tinywars game

TinyWars Fan Art Competition 2016 Now Open! [CLOSED!}

TinyWars Fan Art Competition 2016 Now Open! [CLOSED!} 1365 1512 andrew

UPDATE: The Contest is now over, thank you to everyone who entered! View the submissions here: http://tinywars-artwork.deviantart.com/gallery/60134934/2016-Fan-Art-Contest-CLOSED

Be sure to follow us for future contest!

 

We have received a lot of amazing fan art since we began development of the TinyWars project. We figured we should give back to the community that has made this project so much fun to be a part of.


HOW TO ENTER

  1. Submit your artwork to the TinyWars Official DeviantArt group. You can do this by uploading the artwork to your DeviantArt account and adding it to the DeviantArt group after it has been successfully uploaded to your account.
    How to enter
    In the sidebar of your DeviantArt deviation, you can select “add to a group” and find the TinyWars official Art Group called: “TinyWars-Artwork”
    Please make sure you select the proper folder to submit to: 2016 Fan Art Contest
  2. IMPORTANT: Make sure you include “TinyWars” somewhere in the title of the submission so it can be easily found. In the description also include: “Submission for the TinyWars 2016 Fan Art Competition. For more information click here: https://tinywarsgame.com/2016/08/26/tinywars-fan-art-competition-2016-now-open/”
  3. Click here to see the DeviantArt group
    tinywars-artwork
  4. You can submit one fan art per day to the group! Artwork must be created during the submission period, no old artwork. (In order to be fair for artists of all skill levels, everyone should create the artwork within the same time frame.)
  5. LIKE us on Facebook or sign up for our Newsletter to be notified when the winners are announced!

5 WINNERS!

In order to encourage participation, there will be 5 total winners for this contest! This way more artists can have a chance at winning the prizes. Of course we will have a category for the best overall artwork, however there will be other categories that one can not simply win by having the “best” art skills.

Winner Categories

1. Best Overall Artwork

Several members from the TinyWars artwork team will judge the submissions and select the one that contains the best overall display of artistic ability and skill. There will only be one (1) winner in this category.

2. Best Fit for the “Tiny” Theme

TinyWars isn’t just about cute girls, but cute girls who are tiny! Artwork which integrates with the theme of “tiny” and successfully shows an understanding of the core themes of TinyWars will be eligible for this category. There will only be two (2) winners from this category.

3. Most Unique Style

A submission which demonstrates a clear use of unique style, from hand drawn artwork to a stylistic approach, not all fan arts need to be “anime style.” A submission that clearly demonstrates stylistic mastery will be eligible for this category.  There will only be one (1) winner from this category.

4. Creators Pick

The creator of TinyWars will personally view and select a submission that has not been chosen in the previous categories as the fifth and final winner. There will only be one (1) winner from this category.

The Prize

Scroll up front - Copy

Each winner will receive one limited edition Amy wallscroll!


References and Resources

Name of the Characters From Left to Right

Characters Show Case 7 of 7

  1. Kim, 2. Amy, 3. Mary, 4. (Older Sister), 5. Suzu, 6. Kumo, and 7. Eve!

Submissions may contain more than one character, please feel free to use these reference images to better illustrate your fan art!

Kim References

face compare

Wallpaper V1 1080p

Character Description: Kim is a fire witch who uses a secret magic to produce fire attacks. Her wand is composed of what appears to be a ladybug attached to a hairpin, attached to a match stick. It seems as if whenever the ladybug flaps its wings, the match begins it ignite a powerful flame. Kim is a powerful, mischievous, and stunning witch. Her age is estimated to be between 16 – 18 years old.

Amy References

Candy Girl Poses CC

Candy Chibi Poster

Character Description: Amy is one of two sisters who live in the Candy Castle (Pictured below). She is a fun loving girl who has a lot to learn about the world, but her outlook is positive and happy. Her age is estimated anywhere between 14 – 16.

Sand Castle Final (Colored Brighter) 1080P

licensing

About the Candy Kingdom: The Candy Castle or Kingdom is a large (~2 feet) sand castle found new the ocean (pond). The servants of the Candy Castle are ants who gather candy from distant lands and hoard it in the candy castle candy room. The Kingdom sells these candies through the tiny world and produces its own candies in the castle.

Mary References

 

Mary White BGMary sketch side view

Mary Bow Poster V2 (Marked)

Character Description: Mary is the main character of TinyWars, she is the most important character in the game! Her story is a bit mysterious, however what we do know is that she is the leader of the group and she is very bossy. Sometimes she gets angry easily and can throw tempter tantrums, however for the most part she is very confident that she can take on the world, both tiny and the big world! Her age is estimated to be 16 years old.

Old Sister References

reference_sheet_by_hyanna_natsu-d9mcqyf modify

Character Description: Old Sister lives in the Candy Castle with her little sister, Amy.  She is often seen sleeping and lazing around while her little sister does all the work. She even gets the ants to bring things to her because she’s so lazy! Her age is estimated to be between 19 – 21 years old. She is in charge of defenses at the Candy Castle and operates a gumball canon. Why does this character not have a name? Because naming characters is really hard and she is not exactly a “main” character in this story.

Suzu References

Melee Girl Scythe CC

Melee Girl Reference Sheet JPEG

Character Description: Suzu is the oldest girl in the group. She is Mary’s guardian and sometimes acts as a motherly figure for all the girls. She is the most mature one in the group. Her melee attacks are very powerful! Her age is estimated to be between 23 – 26.

Kumo References

Potion Girl - Dark (marked) PNG

 

with without eye patch

Potion Girl - Reference Sheet - Copy

Character Description: Kumo is a mysterious potion maker who is found inside the walls of the House World (pictured below). Her button eye patch and her love for spiders makes her an interesting girl. However her years of living in seclusion in the House World has caused her to become an incredibly awkward girl. She is clumsy at times, socially awkward and shy, but once she gets in the mode to make potions, her true personality comes out.

Eve References

Eve with Wings JPEG

EveChibi - Colored White BG

Eve Reference Sheet JPEG

Character Description: Trouble maker.


Official Contest Rules, Terms & Conditions

  1. In no way is this competition sponsored by, or affiliated with DeviantArt, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform.
  2. There will be a total of five (5) unique winners. No single person may win more than once in this competition. (Has been extended to 7) 
  3. Users may submit more than one submission, however please limit submissions to once per day.
  4. We reserve the right to revoke an entry/entrant for any reason.
  5. Entrant agrees to license non-exclusively, the right for TinyWars (and Bizurk Software) to post on social media, announcements, website or any other media, and anywhere on the worldwide web, submissions made to this competition.
  6. Submissions must be submitted to the TinyWars-Artwork DeviantArt group.
  7. The submission entry period is 8/25/16 – 9/12/16. Submissions must be made before midnight on 9/12/16. (Has been extended to 9/19/16)
  8. In no way will TinyWars, its sponsors, affiliates, employees, owners or the aforementioned sponsors/promoters of this giveaway, members, affiliates, or any other organization be responsible for any loss of property, special or incidental damages, injury or death, arising from or relating to this giveaway/contest or the prize.
  9. Under no circumstance will anyone employed by or working under with the aforementioned sponsors, TinyWars, or promoters be eligible for winning a prize in this contest.
  10. Winner will be announced within 2 weeks after the end of the submission period. Winner is responsible for contacting us and claiming their prize.
  11. It is the responsibility of the entrant to check social media posts and announcements regarding this giveaway/contest, updates, and winner(s)
  12. If winner does not claim their prize, a new winner may be selected, or the prize may be distributed to someone else.
  13. Winner agrees to allow the host of the giveaway to announce his or her full real name on the web, public, or any other medium, so that the winner may claim his or her prize.
  14. Contest is open to United States residents as well as international entrants.
  15. If the cost to ship prize internationally exceeds the value of $6 USD, the winner may be asked to pay for the shipping of the prize. Shipping for United States residents will be free.
  16. The official contact page regarding all inquiries or prize claiming should be made here: https://tinywarsgame.com/contact/
  17. These rules may be subject to change without notice*

All Our Main Character Have Fan Art!

All Our Main Character Have Fan Art! 1920 712 andrew

Whooo this is really awesome, all of our main characters finally have at least 1 fan art! That is really, really cool. Honestly, this is something we would have never expected since the game, the demo, isn’t even released yet! It is so cool that we have managed to build an awesome fan base that interacts with us and I really hope we deliver an awesome product for you guys!

Here are the main girls:

Characters Show Case 7 of 7

From left to right: Kim, Amy, Mary, (Older Sister), Suzu, Kumo, and Eve.

Feel free to use this file for reference of the main characters!

Main Girls: Fan Art Edition!

Characters Show Case (Fan Art) JPEG

Artist credits from right to left: LaDollBlanche, Moriartea-Chan, Loliroripyon, Bunniikitty, Easoka, Lolitakitty1, DrawXAngel.

In a previous posting, we mentioned that Eve and Kumo were the only two characters who haven’t received any fan art yet. By some miracle both Eve and Kumo received fan arts the very next week! Really awesome!

There are more than these characters in TinyWars, but these are the main girls! There will be some side characters, villains, and monsters. You know we have succeeded when even the monsters from the game get fan art!

Bad Guy GIF

TinyWars Fan Art Competition

candy wall scroll tinywars wallscroll

Pictured above is a sample wallscroll mockup. We have ordered an actual wallscroll and once it arrives we’ll see the quality and everything. I really want to host some kind of art competition and giveaway. I want to give out a couple of wallscrolls and other prizes to people who make fan art for us.

This competition should be timed at some point before the demo will release, so we can build some traction before the demo launches! We have received a ton of positive feedback on our social media pages from fans who said they would totally enter a fan art competition!

There is no official competition dates or deadlines yet, will post an update when the wallscroll arrives.

wallscroll helppp

I was having some trouble deciding which wallscroll would be best, after asking the fans, a lot of them said #2 was fine, and #1 was good also. I think I will end up ordering both of them to see in person, but for now, the sample that we ordered was from #1.

Thanks for following the development of TinyWars. Unfortunately I have no significant updates to report on the demo progress, but it is getting closer and closer to completion everyday. Want to make sure we release the demo this year but we also want to make sure it is polished up a bit and presentable, optimized, etc!

 

TinyWars UI and Animations Update April 2016

TinyWars UI and Animations Update April 2016 1280 720 andrew

Back in February, we teased this gameplay render (pictured below). A lot of people thought the witches were cute and the lighting effects were on par.

This is a test level containing various objects and a basic path structure for testing various features.

Bright World Render 1D

Of course deep down inside, I always had this anxiety that I didn’t really know what to do with the game’s UI. (buttons that appear around the screen.) And a huge problem when working on a project is not knowing the next step!

Clearly it was in a testing phase (look at that potion bottle), but the truth was that I had no idea how I was going to make the UI cute and unique, and not generic like so many other games.

Not that the game’s UI is going to revolutionize it or anything, but having a UI that “fits the theme” really helps make the game more recognizable, iconic, and less “generic.”

New GUI

It is now the middle of April and we finally have a presentable UI and much improved graphics! (Those enemies are test dummies don’t worry!)

Test Lvl1 Composition

TinyWars Test Level Update 4/15/16

I think with this new look we accomplish two things, namely:

  • Cute GUI that fits the “tiny” theme.
  • It is easy to understand without explaining it. Language barriers are minimal!

But that’s not all!

Animations

Yes we have implemented an animation system that really brings the game to life! The video above is a funny glitch we came across when working on this feature.

What’s that ladybug in the corner you ask? You’ll find out once we’ve implemented it.

Demo Coming…

Thanks for staying up to date with the TinyWars development.

We’ll have much more exciting announcements once we get closer to launching the fist gameplay demo! When will it be ready? I don’t know… I don’t want to release it until it’s absolutely presentable to the public.

 

TinyWars Fan Art Update #2

TinyWars Fan Art Update #2 1920 1080 andrew

It’s really incredible that people are loving our project enough to actually re-create some of our characters. It’s really motivating and honoring to see so much TinyWars Fan Art! I really have a lot of respect for these people who took their time to create fan art for us, it means a lot!

3D Candy Sister HD Render

tinywars candy sister

This one comes from a 3D artist named Vertex a.k.a. Imagination XD The lighting and colors on this render look very realistic, almost like this could be some kind of clay or play-dough sculpture.

12804616_10204356043136169_9196924814848574665_n 12764504_10204356043096168_5846613676103908657_o

The Candy Sisters will appear in the second chapter of TinyWars. So unfortunately we won’t see them in the first demo release of TinyWars, but this girl and her little sister, Amy, have already gotten a lot of praise for their design and use of bright colors!  We’ll share a lot more details about their stories and personalities later as the project progresses.

Artist: Vertex
Website: http://www.imgxd.cf/

Hand drawn Mary Artwork

xYoung-KGNAx

This is a sketch of our main character, Mary. The artists totally admits that this was a very quick sketch, but it’s 100 times better than anything I could ever do. No matter what the artist thinks about their own work, me and the TinyWars team really think it’s awesome. Any kind of fan art is more than we could have ever asked for!  Seriously, I mean it!

Now there isn’t much I want to reveal about Mary right now. She is our game’s main character, and you will learn a ton about her character, personality, and backstory from the first chapter of the game… And hopefully it’s interesting to you and makes you want to keep playing more!

Artist: xYoung-KGNAx
DeviantArt: http://xyoung-kgnax.deviantart.com/

Kim A.K.A. “The Fire Witch” Ink Pen

firewitch TinyWars fan art

This is a lovely pose for our fire witch, Kim. This pose makes her look lovely and sweet; good reflection of her personality! The ink pens allow for those white details to stand out a lot more, i’d say this is pretty accurate in terms of her personality and design! 😀

Thank you! – From me and the rest of the TinyWars team! <3

Artist: Bunniikitty
DeviantArt: http://bunniikitty.deviantart.com/

Candy Sister Ink Pen

Bunniikitty Candy Sister White Balance

Here’s another fan art of the Candy Older Sister. (She doesn’t have a name yet) Done by the same artist as the fire witch ink pen drawing! This one is really nice, very impressive that the colors from her original design can be replicated with ink and paper. This is beautiful! Thanks Bunniikitty!!!

Artist: Bunniikitty
DeviantArt: http://bunniikitty.deviantart.com/

Here are the WIP images of both the fan arts from above:

Bunniikitty fire witch transformation - Copy Bunniikitty candy sister fan art progress - Copy

Thank You!

It’s so much fun to receive fan art from people who really like our character designs! The whole team gets motivated every time we receive a new fan art. We’ve never had fan art for any of our projects before, so this is a really interesting and awesome experience! Thanks everyone!

Get Featured

If you want your artwork to be featured in a future Fan Art Update, you can submit your artwork to us through our social media or via this contact form! 

(Just select “Fan Art Submission” in the contact form. You can only submit fan arts via URL, so be sure to upload it somewhere publicly first!!!) 

 

TinyWars – Strategy, Artwork, Music, and Story!

TinyWars – Strategy, Artwork, Music, and Story! 1280 720 andrew

Hello everyone! This is our first post on the TinyWars Development Blog, I have no idea where to begin writing about this project so I’ll just introduce myself as well as the project and how it all got started! In later updates, we should be able to show off more game content, story, features, etc… We’ll do our best to keep this blog updated!

 

tiny kingdom sketch 2small - SMALL

Intro

Having been in the website, software and app industry for several years, I had been highly regarded by my colleagues as a “super star” in front end design and development. Through my passion for app designs, logos, and user experience, it was becoming increasingly evident that I was completely in the wrong industry.  My app UI designs increasingly began to embody look and feel of interactive video games rather than apps. I also believe that I’ve worked on too many of the “next big thing” type of apps that in and of themselves, are not very exciting at all. Which is what is so appealing to me about video games, the game, in and of itself, can be all that’s necessary to drive excitement! You can view some of our impressive app projects on This Website.

Video Game Concept

Some time ago, me and one of my app development partners sat down and decided to build a tower defense test game. After many hours of research, coding, and several gallons of soda and coffee, we finally pumped out our very first tower defense demo!  As abstract shapes danced on screen before our very eyes, my mind began to race with new ideas, concepts, and mechanics. Out of all the apps and website I have ever built, this moment was by far one of the most exciting! (The test game was literally red and blue squares, with a grey background.)

At this point, I had already developed very vague plans for the TinyWars project prior to this, as well as the story line had been a mental project of mine for quite some time; but what this concept demo really proved to me was that we didn’t need an entire team of expensive developers to build this game, and that game development was not this strange, alien world we, as app and website developers, had once thought it to be. The end goal in developing a fully featured video game was within our reach!

Mary PNG

Getting Down to Business

One of the things I have earned a reputation for is being relentless at getting tasks done. Some of my former business partners have often questioned if I am even human, which I will gladly accept as a compliment! At this point, the process of programming and developing the software for the game was very straight forward, but try to imagine a video game without graphics, artwork, and music and you have nothing. There definitely is a game engine running behind that black screen, but it can never be known except through the senses via graphics, animations, and design. This was our dilemma, as we as programmers did not have the final project in mind, even with abstract mock ups and ideas the final look of the game was still vague.

Part of the problem was that the programming on the game heavily relied on the visuals of the game! Sure we can program a pit of lava that kills characters when they step in it. But without visuals it’s entirely possible that a pit of lava looks ridiculous in our game and we might not even want it in the game anymore! When it comes to programmers who have very expensive prices on their head, wasted time and unnecessary programming is NOT an option. (Of course sometimes mistakes can not be avoided!) It is obvious that many of the exact visuals and functions of the game needed to be fully realized first in order to make effective use of the programmers time and the game’s limited budget.

My life as a game developer quickly became a real life RPG quest for artwork. First I had to create the character and background design plans, then I had to bring them to the artists to develop digital renders, then I could bring those renders to chibi artists so they could convert the full body designs to chibi, then take those chibis to the animators so they could animate it, (Full body animations wouldn’t fit on a mobile screen and I’m sure would be much more expensive than chibi animations) ….and the cycle continues until we have established all the artwork and graphical assets we need for the finished game! (or at least to build an original, playable demo)

Note: The screen shot featured at the top of this article contains animations, background art, UI design, character designs, object artwork, and effects. This single screen shot took us literally months of work and thousands of dollars to produce! And that render will probably look much different from the final game!

Building the Team

We already had the developers round up and ready for action, but none of them had any artistic ability whatsoever. Honestly I believe those guys would be happy building a game with just squares and triangles, abstract visuals is definitely a trend in mobile app games, though I believe it’s difficult for players to actually “bond” with the game at that point. Programmers are easy to please artistically! Not me an not an audience who demands a fully fleshed out game!

After several months of blasting emails, contacting amazing artists, musicians, and programmers, email after email of rejection, ridiculously high prices, or poor quality of work,  we finally established a solid team that we’re working with! Some people have joined and left, others here to stay, but most importantly, I’ve connected with, and found everyone we need to create at least the graphical and musical assets of the game! Honestly, the amount of connections I have made with hard working, talented individuals has greatly increased since working on this project! Of course, we are always interested in new artists, musicians, and programmers who are willing to contribute to our game.

As you can see I’ve also began working on an incredible soundtrack for the game! We’ve been working with some of the most talented musicians from around the world!

My Role

My main role in the TinyWars project is being the creative director for the game, this includes being in charge of all the artwork and music for the game as well as conjuring up the script for the story. (We have a fantastic story to tell!) Aside from that, my company Bizurk Software, is the primary source of funding for this project and as such, I have to manage some of the most boring aspects of the development such as accounting, payroll, licensing, trademarks, contract, etc. I’d rather not get into those details though, if I didn’t enjoy doing them, what makes you think I’d enjoy writing about them?

Lastly, my main role is as the Game Director. I am constantly keeping communications with all the people involved in the project to make sure everyone understands the project, their role in the project, and that we are able to deliver our products and tasks on time!

commssion132_by_ladollblanche-d90ttjf

Hopefully this article has provided some insight as to how the TinyWars project got started. I will post more updates in the future covering more specific aspects such as the progress of our artwork, music, and game development! I know it seemes like I spent this entire post talking about myself! As we get into more specific areas, and once I complete the developer credits section of this website, I will be able to properly recognize and acknowledge everyone who has helped make this project so wonderful and unique!

What I can say is I am extremely grateful to all the new friends and connections I have made while pursuing this project, all the people who have dedicated their time and energy into making this project great, I’m truly thankful for! This game project has been a really fun, frustrating, educational, and expensive adventure!

Thanks for reading! Be sure to keep up with our social media and new development blog posts!