I’ve not been feeling too great the past couple of weeks and so I needed something fairly simple to ease myself back into things. Seens as I’ve been hovering around Vortex games anyway at the moment, Revolution seemed like a nice, easy-enough candidate to take a shot at. It’s mostly grid! I like grids.
Not much to say about the game itself. Always liked its isometric graphics and with the distinctive Costa Panayi touch to it all, it really did look the part but, mmmm, yeah. It never grabbed me. I just enjoyed bouncing around a bit and that was it. None of you will be surprised to find out just how much entertainment I can squeeze out of that though. More than most could or would, I’d say.
Based on the cover art for Vortex’s (excellent) videogame, Alien Highway, my original intent was to have a pop at my own take and try to keep the same vibes but less intensely green.
Unfortunately, I got so far with things then when it came to adding the Vorton (a curiously Dalek like robot that pushes mines down roads in space) found myself hesitating. Not because there would be anything especially stressful about drawing a Vorton but I just kind of liked how things looked without it and so here we are.
It’s been a few weeks now and whilst I may yet find myself tempted, for now I think I’m going to have to concede that it’s not very likely I’ll go much further on this one.
A good chum of mine is working on an absolutely beautiful arcade game right now. I adored the first My Nuclear Octopus but Jeff’s got the follow up on another level, it’s the full Minter. Have a look at this work in progress video! It’s glorious!
I’m not kidding when I say I love the original and well, you know what I’m like when it comes to cosmic aquatic beasties with lasers anyway. So yeah, I can only apologise as yes, that ridiculous comic strip in the intro was written and drawn by me (narrated, thankfully, by Jeff).
This is the original version, which I had to tweak a little bit so Jeff could use it in game. It was drawn, originally, as fan art but I’m happy to say that it’s made its way into the game. I adore so many forties sci-fi comics and I freely admit, I spend way too much time drawing my own versions for fun (I’ve got a handful of Death Ray Manta and SYNSO ones I’ve doodled for my own amusement as well) so I’m made up that one has finally managed to unexpectedly sneak its way into an actual videogame.
I did offer up another version to Jeff, which rather than have it never see the light of day, is featured here too. Again, this was doodled primarily for my own amusement only instead of a forties pastiche, I was aiming more for a late seventies/early eighties comic strip advert thing. Both were cracking fun to do.
The Key Art (or cover art, if you’re old fashioned like me)
I’ve been contributing a few bits of cover art here and there recently for games and whilst I’m nowhere near on the same level as … well, most people whose cover art I admire … I am at least enjoying myself in the process regardless.
Unlike with the comic strip which has only just really found its way into the game, Jeff asked me pretty early on in development to contribute the box art. At this point, Jeff hadn’t worked in many of the cast of characters you’ll see in the game now so I did my best at bringing the couple he had done into the piece. I was largely thinking of 16 bit software box art for this one, pushing myself out of my usual “dodgy cassette art” comfort zone.
A couple of things didn’t make the cut into the final key art as Jeff didn’t fancy his octopus having a big clownlike red nose and felt the eyeball didn’t look eyeball-ish enough so I tweaked those to fit. As is pretty common with key art now, it was fired over to Jeff so they could easily move parts around to fit the multitude of different image sizes stores require these days, along with an octopus with no nose (how does he smell? – Ed) and the required tweaks to the eyeball.
The final arrangements on the store pages and logo are Jeffs work as I try and avoid having to do logos myself as I’m pretty garbage at the things. I really like how it all turned out under Jeff’s steady hand too!
Now I just have to wait for Jeff to wrap the game up, As ever, these things take time but I’m grateful to have been able to contribute a few small things along the way to help it all along.
