We are very excited to announce the release of our latest PlayStation Minis game, Burnin’ Rubber, arriving for PSP (and PS3) on Tuesday June 22. Burnin’ Rubber is a classic arcade game that was originally released by Data East in 1982. Many people also know this game by the name “Bump ‘n’ Jump.”

In addition to driving really fast (hence the name “Burnin’ Rubber”), you have the ability to crash into other cars and launch your car high up in the air to avoid obstacles, clear water gaps, and crush opponents from above (hence the alternative name “Bump ‘n’ Jump”). Players earn points by taking out other cars and by making progress through each of the courses in the game. There is a little known bonus for clearing a level without taking out any enemies — but I personally prefer to smash as many cars as possible!

We added some cool extra features to the PlayStation Minis version of the game including the ability to save and load your game at any point, toggle arcade game settings, and adjust the display mode (players can choose between a 1:1 pixel arcade accurate display mode with a cool background or a stretched mode which allows the gameplay to take up more of the screen).

We are extremely excited about the PlayStation Minis format as Burnin’ Rubber is the third classic arcade game that we have brought to PlayStation Minis this month (Lock ‘n’ Chase came out on PSN on June 8th and Express Raider was released on PSN on June 15th). We hope to bring additional classic arcade games to PlayStation Network and we would love to get your input and feedback regarding which additional titles you would like to see!

Check out Burnin’ Rubber at the US PlayStation Store for $3.99.

Nice robot. He's friendly to children, good natured and clean.
He really is a great robot, but needs more space to run around than what we have to offer. He is a very fast learner, and great company. He is microchipped but not de-sexed.

We are really excited to officially announce our current thatgamecompany project, Journey.

The inspiration for Journey came from Jenova Chen’s feeling that in the modern world where man has so much power, we have lost an integral aspect of the human experience – awe towards the unknown. And we can see this in our video games as well. But don’t take it from me! Here’s Jenova to talk about it more:

In today’s society, man is powerful – We can travel at 60 mph; we can fly; we can connect with just about anyone, anywhere, at anytime. But on the street, people pass by each other ignoring the wonderful existence of other beings. We are overwhelmed by the attention needed to gain and execute our own power – just like we are in most video games. While we are doing that, we can become isolated and insecure deep inside our mind.

On the contrary, when we are hiking in the wild, we become tiny and weak again. These feelings make every other person we encounter much more important and enjoyable. We greet them, giving them genuine and useful help. We might travel together for a period, learn from and rely on each other. Struggling against the dangerous nature together, somehow, makes us warm and powerful inside. (This doesn’t make any rational sense, but somehow that’s how I feel. And I’m sure many of us do.) While most video games offer the sense of empowerment in the online gaming experience, we felt the player will pay more attention to the other players if they are less distracted by the power, and the online gaming experience will be quite unique if it carries the feeling of awe towards the unknown.

In a world where the majority of the players are distracted by technology, evoking a sense of awe and mystery could be very refreshing and powerful.

To realize these goals, we aimed to create a world that feels vast and somewhat unfamiliar. And so the game begins with a character waking up in a desert, with no clues as to what might have happened before or what will happen later. There’s only a tall mountain in the distance, beckoning the player to set out and explore.

As you travel through the world, you may encounter a stranger who is on his or her own journey. But we don’t want to talk too much about the online experience right now. In part, because we really don’t want to inform your own experience of it; also, because we really enjoy seeing what happens when experiences come without explanation. But there’s plenty of time left for us to talk about it in the future…

One thing is for certain: we love getting to talk about a new project! It means that we can’t just navel-gaze about our own work anymore. It’s out there. You’re responding to it! And it also means we’re that much closer to getting the game into your hands. So we’d like to extend a HUGE thanks to everyone who has already expressed words of encouragement – they really do help!

An artist is the sum of their risk.
Tom Waits

If there is no struggle there´s no process, if there´s no process, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglas

Shock, excite and amaze.
DJ Premier

Submerge by FeedbackLoop Label

The Internet is supposedly about quantity over quality – endless releases of every sound a computer can spit out, limitless choice and access, albums as prolific and disposable as Twitter updates. Of course, whether it actually is that or not is, as always, up to the creators.

Netlabel Feedback Loop, based in Lisboa, Portugal, has some self-imposed discipline. They release only three or four editions a year, with tracks carefully curated to represent only the best. The initial EP is free, released in high-definition audio if desired; if successful, a paid full-length is the follow-up.

The latest release is an ideal selection for focusing your thoughts and musical energies on this Monday. “Kuss” is a selection of six exceptional tracks from the Guildford, Surrey (UK)-based artist Ambienteer. (I’ll let you guess his musical genre of choice.) The cuts off the EP are to me a perfect balance of organic and synthetic sound, always imbued with a sense of intention and change; there’s never the static quality ambient releases sometimes have. Gorgeous sound design combine with thoughtful, meditative composition. And that’s all I’ll say about it, because you should really just listen – in 320k MP3, FLAC, and other formats. (Bless you, Bandcamp. We deserve you, after all that suffering with MyS****.)

Download, plus more info from curator Leonardo Rosado:
http://feedbacklooplabel.bandcamp.com/album/kuss

And for other releases from the netlabel:
http://feedbacklooplabel.blogspot.com/

A side note: this comes to us by way of our friends at another exceptionally-fine netlabel, PublicSpacesLab. (Previously on CDM) I’m saddened to learn that the co-founder of that label, Alejandro Mendez, passed away last month. Condolences to his friends, family, and his colleagues at the label.

RIP Alejandro Mendez

Today we’re proud to present the first gameplay trailer for Killzone 3. What you are about to see is a trailer made completely out of in-game footage, taken from the game’s fourth mission, called “Frozen Shores.”

Killzone 3 will take you to dangerous new corners of the Helghast home planet, and reveal that its environments are far more diverse than ISA Command had previously believed. In addition to the larger and more varied environments, Killzone 3 also introduces a brutal melee system and plenty of awesome new battle gear, including the Helghast jetpack and the WASP missile launcher demonstrated in the trailer.

Enjoy the new gameplay trailer, and please let us know what you think in the comments!

Shaderlight is an integrated, interactive, photo-realistic renderer for Google SketchUp. Shaderlight lets you move objects or camera angles within a scene and see the results instantly as the image refines.

Features

•  Interactive, progressive rendering that updates all changes in the Shaderlight render window
•  Zoom and pan the rendered image
•  Automatic material presets applied to the SketchUp material collection
•  Material finishes controlled via the Shaderlight Material Editor
•  Automatic lighting using SketchUp sun ,sky and shadow controlsImage based lighting (IBL) using preset or custom High Dynamic Range (HDR) images
•  Change background setting with options for SketchUp background colour, IBL environment or custom background
•  Simple quality setting to provide quick previews, or high quality final render

link: [ Shaderlight ]

I subscribed to AbletonInc’s channel on YouTube.