Bolt Creative approached me with the idea of redesigning some of the items from their popular "Pocket God" iOS game for a special Artist Series skin-pack. The result was what they are calling the "Mondo" pack. The pack comes bundled with the latest update to Pocket God, "Episode 44: The Perfect Swarm" (with incredible promo art by Aaron Blecha of MonsterSquid). Here's the description from the Bolt blog:
Speaking of guest artists, we are trying something new by having our favorite designers create skin packs. Josh Ellingson (JoshEllingson.com) created a very cool, if somewhat nerdy, Mondo Pack to decorate your islands! He taps into nerd culture (with a retro flair), including toys, monsters and sci-fi. The meteor becomes a 12-sided die, and the outhouse transforms into Dr. Who’s police box! And there’s a sock monkey in there to boot!
Below is a screenshot from the Pocket God Custom Pack Store. There are lots of different customization options in the game, ranging from Holiday themes to custom dance moves for your pygmies.
Here are a few of my concept sketches for the Mondo pack. I wanted to pick things that I would like to see in the game. You can replace some of the statues with mod furniture. You can turn an igloo into an observatory! Many of these items are based on things that I have around my apartment. It's so cool to see my sock monkey in a game!
Previously, I'd created the promo art for Pocket God episodes 40 "Battle of the Gods", and 43 "Killing Time". The game is completely addictive, so be prepared to let all of your Words with Friends and Draw Something games stagnate while you get caught up in pygmy sacrifice!
