Cow Abduct!: A Games for Gummie and Hooby Groovy Collaboration

Once again, I got a chance to work with the brilliant Games for Gummie on another iPhone game! This time, it's a cute, simple game called Cow Abduct! And it is available for free on the App Store so if you have an iPhone, do check it out! :)

Instead of cutting characters out of felt, this time around was more traditional game art. There were 3 main assets that I needed to create: the UFO, the cows and the birds. I started out with heaps of rough concepts which I then showed to Games for Gummie to get feedback and direction:

Once the look of the cows/birds/UFO was okayed, I'd draw up the final version and ink it. Then I scanned it and coloured it up in Photoshop. 

We decided to go for a cute, cartoony, colour-blocked kind of look. As in the case of Shuriken Chicken, the assets appear really small on the iPhone screen so again, I had to rely on obvious shapes and simple colours to make the assets pop and look like what they're meant to look like. My favourite were the birds:

The other assets I had to make were feathers and smoke to be used as particles for when a bird was shot or when the UFO goes down. So watch out for those too in the game! :)

Anyway, here's what the game looks like:

And here's what its all about, as taken from the App Store Description:

Peter the Martian has travelled to Earth in his trusty UFO to do some scientific research. But, he has just found out that he miscalculated the amount of fuel he would burn in Earth's atmosphere. His UFO is running out of fuel fast, but luckily, he has discovered that he can fuel his UFO with cows!!

Help Peter keep his UFO in the air as long as possible by abducting cows to keep his fuel level up. Be careful of those pesky birds though, zap them before they hit Peter's UFO or they will drain some fuel on impact.

Gameplay is simple, yet so fun! Press and hold a cow to abduct it, and tap birds to zap them out of the sky. Compete with friends, and the world with Game Center leader board support and see who can keep Peter the Martian in the air as long as possible!

Cow Abduct! is advertising supported.
You can disable advertising by supporting indie game developer Games for Gummie with an in-app purchase.

At the moment, I'm #4 on the Game Center Leaderboards, which I'm rather proud of. :) Do check out Cow Abduct! and let me know what you think of it and see if you can beat my best time of 2:12:13! ;)

And if you haven't yet had a look at the first game collaboration that I did with Games for Gummie, check that out too, it's called Shuriken Chicken and it's also out on App Store right now!

Custom Creations: Folio-Style Panda iPad Case

I've had quite a few custom orders come up lately, one of which was for a Panda iPad Case, but instead of a sleeve, my customer wanted a folio-style case instead. 

Right off, I will admit that this was the toughest challenge I've ever faced so far since I started up Hooby Groovy in 2010. Most custom orders I've had were design challenges. This, on the other hand, was mainly a construction challenge. And it had all to do with how to hold the iPad within the case. 

I spent quite a bit of time researching what other folio type cases did to hold the iPad within and came up with one big fat realisation about what they all had in common. All these cases had inside holder units that were made of leather and were factory shaped/manufactured. I don't work with leather and don't have a factory. (Though sometimes I like to pretend to feel like a factory!)

So I started experimenting with how to do this folio case my way, using the materials and skills that I had. The fitting was really difficult to get right and it didn't take long before I had a pile of failed holder units. The problem is that felt is pretty flexible, which is awesome in most cases but not in this case. I really needed it to be rigid and hold its form. So I had to figure out a way to line it to get it to be more solid. The other problem with felt in this case is that its very thick. And though I mentioned that its flexible, it's thickness makes it not flexible enough at the same time too, which made sewing all the pieces together really difficult! I don't think I've ever embarked on any sewing project that had me using my bicep muscles just to hold pieces down or out of the way of the needle. Who needs the gym or weights when you can have a sewing machine and some stubborn pieces of felt!

Anyway, after many failed attempts and a whole lot more thinking sessions during showers, drives, walks and restless nights, I finally managed to create a holder with just the right dimensions and proportions. It's large enough to hold the iPad within without collapsing onto itself due to the flexibility of the material, yet not so large that it's as if you're carrying an iPad in a suitcase. It's also got all the holes needed for all cables and access to all buttons and cameras.

As for the outer Panda bit, I utilised one of the Panda arms as the closure tab to secure the case when closed. The case is slightly bigger than my usual Panda sleeve cases but not by much. It's quite a lot thicker though due to the holder unit. There's also a pocket on the inside cover, in addition to the usual back pocket. 

Overall, I'm quite proud of this creation. It truly was very hard work and very challenging, but the amount of knowledge that I acquired through this process is invaluable! Not to mention, I now have more bicep muscles. I should capitalise on this Panda Folio Case Fitness Regime: Build your Bicep Muscles...and an iPad Case! :)

A Bling Photoshoot

Last week, I got a chance to help out in a "Bling" photoshoot. My husband needed to get some portraits done for his photography portfolio and wanted a look that featured lots of bling and makeup. Right up my alley, because I love bling and I love makeup. :) My first thoughts went to clubbing but beyond the word clubbing, I drew a blank because I don't go clubbing, don't own clubbing clothes and don't really know what clubbing makeup is. So I analysed why and when I like bling and I realised that it was when (and because) it was over the top but not tacky. Which led my headspace into thinking about Marie Antoinette and about being so decadent to the point of over-indulgence. And I knew that's the way I wanted to go with this look. 

So basically, I wanted a look whereby I would have heaps of jewelry piled on and over the top makeup too. But I didn't want to take it too far that it would look tacky. For the short amount of time that I had to prepare and also the non-existent pre-prepare time, I think I managed to achieve what I set out to do. If I had more time (and hair or a wig), I would have like to attempt a sort of modern Marie Antoinette style hair. Or prepare a fancier garment. Alas, I had to just make do with what I had on hand at home. Luckily, I do have a fair amount of very chunky and quite blingy jewelry and blingy false lashes. 

I really do admire all those beauty bloggers out there who do this kinda thing on a really regular basis and come up with the most amazing looks. My tiny attempt took almost an entire night to do. If I were to push it fully, I would have needed way more time! Hair, nails, costume and way more planning, thoughts and trials into the makeup and jewelry. Its a lot of work and dedication so I really do kowtow to all you beauty bloggers out there!

Custom Creations: Darth Vader iPad Case

I got a chance to create another Star Wars-themed iPad Case recently. An old friend of mine ordered a Darth Vader iPad Case for her husband's birthday. 

Darth Vader was actually quite a challenge! For one thing, his helmet is just all black and is actually quite complex and very 3 dimensional. So I had to figure out a way to flatten it while still maintaining its look. 

So I thought instead of all black, I'd use a dark grey and black to play up the highlights and shadows to create the features of Darth Vader's helmet. Here's how it turned out:

Overall, I'm quite happy with it, I think it still maintains the Darth Vader look, while still being the shape it needs to be to fit an iPad Case without being too big and bulky to carry. 

Daily Sketch: My Mum Has Mad Skills - 13 May 2012

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there! I wanted to draw something mother-related and my first idea was ducks after seeing a row of rubber ducks on the side of the bathtub. But then, I thought that I really don't know what duck mums are like and I wanted today's sketch to be more personal. 

So I thought about all my childhood memories with my mum and thought I'd draw some poignant memory picture. There was a time, for a few years where both my elder sisters were studying overseas and I was the only child left in the house so I had to take on many new household chores. One was following my mum to the market and helping with carrying groceries. So every couple of times a week, she would pick me up from school and we'd head to the market. I hated those days with a vengeance!!!

If you've never been to an asian wet market, it is wet and smelly and slippery and dirty. And through my childhood of following my mum to the markets, I actually had many nightmares about slipping and falling onto the wet floors of the market. So everytime I'm there, I walk really, really carefully. I watch the ground like a hawk, pick a safe spot to put my foot and then make sure I'm fully stable on that foot before lifting my other foot. Very, very slow work as you'd expect. Almost snail like during the times when my school shoes were worn out and naturally slippery on their own. 

My mum however, she'd just power through, weaving through the crowds, dodging the splashes of water from the fishmongers, and all this in flip flops. If you liken the wet and slippery fishmonger aisle to a highway with fast flowing traffic, my mum is the punk teenage driver that just got himself a driver's licence and a car with a turbocharger. I however, would be the little old lady in the vintage piece of junk driving at 15km/hr while hogging 2 lanes. 

When I was young, I thought her awesome market manouvering skills were due to age. But now that I'm much older, I'm pretty sure its something that kicks in from all that childbirthing hormones. I certainly still harbour that extreme market floor fear but if I ever become a mother, maybe the love for my children and the need to feed them good nutritious food will transform me into the Road Runner of asian markets. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mummy! I love you very much but I still hate going to the market with you. :p