Hello, I’m Tommy Refenes. You may remember me from such games as Super Meat Boy and Super Meat Boy Forever. I’m delighted to be able to tell you that the Meat Boy universe is returning to PlayStation later this year in the form of a brand new title called Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine! 

Meat Boy has had enough games (for now). Now it’s time for Dr. Fetus to be a star. Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine takes place right after the events of Super Meat Boy Forever (right after the ending, before the post credits scene, to be exact). Dr. Fetus wants to make clones of Meat Boy and he needs to weed out all of the crappy clones from the gene pool to get pure, perfect, killable Meat Boys. I wonder what Dr. Fetus would do with a never ending supply of Meat Boys…hmmm…probably a question for another time.

Buzzsaws, lasers, missiles, and other hazards

What this means in practice is a Puyo Puyo-style match-four puzzler with a unique hardcore twist, courtesy of the nefarious Dr. Fetus’ devious contraptions. As you’re trying to get your color-coded clones to the bottom of the screen and build combos, you’ll have to deal with buzzsaws, missiles and a host of other hazards primed to destroy your clones if you don’t play with the precision that the Super Meat Boy series has always demanded. In other words, what we are doing with Dr Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine Machine is bringing the hardcore challenge Meat Boy is known for to create a one-of-a-kind blend of puzzle and action gameplay. 

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The genesis of this game lies in a long lasting relationship between Team Meat and our friends at Headup. We’ve worked together for almost 12 years in various capacities and we love them. So when they approached us with this idea for a match-four puzzle game, we were pretty busy with launching Super Meat Boy Forever but after that was out we looked at their pitch and prototype and fell in love all over again. We merged their design and programming skills – mainly Niko Panagiotopoulos and Mark Aldrup – with our art and design skills and now we have this wickedly fun and beautiful puzzle game that we never would have even considered making if not for their amazing prototype and desire to make something new and awesome.

It’s time to enjoy dy

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Howdy! This week the team dives into some stand out PS Plus titles, and shares their (spoiler filled) thoughts on The Last of Us TV adaptation’s season one finale.

Stuff We Talked About

• MLB The Show 23
• Tchia
• Resident Evil 4
• Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
• The Last of Us season one finale
• The Last of Us Part II

The Cast

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Last week, we asked you to travel to the Three Kingdoms and explore Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, sharing your adventures using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

profjpg shares a black and white silhouette fighting with a spear

marka_game shares a griffin-human hybrid mid fight

Mannitugames shares a player leaping on their white horse and brandishing a sword

Nu_Lupo shares a player unleashing a red phoenix-like bird

LemonShiko45 shares an adorable Shitieshou demon that looks like a reverse colored panda

themarkplumb shares a player standing in a cherry blossom forest wearing an ornate red armor set.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: Green
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on March 22, 2023

Next week, we’re seeing green. Share verdant, emerald, citrine, or any shade of green found in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

With the recent launch of Destiny 2: Lightfall, the latest expansion for Bungie’s sci-fi action MMO, players have been diving deep into new activities, exploring a new elemental power in Strand, and discovering the secrets of Neptune’s hidden city of Neomuna. A new Destiny 2 expansion also means a new raid – Destiny’s challenging cooperative adventures designed for fireteams of six, built to test players’ skill, problem solving, and ability to work as a team. On March 10, Guardians all over the world delved into the latest – and arguably most visually stunning – raid to date: Root of Nightmares.

To celebrate the launch of Lightfall’s new raid, we recently spoke with three members of the Destiny team: Associate Designer Kailani Marrero, Staff Designer June Meyer, and Design Lead Brian Frank to get behind-the-scenes insights into what it’s like working on (and giving names to) some of the most mysterious, intriguing, and challenging content in all of gaming.

How does the Root of Nightmares raid move the narrative forward following the initial events of Lightfall?

June Meyer: Root of Nightmares sees players investigating The Witness’ pyramid in the aftermath of the end of the Lightfall campaign. In the raid, players get to see firsthand how the Traveler’s Light terraforms the landscape, bringing new life and disrupting the existing environment. We’ve never had a chance to see or influence this process, and the raid gives players the opportunity to transform the environment through their actions.

Kailani Marrero: It was important to ensure that the lessons the player (and the Guardian) learned on Neomuna translated to their journey in the raid. The Guardian spends some time learning to “go with the flow” – especially when coming to terms with Osiris and learning to wield Strand during the campaign – and we took that mentality into the raid encounter. Without spoiling things for those who haven’t experienced the raid yet, the Guardians know who the threat is, and they know that this entity must be taken out. Even in the face of overwhelming odds, there is work to be done and that confidence in yourself, and in your allies, still should remain true.

Q: What are some specific examples of Bungie incorporating narrative themes into the puzzle-like gameplay elements of Destiny 2’s raids?

Brian Frank: In Vow of the Disciple [from Destiny 2: The Witch Queen], the symbols and their meanings were designed as a system from which gameplay events would build statements about the places and characters in our world. Within the context of The Witch Queen’s themes of deception and illusion, they were intended to be evocative of truths, lies, or prophecies. They also help to illicit wonder from players in having to interpret and communicate them to the fireteam in order to progress through the raid.

KM: Narrative themes are often the bow on top of the experience that adds that extra “oomph” to a raid. Many mechanics are done ahead of time with the general narrative concept of the raid in mind and then more context is given by the narrative designer. The bones are there but then you get to build on top of it to make it even cooler and to give context where needed.

JM: The thematic goal with the mech

Today we’ll be exploring a totally new addition to the Diablo universe; World Bosses. These unique battles in Diablo IV give a taste of what it’s like to play with a large group of players engaging with a monster that is massive in scale, ferocity, and impact.

Core Philosophy

Each World Boss extends from four core player experience pillars. These pillars allow for alignment on the kind of gameplay that is our standard, even as we attempt to create wildly different monsters and challenges.

Everyone can contribute and be part of the solution
This is an activity for players of all classes, so no match-up feels favored towards one class and playstyle. There are no required actions to bring down a boss, so the “fun” can’t be monopolized or prevented.

Players should feel grateful for other players joining in
This content is for all players, from those who are learning the game, all the way up to masters. The activity is built so that each extra player means the World Boss will be conquered a little bit quicker. Don’t worry if you don’t know every attack; getting in and playing is the best way to learn.

Re-playable
We put heavy emphasis on mechanics that remain interesting time-after-time and feel larger-than-life. Experiencing the same Boss with a different class will present different challenges.

Stagger must be interesting and helpful but never required
Players who stagger or break the guard of a boss are rewarded with a high-impact adjustment to the fight flow. We spend a lot of time making these stagger moments significant without them being required.

Unique Experiences

World bosses are high-intensity fights filled with new to Diablo experiences, terrifying challenges, and joyous triumphs. It’s a lot of pressure to get them right!

From the Ashava concept art, you can see that even though we had a strong idea for the overall shape and claws, her head and overall texture went through multiple passes to find what told the clearest story about who she is and worked best with our top-down camera.

Once we’re aligned on what we think our new horror will look like from a high level, we move into building it in the engine.  At this stage the monster is extremely basic because making amazing character models takes a lot of time! The team can’t always wait for a finished model, so we start with something a little rough around the edges.

The process now becomes playtest-playtest-playtest. The team refines attack tells, damage payloads, timings, and assesses whole attacks for how well they’re working.  Bespoke spawn animations are created to tell a story of who this monster is and where it’s coming from. Stagger mechanics are reviewed to make sure that the player has interesting choices and it’s a rewarding experience.

Boss deaths are often given special focus; it’s an impactful moment that showcases the last gasp of a horrific monster in Sanctuary and each World Boss wants to leave a lasting impression.

Multiplayer Focus

As you’ve likely noticed, these titanic combatants are meant to be engaged with as a group. Going up against one without a sizable collection of fellow players would be a mistake until you’ve learned what’s in each World Boss’ bag of tricks.

Our first task was to make sure our World Bosses cover large portions of the field with each attack. To accomplish this, we built some o