fatBOX Software

Polynurb · Feb 2011

I've started my own small studio here in Florida and will be documenting the entire process of developing a new iOS title. I have set up a new Facebook page, a Youtube page for video tutorials on developing assets/workflow and a Wordpress blog to kind of compile all of this progress onto one blog. Please feel free to check it out and follow the process.

fatBOX on Facebook

fatBOX on Youtube

Polynurb · Feb 2011

oops, forgot to throw in the link to the Wordpress blog.

fatBOX on Wordpress

notman · Feb 2011

Cool. Good luck.

marks · Feb 2011

Awesome idea to document this. Best of luck!

Polynurb · Feb 2011

Thanks for the support guys. I did want to take the approach of documenting the whole process so I can learn from my mistakes....as well as learn what I did right at the same time. I wanted to pass that on to other iOS indie developers.

brandoom · Feb 2011

Great Idea for sure. I'll be following it. Any idea how often you plan to update us?

Also, where did the name fatBOX come from? Just curious

Habboi · Feb 2011

Cool, I'll be following.

Polynurb · Feb 2011

I plan on posting up updates daily, if I have an extremely busy day of production it would be two days for an update at the most. It does require setting aside about an hour each day, firstly to compose videos for Youtube, to take some screenshots, and to update all the social sites. The name fatBOX...well it may sound strange but I was researching names for game producing companies. I always really liked the company name Gearbox. It, of course is taken, so I looked into something related to fitting things into a confined space. To me, in my mind, the iPhone is very powerful, but it's still a small confined space...and you have to fit as much as you can into it without breaking a build, killing frame rates or going over VRAM or something else. So here is where my train of thought got interesting...I just thought, wow if I had a big box I could fit alot into it....and at that point I thought of the principle of putting as much into something as it could possibly hold! I didn't like the sound of Big Box as much as Fat Box. That's really the story behind the name.

Polynurb · Mar 2011

Work in progress on some title menu icons. I created some roughly in Photoshop to make a quick comp (you can see on lower portion of image). Today I took the raster comp into Illustrator and finished up making some vector versions. Maintaining vector file versions is always a good idea depending on what devices and resolutions you might be tackling.

flaagan · Mar 2011

Gonna keep an eye on this. I'll probably shoot you a few questions once I get home and I'm on my personal system.

Revel · Mar 2011

I always interested to se the documentation of creating things and keep an eye on this!
Btw, your studio logo kinda remind me of Abstergo Industries from Assassin's Creed world and also the color too Dropbox-ish (you also notice the Abstergo use the baby blue color too, you might want to rethink about that if possible).
Cheers.

_Revel

ZacD · Mar 2011

should the fatbox logo be a fat box or something? :P
I gotta keep on eye on this as well.

Polynurb · Mar 2011

Hey everyone. Good to hear from folks. I don't think I'm going to be changing the logo at this juncture. The logo in AC isn't for a real company and it's definitely laid out differently than mine...I did look into that once I read this and I don't think anyone will confuse my iPhone game studio with that. As for the last point, the design is the corner of a large box, it's where the walls all meet at a corner! I don't really know what dropbox is, but sounds like we share using the color blue? That doesn't worry too much either... either way thanks for the info!

Revel · Mar 2011

Yes I know your logo is not exactly same as the AC's one and fit the fatBox name as it "extended" from the each side of the box to become large in a convenient little box (like what you said; a mobile phone). Anyway just want to let you know up ahead, and good luck with the new born studio! Looking forward for the updates

_Revel

Polynurb · Mar 2011

This is the initial truck illustration for the main title menu. The blue truck at the top of the image is the actual vector file that will overlay on the title menu. The red truck on the lower left is the photographic reference, used to basically trace the larger shapes. To the lower right is the Illustrator wireframe of the illustration thus far. The illustration is now about 80% completed.

Title_Menu_Truck.png?t=1299490068

BoBo_the_seal · Mar 2011

Polynurb wrote: »

The name fatBOX...well it may sound strange but I was researching names for game producing companies. I always really liked the company name Gearbox. It, of course is taken, so I looked into something related to fitting things into a confined space. To me, in my mind, the iPhone is very powerful, but it's still a small confined space...and you have to fit as much as you can into it without breaking a build, killing frame rates or going over VRAM or something else. So here is where my train of thought got interesting...I just thought, wow if I had a big box I could fit alot into it....and at that point I thought of the principle of putting as much into something as it could possibly hold! I didn't like the sound of Big Box as much as Fat Box. That's really the story behind the name.

HAHAHA I love the long explanation ... just make your mascot a fat cat

In all seriousness, good luck with it!

- BoBo

Polynurb · Mar 2011

I’ve completed the modeling of the first driveable vehicle! Now on to texturing! I overshot my 1200 triangle limit by about 30 tris. During alpha I will more than likely be trimming the polygon counts for models and the environments to help with performance, so I’m moving forward.

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGk3zLA_DNg[/ame]

Polynurb · Mar 2011

Guys I hope you're subscribed because I put up about 15 new models today! I even added in new thumbnail previews so you can see the file (textured or not) before you decide to download it!

Here is a preview of the models I added up today: (BTW Polycount will not allow me to embed all of the images here...gives an error about too many images in the post)

http://www.facebook.com/fatBOXSoftware

Polynurb · Mar 2011

I added up some new free assets this morning....I thought I would share the tree models and textures with the community in here. They are generally mobile spec, but could be reduced most definitely. If you look into the assets you will see a new Pine Tree LOD set that I've put up as well. It actually consists of a LOD0 model (hero/closeup) and an LOD1 (far off on the mountain)...the LOD1 is really a side render of the LOD0 (rendered with alpha channel) and then that alpha texture applied to about 4-8 planes of geometry. It's a neat technique and I used it on some of my work on the Wii with great results. These are 4 screens of some trees, but I uploaded other assets such as a Pine Tree and a neat looking Victorian type Lamppost model/texture. I hope folks enjoy!

As always follow the link to access the models: www.facebook.com/fatBOXSoftware

Polynurb · Mar 2011

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNLI6rInoY[/ame]

Click the image to follow the link, to take a peek at the progress on the UI. It's static previs UI at the moment, but the pixel resolution and placement is accurate.

xvampire · Mar 2011

woot follow follow

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2011

Awesome James! Best of luck with things. Looks like it's coming out well.

Polynurb · Feb 2013

I still need you guy's help on the Super Kart development campaign. SKR is what became of these early tests with the vehicle physics.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754
There's also good incentives for getting some cool art assets dirt cheap! More than 50% off.
Here's a sample of one:

Email me for more details at:

jamesarndt@superkartracing.com

Polynurb · Feb 2013

Hit that $1,000 mark this morning! Help me take this campaign all the way! Reaching out to my fellow Unity developers.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

Polynurb · Feb 2013

Still two days away from halfway in the campaign, but really need the help with this one.
It's very close to my heart and I need your help seeing it get there. I don't need to
meet the entire end goal to be able to make this game (using Flexible Funding Option on
Indiegogo) so I'm in a good position! I just need every bit I can muster to pay for the
plugins/software needed and audio/artwork services.

If you've contributed, please disregard this or help pass it on elsewhere on the web if
you can. Some of you have done more than I could have ever expected and for that I'm very thankful!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

Polynurb · Feb 2013

Super Kart Racing is gaining traction! I need kind souls to assist a fellow indie developer fund the development of this game. I'm not asking for something for nothing though, check out some of the perks. I think the coolest one is your ability to brand the levels with your own logo, web URL, image or whatever you can think of that isn't offensive or vulgar.

If you've contributed, please disregard this or help pass it on elsewhere on the web if
you can. Some of you have done more than I could have ever expected and for that I'm very thankful!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

fatBOX Software

Replies