Emoji blobs or construction vehicles? Help me choose my game's visual identity | 😊 vs 🚜 |

Submitted ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨purple_mimosa@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/bcdc08f0-ef79-4be0-ae45-348ee34df960.png

In my nation-building game Country Architect, worker teams roam the map building infrastructure, transporting resources, and defending territory. Each team has different states (idle/working/drafted/charging) and can be equipped with multiple specialized vehicles. (Eg. One team could have several excavators, and a few drones to help defend itself).

I need to decide: Should teams be represented as emoji blobs or a construction vehicle?

Emoji blobs show team state at a glance (happy/working/alert)
Construction vehicle feels more professional but less expressive

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Poll (no signup): linkto.run/p/Z5UY3MPQ

Steam page: store.steampowered.com/app/…/Country_Architect/

I’d love some input. Which would you prefer in a game like this?

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Comments

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Rentlar@lemmy.ca ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
How about construction vehicles with a cute little indication of their status… some suggestions:

“tired” becomes a little tornado cloud coming out from the bubble.

Idle is zzzs coming from the bubble

You could use these kinds of marks, as inspiration.

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- purple_mimosa@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This is an awesome idea. And then the lightning symbol when it’s charging. Thanks.
  
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Avicenna@programming.dev ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I find that stuff like emoji blobs or too cartoonish characters prevent me from immersion and prefer the right amount of realism to “silly graphics”. Wouldn’t call that a necessarily a universal rule though.

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frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Depends. How are you defining your art style?

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- purple_mimosa@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I have some vague concepts of an idea, but they seem to change every once in a while. I’d like a modern vaporwave rusty industrial pastel fabric 80s lighting look.
  
  Yeah. I know.
  
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  - frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    So you probably want a top-down image of a piece of equipment then? Neither a blob nor an icon.
    
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isyasad@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The construction vehicle looks a bit more visually legible. I do like the cute emojis, but perhaps a moving icon is not the place for them.

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- isyasad@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Though if it makes sense for the type of vibe you are going for, they could still work as an alternate skin kinda like lichess/chess.com alternate pieces and tilesets
  
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Matty_r@programming.dev ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve always liked some of the stuff that Kenney produces:

www.kenney.nl

Might be some inspiration there

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