Category: Cold Beverage Studios

Having developed and published more than 40 interactive titles on platforms ranging from PC to consoles to mobile, and also helped develop a half-dozen tabletop games as well, we’ve learned a lot about the indie game development business over the years. For example, we know that building a game presents us with all the problems of a major film production combined with all the problems of building and launching a small spacecraft and returning it safely to Earth.

That’s a tough challenge even for someone with experience. The good news is we’ve faced and overcome that challenge many times before, and we can put our hard-won knowledge and experience to work for you as you navigate the indie game development path. We aren’t hobbyists either. One of our titles grossed $94,000 in its first 72 hours on the market.

We don’t guarantee that kind of success, but we do guarantee you will get tires-on-the-road real-world advice on how to actually ship a commercial game title, something that will automatically put you in the top five percent of all developers.

Full cycle for games means the same as it does for comics. We can write you a design document. We can develop a business plan. We can bring in artists, animators, concept designers, 3D modelers, vocalists, character actors, musicians and programmers. We can deploy on any device and any platform, and we can show you how to market your game and position it for maximum income. In short, we can show you how to start a career and do it for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to get there by trial and error.

All the creativity and fun in video games and tabletop games is happening right now in the indie market. The tools and talent we have available today is leaps and bounds ahead of what we were using only five years ago. If you’ve ever dreamed of building a game, there has never been a better opportunity.

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When people think about publishing a comic, their first thought is usually about art. That’s fair. Comics are a visual medium. When our studio thinks about publishing a comic, we think about everything else first, because we are in the business of selling comics, not just making them.

Putting the art and the “everything else” together is called “full cycle” publishing.

We take your story concept and write you a script. We design your characters. We decide on a publishing format. We author your pages, letter them and prep them for publication. We create a cover, compile an e-book, print book or web publication (or all three), and then we show you how to market and sell your book worldwide. In fact, we can manage the marketing campaign for you.

We have tested and proven talent able to guide you every step of the way. No longer do you have to just throw art at the Internet in the hopes that you might succeed. Instead, use our experience to help you build a readership and a career you can be proud of.

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At about the time the Declaration of Independence was being signed in Pennsylvania, the only people who could reliably count on being able to commission music made to order were kings and emperors. It’s not quite that rare these days, but even with the egalitarian advancements in technology, by and large only big corporations and established production companies can make commercially-viable music with a simple commission.

Until now.

Our studio has long been on a search for musical talent. The reason is quite simple. We know how powerful the right track can be, and we know what has worked for us in the past. That’s why we have our own bullpen of composers and singers capable of not only recording ambient and soundtrack selections, but also performing original songs.

This is the kind of music that will set your project apart from the competition. It will thrill your audience and it will make what you do memorable.

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We started out in comics, and rapidly moved into electronic publishing. Over the last 11 years we’ve produced hundreds of book covers, and in the process we’ve sold thousands of books in every genre from science-fiction to comics to romance to fantasy. We know what works, and most importantly we know what sells.

Many authors do quite well combining non-exclusive stock art with great typoography and design. Others prefer one-of-a-kind designs, and that’s when they call us. Whether it is a starship you can feature in your next space epic, or an ethereal creature from a forgotten enchanted forest, we’ve got the artists who can not only make it real, but help you turn it into a book cover that could very easily start a top-selling series.

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While it isn’t always the most noticeable art, and it is sometimes an afterthought, the user interface for your PC, console or mobile game can be among the most powerful and important features of your project.

Our studio’s most profound experiences in user interface design came from, strangely enough, our line of dress-up games created on the Flash platform many years ago. We learned what worked and what didn’t and we learned it in short order. Our knowledge of color combinations, contrast, white space, icon design and precision animation grew at a rapid rate, and by the time we were done, we had produced user interfaces for several dozen games on platforms ranging from PCs to mobile phones to tablets.

If you want to use high-quality art to improve gameplay and visual appeal at the same time, our UI artist specialists are ready to show you what’s possible on time and on budget.

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There is an old saying about logos. “If a customer can’t recognize your product from the other side of the store, you need a better logo.” This couldn’t be more true today, when there are so many distractions competing for the attention of your customers. You don’t need a good logo. You need a great one.

Our experience in children’s television, merchandising and licensing and later in the comic industry has prepared us for a world where we have to be sure that what we build stands out. We have applied our skills to character design, and we’ve recruited some of the best logo designers in the business to make sure everyone recognizes our work.

When we put those talents to work for you, we’ll make sure everyone recognizes your project just as easily.

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Without doubt, one of our most popular commission types is original collectible card game illustrations. Card games have exploded in popularity in the last five years, and we’ve been hired to do art for everything from tabletop games to board games to PC, browser and mobile device games.

Collectible art is one of the most innovative marketing ideas in decades, and it has given rise to some of the industry’s most valuable properties, including Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and Elder Scrolls: Legends. The key to making a project like this work is quality and high production values, and that’s where we come in. Our artists and producers have the experience and imagination to take your ideas and turn them into the kind of designs players and fans will gladly pay to add to their own collections.

If your dream is a card game, whether it is played on a table or on a screen, you’ve found the creative team to make it a reality.

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Few can argue 3D has revolutionized entertainment. From games to feature animation to even feature films, computer graphics have changed the way we tell stories. This is the key reason our studio moved into 3D in a big way not long after we started our comic business. Building 3D models for games, book covers and other big projects became one of our most successful categories in short order.

Now, we’ve established a full-cycle development process for 3D modeling and animation that can start from a simple concept design and produce high-quality original 3D characters, objects and environments which can be integrated with numerous popular game engines and animated for nearly any kind of video or feature production.

We can also produce one-of-a-kind 3D printed toys, playsets, souvenirs and collectibles based on your creative designs. Micro-manufacturing is the future, and our studio is right at the cutting edge of a completely new world of merchandising and licensing opportunities for creative professionals.

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Video Production is one of several categories of projects we have full-cycle capacity to deliver. We can take your script, your soundtrack and your visuals and produce YouTube or social media-compatible video with top production values at competitive prices.

We can also write your script, engineer and produce your soundtrack, including characters, narration, music and even original songs, develop your visuals ranging from single images to broadcast-quality linear animation and combine it all into an original production that will make you and your message stand out in all the right ways. Then we can take it to social media for you if you prefer, and start finding you new customers and new opportunities.

The commercial above helped us sell more than $100,000 worth of train tickets on Facebook in a matter of days. If you have a commercial project in mind, we can make your product or service look just as appealing.

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Some types of art come with considerable challenges. This is one among many reasons we have so many specialties in our art team. One of those specialties that most of our clients don’t realize they need until they see it is mechanical design.

We have a complete 3D art team in addition to our traditional animation, pixel art and illustration teams. When we develop a new mesh, we always start with a basic blueprint. Some studios call these concept art. We take it a step further. We call them technical designs. They are special inks our 3D artists can use as interactive blueprints to guide the design of original 3D meshes.

Because our team is so good at building these technical inks, we can translate those skills into the design of just about any man-made machine, vehicle or structure. Spacecraft, sailing ships, moon bases, energy weapons, robots, mechs and electronic circuitry are just some of the possibilities. What makes it even better is we can take those mechanical designs and turn them into 3D models and then into 3D printed playsets using the exact same art.

Our motto is “if it’s man made, we can make it better and more exciting in your choice of colors.”

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