At GDC 2009 we had chance to sit down with Engineous Games and have a look at their in-development iPhone game construction set, Sketch Nation Shooter. The system was in a very early stage back then and has evolved notably, since. We posted a demo video the developers released back in December.
Here at GDC 2010 a year later we had a chance to meet up with the developer once again and were shown a rather impressive demo of the app in its current state, in which he created a simple game in under two minutes and took us through the paces of several more complex games. Once created, users can share their games with other players online through their Facebook login and compare global high scores.
Read more.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
GDC Preview from Touch Arcade!
Hands-On Preview from Slide to Play
Should you think 2D shooters has been executed in every possible way, Engineous Games wants you to think again. Sketch Nation Shooter isn’t about having you play a predetermined set of levels created by the developers. Sure, that element is there, but the crux of this experience is based on providing users the playground to deliver their own visions and sharing them with the world.
You’d have to look to console games like Little Big Planet or ModNation Racers to grasp the ambition of Sketch Nation Shooter. But unlike those games, the creation tools here aren’t nearly as complicated to use. Depending on how in-depth you’d want to get, Sketch Nation Shooter allows you to import intro graphics, level layouts, and assets for characters and enemies. Using the iPhone’s camera, you can take a snapshot of an image you’ve drawn and, within seconds, it can become a real asset in your game.
Read more.
GDC Preview from Touch Gen!
If you can draw it, you can shoot it!I am quite excited to be able to speak openly about Sketch Nation Shooter to you all. This is a game that I was fortunate enough to catch over a year ago at a summit in San Francisco, but couldn’t say a word about! It was the most unique game at the show then, and now, a year later, is filled with more awesome than ever. It was painful to hold back my gushing on the podcast, but now I can gush all I want! (ew)
Read more.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
You’re the Designer in Engineous Games’ Sketch Nation Shooter for iPhone and iPod Touch
Photograph Hand-drawn Art and Watch Your Drawings Come to Life!
Mountain View, Calif. - February 25, 2010
Engineous Games today unveiled Sketch Nation Shooter, a creative, revolutionary game for the iPhone and iPod Touch where users fill the game world with their own custom art. Sketch Nation Shooter features a revolutionary image recognition technology that imports the player’s artwork as interactive sprites. Players can also customize their own levels with unique enemies, bosses and environments, and share them with friends via the Sketch Nation network. In Sketch Nation Shooter you are the player and the designer. Keep an eye out for Sketch Nation Shooter as it launches to the App Store in early April 2010.
“Sketch Nation Shooter takes the 2D shooter genre to a new level with robust customization features and image recognition technology that brings your hand-drawn art to life,” Said Nitzan Wilnai, CEO of Engineous Games. “The social aspect of the game is ground breaking by allowing users to share the games they have created with their friends, making it a truly social experience. With Sketch Nation Shooter, your imagination is the only limitation.”
Hand-drawn player and enemy sprites is just the tip of the iceberg as players can customize nearly every aspect of a shooter campaign, including levels, bosses, power up locations, enemy flight patterns and so much more. Once you’ve made the best shooter ever, share your creation with your friends using Sketch Nation Shooter's built-in social networking features. The Sketch Nation network let’s players share custom levels with one-another – players can browse, download, and rate games made by others.
When you buy Sketch Nation Shooter, you’re not buying one game; you’re buying hundreds, if not thousands of games, all uniquely customized with hand-drawn art from fans across the world.
For more information about Sketch Nation Shooter, including news, game updates and footage of the game, visit: http://blog.sketchnation.com/
To download a Press Kit with screenshots and a fact sheet for Sketch Nation Shooter, click on this link: www.triplepointpr.com/dl/Engineous/Press_Kit.zip
“Sketch Nation Shooter takes the 2D shooter genre to a new level with robust customization features and image recognition technology that brings your hand-drawn art to life,” Said Nitzan Wilnai, CEO of Engineous Games. “The social aspect of the game is ground breaking by allowing users to share the games they have created with their friends, making it a truly social experience. With Sketch Nation Shooter, your imagination is the only limitation.”
Hand-drawn player and enemy sprites is just the tip of the iceberg as players can customize nearly every aspect of a shooter campaign, including levels, bosses, power up locations, enemy flight patterns and so much more. Once you’ve made the best shooter ever, share your creation with your friends using Sketch Nation Shooter's built-in social networking features. The Sketch Nation network let’s players share custom levels with one-another – players can browse, download, and rate games made by others.
When you buy Sketch Nation Shooter, you’re not buying one game; you’re buying hundreds, if not thousands of games, all uniquely customized with hand-drawn art from fans across the world.
For more information about Sketch Nation Shooter, including news, game updates and footage of the game, visit: http://blog.sketchnation.com/
To download a Press Kit with screenshots and a fact sheet for Sketch Nation Shooter, click on this link: www.triplepointpr.com/dl/Engineous/Press_Kit.zip
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About Engineous Games Inc.
In June of 2008 Engineous Games Inc. was formed to begin development on mobile titles. Their first game Tatomic, was launched in October 2008. Their second game, Sketch Nation Shooter is due to release in early April of 2010. Sketch Nation Shooter was the winner of AppsFire App Star Award in the games category.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Interview with AppsFire.com
My interview with AppsFire.com is up. Listen to it here:
http://blog.appsfire.com/firecast-interview-with-sketchnation-app-star-0
http://blog.appsfire.com/firecast-interview-with-sketchnation-app-star-0
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Image Reconition Examples
Here are some image recognition examples of drawings processed by Sketch Nation Shooter.
The first is a colored drawing taken in bad lighting conditions, on a crumpled piece of paper. As you can see the game detected the object and removed the background. The game converts colored drawings to black and white. The photo was taken on an iPhone 2G.
The second drawing was taken using indoor lighting, also on an iPhone 2G.
This third drawing was actually created using the Sketchbook app, exported to the photo library and then loaded into the game.
Sketchbook (and similar drawing apps) can be used to create assets for the game, but it is not recommended to use them for creating levels. Levels need to be at least 1200x1600 resolution to look proper in the game. Sketchbook outputs at a much lower resolution which will result in the levels being up-scaled in the game.
The first is a colored drawing taken in bad lighting conditions, on a crumpled piece of paper. As you can see the game detected the object and removed the background. The game converts colored drawings to black and white. The photo was taken on an iPhone 2G.
The second drawing was taken using indoor lighting, also on an iPhone 2G.
This third drawing was actually created using the Sketchbook app, exported to the photo library and then loaded into the game.
Sketchbook (and similar drawing apps) can be used to create assets for the game, but it is not recommended to use them for creating levels. Levels need to be at least 1200x1600 resolution to look proper in the game. Sketchbook outputs at a much lower resolution which will result in the levels being up-scaled in the game.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Touch Arcade Article
We were quite impressed with the image capture technology in the game that we saw and feel sure that iPhone gamers will have a good time experimenting with this one when it hits the App Store early next year.http://toucharcade.com/2009/12/12/youre-the-designer-in-upcoming-sketch-nation-shooter/
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