BooShoo Tush – A head on her shoulders and an ear to the ground

Meet Fritz Dandy, a bumbling well-to-do ladies man

What is Plum Nut?

For the past few years I’ve wanted to release Plum Nut for the holidays.Well, the time has finally come, and i’ll have a bit more information as we get closer to Christmas.

The games Nimian Hunter, Nimian Flyer Legends and Nimian Garden all have one thing in common: The world of Nimia.

I’ve launched a new website to celebrate it: http://NimiaWorld.com

It’s an interactive map that describes the Nimia (it’s a continent actually) and the world around it. There are some surprises coming up for it as well, including the soon to be launched Nimian Hunter Salvation game for iPhone. Here’s a few screenshots of the new site. Try it on iPad too

Map of Nimia

A few new screenshots showing off the new Bow and Arrow and a few new locations

I caved in and bought Diablo 3 for my Mac Book Air.

The art direction and artwork is so well done, I was convinced I should take a closer look.

I started the installation with 19gb free space – the installer says I need 15.1gb free. The installation kept failing saying I don’t have enough hard drive space.

whuh?

The solution is that you need at least 5gb free in addition to the installation space. I freed up 21gb and installation is proceeding smoothly.

Hope this helps someone.

The story in Nimian Hunter Salvation is communicated to the player by ancient statues and a series of megaliths, giant standing stones with inscriptions on them that illustrate how the player can progress.

I decided to create very low poly rocks and give them a unique texture. The rocks themselves were created as low poly chamfer boxes – boxes with a beveled edge. Then the vertices were pushed and pulled, using reference material from stonehenge and other standing stones, until each had a unique look and shape. There are six stones in general. At first I was going to create 3 and duplicate them. But I decided that it would be more interesting if each stone told it’s own story and had it’s own shape. They are so low poly (50 vertex each) that it would not affect engine performance.

Simple objects need complex and rich textures to make them look interesting – the visual punch is in the texture. i find that it is always worth it to take some time and see what you can create texture wise. Not only will you end up with something uniquely you, it will often end up giving your creation a very rich and interesting appearence. My texture was created my layers, chopping, duplicating and overlaying many pictures of cracked rock, moss and stone. The texture was then made seamless in GIMP (goto filters > map > make seamless and voila!)

The UV maps control how the texture is placed on the object. I manipulated the UV map – rotating them, enlarging them – to try to hide seams in the texture and create some texture variation between stones. I wanted to use only one texture and share it between the stones so that i could increase game performance (one texture is less intensive to render than many)

The final magaliths for the game

The final objects are collapsed (simplified into single objects) and exported as .fbx files for import into Unity 3d.

Visit the Nimian Hunter Salvation Facebook page to see what they look like in the game:

http://facebook.com/nimianhunter

After much deliberation I have the final logo and name for the Nimian Hunter sequel. Introducing Nimian Hunter Salvation:

and a few new screenshots to celebrate – including one from the games opening scene:

These armored creatures are the first designed for Nimain Hunter Salvation. they’re based on Baedul, a giant earth-cracking beast that was featured in my earlier game Nimian Hunter Legends. These creatures are her descendants.

These walking shells are docile, dissolving plant food which they suck up through a strawlike tongue. But threatened mothers are fiercely protective of their young

Part of the game design process is coming up with a name, and while I know full well what a MENTIPEDE is, most people wont. After talking with a friend of mine, I’ve decided to try some more dramatic thematic names for Nimian Hunter. Here’s some pics:

I’m leaning towards SALVATION – it has that Assassin’s Creed Revelations feel to it and might resonate more with the action gamer. Salvation is also a strong theme in the game – as a Hunter tasked with changing the balance of life on a remote island.

Aside from the name this is the near final logo. Nimia, the fantasy world that Nimian Hunter is set in, has a motif of plants/life growing/cracking through the stone – life from death. I’ve continued that concept in the logo.

The plants are form photos I took in St Annes, west of Montreal, during a sunny bike ride. When i took them i didn’t know if I’d use them for anything – I just thought they’d look beautiful.Snap those photos – you never know when a texture will come in handy.

The background is a mix of many rock textures, a photoshop created crack (using a stroked path and bevels) and a beautiful rock photo by coVasderooH. you can see more of her beautiful work here: http://covasderooh.deviantart.com/