Tuesday 16 June 2009

In Development - Concept Sketches

Here are a few sketches from iBomber artist Colin Gordon, for a new game currently in pre-production, with more to come.

Monday 8 June 2009

Numba is back on the App Store!

Numba, our successful 'match numbers game', has just been re-released for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Originally published by I-play, Numba is now self published by Cobra, and it's a steal at $1.99!
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318176575&mt=8


All Art by Colin Gordon.

Thursday 4 June 2009

Evolution of a Logo

When Cobra started, one of the first briefs handed out was for a company logo. The brief went something like this; the logo needs to be adaptable and stylish, abstract and bold, and has to work in a single colour. The logo had to straddle both corporate and games worlds. Carrie Guthrie set to work sketching out ideas, these are just a few from her sketchbook.
The finished logo was sharp and completely filled the brief. It has proven itself to be a very versatile insignia.
As we were originally producing games for mobile phones, we were cursed by ridiculously small jar sizes, and the flat, single colour logo worked perfectly on splash screens that had to be 'crunched' down in size for the smallest of handsets. As the phones got better we experimented with the logo. Mark Brown tooned it up a little.
As we became established in the mobile sector, I decided that there was no need to be precious with the logo and that where possible it should be themed to the game. Mark Brown created a pink and powerpuffy splash for Powerpuff Girls - Mojo Madness. The blue reflected logo was used for Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines and segued seamlessly into a blue sky cut scene..

Once production began on iPhone Apps, we were able to animate our logo and have a lot more fun with it. Colin Gordon produced an animated splash that made its debut in numba, then LEGO Batman: Gotham City Games.
It was then suitably blinged up, in the worst possible taste, for Zombie Chav Hunt.
Colin then themed it perfectly to fit iBomber.
Mark created a suitably retro and very British logo for Dam Buster.
For Mouse About Mark created a cool Looney Tunes homage where the logo became a cheese. He also reworked the animated logo for the limited release of Nose About for Comic Relief and Stuck Genie.


Carrie has since produced this polished logo for use in our Trailers.


And there you have some of the key moments in the ongoing evolution of a logo.

Tuesday 2 June 2009