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Jonathan Green's BLOODBONES is finally available on Android and iOS! This game was a real pleasure to work on, mostly because it was something of a departure thematically from the previous gamebooks I've worked on for Tin Man Games. Same structure, same element catalogue, but all pirate all the time!

As usual, what you're seeing in that image is just a mash up of the elements I created - if your game ever looks like that while you're playing log a bug report!!

When the trailer for the new Star Wars movie dropped I became fixated on the refreshed design of the Stormtrooper helmets. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I've always really loved the look of the Stormtrooper uniforms and this new version is (IMO) the best looking so far. So, I got a bee in my bonnet about doing an illustration of one... so I did. When I posted it online the suggestion was made to do a set of images. So I followed the trooper up with an illustration of C3PO (without his outer casing) and Janga Fett, and then printed up a set at 8"x8" and framed them for a 6 year old Star Wars nut that I know... Which inspired me to make a set of cute Raa-Raa characters for his (almost) 2 year old brother.

Then I got stuck into a set that was pretty much for my own pleasure. A set of three Marvel character masks: Peter Quill's breather mask (StarLord), Tony Stark's mark 42 Iron Man helmet, and whatever version of Hank Pym/Scott Lang's helmet it is that appears in the Ant-Man trailer.

Now I'm embarking on another set of images, Cyborgs. This is a huge challenge for me as I've never really been much good at illustrating human features, particularly in the style that I've developed over the last few years. It works well for UI element construction, but fleshy stuff... like, you know... people, are hard to make work when you're pretty much just using vector shapes and layer styles. However I'm pretty happy with the progress so far. I've only completed RoboCop, but I'm well on the way with a Terminator illustration as the next one (I actually started it first) - the third cyborg in this set will be Locutus of Borg, because why not make it really hard on myself!

It's amazing how much I feel that my techniques have improved simply by smashing these out as quickly as I can (as time permits). I hope to crank out a few more sets over the next few weeks, etc - unless paid work comes my way, and then it'll be back to focusing on getting bills paid. 

Another gamebook that I've been lucky enough to work with the ace people at TinMan Games on, is 'The Complete Sagas of Fire*Wolf' - I really enjoyed working on this one, there were a few UI differences from the UI employed by TMG's classic gamebook engine (as opposed to the one used in Appointment with F.E.A.R, which I'll post about soon!), predominately in the combat set up. When the combat system was initially explained to me I think I had a nose bleed. It was incredibly complex and would have been very very hard for the player to follow... let alone enjoy (IMO), but fortunately Ben Britten stepped in and offered some advice to Clinton and the combat immediately began to take shape.

We decided to display the combat in a narrative fashion, using 'cards' to indicate the player's (and enemy's) actions.

The images you see above are of my original mock-ups. A lot was changed before release, mostly due to technical limitations. And you won't see the pages ever look like that in game - I've thrown a bunch of different combat cards onto that second image because there's a hell of a lot of art that you'd miss out on (and still are) if it were just the three cards that you see during combat.

And that top image, well I've thrown everything but the kitchen sink at it!

The gamebook I'm currently working on is ice and snow themed, so after Lizard King and Fire Wolf it makes a nice change not to be spending my days looking at so much brown!

For the last few weeks I've been working with the awesome gang at TinMan Games, doing some UI element work on their latest gamebook release Ian Livingstone's "Island of the Lizard King."

Tinman have had some amazing UI art created for them in the past, which I took as a personal challenge to a) create everything myself from scratch, and b) fly into a blind panic realising that my stuff had to stand next to all that beautiful work that's come before it.

The image above contains some of the work I created for them, the tear in the page (which sadly didn't make it into the release version of the game) was my attempt at a tip of my hat at those previous UI artists - each layer of the tear is actually a page from a previous gamebook.

I'm extremely proud of the work that I've done for Island of the Lizard King - particularly the map, and some of the achievements - but to see all of that you're just going to have to grab a copy of the game yourself - which you totally should, because I just told you to and it's great fun!

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fighting-fantasy-island-lizard/id772291091?mt=8

Now that Roberto has released @pocketdogfights I feel like I can show some of the art that I created for it in a slightly higher resolution. These pieces aren't final versions, so what's in game differs slightly in some cases - Rob chose to go with the lighter version of the icon (rightfully so) but I'm still a fan of the earlier dark denim version.