19w ago - FuturLab Managing Director James Marsden has confirmed today that Velocity is getting remade for PS Vita as Velocity Ultra with details below.

To quote: Hello again! It feels great to be back - especially now that we're able to reveal a project that so many people have asked for: a native PS Vita version of our multiple award-winning PS minis game Velocity!

It's called Velocity Ultra, and it features Trophies, online high scores and a completely overhauled visual style at native PS Vita resolution. We're reworking all the art in the game, so the cut scene stills have been recreated at a much higher standard than before.

We're also unifying the art style throughout the game by ditching pixel art in favor of the edgy cartoon style.

The dinky (and rather pathetic) Quarp Jet now looks less dinky (and rather bad-ass)

We're also adding lots of visual effects. Here's what Velocity Ultra looks like at the moment. Note that the graphics look considerably cleaner when running live on PS Vita's screen.

The dark shading at each side of the screen focuses the action whilst explosions illuminate the environment to create a more dramatic experience. The PS Vita is a lot more powerful than the PSP, so we're able to add these lighting effects whilst still running...

51w ago - FuturLab Managing Director James Marsden has shared some video footage today spotlighting the soundtrack story details of Velocity for PSN.

To quote: Our new game Velocity has been out for a couple of weeks now, and we're delighted with the reception.

We've had superb reviews, so today I'm going to reveal how Velocity's soundtrack came to be, and how it's absolutely essential that you don't give up on something you believe in, ever.

MUSIC

When I was little (7 or 8), I used to tinker on the piano. I couldn't read music, but I could work out how to play a tune after hearing it a couple of times. I used to practice and practice until I had it mastered. I spent a good deal of my younger years messing about with toy keyboards, writing little songs and playing them to people.

However, in secondary school, I infuriated my music teacher because she was trying to skim through many different practical exercises, and all I wanted to do was get the first exercise mastered.

When she mentioned that I was disrupting the class to my parents, I became very insecure about it, and ultimately stopped doing it, deciding that I was actually no good at music after all.

67w ago - FuturLab Managing Director James Marsden has revealed their new space shooter Velocity today alongside details of getting it free at launch via PlayStation Plus.

To quote: I'm here today to show you our awesome new teleportation shoot 'em-up that is packed with innovative features - and it's a game that YOU named!

We had hundreds of entries, which we were very grateful for, and settled on 'VELOCITY', as it described the concept and gameplay very well - and is a cool word!

Here at FuturLab we don't think it is good enough to churn out cloned games. We wanted to do justice to the nostalgia of early games in the shoot 'em-up genre, so that people can pick up Velocity and feel right at home, but also feel the excitement of playing something completely new!

After many months prototyping, we knew we had something special with Velocity - the teleporting mechanics had never been done before - so we wanted a big sound to complement the gameplay experience.

We are therefore incredibly excited that Joris de Man, the award winning composer that wrote and produced the music for Killzone 2 & 3, has co-written and co-produced the music for Velocity!

So it sounds incredible and is a genuine, high quality homage to the classic...

159w ago - FuturLab Managing Director James Marsden has revealed today how Flash developers recently became licensed PSP and PS3 video game developers on PSN.

To quote: Today I'm going to spill the beans on how a bunch of Flash developers managed to become licensed to make games for PSP and PS3!

Contrary to popular belief, we didn't have lots of games under our belt; none of us had worked on a commercial video game before, and none of us knew anything about C or C++.

What we did have was a great idea and the naïve enthusiasm to rock up to Sony's Liverpool headquarters and present it in person.

It all started back in 2007 when I'd just finished building our Flash game engine, PRISM. We decided to use the engine to develop an idea I'd had at University. The idea was essentially a game that reaches outside of the console, with characters in the game contacting players through instant messaging, email and telephone calls.

You might have heard of this kind of game, it's called an Alternate Reality Game (or ARG - pronounced A.R.G.).

So we used our engine to build a Flash demo and started...

160w ago - Today FuturLab's Managing Director James Marsden has introduced Coconut Dodge, which will be hitting PSN soon for both PS3 and PSP.

To quote: Over the next few weeks I am going to be sharing our story about how a bunch of ambitious Flash developers became licensed to make games for PlayStation, and how we've made the move from Flash to PSP!

First of all, let me give you an overview of our upcoming PSP and PS3 minis game, Coconut Dodge, due for exclusive release on PlayStation Store in May.

GAME PLAY

Coconut Dodge is a hypnotically addictive arcade game in which a player must dodge falling coconuts, weave through airborne mazes and play beach ball keepy-uppy to collect giant shiny treasures. As you can see from the video, the game starts quite easy and gradually ramps up to insane levels of coco-bullet action!





RACE MECHANICS

What makes the game so addictive is the combination of the predictable mazes and the random coconuts and beach balls. It makes the experience similar to a racing game, where the first few attempts at a new track are difficult, but once you've learnt the track, you can hone your movements to perfection whilst confidently dealing...