If you have read our last bog entry, we mentioned how we were working on our latest book on Christmas. We figured we probably wouldn't be done with it until late December and would only have a couple of weeks on the market. Well we are working on something, but we've pushed the Christmas book to 2012. This way, we can have a full-fledged book just the way we want it and give our customers something they haven't seen before in an app book. The script has been written, and now all of the artwork, and special effects have to be created and programmed. Look for an announcement on that 3rd quarter of 2012.

What we do have is a Holiday Bonus for Hippos Name. This bonus was slated to be a part of our new Christmas book, but my partner and I decided that we could get it to market a lot quicker if we pulled it out of that book, and inserted it as a Holiday Bonus for Hippos Name. It appeals to both Christmas children and Hannakuh. There are a total of five bonus areas where kids will have a blast creating, designing, baking, and assembling arts and crafts for the holidays. Visually, this is our best work to date. It seems that I become a better drawer every time I sit down. I really loved how this came out, and I'm sure your kids will love it too. These are high-quality drawings and activities you can do with your children and then you can go back and read Hippos Name anytime you want.
We'll release some illustrations of our new version when we get closer to the release date. Thanks for reading! –Nick

Nick's Daily Design Diary 08312011

Today, I have a full plate. I have about twenty things to do before the day is out, but wanted to grab a few minutes before I started. Words can't fully convey the joy I have for this book. It has been a long time coming and I'm proud how it's coming out. We're in the final phases of production but there is so much more that needs to be done. It's true that time flies when you're having fun. It also flies when you can't figure out a problem. Thank God for my wife who is an excellent programmer. I've enlisted her to finish up the coding in .lua so that I can continue working on the design and production aspect. To give you an idea of what has to go into this book, I've listed the top ten things you need to do before you even start.

1. Research your idea
2. Research your title and make sure your characters are original
3. flush out your story in word or another text processor. (I use Text Wrangler)
4. Storyboard your idea on a sketch pad (leaving room for text, notes, and SFX)
5. Grab a pen and pencil and list your assets for each page. These will become your layers for each page.
6. Allow for a title page and credits or instructions before numbering your book. (I learned this the hard way)
7. Before you lay out your book, think about how many pages you will actually use.  Although it's possible to renumber your pages, it's a pain in the but when you have to change it.
8. Use Photoshop to organize your layers (assets) on each page
9. when cartooning, use a color page and an outline page so that your strokes around your characters are crisp and clean
10. If using KWIK to create your book, export your images once, and then turn off export images so that only your buttons and animations will get exported. This will save you time in processing.

Check back tomorrow for more tips and some design tips!