Re: gnome-games tango application icons

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sat, 1 Jul 2006, Daniel Derozier wrote:

> Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 21:04:34 -0400
> From: Daniel Derozier <dcubed20 gmail com>
> To: games-list gnome org
> Subject: gnome-games tango application icons
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm proud to announce that I've completed a set of Tango-style (

Thanks for putting the time and effort into creating this icon set.

> www.tango-project.org) application icons for gnome-games! I spoke with the
> project maintainer (me jasonclinton com); he approved of the change and
> elected to merge them. If there are no objections, I'd submit my icons for
> your approval and merging into gnome-games.

I'm not sure I like the proposed icon for Tali using a white die since the
SVG graphics used in the game used a red die (with nicely rounded edges).
The bomb used to represent minesweeper isn't like the icons used for the
mines either which I think would be better.  If I recall correctly other
applications use that type of bomb icon for other purposes (to indicate
core files I think). The Klotski icon is a little too abstract for my
liking, from the icon alone it is hard (impossible?) to tell what it
represents.

Blackjack is sometimes also known as 21, showing two cards with that sum
would make a more distinctive and recognisable icon.  Your proposed
Freecell and blackjack icons are very similar to each other
(interchangable might better describe what I'm trying to say) and not as
distinctive as the older icons.  Could the colours of the existing card
game icons be adjusted to fit the Tango palette?

The Tetravex icon is lopsided, it doesn't fit it in with the consistent
angles I thought Tango icons are supposed to have.

The gnibbles icon looks eerily familiar, is it based on some existing
artwork or have I been playing Worms too much?

The glines icon is very similar to what went before but it seems like the
best candidate for a new and different icon.  The game is described as
"five or more" but I do not think the 4x4 layout of the current icon helps
convey that concept.

I'd feel better about the gnect icon if it actually illustrated a theme
shipped with the game (the red and yellow colour scheme for example).
You can take that as a suggestion to adjust the icons or as encouragement
to use your skills to create a new theme for Gnect, whichever you prefer.

When finished you should probably save your SVG as "Plain SVG" to avoid
some of the Inkscape (and sodipodi) specific markup and produce slightly
cleaner files.  (The inkscape developers are aware that clean markup which
can be round-tripped is potentially of great value to developers and those
"programming" SVG but a lot of infrastructure would be required to
roundtrip custom markup so it isn't likely going to happen soon.)

Also keep in mind that although Inkscape does not properly support the SVG
filters yet (being worked on as part of the Google Summer of Code) you
need to get a nice blur or drop shadow effects librsvg can render them.
If you have access to other software it might be wise to finish your
drawing in them and and make full use of the features available in SVG
which librsvg can render.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/