Nimbus’ Very Own Weather App!

NimbusWeather

Ever wish weather forecasts had a bit more spunk to them? Well, today’s your lucky day! We’re super stoked to announce the launch of the (free!) Negative Nimbus Weather App.

We thought Nimbus and the rest of the Sunnyland crew would be the perfect cast of characters to bring some life (and humor) to your weather report. With custom comics and animations, getting your weather has never been more fun! You can choose to see weather for your current location or for any zip code, and the forecasts cover everything from snowy mayhem to sunny skies.

We love a good challenge, and we were really excited to tackle the task of bringing a character presence to a utility app. We hope you all get a chance to check it out, and that it makes your weather-checking experience a bit more enjoyable!

How to Not Crash Nimbus’ Party

Closing Apps

We want players to get the most out of our app, so we wanted to weigh in on some crashing issues that we’ve heard a few folks are having. While we’ve tested the game on every iOS device imaginable (we have many a pod, pad and phone in-house), we understand that there are some device-specific issues people may be encountering.

One quick fix that we often find does the trick is closing out other applications that are running in the background. It’s so easy to forget to do this on an iOS device, so we often have dozens of apps accidentally running at once. Closing some or all of these out will likely help crashing issues with Nimbus and other games, and it will definitely help your device battery life (Woo hoo! We love added bonuses!). We hope that helps, and that you’re all continuing to enjoy the wonders of Sunnyland!

Happy Holidays, Indeed!

The holidays will be snowy and bright in Sunnyland, because we’ve got a ton to celebrate! Here’s the hit list of what’s new just in time for the holidays:

  • Negative Nimbus is now available for Android devices!
  • There’s a whole new world (Frosty Hills) with 8 adorable/challenging levels.
  • There’s now a free lite version of the game with the first two worlds.
  • The iOS app now supports Game Center.
  • There are penguins. Penguins in ski caps!

It’s been an amazing fall for Nimbus and Co., and we’re excited for an even better winter thanks to all of these awesome advancements. We’re also working on a top-secret new Nimbus app that we’ll tell you more about very soon! In the meantime, Happy Holidays from all of us in Sunnyland!

Programming/Technical Process

As a follow-up to last week’s game design process post, we thought we’d share some details on the technical know-how that goes into making Negative Nimbus. While you may not realize it, there’s just as much creativity that goes into the programming side of things as the art, it’s just not quite as “cute” or “colorful”…

The short answer we often give folks is that the game is developed using Adobe AIR, but there’s definitely a lot more to it than that! Our technical team needed to devise a long list of creative solutions to make all the pieces flow together. For instance, we begin our level design process by laying them out in Flash with placeholder symbols for the characters, flowers, mounds and blockers. Using a custom level generator script we built in-house, we then export each level movie clip from Flash as an XML file with x and y coordinates and information for each level. In that XML, we are then able to adjust the numbers, such as the speed for each multiplier in the levels. We’ve also created a system using equations to help determine how many points are needed to earn each star in a level.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s been an amazing few months for everyone in Sunnyland (and at CloudKid)! Not only did Negative Nimbus launch, but the game’s now available on all iOS devices with a new world (and another one on the way!). The overwhelmingly positive response and reviews have been truly humbling, and we are very thankful (and happy!) folks.

So, we wanted to help spread the love by making the game free from tomorrow (Thanksgiving) through Sunday. If you haven’t already downloaded the game, or you want to share the fun with some friends and family over turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, this is your chance! We hope you all enjoy playing with Nimbus and thank you again for your continuing support!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us in Sunnyland!

 

Game Design Process

A while back, we gave you some tid-bits of info on our background and character design processes. Now that you’re all (hopefully!) familiar with the gameplay on your iOS devices, we thought we’d give you another sneak peek on how we brought the art assets together to formulate an enjoyable gaming experience. After all, tap and swipe game mechanics and double rainbows don’t just appear from thin air. Well, maybe the rainbows do…

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Grassroots Poster Campaign

Now Available on iPhone/iPod

As Bill the Umbrella would say, “Woop Woop!”. We’re so unbelievably excited that Nimbus is now available across all iOS devices. Today’s launch means a lot of awesome things for Negative Nimbus:

  • Now available on iPhone and iPod Touch
  • New unlockable world with 8 more levels (and lots of pirates)
  • Learn more about Nimbus with intro stories
  • More comics!
  • More hats!
  • More achievements!

We hope you all get the chance to check it out and play! Happy raining!

Vote Nimbus!

In honor of Election Day, we wanted to share some fun promo button art we made for Nimbus. These were all Bill the Umbrella’s idea… he may not be the brightest, but he sure makes a great campaign manager!

Also, since we’re sure you’ve all been holding your breath (just like Nimbus!) for the release of the iPhone version of the app, we have some good news: the wait is almost up! Nimbus and co. will be making their way to iPhones (hopefully including yours!) this Thursday, 11/8.

It’s shaping up to be a big week! Remember to vote for real things today, and to vote Nimbus every day!

 

Background Design Process

Last week, we filled all you Nimbus-lovers in on our process of character creation. Just like its inhabitants, Sunnyland didn’t turn into a magical oasis overnight. While we had big dreams for a land with rolling hills, prehistoric volcanos, and hip city streets, those terrains don’t just draw themselves! After many a concept sketch, color study, and polish pass, our backgrounds finally started to feel like the Sunnyland we had been dreaming of. Check out the images below for the different stages Nimbus’ world went through to become the place we know and love (and wished we lived in)!

Pumping out some initial BG sketches!

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