2. 5 Key Points on App
Design
The logo should a variety of bold and vibrant colours to captivate
the potential player’s attention.
Contrasting colours such as a dark background and a light main
image (or vice versa) can work well, and be eye-grabbing.
The design should be straight forward and simple; cramming too
much detail into a small icon would not work as well.
If the icon includes text (for example: the game’s title), it should be
big enough to be readable and eye-catching, but it should not
obscure the image overall.
Borders, shading and other design techniques to create a 3D
effect on the icon.
4. 5 Key Points on App
Design“The design should be straight forward
and simple”
‘2048’ is an example of a game which has a simple logo with
barely any detail; it is literally the game’s title in white font
against a yellow background. This kind of simplicity is not
common among app icons on the AppStore, and that is what
makes it unique and stands out; it’s so simple and reveals
nothing about its gameplay that the mystery draws the player
in. It is currently No.1 in the AppStore.
5. Potential
competition
From this venn diagram, it is clear that there are two games in particular
that are direct competition to our game, those games are Alien Hominid &
Pitiri 1977
23. Icon Designs
Gameplay/Screenshot Title As TextGameplay/Screenshot Title As Text
Language As
Image
Language As
Image
Character/Act
ion
Character/Act
ion
Abstract/Iconic Abstract/Iconic
Symbolic/Thematic
25. Final choice & revisions to be
made:
I chose this because I liked the 8-Bit
feel it emulated, it’s the kind of logo I
would expect to accompany this sort
of game. A point of improvement
would be to refine the edges to look
more like an app logo, and to make
the stroke around the edges of the
alien “less bold”.
26. App Age
Ratings
Drugs:
No drugs or drug references.
Imitable Behaviour:
No imitable behaviour present.
Language:
No speech in the entire game.
Nudity:
All characters fully clothed.
Sex:
No sex or sexual actions/references.
Threat:
Low level, but consistent threat throughout.
Violence:
Low level violence, enemies shoot at Jeremy. No visible gore.
9+. This rating may include cartoon violence and/or mild suggestive, horror or fear-
themed content not suitable for very young children. Think of it like a PG movie.
Drugs
References to illegal drugs or drug misuse must be innocuous or carry a suitable
anti-drug message.
Imitable behaviour
No detail of potentially dangerous behaviour which young children are likely to
copy, if that behaviour is presented as safe or fun. No glamorisation of realistic or
easily accessible weapons such as knives. No focus on anti-social behaviour which
young children are likely to copy.
Language
Mild bad language only. Aggressive or very frequent use of mild bad language may
result in a work being passed at a higher category.
Nudity
There may be nudity with no sexual context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be implied, but should be discreet and infrequent. Mild sex
references and innuendo only.
Threat
Frightening sequences or situations where characters are in danger should not be
prolonged or intense. Fantasy settings may be a mitigating factor.
Violence
Violence will usually be mild. However there may be moderate violence, without
detail, if justified by its context (for example, history, comedy or fantasy).
We agreed that our game falls in the 9+
rating.
27. I decided to make the image smaller, and more centred, I tried not
to re-arrange the eyes, nose and mouth too much as I like it how
they were. I moved the eyes, nose and mouth upwards slightly,
more so on the eyes than on the nose or the mouth. The centre
point/line is exactly between the eyes, between the gap in the
nostrils and in the centre of the mouth. I chose to keep the overall
head relatively small as having it smaller and focused in the
centre worked better. I aligned the logo up in the bottom right
hand corner along one of the lines and felt it worked well there as
not only is it small and out of the way (and therefor does not
hinder/detract from the main image), but is also visible enough to
be noticed.For this image I experimented with making the alien head bigger,
and tried moving not only the location of the eyes, nose, and
mouse, but also the angle of the eyes, to align up with the gird
differently. One thing in particular I prefer in this one over the
image above is that there is less space underneath the alien’s
head; it doesn’t feel as empty, this is because (as well as
increasing the size of the head) I moved the head lower so the
chin neatly lines up on the circle, with the centre line still between
the eyes, nostrils and centre of the mouth and also goes straight
through the centre of the alien’s chin.
Greyscale Icon
Designs
28. I made four drafts for my logo utilising different colours to see
what contrasted the best against the alien head, my favourite is
the blue as the pixelation also looks the best, the gradient also
works well with the light blue up in the left corner, leading down
into a dark blue in the bottom right.
I found it hard to choose between the blue one and the purple
one; I liked the purple one simply for it’s colour and how it looked
with a gradient, however, due to it being so dark in the bottom
right hand corner, I had to move the “First Impact” logo, which
doesn’t fit with the previously set designs, because of this I
chose the blue one.
Four drafts for app
icon
29. Voucher Design
For my voucher, I first researched existing Starbucks vouchers, and gathered ideas
on what my voucher would look like. After this I downloaded an existing template
from the internet and removed all existing features on it, to only keep the basic shape
to ensure it was as accurate as possible. After contemplated using our original logo
for the voucher, but when I tried using this I immediately disliked how it look, so I cut
that idea and decided to use the app icon I designed instead. I decided this worked
well, and then added the text, I decided to just use a basic font as I already thought it
worked well.
The original logo I
was going to use for
the voucher.
30. Second design for
voucher
I made two designs for my voucher, there isn’t much difference
between the two versions aside from the logo having a
different colour, from the start I preferred the colour of the first
voucher, the only bit about this voucher I preferred was the
rounded edges, for my final version I will probably add rounded
edges to my icon.
32. Improvements to be made for my
voucher:
Ensure that all text is in the same font, and maintains the
professionalism.
Make sure all text is a consistent colour.
Change app icon to have rounded edges like actual app icons do.
33. Improved/Revised
Voucher
I made a few subtle, but effective changes to my voucher.
One piece of feedback I received was to give the app icon
rounded edges, I also made all the text the same font and
colour, and made them in bold. I also added the text “HERE’S
TO YOU THURSDAY” as a lot of Starbucks vouchers have
them, I added this to add to the authenticity of of my voucher.
34. Hoody Designs
I made three designs for my hoody, I went for
a more
mainstream/popular hoody (the black one),
and two
niche ones that only more hardcore fans
would recognise.
36. Hoody choice & revisions to
be made:
I decided to go for this hoody because (as well as being recommended by
others) it has the most unique design to it and is very subtle and falls into
the niche category, it is also personally my favourite of the three designs.
One point for improvement will be to add some text underneath stating “FBI”
as it will be easier to read than having to read the text around the logo,
another piece of feedback I received was to change the text for the “First
Impact” logo on the back of the arm. Personally I like the current colour, but
37. Process of my final hoody
design:
For the front of my hoody, I did not make a lot of changes, I simply
added the text “F.B.I” underneath it in the same font as the writing on
the logo and set the colour to yellow.
It is for the back of the hoody that I had a harder time deciding, I
decided that having the logo in colour worked a lot better than just
black, but I couldn’t decide between yellow or a light creamy grey, at
first so after taking feedback from Sam M & Sam H, I decided on the
using the creamy grey. My only reason for this was it is slightly easier
to read than the yellow, as in bright lighting, a bright yellow is harder
to read.
38. My final 3 products:
These are my three final designs, after revisions and
receiving feedback I am confident that these
versions are as good as they can be for their
intended audience. Overall I went for a more ‘niche’
approach to my designs over a more mainstream
one. I did this for two reasons; first of all the game is
not hugely popular and will never reach the level of
hype something like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty,
or any other Triple A titles. Secondly, I found it much
easier to come up with ideas for niche designs, I
could be more creative, and naturally had more
42. How do the final designs fit
with our aims & audience?
I believe my final designs fit with our aims and audience quite well, this is
because they all offer a different way of advertising the game, and our
overall aim is to promote the game, create hype, and an audience/fan-
base. The voucher works well because it is a subtle way of advertising the
game with a bonus (free download code), Starbucks is also a very popular
cafe, so it is obviously going to receive a lot of customers, and thus, a lot
of vouchers will be given out with their food/drink. Starbucks also attracts
the same type of audience that our game would; young and perhaps indie.
The hoody works well as it is for a niche audiences type, and there’s
nothing about it that specifically
shouts “this is from a game”, it is purely for hardcore fans that will
understand the reference.
