Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Application icon
The following is a screenshot of Apple's iTunes with a dozen of app icons. The im-
ages, not text titles, compel the attention of the viewer:
It is hard to overestimate the value of an application icon for the mobile application,
especially for the game. This is one of the most powerful elements of its identity. Gen-
erally, people don't read the name of the application on the App Store; they set their
eyesontheicon.Ithastotellawholestorytothem:whatisthegenrethegamebased
on? Does the game have beautiful graphics? What is the main element of the game-
play? Who is the main character? Is it funny? Many more questions are answered by
small graphic images. As the Chinese proverb says:
"One picture is worth ten thousand words."
In our case, we can paraphrase: one app icon is worth dozens of letters in the applic-
ation name.
Some people try to steal graphic ideas of famous and popular titles trying to ride on
someone else's success. That's apathetic concept. First of all, that isnot right from an
ethical point of view (don't forget about copyright issues too); also, that behavior can
play a nasty trick on your game, because it would look like a secondary class product
with a lack of any new and original idea not worth spending money on. Nobody loves
copycats. So, that can be a hard strike on your image.
Nevertheless, you may or even have to learn from successful examples. Nobody can
stop you from adopting some ideas, but you have to interpret them by yourself. Even
a simple story can be told in a thousand ways. Your intonation is very important. Bor-
