We’ve spent a long time refining the gameplay in Velocity. All levels were built over a period of three months from December 2011 to February 2012, after over a year of tuning the controls.

As a result, Velocity is easy to pick up and have fun with immediately, and it also supports an incredible level of skill if a player wants to learn to master the game, as you can see below:

A few months back we asked our loyal Twitter Followers, Facebook Likies and PSPminis.com Readers to name the alien race in our new game, Velocity.

Now that the game has been announced on PS Blog, we can reveal our selections!

The Zetachron, a formidable alien race from the far side of the Toron Nebula

As you can see above, the winning suggestion was the first to arrive, courtesy of Mat Redvers, who will receive a free code for Velocity on release! Congrats Mat!

Which leaves three runner-up prizes, with a free copy of the game as well:

Insidians - from Ofaliss @PSPminis.com

Vianubis – from sniper721 @PSPminis.com

MechaMoths – from Simplebob here in the comments

Congratulations folks, please get in touch with us via the contact page to confirm your email address and identity.

Hope you enjoy Velocity as much as we have!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, go and bag yourself the image above, as well as some more cool Velocity Wallpapers courtesy of Push Square.

From a press release sent out today:

FuturLab today revealed the much anticipated follow up to their critically acclaimed debut Coconut Dodge.

‘Velocity’, which was named as part of a competition for the PlayStation community, is a scrolling shooter unlike any other which features an innovative teleport mechanic, allowing players to jump around the screen and return to previous areas of a level to solve time sensitive logic puzzles.

That’s all very exciting, but the FuturLab team stumbled on a fascinating character when announcing the winners of the competition, a chap going by the name of Spidermann.

From James Marsden, FuturLab’s Managing Director:

“When we selected the winning entry for the competition, we all thought the winner’s name was a joke, and wondered if the email address would turn out to be fake, so we were delighted to discover that Spidermann is definitely real, and that his alias is not Peter Parker.”

It turns out that Spider N. Mann suffered a severe case of identity theft back in 2004, and after a “lightning bolt carrying an atom of genius” hit him, he decided to quickly change his name:

“Having been a fan of the character for the majority of my life I decided upon taking the surname Mann, using my nickname ‘Spider’ as my first name, and added an “N” as a middle name so that when people asked what it meant I could say “The ‘N’ stands for ‘nothing.’” – Spider N. Mann

Spidermann, who FuturLab now refer to as ‘Spidey’, will get his hands on Velocity for free along with three other lucky PlayStation gamers when the game is released in March!

The official Velocity website is now live, as is the Facebook page where artwork and screenshots can be seen, as well as back story.

http://www.velocitygame.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/VelocityGame

Did you take part in the Name Our Game competition? If so, check out PlayStation Blog (EU and US) this Thursday 9th Feb at 3pm GMT to find out if you won!

We’ll be revealing the game’s title and the winners of the competition, as well as the trailer and official website with screenshots – so don’t miss it!

Did you name our new game? Find out this Thursday on PlayStation Blog!

Everyone knows that PowerLev Research is a secretive company. So secretive that we have to go deep undercover – pretending to be people we’re not – just to get the smallest of details about the Quarp Jet and the mission it is being prepped for.

As some of you may remember, we managed to grab schematics a while back, but since then security has been locked up tight – meaning we couldn’t bring you any more details.

However, late last month we had a rare opportunity to smuggle someone in. We deliberated for hours about who to send, and eventually decided on someone who could share his view with the rest of us.

Since no recording technology would be permitted inside the testing facility, we needed someone with a great memory for visual detail, and the ability to recreate what they saw later.

We selected John Steels, of ‘One More Go!’ fame.

As well as being a sculptor of facial extremes, he is also an artist of considerable talent, and was able to capture what he believes is a very close likeness of the actual Quarp Jet.

Of course, John has taken some creative license in rendering the craft in action. Nevertheless, we can see just how spectacular this groundbreaking ship is going to be.

It may even be game changing…

John Steels has also just released his own game for iOS, called GET THE FLOCK OUT! You may want to give it a try!

From a recent press release on Wired Sussex and GamesIndustry.biz:

Following the success of its entrance into the console games business in 2010, FuturLab announced today that a separate division, comprising veteran games industry professionals and junior hires, is to focus solely on developing new IP for current and emerging entertainment platforms.

From James Marsden, FuturLab’s Managing Director:
“We sit in a unique place in the entertainment industry, bridging the ever-closing gap between online, mobile and traditional console entertainment.

After years of experience building games quickly and efficiently for the relatively short timescales and small budgets available for advergaming, we have learned to focus on creating great core mechanics as the first priority.

With our new hires and recent successes, we also benefit from experience in the console game space, where games are built as products in their own right, and not just as marketing devices. We therefore know how to build addictive games that stand alone, irrespective of any campaign they might sit within.

We believe this combination sets us apart from the competition, bringing our expertise and knowledge from ‘proper’ game development, to the quick turnaround schedules and budgets of online Flash development.”

FuturLab entered the console space in 2010 with Coconut Dodge. The game was a cult hit, earning a Metacritic rating of 81, and named PSN Game of the Year by PSNStores.com, subsequently being picked up by EA and published for iOS platforms in 2011.