Storybook game!
Poeople sometimes ask me to do commissions and I often have to say no. The reason is I have a day job! A day job where I basically do commissions all DAY.
I work at a small game company in Troy, NY we mostly make kid's DS games like Imagine Jewelry designer, Ben 10, Secret Saturdays, Disney Princesses, imagine Cheerleader, imagine gymnast, Club Penguin DS 1+2, ETC!
It sounds like fun but the truth is it strenuous and painful as all hell. We work long hours and have LONG periods of crunch where is seems like we will never have lives again.
That being said I recently had the MOST fun I've ever had making a game in my 3 1/2 years at the company. We only had 3 months to make this game which is a ridiculously short amount of time to make a game, PLUS the company who hired us to make it had nothing but the dialog and stories, and no ideas for the art.
All these things seem like they would add up to HELL ON WHEELS but basically what it meant was I and the other artist working on the game got to do whatever we wanted and make our own decisions about the art which, DOES NOT HAPPEN AND IS AMAZING.
The game is an interactive storybook for very very little kids. The game reads the books to them and then they can read the book and answer little questions and interact with the book. It's pretty great!
It's not a very pretty cover, but hey, we didn't get to design that part.
Anyway, here I am posting ALL of the illustrations and little animation I did for each book.
Enjoy!
1. C is for Cap
The cat had a cap. The cat put on the cap. The cat put the cap on the cow.
The cow put the cap on the cub. The cub put down the cap. The cat picked up the cap.
AND so…. The cat put on the cap.
2. Animal Faces
This dolphin looks happy. This puppy looks sad. These polar bears look sleepy.
This owl looks sleepy, too. This bighorn sheep looks proud. This lion looks angry.
This ape looks silly.
3. I See Sam
I See Sam I see Sam dig. I see Sam kick.
I see Sam sled I see Sam slide I see Sam skate
I see Sam smile I see Sam hop I see Sam sleep. Goodnight Sam!
4. Things Sasha Likes
Sasha is a little girl. She likes doing lots of things.She likes the swing in her yard. Look at Sasha swinging. She likes to skate in the park. Look at Sasha skating.
She likes to dance barefoot in the grass. Look at Sasha dancing. She likes to fly kites. Look at Sasha flying a kite. She likes to feed the birds in her yard. Look at Sasha feeding birds.
She likes to tell stories to her friends. Look at Sasha telling stories. Sasha and her friends like doing lots of things. What kinds of things do you like to do?
5. Underwater
6. Home Free
There once was a mouse who lived in a house in a hole in a wall made of wood. He was hungry for food and was not in the mood for the cat to come by and be rude.The cat, they named Bounce, was eager to pounce on the tail of the mouse in the house.
Old Bounce was real quick and he had a mean trick to catch and eat the young mouse. Now the mouse smelled some cheese, so he tried hard to ease his way past the cat who was sleeping. Bounce, in his dream, was licking sweet cream, as the mouse slipped right past him, creeping.
The mouse got the cheese and felt very pleased until he turned and saw the cat leaping! The cat jumped so fast but the mouse sped right past and ran to his hole, safe but squeaking. Whew! Now the mouse was quite glad but the cat was still mad that his trick did not beat him!
PHEW!
6 stories in 3 months, not an easy task. It was a ton of stuff to do in a very short amount of time. The animations for these had to be very small to accommodate for the size of the game cartridge. We also had to painstakingly cut them out to make little pieces into gifs and make sure they were only 16 colors since HUGE full screen animations would take up way too much space. It was a lot of work, but I loved almost complete artistic freedom on this game and I'm really proud of the game itself!
You can buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Virtual-Tutor-Kindergarten-Nintendo-DS/dp/B002BZ11DC/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1269016682&sr=8-2-fkmr0
EDIT: Some of the animation speeds are a little off, but you get the idea! >_
I work at a small game company in Troy, NY we mostly make kid's DS games like Imagine Jewelry designer, Ben 10, Secret Saturdays, Disney Princesses, imagine Cheerleader, imagine gymnast, Club Penguin DS 1+2, ETC!
It sounds like fun but the truth is it strenuous and painful as all hell. We work long hours and have LONG periods of crunch where is seems like we will never have lives again.
That being said I recently had the MOST fun I've ever had making a game in my 3 1/2 years at the company. We only had 3 months to make this game which is a ridiculously short amount of time to make a game, PLUS the company who hired us to make it had nothing but the dialog and stories, and no ideas for the art.
All these things seem like they would add up to HELL ON WHEELS but basically what it meant was I and the other artist working on the game got to do whatever we wanted and make our own decisions about the art which, DOES NOT HAPPEN AND IS AMAZING.
The game is an interactive storybook for very very little kids. The game reads the books to them and then they can read the book and answer little questions and interact with the book. It's pretty great!
It's not a very pretty cover, but hey, we didn't get to design that part.
Anyway, here I am posting ALL of the illustrations and little animation I did for each book.
Enjoy!
1. C is for Cap
The cat had a cap. The cat put on the cap. The cat put the cap on the cow.
The cow put the cap on the cub. The cub put down the cap. The cat picked up the cap.
AND so…. The cat put on the cap.
2. Animal Faces
This dolphin looks happy. This puppy looks sad. These polar bears look sleepy.
This owl looks sleepy, too. This bighorn sheep looks proud. This lion looks angry.
This ape looks silly.
3. I See Sam
I See Sam I see Sam dig. I see Sam kick.
I see Sam sled I see Sam slide I see Sam skate
I see Sam smile I see Sam hop I see Sam sleep. Goodnight Sam!
4. Things Sasha Likes
Sasha is a little girl. She likes doing lots of things.She likes the swing in her yard. Look at Sasha swinging. She likes to skate in the park. Look at Sasha skating.
She likes to dance barefoot in the grass. Look at Sasha dancing. She likes to fly kites. Look at Sasha flying a kite. She likes to feed the birds in her yard. Look at Sasha feeding birds.
She likes to tell stories to her friends. Look at Sasha telling stories. Sasha and her friends like doing lots of things. What kinds of things do you like to do?
5. Underwater
6. Home Free
There once was a mouse who lived in a house in a hole in a wall made of wood. He was hungry for food and was not in the mood for the cat to come by and be rude.The cat, they named Bounce, was eager to pounce on the tail of the mouse in the house.
Old Bounce was real quick and he had a mean trick to catch and eat the young mouse. Now the mouse smelled some cheese, so he tried hard to ease his way past the cat who was sleeping. Bounce, in his dream, was licking sweet cream, as the mouse slipped right past him, creeping.
The mouse got the cheese and felt very pleased until he turned and saw the cat leaping! The cat jumped so fast but the mouse sped right past and ran to his hole, safe but squeaking. Whew! Now the mouse was quite glad but the cat was still mad that his trick did not beat him!
PHEW!
6 stories in 3 months, not an easy task. It was a ton of stuff to do in a very short amount of time. The animations for these had to be very small to accommodate for the size of the game cartridge. We also had to painstakingly cut them out to make little pieces into gifs and make sure they were only 16 colors since HUGE full screen animations would take up way too much space. It was a lot of work, but I loved almost complete artistic freedom on this game and I'm really proud of the game itself!
You can buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Virtual-Tutor-Kindergarten-Nintendo-DS/dp/B002BZ11DC/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1269016682&sr=8-2-fkmr0
EDIT: Some of the animation speeds are a little off, but you get the idea! >_