Cloudberry Kingdom: an endless platformer for Xbox 360, PS3, Vita, Wii U, PC and Mac

Pwnee Studios had a dream: to create an "endless" platformer, one that would be able to randomly generate an infinite number of platforming levels, customized to whatever difficulty setting you'd want.

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Pwnee Studios had a dream: to create an "endless" platformer, one that would be able to randomly generate an infinite number of platforming levels, customized to whatever difficulty setting you'd want. They pitched their idea on Kickstarter, and it ended up getting funded. Yay. With funding secured, they were on their way to selling Cloudberry Kingdom on PC and Wii U. But, after talking with Sony, they realized they could end up shipping the game on PS3 and Vita as well. With that kind of coverage, they wanted to launch on all platforms. Targeting Xbox Live Arcade would prove to be challenging, as Microsoft doesn't allow self-published games. Enter: Ubisoft. The publisher was impressed enough with the game that they signed on to be distributor of the XBLA version. (All other versions will still be self-published.) And now, a game that might have gone unnoticed will be arriving on pretty much every viable platform. That's a good thing, too. Because Cloudberry Kingdom is incredible. At first glance, Cloudberry looks like a ripoff of New Super Mario Bros, especially with objects that look to be taken straight out of Mario games. But, unlike Mario games, there's an infinite number of levels to play through.

Does this look familiar to you?

The game can generate new levels automatically, or through various presets. You can also have it generate new levels based on very specific settings. Do you want a level featuring lots of fireballs, tricky jumps, and lasers? Sure thing. Perhaps you want to challenge yourself with a level with tons of enemies instead? There's over a dozen sliders you can move to have the AI create the level suited to your tastes, no matter how masochistic. You can also alter the way your character handles, giving him abilities like a double jump, or flight abilities. You can change the way gravity works in the world, letting you emulate the jumping style of Mario... or LittleBigPlanet. Even if you create a seemingly impossible level by turning up all the hazard settings to max, every level in Cloudberry is beatable. In fact, you can pause the game and tell the AI to complete it for you, showing you the pixel-perfect way of completing a course. It's oddly mesmerizing in its own way, watching an AI jump through hundreds of death traps. Kickstarter backers will likely only receive a Steam or Wii U code, but Pwnee is discussing the possibility of getting codes for other platforms as well. They're also in talks with Sony about making the PSN version "cross buy" enabled, bundling both PS3 and PS Vita versions for one price. And thanks to Ubisoft, Xbox 360 owners will be able to play the game some time later this year.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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