In the game, the player takes control of a massively powerful (and slightly unhinged) aristocratic demon known only as “The Duke” who is woken up by the sound of his princess being stolen from her heavily barricaded room in his castle. Without a single clue to go on, he can only assume that monsters were (probably) responsible, and sets out to track down his missing princess by beating up monsters largely at random in the hope that it will (somehow) reunite him with his beloved princess.

The game is an upwards-scrolling platformer in which the player must chase down giant fleeing monsters and subdue them by crashing into them three times. As the player touches platforms on the way up they will build up a combo, delighting the Duke and increasing his speed and power to enable him to unleash increasingly over-the-top finishing moves when he defeats the monsters.

MPSMP will take the form of an over-95MB download, making it one of the largest games currently available on the PSN Store and pushing close to the 100MB size limit on “Minis” games.

Mediatonic’s co-founder and creative director Paul Croft said: “There is a lot of room for growth in the Minis section of the Playstation Store and we truly hope that MPSMP will stand out as the fresh, original and fun title that it is. It’s a massively exciting game for us and we hope that our players will enjoy playing it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it. We’ve had a lot of experience in developing browser-based and iPhone titles, but this is the most ambitious game we’ve attempted.”

Writer and designer Jim Griffiths said: “We’ve worked hard to integrate the story and game mechanic as deeply as we can to create the most fun and compelling experience for the player possible. We’ve also crammed as much genuine (if slightly dark) humour into the game as we could – we really want people to crack a grin when they play. That’s our aim.”

Both Croft and Griffiths have previously been featured in Develop Magazine’s “30 under 30” feature on rising developers in the UK videogame industry.

Game features summary:

• Full story mode with animated cut-scenes detailing the Duke’s story
• Six unique worlds and monsters to battle through
• 24 levels in total
• Fast-paced upwards-scrolling chase action
• Original platforming and combat gameplay mechanic
• Full original(ish) soundtrack

“Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess” is rated 12+ for “Violence”, “Sex” and “Bad Language” by the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI).