Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
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PRO/Lux
: Usually, this is a denotation for the ad-free version of a free applic-
ation. It may include extra content too.
If your game is a sequel, its index number can be included in the application icon
too; people need to know that this is something new, not the game they've already
played before. Furthermore, several icons with indexes on them make it clear that
this is not a single game, but a small franchise. This can increase the attractiveness
of your title.
Some developers think global and design special graphic elements, uniting app
icons of all their applications. They get something like a corporate rule for all the im-
ages they produce. That can be a unique background, an element of composition,
or a special frame for the application icon. The frame is one of the most common
ways to make your game unique, it is easy to create and use, and it can hold the text
designations.
You need to think deep about the colors you will use in your app icon. Each color has
its own power and psychological meaning. One of the pioneers of abstract art, an art
theorist and Russian painter,
Wassily Kandinsky
, in his topic
Concerning the Spiritu-
al in Art (1911)
notes that cool colors (blue or violet ones, for example) are concent-
ric, they are directed inside an object and move away from a viewer, but warm colors
are eccentric; they are directed outside, moving to the viewer:
At the practical level, this means that a main element, painted a bright and warm
color, can create a feeling being jumped up from the icon frame (now remember the
app icon of the illustrious Angry birds, displaying a red bird). It is an extroverted type
of graphic, so it is ideal for games with a pretty fast gameplay, with a lot of action,
characters and game elements, in other words it serves various types of arcades,
action-oriented puzzles, shooters, races, and so on. Whereas cool and dark colors
being used as backgrounds help the main element to shine and be more attractive
(roughly speaking, cool backgrounds move away from the viewer, but the warm main
elements move toward the viewer, so their speeds are added together resulting in a
vivid image). The icon can have only cool and dark colors too; this is good for more
static and solitary games with more complicated rules. Blue is an intellectual and in-
trovert color. Violet is a slightly spiritual and mystic color. It is interesting to note that
