In my nation-building game Country Architect, worker teams roam the map building infrastructure, transporting resources, and defending territory. Each team has different states (idle/working/drafted/charging) and can be equipped with multiple specialized vehicles. (Eg. One team could have several excavators, and a few drones to help defend itself).

I need to decide: Should teams be represented as emoji blobs or a construction vehicle?

  1. Emoji blobs show team state at a glance (happy/working/alert)
  2. Construction vehicle feels more professional but less expressive

Poll (no signup): https://linkto.run/p/Z5UY3MPQ

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4136240/Country_Architect/

I’d love some input. Which would you prefer in a game like this?

  • Rentlar@lemmy.caEnglish
    25·
    2 days ago

    How about construction vehicles with a cute little indication of their status… some suggestions:

    “tired” becomes a little tornado cloud coming out from the bubble.

    Idle is zzzs coming from the bubble

    You could use these kinds of marks, as inspiration.

  • Avicenna@programming.devEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    I find that stuff like emoji blobs or too cartoonish characters prevent me from immersion and prefer the right amount of realism to “silly graphics”. Wouldn’t call that a necessarily a universal rule though.

    • purple_mimosa@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      I have some vague concepts of an idea, but they seem to change every once in a while. I’d like a modern vaporwave rusty industrial pastel fabric 80s lighting look.

      Yeah. I know.

      • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        So you probably want a top-down image of a piece of equipment then? Neither a blob nor an icon.

  • isyasad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    The construction vehicle looks a bit more visually legible. I do like the cute emojis, but perhaps a moving icon is not the place for them.

    • isyasad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Though if it makes sense for the type of vibe you are going for, they could still work as an alternate skin kinda like lichess/chess.com alternate pieces and tilesets