Archive for » 2010 «
During the Game Jam at the 360iDev San Jose 2010, Dan Byers (@coffeedan) worked on and showed a head-to-head tank game for iPad. The game has since been reworked as a space game, and Dan asked me to press the “make look better” button. Below are some samples of the work I did on Star Fighter X2, including a cool time-lapse video of building the spaceship in 3D.
View the game in the App Store.
Logo
Great apps are like babies…
very easy to conceive but very hard to deliver!
- Ted Mico, Interscope / Geffen / A&M
Everyone and their dog has an app or game idea. The skill to implement that idea, and implement it well, is much less common. If you are a designer and love games, this post is for you. The past year and a half have taught me a lot about being a graphic designer and game designer — but not a coder — and what that means when it comes down to actually making and publishing a game on the App Store.
I’ve been getting a lot of requests for this lately, so I might as well make it official.
Click here for info on getting contract art done by We Heart Games.
More samples will be posted online as the games I’m currently working on become public.
Do you save out multiple variations of a graphic by setting layer visibility? Ever wish there was a faster way to do that whenever that graphic needed to be updated?
The latest entry in my iDevBlogADay “Photoshop for Devs” series, I show you how to use Layer Comps to save layer visibility settings so can easily switch between visibility “states” for multiple layers (and even layer styles) at once. This saves you from having a separate document or layer group for each instance of your graphic, and makes your source PSD’s easier to update.
Helping iPhone developers hate using Photoshop a little less with simple tricks that make workflows more efficient. View the rest of the screencasts in the “Photoshop for Devs” series.
- Create broad layer comps to set overall visibility settings for multiple layers at once.
- Fine-tune your layer comps so that you have a comp for every instance of the graphic you are editing.
- Learn how adding and deleting layers affects layer comps.
Do you have skins or themes in your game? Do you arduously make changes to multiple Photoshop documents and save out new PNGs every time you make a change to a theme?
The latest entry in my iDevBlogADay “Photoshop for Devs” series, I show you how to make a master theme template for your games using a single Photoshop file, and export all the required images in a single step. This process can save you hours of annoying, repetitive work.
Helping iPhone developers hate using Photoshop a little less with simple tricks that make workflows more efficient. View the rest of the screencasts in the “Photoshop for Devs” series.
- Lay out your template file using shape layers and “placed” textures for resolution independence.
- Use Photoshop Slices to cut up the document and save out multiple PNG files.
- Create a new theme and save out a whole new batch of images in a few seconds.
- Use Adjustment Layers to quickly create colour variant themes.
Two days ago I offered a free ad spot on my site for fellow indie devs. My goal was to give what little exposure I can provide to some like-minded devs who could use a free boost (who couldn’t?). I also wanted to use it as a place where I make honest recommendations about games I enjoy playing. This seemed to be a simple and low-cost way to do that (the time it takes to insert a new ad is minimal, after that it’s basically maintenance-free).
The latest entry in my iDevBlogADay “Photoshop for Devs” series, we’re going to go into vector shapes in more detail. Vector shapes allow you to create graphics that can be scaled without losing detail.
Helping iPhone developers hate using Photoshop a little less with simple tricks that make workflows more efficient. View the rest of the screencasts in the “Photoshop for Devs” series.
- The basics: creating shapes.
- Selecting and moving points using the Path Selection Tool.
- Editing points (adding and removing points, converting points from corners to curves)
- Booleans (subtracting a shape from another, changing boolean settings after)
- Copy and paste shapes within a layer and from one layer to another
UPDATE: Please see this post for some more clarification on my thoughts on this little experiment.
In response to Ron’s post at Headcase Games, I’d also like to give back to the community a bit with some free game advertising. I don’t get tons of traffic on my site, but it’s pretty steady, and the iDevBlogADay thing is giving it a nice boost.
The catch
The catch is, I don’t like advertising. 
And since I’m giving away the ad space for free, I feel that I can add this one stipulation: I have to like the game being advertised. I’d like to use the ad space as a sort of “I recommend this game” kind of deal. I’m not out to offend anyone, I just want to maintain the integrity of the site. I got the idea from Penny Arcade; they turn down even lucrative ad campaigns for games they don’t like, and I appreciate that.
If you want to send me an ad and your iTunes link, you can do so at mike at weheartgames dot com. If I haven’t already played the game and it’s not free, I might ask for a promo code. Ad size should be 180 x 150, straight up JPG, PNG or GIF. No SWFs or animated GIFs please.
The ads will go in the right sidebar, under “We ♥ these games”. I reserve the right to leave a mini-review in the title tag, which will be visible when you hover the mouse over the ad.
The latest entry in my iDevBlogADay “Photoshop for Devs” series, we’re going to talk about clipping masks in Photoshop and when to use them to make things easier.
Helping iPhone developers hate using Photoshop a little less with simple tricks that make workflows more efficient. View the rest of the screencasts in the “Photoshop for Devs” series.
Part 1:
- Place a photo in a Polaroid border, without having to crop it. Keep its full resolution so you can scale and rotate it as much as you want.
- Texture a chess board. Combine the texture layer with layer effects applied to the base layer.
Part 2:
- Add a reflection to windows in a building and change the colours with a clipped adjustment layer. Add art to a billboard shape with rounded corners and perspective.
- Create perfect silhouettes for your vector art. Mask multiple layers with a single base shape and apply layer effects to the entire group.
I recently heard on the radio that 95% of Canadians don’t love their job.* While sad, that information made me feel pretty good about being in that top 5%. Do you love your job?
It’s tough to quit a full-time job, even a lousy one; I think the above stat alone is proof of that. But how can you get out of that rut and into a job you’re truly passionate about?
