I’ve blogged before on making your own shmup with the super creative ‘Sketch Nation Shooter’ (And so did Arsen.)  Now Engineous Games is offering new add-ons for their popular iPhone game. A new ‘Download Game’ option will remove Facebook as the middleman to grab new games for Sketch Nation Shooter. And new art packs will make it even easier for the creative, yet unartistically inclined, players (I’ll not name any names here…) to build their own levels and games. There are six art packs, including two free download packs, one of sci-fi ships and one of the art from Sketch Nation’s ‘Under the Sea’ game. Paid downloads — at a modest $.99 — include artwork by Ray Hargreaves of ‘2P Start!’, and a collection of gears for challenges with rotating pieces.

This video shows off some of the new art, and, to be honest, just makes me want to play some more.

From the press release:

Engineous Games today announced the latest update to their award-winning iPhone game, Sketch Nation Shooter. Available for $.99 on the App Store, the imaginative shooter lets users easily create original games using their own sketched artwork – and with the update, they can choose from several art packs to help build their latest masterpiece.
With the addition of a brand new ‘Download Game’ interface, the update removes the requirement to connect to Facebook in order to download games, streamlining the process and making it easier than ever to access the over 2,000 games available in Sketch Nation Shooter’s growing library. Players can browse through games based on popularity or user ratings, or they can use the new search feature to find the title they’re looking for.
Six new art packs are available, including two which are available for free, and four for $.99 each. Among the packs is a special set of artwork prepared by Ray Hargreaves, the artist behind the popular gaming webcomic ‘2P Start!’, available for $.99. The other packs include:
• Free: A new set of inspired sci-fi vessels, dubbed ‘Space Ships 2’
• Free: Art from one of Sketch Nation Shooter’s popular games, ‘Under the Sea’
• $.99: Gears – great for creating games with rotating obstacles and enemies
• $.99: Modern and Cold War-era jet fighters
• $.99: Historical, modern and futuristic passenger jetliners
“In addition to thousands of incredibly creative games, the wonderful Sketch Nation Shooter community also provided invaluable feedback. I took the users’ critique to heart and added a new way to login without using Facebook,” said Nitzan Wilnai, CEO of Engineous Games. “And by adding six awesome art packs – as well as some technical tweaks that improve image quality – we’ve made it even easier for Sketch Nation Shooter game designers to perfect their latest gaming masterpieces.”

[Source: GameWire and Sketch Nation blog]