To help celebrate Valentine’s Day, we’re dropping the price on Ruben & Lullaby down to $0.99 for one week only: February 8 through February 14! If you’ve been meaning to try out this “uncommonly artistic” (Casual Gameplay) take on love and communication, now’s the time.

Whether you want to practice good communications skills to help you and your significant other weather the storms of romance… or take out your frustrations with the one who “did you wrong”… take advantage of this sale to pick up the game Apple called “engaging and beautifully designed.” Happy Valentine’s Day!

With the advent of the new decade comes the happy news that Ruben & Lullaby has been nominated for Casual Gameplay’s “Best of 2009″ in the Mobile Puzzle category. We had actually missed Casual Gameplay’s write-up of the game last February (which is quite complimentary), so it’s doubly great to hear that they found us worthy of mention now.

There’s an “Audience Choice” award given in each category, and that’s where you come in—we need your help! If you’d like to support Ruben & Lullaby please head on over to the nominees page, scroll down until you find the game, and vote for us! (You can even vote once per day if you’re feeling especially generous—every bit helps.)

Thanks in advance for considering lending your “yea” to the cause… and Happy New Year!

Update: Thanks to all of you who voted! Ruben & Lullaby came in second place in the competition—not too shabby, especially when you see the great company we’re in!

IndieCade is coming to Culver City in Los Angeles this week and I’m happy to announce that Ruben & Lullaby is one of the finalists. Our troubled twosome is in stellar company, as well—visit the IndieCade website for complete conference details, it’s a great lineup of finalists, speakers and events. There are two Ruben & Lullaby-related items that might be of interest for those who will be in town:

Original Ruben & Lullaby art on sale at the Wonderful World of Art Gallery. One of Ezra Claytan Daniels’ gorgeous original drawings for the game will be up for sale during the festival. It’s the largest piece he created, and includes most of the elements that make up the game’s various endings (including some elements that weren’t used). You can see photos of the piece (it’s the one with the trees). The Wonderful World of Art Gallery will be open throughout the festival (October 1-4).

Art, Music and Technology - An iPhone Showcase. I’ll be joining the Eliss and RadioFlare teams for a reunion of sorts—we all met at the Game Developer’s Conference in March—but more to the point, for a panel discussion on innovative iPhone games on Saturday, October 3 from 11:00 am to 12:15 pm. Check the conference schedule for details.

I hope to see you at the festival!

P.S. A number of times during the podcast, we make reference to a past project of mine called Chroma. Chroma is an unfinished sci-fi web serial I wrote and directed about ten years ago, featuring interactive motion graphics set to original music and narration—you can find it here (Shockwave plug-in required).

I’ll be at the San Diego Comic-Con today (Friday 7/24) showing off Ruben & Lullaby as a taste of what’s to come for this format. No motion comic to date has used interactivity to affect the emotions of the characters, the melodies in the score, or the outcome of the story—all of which happen in Ruben & Lullaby. When digital comics take interactivity seriously, all kinds of amazing work becomes possible.

Want to chat at Comic-Con? Send a direct message on Twitter or email me.

Ezra Claytan Daniels' drawing table, birthplace of Ruben & Lullaby.

Ezra Claytan Daniels, the talented graphic novelist responsible for the silky-smooth look of Ruben & Lullaby, was kind enough to send some photos of his drawing table decked out with the original artwork from the game. I got an odd feeling when I first saw these shots—after having spent so much time with the finished artwork while putting the app together, to see these line drawings in a totally unfamiliar context (Ezra and I live in different cities and have never actually met in person) was like learning about some secret past life of a couple of your best friends.

Be sure to check out Ezra’s website Dream Chocolate to see a teaser image from his current project Black Violet—not to mention his other fascinating work.

Shake to make them angry. Stroke to make them sad. The future of their relationship is in your hands.

Experience a new kind of interactive storytelling with the critically-acclaimed Ruben & Lullaby, a digital comic/game (we call it an “opertoon”) that lets you shape the emotions of a quarreling couple with a touch.

Tilt left and right to advance the story as it unfolds through the faces of the characters, without words. Rub the screen to calm someone down, or shake the phone to make them angry—an interactive jazz score responds to your every movement.

You can try to keep them together, try to break them up, or just enjoy the music you can make out of their circumstances as they react to each other… and to you.

Features:

• A story you play like a musical instrument
• Control the moods of the characters with touch and motion
• Dynamic jazz soundtrack you perform while playing
• Multiple endings
• Illustrations by graphic novelist Ezra Claytan Daniels

Get Ruben & Lullaby now on the App Store!

Screen shots

Demo video

Post-E3 update: It was great being a part of the showcase. During the week IndieCade posted a piece about Ruben & Lullaby that digs a bit into the gameplay and score… thanks folks!

A Ruben & Lullaby demo in progress at the IndieCade booth.