Name change

So, I am officially updating the name of this project to Nutty Bolts (unless anyone has any last-minute brilliant ideas). I'll update the blog and my portfolio shortly with the new name.

I'm also working on updating the look and feel of the interface. At first, I was just going to apply a new color scheme (blue and orange) to the existing interface, make some minor updates based on the handy Web 2.0 style guide, and pretty much leave it at that. It was shiny and glossy and everything that a Web 2.0 site should be. But I also thought it was pretty boring and indistinct, so I decided to change it. After all, this isn't a new technology startup to help you be more productive - it's a game, and a game based on absurdity and unpredictability on top of that! Looking boring indistinct is pretty much a death sentence for the atmosphere that I think the game should set.

So, I decided to take a looser approach to the style guidelines, rather than treating its recommendations as holy writ. I think there's a lot of things that make sense for my project - the design is going to be relatively clean so it's easy for newcomers to get an idea of what it's all about, and it's going to have strong, bold colors to make its branding clear. But, there will be no precious rounded corners or gradients. The icons and headers will not have a smooth, glassy sheen that you can practically see yourself in. I started with a logotype font with lots of irregular angles and flat surfaces, like a bunch of wood planks nailed (or bolted!) together, and I went from there. Overall, my goal is to make the type of interface that Apple will run screaming from.

Yes, I know that this will certainly take a while, and I'm kind of afraid of proving the adage "The perfect is the enemy of the good." This is already my third full iteration of the site design, and it hasn't even gone live yet! Additionally, the irregularity of the design may make it difficult to code in HTML. But I think it'll be worth it in the end.

Legality update

So the other day I met with an intellectual property lawyer through my entrepreneurship class, and I discussed the legality of Dangerous Apples with her. Although it was pretty brief, I think I was satisfied by the answers. The good news is that the basic idea of Apples to Apples is not copyrightable, meaning that no gameplay changes are required for my version. The bad news is that the branding must be different enough to make it clear that it's not Apples to Apples. So I'd really prefer to get away from both a name involving "Apples" and the red-and-green color scheme. Guess it's time to go digging back into those suggestions I had gotten before.