Archive for the ‘Avalanche Software’ Category
Limited Edition Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3: The Video Game Bundle for PlayStation 2
Posted by Ami Sheth in Avalanche Software, PlayStation Games, PS2, Toy Story 3 on October 20th, 2010
Hi all! It’s hard to believe that in just a week we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the PlayStation 2 system. Today, we’re very excited to announce the availability of a new, limited edition Toy Story 3: The Video Game bundle for the PlayStation 2 system on October 31.
Available nationwide at participating retailers for $99 (MSRP), this new bundle combines the PS2 system with Toy Story 3: The Video Game, which lets players help Buzz, Woody and the rest of the Toys ensure no toy gets left behind.
Nearly 10 years since it first launched, the PS2 continues to be a force in gaming and to date is in more than 146 million homes worldwide. At $99, the PS2 provides great entertainment value for new gamers and families with its built-in DVD player and a deep library of more than 2,000 games. Be sure to mark your calendars for October 31 and enjoy!
Toy Story 3 hits PS3 June 15th: It’s All About Zurg
Posted by John Day in Avalanche Software, PlayStation Games, PS3, Toy Story 3 on June 10th, 2010
Hi everybody! It’s John Day from Avalanche Software, the developer behind the upcoming Toy Story 3 video game. The game comes out in less than a week, and we can’t wait for you all to get your hands on it. Developing this game was an extraordinary experience and a whole lot of fun. Working closely with Pixar and in the Toy Story universe was an exciting opportunity, and we could not be happier with how the game turned out.
Back in April, we announced here that you can play as Buzz Lightyear’s arch-nemesis Zurg only on the PlayStation 3. Despite being in Toy Story 2 for only a few minutes, he is our favorite character — we’re excited to have him in the game for you to experience and enjoy! And today I wanted to share some more details on what you can expect when you pop in your PS3 copy of Toy Story 3: The Video Game and unlock the evil Emperor Zurg.
Zurg is quite a bit different from our other playable characters, which allowed us to create some fun things to do specifically as Zurg in Toy Box Mode. He’s the only character with a cannon, and his move set is completely different from our other playable characters. He has many of his own missions, and he even has his own vehicle — the Zurgmobile — complete with hood-mounted cannon. My favorite Zurg pastime is just running around the Toy Box and blasting the townspeople. His evil laugh is great too…MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Check out our new video (above) on how playable Zurg came together for the PS3. Then, play as Zurg yourself when the game releases on June 15th.
Toy Story 3: Pixar and Avalanche Software Q&A
Posted by Sid Shuman in Avalanche Software, PlayStation Games, PS3, psp, Toy Story 3 on May 20th, 2010
We’ve shown you the PS3-exclusive character, Zurg. We’ve given you our full hands-on preview. We’ve even given you a peek inside Pixar Studios.
Now there’s only one thing left to do: talk to the developers of Toy Story 3: The Video Game! The PlayStation.Blog participated in a roundtable that included the film’s director and senior production staff from Avalanche Software, and we’ve highlighted the best exchanges below.
Movie-based games have a mixed track record. What will make Toy Story 3 work well as a game?
We think it’s successful because Avalanche Software tapped into something great — the fundamental idea of play, of kids at play. It’s something we’ve done in all three of the movies, where we’ve seen Andy playing with the toys. This free, unbridled, silly play that’s exhilarating to watch. In Toy Story 3, we decided to go into that world and see what play time is like from a toy’s perspective. Avalanche Software tapped into that early on with this notion of the Toy Box Mode, which was inspired by the beginning of [the TS3 film] and what it’s like to be inside one of those play times. — Lee Unkrich, director, Toy Story 3
The whole idea of working in a kid’s imagination is something that you can build a good experience out of. When you’re playing a game, or playing with toys, you’re doing two very similar things. Another thing that allowed us to break the mold was the amount of time we had to work on the game, two and a half years. We had the amount of time you need to test it, refine it, and iterate the game to make it as good as gamers expect. We pushed ourselves. We felt that our initial pitch was a creative risk, but throughout the course of making the game we took a lot of technical risks, making sure that the engine was top-notch and that everything looked good. Towards the end, as Pixar finished up the film, we started having daily reviews with Pixar animators. So in a way, Pixar quality was being infused by Pixar. — John Blackburn, CEO, Avalanche Software
I’ve been making games for 15 years, and I’ve made quite a few film titles. We never got a good lead time. We have a lot of pride in what we’re trying to do, but we never had the ability to make the game we’d like to make for those films. In this case, Pixar has allowed into the process much earlier than anyone else. It was two and a half years ago, and so we could be more adventurous, take some risks, and come up with the Toy Box mode. It gave us a lot of freedom. – Jeff Bunker, art director, Avalanche Software
I remember leaving Avalanche Software’s pitch for making the game, and we were so excited because the Toy Box idea was so strong. That’s key at Pixar: if the idea is good, we’ll figure out the design and the details. Everybody loved their take from the get-go. — Bob Pauley, production designer, Pixar
How closely does Toy Story 3: The Video Game follow Toy Story 3 the film?
We wanted to tell a story that hit on the high points of the film and lent themselves naturally to gameplay. We didn’t want to wedge gameplay into the narrative to advance the plot from point A to point B. We created a structure where the game is kind of a retrospective of the movie. We aren’t trying to tell the whole story, but re-live parts of it and linger in certain scenes for a little longer — Andy’s house, Sunny Side Day Care, and so on. Story mode became a companion to what we consider the “meat” of the experience, the Toy Box mode. That’s where we allow you to play with Andy’s toys the way you want to play with them. Story mode definitely has a beginning, middle, and end, and it follows the movie. But the ending scene of the film is not the ending scene of the game, per se. – Jason Katz, story editor, Pixar
How does cooperative play work in Toy Story 3: The Video Game? Are there any team-based moves?
Yes, absolutely. You can pick up and throw other players in single-player or multiplayer. Buzz can throw Jessie up on a shelf, for example, to get to areas you normally couldn’t reach. You can do it in Toy Box mode, too. You can do separate missions, you don’t have to stay together. One player can go off and do ten missions while the other player is doing missions. Then you can come together and solve puzzles together. –Mike Thompson, creative director, Avalanche Software
Final question…does the Buzz Lightyear video game from Toy Story 2 appear in this game? Is it playable?
Yes! It’s all about capturing the emotion of the experience. In the movie’s version of the Buzz Lightyear game, you fly down to the planet’s surface, battle against all these robots that Buzz blows away, and then then a boss fight. So that doesn’t quite work. We wanted to take that experience and translate it into something a little bit longer, something that made more sense for gameplay, but remains authentic to the feeling you got when you saw the Buzz Lightyear game in Toy Story 2. Great pains were taken to make it feel…right. — Jonathan Warner, senior producer, Avalanche Software
Toy Story 3: The Video Game hits the PS3 and PSP on June 15th, three days before the film’s premiere.
Toy Story 3 PS3: Hands-on with Zurg, PlayStation Move update
Posted by Sid Shuman in Avalanche Software, PlayStation Games, playstation move, PS3, Toy Story 3 on May 13th, 2010
If you stopped by the PlayStation.Blog recently, you got an exclusive preview of Toy Story 3: The Video Game, releasing on June 15th for PS3 and PSP. More specifically, you got to see Zurg, the playable villain found only in the PS3 version.
SCEE blogger Jem Alexander and I recently stopped by the charming Pixar offices and got a few minutes to play around with the PS3 version of Toy Story 3: The Video Game. More importantly, we got a chance to play as Zurg in the game’s open-world, highly customizable Toy Box mode.
But let’s back up a bit. Distinct from the Story Mode, Toy Story 3’s Toy Box mode is a standalone sandbox that enables you to build a town and populate it with whatever landmarks, characters, and missions you’d like. When playing as Buzz, Woody, or Jessie, there’s plenty to do: mine for gold, take on side quests, race in various vehicles, beat down baddies, and compete in challenges. The reward is more gold and, by extension, more unlockable toys and buildings for your custom town. Get a peek at Toy Box mode in the video below.
Enter Zurg. Formally introduced in Toy Story 2 as a villain and arch-nemesis to Buzz Lightyear, Zurg is a Vader-esque bad toy who possesses enormous offensive power compared to the milder, meeker Woody and team. Once you buy a special toy in the Toy Box mode, you can use it to transform your character into Zurg and begin a reign of destruction. Zurg is tough, and packs a rapid-fire blaster with plenty of ammo, a far cry from Woody’s single-shot ball throw projectile attack. You can also cruise around in the Zurg-mobile, outfitted with its own cannons, to terrorize the town, compete in races, or just bust sick jumps and flip tricks. On-foot, Zurg’s power comes at a tradeoff: he can’t pop double-jumps or grab onto ledges like Woody and the gang, meaning he’ll miss out on some secrets tucked in the game’s many nooks and crannies.
But he is really, really powerful. Given his destructive tendencies, many of the Zerg-only missions involve acts of cruelty: blasting townspeople, smashing objects and structures, and generally wreaking havoc. Zurg will also tie into the game’s PlayStation Move support, which will be available as a downloadable mini-games later in this fall after the game’s release in June. In one mini-game, Zurg will be able to shoot at targets from a first-person perspective using PlayStation Move to aim and fire. Details are still early, but the team at Avalanche Software sounded excited to be working on an early PlayStation Move-compatible game.
Thus wraps our hands-on experiences with Toy Story 3: The Video Game and Zurg, but stay tuned on the PlayStation.Blog — we’ll have some in-depth interviews from the team at Pixar (including the film’s director!) and Avalanche Software, discussing what it was like to collaborate on the game’s two-year-plus development cycle. It’ll be a good read! In the meantime, watch the video below for a sneak peek at Zurg’s gameplay, in case you missed it the first time.
Inside Pixar: Behind the Scenes of Toy Story 3, the Game and the Film
Posted by Jem Alexander in Avalanche Software, PlayStation Games, PS3, Toy Story 3 on May 6th, 2010
It’s not every day you get invited to Pixar. Everyone knows the name and anyone who’s ever been a child (or a child at heart) loves their movies. Sid Shuman and I (Jem Alexander) headed over to the Pixar offices to check out the upcoming Toy Story 3 game for PS, take some photos and conduct a few interviews with the people behind both the game and the film.
As you can see from the photos on this page, Pixar isn’t exactly your ordinary office. The central lobby design was actually overseen by then-CEO, Steve Jobs, which makes perfect sense as the whole building has a very Apple feel. The whole place is littered with artwork, statues and prints displaying characters and scenes from their movies. As a result it’s impossible not to feel an uplift in mood as you walk through the doors.
The event began with a presentation, showing off a few short scenes from Toy Story 3 which, as someone who studied computer animation at university, was pretty exciting as we were the first people outside of Pixar to see the final scenes. The film’s quality was as you’d expect from Pixar — this is definitely not a sequel for sequel’s sake. I now can’t wait to see the full thing when it releases in June.
The game was also presented to us and it’s clear just how closely Pixar and Avalanche Studios have been working to make this more than just another movie tie-in game. From what I’ve now seen and played, it worked pretty well.
After the presentations, we had a chance to sit down with the team from Avalanche Studios and Pixar (including the film’s director and producer), ask questions, and finally get plenty of hands-on time with the PS3 game. You can expect to see some hands-on impressions of Emperor Zurg, who’s exclusively playable in the PS3 version of the game, as well as our interview round ups coming in the next week or so. In the meantime, check out the rest of our photos from the Pixar trip below.
Toy Story 3 for PS3: First Look
Posted by John Day in Avalanche Software, PlayStation Games, playstation move, PS3, Toy Story 3, Trailers on April 30th, 2010
Hi everybody! This is John at Avalanche Software. We’re hard at work finishing up Toy Story 3: The Video Game, due for release on June 15th. Toy Story 3 is much more than your average movie-based game. The game gives players two ways to experience Toy Story 3: Story Mode and Toy Box Mode, a sandbox style of gameplay set in the Toy Story universe.
In Story Mode, the player plays as Buzz, Woody, and Jessie, each with their own unique play style, to play through eight action platforming levels. While not a complete retelling of the movie plot, the player will visit some of the places, and meet some of the new and classic characters that are in the film. We take the player to some totally new places as well. Also in Story Mode, we’ve stashed all of our collectibles. The collectibles, when found, allow the player to unlock new toys for the Toy Box.
The Toy Box is a totally different experience from Story Mode. Here we put the player in an open, non-linear environment and allow them to play with Andy’s toys any way they like. The player is free to complete missions for different characters, customize the townspeople and buildings, race in various vehicles, and much more. The more adventurous and creative you are, the more you will get rewarded. I encourage you to unleash your imagination in this mode of the game.
In the Toy Box, the player can play as Buzz, Woody, or Jessie. I am happy to announce that exclusively on the PlayStation 3, you can also play as Zurg! Zurg has many of his own unique missions. Whether it’s driving around in his own custom vehicle, or blasting everything in sight with his tri-gun, players can help Zurg achieve his singular goal of eliminating Buzz Lightyear, or just do whatever else they’d like.
I’m also excited to let you know that Toy Story 3: The Video Game will be compatible with PlayStation Move. It was cool working with Sony and this new technology to create downloadable mini-games designed specifically for this new motion controller. So, come Fall, there will be even more ways to play with Toy Story 3.
Now, check out our Zurg exclusive trailer and game screens for a taste of what you can do as this dastardly villain, and don’t forget to watch out for Toy Story 3: The Video Game in-stores, June 15th!
