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.

Stylized Card

I just had an interesting new thought about Dangerous Apples' graphic design. For one of my school assignments, I am using DA's card background graphic in an Adobe Illustrator file. I had to convert this graphic, which is raster-based, into a vector-based format so Illustrator could rotate it. At one point during the conversion, I accidentally left the number of colors to use at 6 instead of using the maximum 256 colors. It sounds like it could've been a disaster, but I actually really liked the results.

For the purpose of comparison, here's the original graphic that I drew next to the graphic that Illustrator produced:



I really like the second one. It just seems to be a lot more organic. It has a lot of subtle variations and assymetries in the thickness and shape of lines, and even the placement of elements. The shadow and highlight on the apple look really great too. Even though it's a lot fewer colors, it looks really good and stylized that way. I think it fits the theme of the game as a fun, almost cartoony diversion. I'd love to see the card logo animated too, maybe the stem does a little dance and the highlight bounces up and down in rhythm.

Now I'm not about to go changing the page design again. I've already given it one facelift before it was even finished, and I plan on leaving it at that. But it's something to think about for the future. I also have to say that as great as this looks, it's not good for my ego that I just got out-arted by a piece of software, despite how much time and effort I put into my own attempt. (However, it could be argued that the software itself did nothing, it was only guided by my skillful and judicious hand. I'm going to take that interpretation and run with it.)

Red cards on table

One of the interesting decisions involved with porting any system to a computer for the first time is figuring out whether to completely replicate the old system, down to the finest detail, or to redesign it using the added benefits of a computer. For instance, if you were writing a computer program to call people, you could duplicate the way it's done on a telephone, by entering in the phone number, or you could redesign it specifically for the computer, using an address book or something similar. Do you stick with what people already know and are familiar with, or do you try to correct the flaws in the old design and make something new and better?

I've recently run into this kind of decision for A2A; specifically, I'm looking at what happens when people play red cards. I have a "table" area of the screen where you can see the red cards that have been played, and this is also where the judge picks the winning red card. Now, when anyone plays a red card, it will show up on the table, but what I realized is that, unlike the real Apples to Apples, I can show which red card it is as soon as it gets played. In the real game, you see people as they are playing cards, so revealing a card immediately would also reveal who played it. However, since this is an online game, you do not see people as they play cards, so everyone's identity is protected. This means that I can reveal the exact red cards as soon as they are played. I'm interested in how this change might affect the game play. Will it be amusing to see the cards immediately? Will people rethink their plays if they see what other people have played? Is it worth knowing who has played already? The good news is, it's not that hard to whip up two different versions of the game, one that mimics the original game and doesn't reveal red cards until everyone has played, and one that shows the red cards immediately, so I can test both.

Also, I've renamed the blog to "Dangerous Apples" instead of "Apples to AJAX" since I'm using that name on the current design. I'm heavily leaning towards "Dangerous Apples" for the final project. The blog will stay at the same URL, though.