If you, like me, are a PixelJunk Monsters fan then trust me you don’t want to miss out on the details which Q-Games recently released about the upcoming expansion pack to the popular tower defence game PixelJunk Monsters.

PixelJunk Monsters sees players building towers to defend their homebase from the onslaught of monsters, all the while unleashing lightning storms across the forest. The game was released on the PlayStation Network in late January 2008.

Encore details

First things first, according to SCEA’s PlayStation blog, PixelJunk Monster Encore will be released in May 2008. The expansion was released in Japan on the 24th of April but left the rest of the world craving in the wake of the first screenshots and scant details about what the expansion would offer.

Encore will be set on a new island, Toki Island, and will feature 15 new levels as well as five new music tracks by Octograph. Many gamers will be happy to learn that the Ice Tower is now a stock item meaning gamers will be able to purchase it as a starter gun along with the arrow towers, cannons and anti-air guns. In addition the Tesla Tower now sports a reduced price tag, it will cost just ten jewels.

Gamers will have to re-unlock all the abilities which they earned in the first game (for example running). Earlier Q-Games revealed that once you have beaten the expansion you will earn an exclusive unlockable. “Oh, and we’ve added an extra special feature for the best players out there who can clear every stage in the game (not necessarily with rainbows). It’s still a secret but it’s going to feed your addiction beyond an extreme.”

Deborah Mars, Senior Producer at SCEA Santa Monica Studios, caught up with Dylan Cuthbert, President and Executive Producer of Q-Games, to get the low down on Encore.

What’s in a name

In terms of the name for the expansion pack, Dylan explained that they “needed a name that could be understood in Japan as well, as we don’t like having a different title here, and Encore is understood by the Japanese (although it is pronounced “ahnkowlu”).”

“Also, we wanted the name to reflect the fact that the reason we made this pack is because of the huge response we got from fans of the original, so Encore seemed particularly appropriate as it is what you shout at the end of a good concert etc, when you want just that little bit more,” he continued.

Deborah then quizzed Dylan about the most crazed fan mail they have received to date. Lots of people have suggested ideas for a sequel and a few have brought up the issue of plasma tv burn-in, to which Dylan responds “rest-assured if we had known people would be playing this game the no. of hours people seem to be playing it then we would have discovered this problem.” You will also be happy to know that Encore and future PixelJunk games will feature an anti-burn option in the menu.

He also pointed out that many couples enjoy playing the game together. “It’s surprising how RTS-like games (usually associated with war and destruction) appeal to both male and female alike, perhaps they even appeal more to women?”

Staying on this path, Deborah discovered that Dylan’s wife loved the game and would badger him for more levels. This combined with fan mails requesting more led to the expansion.

Hints and art style

Dylan’s favourite map in Encore is Racer Gardens. “The rough layout is based on a track in PixelJunk Racers and it is a really tough map to beat, but really enjoyable once you learn the patterns. (Hint: The big guys always cross the bridges!) The secret for the all-clear is rather superb, too, but of course we want the first real player to get there to spill the beans on that one.”

Dylan went on to explain the inspiration for the unique art style. “Well, our lead designer on the project, Andy Palmer, came up with some weird red riding hood style pics of a forest with a little girl in a hood and wolves in a kind of Sabre Wulf looking game (Sabre Wulf is an old game Rare made for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in Britain back in the 80s), but it also had hints of the SNES version of Zelda.”

He then turned to Andy who commented “Originally we were just throwing around game ideas on the company BBS. I was making concept images to illustrate how the games might look and as Dylan mentioned, one of the images I made was of a simple multiplayer game inspired by Red Riding Hood, which was set in a forest.”

“When it was later decided that we were going to be making a tower defense game, Dylan said he liked the style of the forest image and from then it became the basis for the rest of the game’s look. Initially I didn’t really want to go in that direction because I didn’t really have any character design or 2D game experience, but Dylan encouraged me to stick with it and I’m glad I did. Not only did the game end up looking good, but I was also able to use a graphics tablet instead of a mouse for several months, which helped my arms recover from RSI.”

Dylan continued “So I suppose those two games were subtle inspirations for the style, but then Andy took it all and slowly transformed it into the whole southern tropical island WikiTiki type thing and we ran with it. The monsters have all been animated by those weird witch-masks they are wearing, but underneath those masks they are probably all friendly folk you would invite around for tea.”

Be sure to check back next week when SCE Associate Producer Matt Morton will fire some more questions at Q-Games about PixelJunk Monsters Encore. More details about the expansion were also promised along with new themes, wallpapers and avatars for the PlayStation Store soon. Yah, PixelJunk!

For more screenshots check out El33tonline’s previous coverage.