Way back, before the turn of the century; that’s the year 2000, (Yeah, that turn of the century – and only if you believe the 21st century started in 2001) myself and a group of other artists did a super quick project for Pangea Software. Apple was about to refresh the original gumdrop iMac’s with a new graphics processor and need some games to show it off. Brian at Pangea had had some other successes with shipping games directly on the Apple’s platform and was willing to give it another go. Out of the 2 1/2 month effort, came Cro-Mag Rally – a fun little Mario Kart-style game that follows a band of cavemen and women as they race through a variety of tracks each representing a different landmark era in the evolution of civilization.

About a month ago, the game was re-released for the 3G iPhone and it now lives on. Apple, in fact, just made a new ad for the iPhone featuring the game as a center piece. Watch it here.

When I started the project, I was still working at Thomson. When I finished the project I was working at Motorola – I was also newly wed. That was a very busy summer – not unlike this one actually – except without all the job changing and marrying and stuff.

I had taken a trip to Hong Kong right after Brian and I had gotten in touch with each other. So, I took advantage of the 20+ hour flight to do some sketching for the game. Here are some to enjoy. They have always been some of my favorite pencil doodles. The “Caveman Industrial Designer” has become bit of an icon for me.

Enjoy…

I also had the privilege of creating the characters; Brog and Grag. I think that’s cave speak for boy and girl. Anyhow, for some reason they ended-up looking a bit like Neanderthal versions of a certain bride and groom. She married me anyway. Whew…

Cheers,

J.