Comic strips have never gone out of fashion and with today’s technology is easier than ever to create you own. If you have an iPhone, iPad or both then you can try your hand at creating your own by using the photo’s on your camera roll with the universal app Strip Designer.
The functionality on both the iPhone and the iPad are the same although the iPad obviously benefits from the additional real estate but the iPhone version can still produce great results.
The first task in building your strip is to select a template category which controls the style and the number/position of the pictures. If you want to get really granular you can even create your own and while this is a little more complex it’s unlikely that you’ll ever need to delve this deep as the pre-built templates provide a great range of options.
With your layout selected you can then start adding graphics that not only include pictures from your photo album, camera and Facebook but also maps and drawings the latter of which lets you get very artistic with a range of brushes, effects, layers and filters.
Not being that artistic though I focused on using pictures for my strips and adding those are just a couple of taps away and once you’ve added it you can pinch to zoom and rotate the picture to get your desired result.
With your pictures added this is where the fun begins as you begin to add your text that brings your strips to life. Just like the rest of Strip Designer there are a plethora of options to delve into and everything can be tweaked and changed as much and as little as you can like.
The depth of options, tweaks and functionality could put some users off as it may be too complex for them but it shouldn’t, you can get great results without delving in too deep but for those that want to go a little bit further.
With your strip created you can easily share it via email, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more which makes it easy to get your work seen by potentially millions of people! Strip Designer also takes advantage of the iCloud which means that you can start work on one of your devices and carry on your work on your other device.
At just $2.99 Strip Designer is a great way to get started in comic strips for old and new a like.
What we like:
What to know:
[rating: 5/5]
SPY Mouse Review: A Pac-Man style game for iPhone that is nothing but squeaky fun.
The object of the game is cheese. Well, having your mouse get the cheese out of the cat-infested houses along the path. Each house has it’s own maze-type layout that makes for interesting challenges to be worked through. Multiple cats, sleeping cats, cats in the middle of the room, cats near the door, etc. all require different spy strategies to successfully maneuver around.
The game controls are easy to master. Put your finger on the mouse and draw a line where you want it to go. The mouse follows that path, but only goes at certain speeds, so you’re not just dragging the mouse along. There’s a bit of timing in drawing the lines as well, to avoid the patrolling cats. In some homes, there are mouse holes that allow you to pop from room to room. It can be great fun to duck into a mouse hole and watch the cat slam into the wall right behind you.
You can actually befriend a cat too, through an in-app purchase, to help you fight fire with fire. But managing on your own is also an option. As the game goes along, the challenge increases with additional cats to avoid and more difficult paths that must be navigated. And watch out for the mousetraps!
The cute graphics, animations, and comedic spy-show music put you in a happy mood just opening up the app. The simple look and interface trick you into thinking the game is also simple, until you get nabbed a few times.
There are some games I play because I have to. Then there are some games I play because I want to. SPY Mouse {$.99} is definitely one of the latter. This one’s going on my short list.
Pros:
Cons:
FaceFighter [rating: 3.5/5]
Flex your thumb and get ready to rumble with this comic boxing game
If it has a face, you can fight it … friends, pets, even cartoon characters can be your boxing opponents. Give your foe black eyes, a busted nose, and swollen lips, and laugh at their expressions and reactions as you beat the crap out of them. But be careful — your FaceFighter opponent is a cagey boxer who will be trying to do the same thing to YOU!
On starting this game you are immediately prompted to create a profile which is a nice start as it saves you time entering your name every time you want to enter your score, however if you are the “what does this button do” type don’t press the ominous looking [X] button, it deletes your profile which is just one of a few design flaws I’ve found in the otherwise slick UI.
With bright eastern style graphics which feels nicely solid to look at and navigate through, immediately sets the scene for some crazy oriental fighting arena along with the nicely fitting single soundtrack.
On choosing your opponent (out of 4 built in characters), the difficulty and a brief loading screen later, your ready to fight. On the left you have block, light punch above it, on the right you have hard punch and kick and between them a special meter which as you fight fills up and glows when ready to activate “Legendary Fury” and replacing your regular attacks with a random comical weapon, either a rubber chicken or a frying pan.
The general idea of the game is to punch and kick (not the most responsive controls) your opponent while blocking as many incoming hits at possible (indicated by red rings) until your opponent doesn’t get up. Tap the symbol(s) flashing around your controls to execute a grand finishing move ala Mortal Kombat only funny and not gory.
Graphically everything is very smooth, with well animated opponents and attacks from both sides however the range of facial damage is limited and ends up going round in circles where it would have been better if the damage was harder to make, letting the range of damage graphics last the entire match. The in-game sound effects are comical, it does get a little boring after a while with a distinct lack of variety.
Somewhat making up for the lack of built-in characters is a feature to create your own, on choosing the create fighter option from the main menu you are given the option to select a picture from your device’s photo library or from your iPhone’s camera. The game however does not offer in game hair styles so that you could try and match it to your subject.
My major gripes with this game for iPhone/iPod touch is there’s no story mode, just singular fights which certainly effects the longevity of the game. There is also no two player mode as I think hooking up with friend for a comic fight especially with the free version sure would help promote this game and as usual there is no online highscore board.
Price $0.99
(Ver 1.3 18.08.09)
The Good
The Not So Good
Reviewed by: TylerDurdan
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[rating: 4.5/5]
Become comically creative with Lifestrips
Lifestrips uses Lifecards visual engine to enable you to freely pan and zoom the strip while you are creating it. Photos can be translated, rotated, and zoomed within the panels of the strips by sliding your fingers on the screen or pinching.
Features:
– Strip templates with 1 to 4 photos
– Control scale, position and rotation of photos
– Advanced visual engine allows you to freely pan and zoom the strip while you work on it.
– 8 different balloons
– Facebook upload support
– Save strip to finish it later
– Basic image filters for photos
– Automatic save and restore of strip when you exit and reenter the application
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to quickly create an impressive cartoon strip featuring some random pictures that I had on my iPod Touch. While the instructions within the app are clear, expansive and helpful, like most people I just jumped right in.
The first task is to select a template from the over 20 that are available. From a simple 1 shot frame to twin, triple and even four shot frames there are plenty of options for all requirements. For my first strip I used a simple 3 pane frame and moved onto the next step of adding the pictures to each of the frames.
Selecting pictures is simply done by clicking on the appropriate frame and selecting the picture you want from your saved pictures folder. Once selected you can zoom, rotate and reposition the picture, however, this is only the start. Clicking on the Filter option allows you to add multiple effects to the selected picture from a sepia or comic effect to sharpening or inverting the image or a combination of them all!
Once you’ve added and adjusted all your pictures you can start adding your speech and thought bubbles to the comic strip. Clicking the Add button brings up the 8 built in options for adding text to the images, and it’s so simple. After adding the bubble just double tap to enter text, or with the bubble selected change the style, font, size, text color even the outline of the bubble itself.
The great thing about this app is that not only does it have a great range of features and options to get your comic strip just as you want, it’s also really easy to use.
Once you’ve completed your masterpiece, which for me took no more than 5 minutes, you can either save the file within Lifestrips, to your photo album or directly upload it to your Facebook account. I did have a couple of issues where the text would not be saved in the bubble correctly but it’s a minor issue.
If you’ve ever wanted to create your own comic strip or simply want to add some creativity to the pictures you’ve taken on your iPhone you can’t go wrong with Lifestrips.
Price $2.99
The Good
The Not So Good
Reviewed by: @CraigWillis
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