1. APP STORE ICON DESIGN TIPS Monday, 2 June 2014

2. DESIGNING YOUR ICON Use elements from your app. Having some common elements from your app in your icon will help portray what your app is all about, and shows directly what your app is. Make the icon aesthetically pleasing. A good looking, well designed icon will always get viewed more, and interests the viewer. Use a similar style as your app. For example, its a bit strange if your app was made in a clean, illustrated style but your icon is a cartoon or bitmap style. Doing this is less confusing for the consumer. Use complimentary colours. Reference the colour wheel theory when choosing a colour palette for your design, this can help portray your app in a certain way, e.g. Orange and Blue work well in a Sci-Fi style app. Keep your audience in mind. A younger audience would probably scroll strait past a simple, more mature design if they were looking for a kids game/app. Tailor your icon based on your target audience. Use the App Store/Google Play icon design guidelines. Monday, 2 June 2014 3. AUDIENCE TYPE I think the audience for my game would have a home screen that looks similar to this. I have chosen apps that I think a casual gamer would have, from social networking apps to a few casual games such as Candy Crush. Instagram - This person likes going out with friends and posting his photos to Instagram. YouTube - As a younger audience this person also enjoys watching videos in their spare time. Candy Crush - As a casual gamer, this person enjoys playing this in his spare time around school or college. Canabalt - Much like Candy Crush, this person will play this game in his spare time. VSCOcam - For editing his photos he posts on Instagram. Twitter - This person likes to stay in touch with friends and news from the outside world. Vine - This is a kind of miscellaneous app for this person, but they sometimes enjoy browsing the funny videos on this app. Jetpack Joyride - Another casual game in the endless runner genre. Snapchat - This person enjoys interacting with friends via photos. Shazam - To find songs they enjoy from the radio. Soundcloud - To find the songs they have found on Shazam. Supreme - Misc. Monday, 2 June 2014 4. INITIAL IDEAS FOR GAME/APP Gameplay/ Screenshot Character/ Action Abstract/ Iconic Title as Text Symbolic/ Thematic Language as Image Monday, 2 June 2014 5. ABSTRACT/ICONIC LOGO FEEDBACK Monday, 2 June 2014 6. CHARACTER ACTION LOGO FEEDBACK Monday, 2 June 2014 7. ACTION PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENTS - Crop the image slightly wider to show more of the skateboard. - Make CHAD pop out from the background, maybe using a drop shadow. - Use more colourful background using more colours from the game. - Keep basic layout with above changes and small tweaks, e.g. colours/contrast. Monday, 2 June 2014 8. CHAD APP STORE RATING DRUGS No reference to drugs. IMITABLE BEHAVIOUR Jumping over walls and cars whilst on a skateboard. LANGUAGE No swearing but aggressive sounding shouts. NUDITY No reference to nudity. SEX No reference to sex. THREAT Frightening sequences and situations where CHAD is in danger, e.g. Cars coming toward CHAD. VIOLENCE Mild violence when CHAD crashes and blows up in blue explosion. Monday, 2 June 2014 9. CHAD APP STORE RATING 9+ 12+ Applications in this category may contain mild or infrequent occurrences of cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and infrequent or mild mature, suggestive, or horror-themed content which may not be suitable for children under the age of 9. Applications in this category may also contain infrequent mild language, frequent or intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence and mild or infrequent mature or suggestive themes, and simulated gambling which may not be suitable for children under the age of 12. I believe CHAD falls somewhere in between these two categories, maybe edging toward the 9+ category. Monday, 2 June 2014 10. FINAL DESIGN PROCESS I started by re-thinking the character design that would go on my icon. I drew the character out from scratch again in Illustrator and played about with the positioning of his features and skateboard. I ended up with the original stood up CHAD but rotated his skateboard upwards, to give the impression that he is holding it. Monday, 2 June 2014 11. FINAL DESIGN PROCESS The background from one of my original ideas was lacking vibrance and had really bleak colours. I referred back to our game in a frame and decided I was going to use a similar colour scheme to the background in that, but keep the gradient style. Monday, 2 June 2014 12. COLOURWAYS I tried a couple of different colour ways, experimenting with a few complimentary colours. I decided against it and went with the original, in-game colours of CHAD. Monday, 2 June 2014 13. FINAL DESIGN PROCESS I started off with the background as a base to work on. I then dropped in the redesigned character on top of the background. I proceeded to add a drop shadow, so that the character popped out from the background. I then chose to use greyscale and the guidelines to compose the icon. Last, I cut out the corners of the image for a final mock up of what it would look like in the app store. Monday, 2 June 2014 14. I like the overall design of the icon, but I think it could be better in some ways, like the artistic style relevant to the game. To keep the icon true to the game, I had to keep it looking 8/16 Bit, which becomes really simple and possibly a bit boring, but I think it works as it displays the themes and style of our game accurately. CHAD App Store Icon Monday, 2 June 2014