Title screen feedback: Mayhem Intergalactic

[ChrisP]

I've been working on a new title screen for Mayhem Intergalactic. Here's a preview:



And a variation:



Which is better? What changes would you like to see? Or, should I throw it all out and start over?

All crits welcome and appreciated.

[Teq]

Looks good, though I think you should offer yourself some more variations and make them a little more meaningful, you are just making a choice between yellow and blue flames, am I right? A different scene or two might help with a decision, also you do not describe the title screens possible animation?

[AlexWeldon]

I prefer the blue flames, but I would take out the phalanx of fighters in the top right, as they hurt the otherwise consistent directionality of the composition. It might leave a little too much negative space, so you could make the rightmost red fighter a bit bigger and move it a touch higher and to the left... however, I don't think negative space in the top centre is a bad thing, as it will let the title "breathe" and draw attention to it.

[Christian]

Trying dont using that explotion, and see if you like it, for me, there is too much unnecesary white on that explotion, there is so much unnecesary constrast.

Try customizing the logo a little bit more, it looks too generic, it doesnt necesarily mean that you should add things to it, but it needs more character, more personality, a little bit more unique, the font is ok, but adding an explotion texture and a shadow, doesnt add much value to it.

Try switching for a vertical placement of the menu options, and try changing the background to match this change, maybe you can choose a background that has zoom to the action (if its an action game), maybe show the ship shooting at somethig but bigger.

The company logo should be in other place, not in and outside tha background at the same time, it should be in, or outside, and smaller, try it to see how it looks to you.

Also try seeing some spaceship game covers to see some ideas.

I hope that helps, good luck.

[bbjones]

First impressions:

- didn't see a difference between the variations, on second look noticed missing asteroids etc
- the explosion behind the logo doesn't work, not enough contrast between the letters, it blends in too much... overall my eye is drawn to the middle, but then nothing stands out enough to focus on. I was thinking that if the explosion were subdued/darkened a bit and/or is animated it may help the focus
- thinking maybe the game name should just be bigger
- the game name seems to sit in the middle of the image depth wise (blue ships on the left are furthest, logo in middle, red ship on right closest. this is contributing to me not knowing where to focus on the image.

Cheers

[MasterWorks]

You have some nice graphics but I agree that everything isn't quite 'tied together' properly. I think the explosion graphic could be improved and your logo looks like it needs better shadowing or outline effects to make it stand out. Maybe some more glows, depth of field, or something could help draw the focus to where you want it!

[ChrisP]

Excellent feedback, thanks everyone.

If anyone else has further criticism, don't be shy!

Looks good, though I think you should offer yourself some more variations and make them a little more meaningful, you are just making a choice between yellow and blue flames, am I right? A different scene or two might help with a decision, also you do not describe the title screens possible animation?

Those two variations were merely the only ones I'd come up with at that point, is all. I didn't intend to restrict the choices to just those two by any means.

There's no animation, I'm afraid, apart from a fade-in. To animate it in any fashion besides just sliding elements around in a 2D fashion, I'd need to (1) implement a 3D engine just for the game (it's a 2D game, and it's already on sale - this is just for the next version) or (2) pre-render a video and write some code to display it. As cool as it would be to have an animated fight scene playing out behind the title screen, both options are overkill.

I prefer the blue flames, but I would take out the phalanx of fighters in the top right, as they hurt the otherwise consistent directionality of the composition. It might leave a little too much negative space, so you could make the rightmost red fighter a bit bigger and move it a touch higher and to the left... however, I don't think negative space in the top centre is a bad thing, as it will let the title "breathe" and draw attention to it.

Good call! You're right, it does look better without that phalanx.

I put them in because the game typically involves dozens or hundreds of ships in each battle, rather than 4... perhaps if I moved it to the left side and oriented it in the same direction as the other ships? And maybe removed those asteroids as well?

Trying dont using that explotion, and see if you like it, for me, there is too much unnecesary white on that explotion, there is so much unnecesary constrast.

I just tried it, and I'm afraid I didn't like it. The image was too empty in the middle.

The explosion used to be more orange/yellow than white, but then I couldn't read the text... I tried darkening it just now and I think that might be an improvement. See what you think. (Image at end of post.)

Try customizing the logo a little bit more, it looks too generic, it doesnt necesarily mean that you should add things to it, but it needs more character, more personality, a little bit more unique, the font is ok, but adding an explotion texture and a shadow, doesnt add much value to it.

I think I see your point. It doesn't look very interesting with just a solid colour though, and I'm not sure what else I should do to it. Do you have any specific ideas?

Try switching for a vertical placement of the menu options, and try changing the background to match this change, maybe you can choose a background that has zoom to the action (if its an action game), maybe show the ship shooting at somethig but bigger.

It's a 2D strategy game, actually. The title screen is just flavour.

The company logo should be in other place, not in and outside tha background at the same time, it should be in, or outside, and smaller, try it to see how it looks to you.

Also try seeing some spaceship game covers to see some ideas.

I hope that helps, good luck.

OK, noted. Thanks!

- the explosion behind the logo doesn't work, not enough contrast between the letters, it blends in too much... overall my eye is drawn to the middle, but then nothing stands out enough to focus on. I was thinking that if the explosion were subdued/darkened a bit and/or is animated it may help the focus

I tried darkening the explosion. Is that better?

- the game name seems to sit in the middle of the image depth wise (blue ships on the left are furthest, logo in middle, red ship on right closest. this is contributing to me not knowing where to focus on the image.

Interesting point, I hadn't even considered that. The logo is supposed to look higher than the rest of it (hence the drop shadow, and the subtle "whoosh" lines, but I guess I killed that possibility by making the image so contrasting!

You have some nice graphics but I agree that everything isn't quite 'tied together' properly. I think the explosion graphic could be improved and your logo looks like it needs better shadowing or outline effects to make it stand out. Maybe some more glows, depth of field, or something could help draw the focus to where you want it!

Hmm, didn't think of depth of field. Definitely something to try.


Here's a modified image incorporating some of the quicker-to-implement suggestions from this thread. I also decreased the contrast of the ships slightly. Forgot to move the company logo though... I'll do it later.

Additional crits still welcome!

[ChrisP]

With the distant fleet at the left, sans asteroids, and company logo made smaller and inside the image instead of outside:



This thread is getting pretty image-heavy, sorry 56kers.

I'm concerned that it might be looking a bit empty now. What do y'all think?

[Jamie W]

I like the previous one.

But I would just move the company logo over to the right (not on the left, where it conflicts with the asteroids), I like the fact that the company logo goes in to the top border.

It looks too small in your most recent screenie.

I say definately use the previous screenie, but just slide the company logo over to the right, so the picture composition is more balanced. Other than that, I say it's good to go!

[JGOware]

whoah...is that a screen dump from the game itself? Looks cool!

[AlexWeldon]

The phalanx is better on the left than the right, but I prefer the version without it at all.

I would not take the advice to move the company logo to the top right, because then it will have the same problem as the phalanx did. The axis of the image is top left to bottom right, and any eye-catching elements outside that axis will conflict with the composition.

What if, instead of making the letters light-colored, with a drop shadow to make them stand out against the explosion, you made them dark colored, maybe gunmetal grey with a subtle metallic texture or something, with an orange-yellow outer glow to make them stand out against the darkness of space. Then they would appear to be backlit by the explosion.

Overall, though, I think it's looking pretty decent by indie game standards now.

[ChrisP]

How's this? Also available in pure-black-with-orange-glow and black-with-blue-glow.

whoah...is that a screen dump from the game itself? Looks cool!

Sadly not. The game itself looks like this (previous version screenshots, but close enough to get the idea). This is just a 3D render for the title screen.