Editing Forum:New game icons

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Lest anyone thing I've forgotten about this...it was suggested in the massive "Wiki Improvement" thread that we improve our game icons from shrunk down versions of the game logos.

The hard part is getting anything, especially an entire game, down to a few pixels.  I thought of the now-defunct panels theme before the sidebar was reorganized, and thought they'd do well here.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/radicaldory/gameicons_collected.png

These are the little guys I've come up with so far.  Colors and crowns are based on the original logos for the most part; the cards were just too iconic not to put into the ''CoM'' versions, and I thought the Organization 13 symbol nicely wrapped up the whole concept behind ''358/2 Days''.

I'm not 100% satisfied (I rarely am though), so while they're a work in process, any thoughts?  Suggestions?  Scrap 'em and start over again? [[User:BebopKate|<span style="color:indigo;">'''Bebop'''</span>]][[User talk:BebopKate|<span style="color:plum;">'''Kate'''</span>]] 03:01, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

i like it lets do a poll--ALEX 03:05, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

{{GS|time=03:13, October 17, 2009 (UTC)|text=We definitely do need new icons, but those ones don't look very satisfying.  They aren't clear enough as to which games they belong to, and don't look professional enough.  Good effort though.}}

:I find them clear enough... but then again that's just me. Any ideas to clarify them? --{{User:Yer mom/Sig}} 03:28, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

<poll>
do you want to change?
Yes, 
No, I don't
</poll>

{{Bluer|05:03, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|I have to admitthat these icons are very confusing, kupo. I have difficulty telling which games most of the icons represent, kupo. I had uploaded one Heart image with the intention of recoloring the Hearts to denote which games represent which, kupo. Most of which just by manipulating the Hue of each logo, kupo.

Also, I should think the "Featured" icon should be incorporated into the "Gameicon" template, }}

{{DTN|time=05:08, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|text=However, the grays in COM and REC are identical, as are several of the blues. Perhpas you could add abbreviations in the hearts? Also, perhaps we should also incoporate the Staff Member template into this template, if we decide to merge the Featured template in.}}
{{GS|time=05:10, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|text=You could always keep the II in the KH2 one, and add the lettering in there for some of them.}}
{{Bluer|10:37, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|Not sure what your reasoning is, kupo, why would a "staffmember" template be incorporated when they're just used in the user namespace? The reason why I suggest the "FA icon" template should be incorporated into the "Gameicon" template is because both of these templates are used quite extensively in an article namespace, kupo.

Additionally, I think the [[:template:Real|"Real"]] template be reduced to an "icon" as well, kupo. There will be less scrolling, especially since those "notice templates" wasn't suppose to stay on a page for very long, kupo. It's exactly why "spoiler" templates are just reduced to a single line of text, kupo.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff25/bluerfn/insectr.jpg  

There we go, kupo. Didn't do anything for FM or ReCoM, but I think what it would end like are simple abbreviations. I'll let you guys decide, and of course, if most do not agree, I'll just shelf these away, }}
{{GS|time=16:24, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|text=I really like them, but we do need a separate one for FM.  Don't really know if we should bother making a separate one for Re:CoM though.}}
{{DTN|time=22:15, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|text=Eh... KH and BbS are a little too similar for me... and yes, FM1 does need to be more differentiable.

@GS: An icon for Re:CoM is necessary. Zexion (Boss), Gold Card, and Platinum Card are all exclusive to Re:CoM, among others.}}
{{GS|time=22:27, October 19, 2009 (UTC)|text=The '+' in the second Final Mix includes Re:CoM, and I don't think it's necessary to make a separate icon if it's only for like three articles.

Also, BBS looks perfectly fine to me.  I can very easily tell the difference.}}
{{BebopKate|time=02:21, October 20, 2009 (UTC)|text=Those look great...kind of what I had in mind, I just couldn't pull it off as well.  I was concerned about the coloring as well (curse you, constant use of silver!), but I think BBS and the original look distinctive enough from each other.  Also, I would add an Re:CoM one, because it was released over here as a separate game from Final Mix+.  Also, because I know what's going to happen down the line..."Hey, OMG, you forgot the Re:CoM!"  "Where's the Re:CoM?" and so on.  It's just easier to go ahead and make one now than have to go back and do it later.  If he's already got the bases, it should be pretty easy.}}
{{Bluer|16:01, October 21, 2009 (UTC)|I am elated by the feedback, kupo! I have to admit BBS's icon might be identical to KH1, so I added a dash of light blue, kupo, but I'm not sure why it's not as prominent. Here is the v2.0 of the product, kupo:

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff25/bluerfn/occu-23.png

I tried to be as coherent to the game logo's color as much as possible, kupo. The final two icons are the "FA" icon and the "Real" icons denoting real-world articles, kupo, with Japan as its center, mirroring KH's origin! Please don't argue about origins, though, kupo. 

By the way, I've uploaded it as a transparent png, kupo, so that if and when you guys decide to use these, you can just pluck it out there, kupo. I won't be around for the weekend, kupo, because I'm going to Tokyo this Friday. If you have any bureaucrat matters please contact Wikia staff, kupo. Tokyo}}
{{BebopKate|time=23:36, October 21, 2009 (UTC)|text=Those are magnificent.  Simple, easy to read, and no doubt as to the game.  I ''was'' wondering about the last one.  I'm guessing that would be great for merchandising and such, since we're not doing much with real-world personalities here.}}
{{GS|time=23:44, October 21, 2009 (UTC)|text=Those are perfect.  I could get them up now, but I don't have a way to separate them without ruining the transparency.  I need someone else to do it.}}
{{KrytenKoro|After a bit of reasoning I can figure out which games those are for, but why exactly are the original logo's bad?}}
{{BebopKate|time=00:12, October 22, 2009 (UTC)|text=Maybe it's just me and my old-person eyesight, but I honestly cannot tell which logo goes with which game when the original logos are shrunken down.  For example, you can barely see the "Final Mix" text on any of those versions of the logo, and Re:CoM is just unreadable.  Plus, it looks a little sloppy; the idea of the logos is to provide a short visual summary of the game or games of interest; with the full logos, an article involved with a lot of games like [[Sora]] has them all squished together at the top of the screen, and it just doesn't look very appealing.}}
{{DTN|time=04:14, October 22, 2009 (UTC)|text=Wow, these are... almost perfect. There is one flaw in just one icon: the ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' one. You see, ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'''+''''' is the compilation of ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' and ''Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories''. The actualy game alone is just ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix''. No "+". This is because the "+" is to say that this Final Mix has more than the last; the addition was Re:CoM. If that one icon could just be changed, I would find the icons to all be completely perfect. Great idea with adding the Real template up there, as well. However, where shall it link to?}}
{{GS|time=05:02, October 22, 2009 (UTC)|text=Even if it was talking about the bundle with Re:CoM, it only came bundled with Re:CoM, and it's really not that big of a deal.  Now we're just getting too picky, I say we keep the plus sign, it looks good.}}
{{KrytenKoro|What I mean was, if it takes ''me'' a minute or two to figure out which is which (especially coded and Chain of Memories), what's that mean for people unfamiliar with the games? These look ''really good'', don't get me wrong, but they seem to basically be the original logos with the text removed - wouldn't that make them harder to decipher? Then again, we are going to have these work as links to the games as well, so I don't know...I wish there was some way to get input from readers and infrequent editors, because those are the people these are supposed to be of most benefit to.

I'm also not sure how the behavior would be different between these logos and the originals, squish-wise. Is there any way to test these out before implementing them?}}
{{KrytenKoro|For example, if you look at [http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Master_Chief], which is the type of thing we are trying to emulate here, they ''do'' use the entire logo, even with the text shrunken down (actually, they use the full box-art, with some cropping). It's not the easiest thing to read, but there's really no opportunity for confusion as to what is what. Even with the original logos we had - even if the text is hard to read, you can tell that one is KH2, and one is KH2 with some text below it. "Well, obviously the second one must be final mix". And if you're familiar with the logos, there's that. If we make our own, it seems like readers would have to either read the template documentation or explore the links often enough to get familiar with them.

Again, all of this is moot if this format is what the readers want. If they understand it and it works for them, that's dandy.}}
{{GS|time=17:49, October 22, 2009 (UTC)|text=These icons really don't seem that difficult to understand in my opinion.  Using the original icons is terrible, because it makes the icons stretch more than necessary.  Lots of wikis with icons use custom icons too, and that seems to work fine.  I mean, if you hover over the logos, they're going to show the title name anyways.}}
{{Bluer|15:01, October 29, 2009 (UTC)|I will go ahead and do the changes as necessary,}}