olga,

    Indeed, like Volmer states, what is there to understand if no actual reason has been given? You are probably not aware how many times we must “understand” these delays.

    No to take it out on you: the game is in Sony’s hands now so I guess it’s not your fault.

    You probably also feel the slight disappointment when we post here and I guess you are restricted by blog posting policies publicly telling how you really feel about this — I know it wouldn’t make me feel happy if a distributer would make me look stupid giving the wrong release-date three times in a row. :)

    So another week we wait (heh, and that considering I wanted to buy this “on impulse” on the 16th).

  • How come i cant connect to my friends when trying to play the game.

    • weasel53-
      You can invite your friend

      Please follow the following instructions:
      1. Choose \”INVITE A FRIEND\” in Multiplayer menu
      2. Type your friend\’s name in the window appeared.
      3. Your friend should join your game and then you should be all set to play with/against your friend

      :)

  • Interesting how authors of articles in here always seem to evade answering the real burning questions: all in an a much too similar way.

    So I take back that I shouldn’t take it out on you, Olga, because we should: if evading answers is all the responsibility that a game producer dares to take nowadays — I do not believe I should support your stuff.

    Thanks for understanding :)

  • First off let me say, AMAZING game. Graphics, gameplay, A+. My only question is, what on God’s green Earth do I have to do to get that “Bonus Plan” trophy? It’s the only one I have left and it’s driving me crazy! Do you really have to do it in a single playthrough? Please tell me you don’t. I was playing for hours upon hours last night, in one playthrough, and made it to level 2-18 and still no trophy. Then in my delirium I hit “Continue” and went back to the title screen by accident. Do I have to go on a coin binge AGAIN? I’ll admit, I have a bit of a problem when it comes to trophies. If trophies were crack, I’d be a full blown junkie (level 10, 507 trophies, 7 platinum) Please help, I NEED THIS TROPHY! *breaks out in sweat and scratches profusely*

  • For everyone foloowing this thread:

    MagicBall is available in the NL-Store!

    but who cares.. Killzone2 demo too! :p

  • Hi Olga, this is a question about Cuboid since the thread on Cuboid no longer allows comments (too old) and the “Contact” link goes to a 404 error.

    In the thread on Cuboid on Jan 12th you said:

    “I am currently working on a follow-up blog that should answer many of the remaining questions, including the Cuboid/ Bloxorz relationship.”

    I didn’t see any follow-up though. Was one posted anywhere? I’d like to know about the Cuboid/Bloxor thing as it is holding off my purchase.

    (I want to know if the people who made Bloxor got paid for their idea or not, basically. I can’t find any info anywhere. :( I quite want to play Cuboid but not if it has stolen someone else’s idea and level designs. I imagine that isn’t the case but I can’t find any official confirmation, either way.)

    Thanks for your time,
    Leo

  • Olga,

    What new trophies were you referring to when you responded to my last post? I currently see that there are 13 trophies to gain. Are you saying there’s more? That would be great! I’m awaiting new levels. The first two stages were great! The pirates and the knights. Are there more stages out already? If so I haven’t seen them in the store and I’m in the U.S.A.

    Thank you!

  • Oh, one more question, for the ‘Bonus Plan’ trophy do you have to get all 200 bonus power-ups in one play through or can you play a couple different games?

    Thank you!

    • You must collect coins during one game. You may leave the game and then continue (using CONTINUE at the main menu).

      Please be aware that if you lose the game or start a new game your progress will be lost and you will have to start collecting the coins again.

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