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Mobile games with an icon of a guy yelling.

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Saw this remarked on my Twitter on 2 different occasions.

Cix_MDnW0AA0e12.jpg


We hear about generic (mostly white) dude looking tough while holding a weapon being the seemingly most marketable game boxart, but what about mobile gaming? Is this the safest and most marketable thing you can put into these tiny icons: Yelling guy bearing their teeth? Or is it just a case of follow the leader and throwing spaghetti on the wall until it sticks?
 

dtm808

Member
mobile gaming has been largely cat and mouse for years. Sucks too since there are so many gems buried beneath this crap that gets front page on Gplay and Appstore.
 

Dwayne

Member
The Clash ones and Game of War at least will have been heavily A/B tested and proven to be winners. Everyone else is doing it because it's proven successful, so I can't blame them.
 
My brain automatically skips over them when I see them.

Much like with the overdone "angry white male gamer" trope on Youtube. Someone needs to tell those guys that looking angry all the time isn't an attractive trait.
 

Inumbris

Member
Two of those even have the exact same dude in it, just wearing different coloured/detailed hat and clothing.

No expense spared for quality, obviously.
 
I would seriously have thought they are all from the same game.

I thought the same thing when I saw them. 9 out of the 12 look like they could be just different faction icons for the same game.

I'm not huge into mobile gaming, but would the icon even matter that much? Doesn't the app store show sceenshots in addition to the icon when you search for games? I wouldn't think it would be as important as box art is for physical games.
 

What really bugs me in these icons and in in-game graphics of these game is how they are rendered. I don't know how to describe that style... cartoony and grotesque yet "realistic", with all characters trying to look positively emotional but lifeless, and with virtually no distinctive and specific color pallete.


I hope you got the idea. It's the style of mobile/browser free-to-play games.
 

RowdyReverb

Member
Kids don't know any better, so they might be attracted to other games that look similar to games they liked. It's a bit exploitative, like selling low quality knock-off toys
 
What really bugs me in these icons and in in-game graphics of these game is how they are rendered. I don't know how to describe that style... cartoony and grotesque yet "realistic", with all characters trying to look positively emotional but lifeless, and with virtually no distinctive and specific color pallete.



I hope you got the idea. It's the style of mobile/browser free-to-play games.

I think the limited palettes is due to these being team based game and thus every unit has to be color coded appropriately. But yeah it's all just low rent DreamWorks artstyle all the way down. It's easy to design and simple to create. I can't even tell if that Clash of Clans dude is wearing a helmet or if that's his hair.

Game of War is its own special kind of aesthetic ugliness though.
 
How about generic block character with colored background?


FsEl6su.png

Half of those are cribbing from a specific game: Crossy Road. It's actually a pretty decent mobile game so it's not surprise it has rip-offs.

Funny enough, two of those apps icons ripped off assets from Minecraft. Totally won't get them in trouble, though. That's the magic of these mobile game stores: little to no moderation (unless your game is too politcal for Apple.)
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Yelling guy bearing their teeth?

Baring. Sorry, OCD.



You have not lived till you've seen content-aware scale war face

I think I'm more annoyed by the blocky trend than yelling-face trend. Not that I play much of either, heh.

Half of those are cribbing from a specific game: Crossy Road. It's actually a pretty decent mobile game so it's not surprise it has rip-offs.

Similarly, Clash of Clans is ridiculously successful. That's generally what happens when an industry seeks to monetize a casual audience who may or may not be the most informed crowd, really. I'd be willing to bet a significant fraction of the casual sector's intended target market can't actually name the specific game, they've just heard it mentioned in conversation a few times.
 

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
How in the hell people like you manage to get into a year old thread and just bump it out of nowhere?
Seriously. Do they just google "mobile game yelling icon +neogaf" and click the first result? And then feel compelled to reply without checking the dates?
 
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