I’m super excited about my newest creative project, Building the Game: A Documentary Podcast. I’ve partnered with Jason from Imminent Entertainment to do this. check out the website to learn some more about it. Our first episode will be released June 4th.
Jason and I have been talking for a while now about what kind of game we would create, if we were going to be game designers. And it occurred to us that talking about that creative process in an open format might be something other people are interested in. So that’s the idea. Every week we’re going to talk about the art, mechanics and business of independent game publishing, pitch a new game idea to each other, and see where it takes us. That means the listeners can be a part of the creative process as we explore it.
- Building the Game Podcast Logo
I thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about the logo I created for the site. As all of my work does, it started in a sketchbook. Jason and I had already agreed that we wanted cartoony versions of our heads as a part of it. So getting a shape and a style down for those came first. I pretty much filled two pages of my sketchbook with doodles and drawings of our faces. I eventually got down to this sort of pill-shaped look which I think is silly, fun and easy.
Next came the actual text of the logo. I like symmetry in a title. I like letters to line up and fit together. So I liked the fact that “building” has 8 letters and “game” has 4. I began drawing a grid at first just to help me keep everything lined up as I was trying different shapes, swoops, cuts and angles. That would usually have been erased as I refined the design. But pretty soon it hit me that a grid of squares behind the text actually kind of mimics the impression of a game board. From there it fell together pretty fast.
Well, not that fast I guess. It was still a full day’s work to recreate the black and white bones of the design on the computer and re-draw the cartoon faces. I went through a LOT of fonts to find lettering that looked the way I wanted it to. It still kinda bugs me that the “E” in “GAME” is spaced away from the “M” so much farther than the “G” is from the “A”. But having the grid in the background helps to define the space, so it doesn’t really look that out of place.
The next day was spent coloring everything. I’ve got about 6 layers of color and texture in “GAME” alone. When the logo is scaled down this small you can’t really see the checkered halftone pattern in it. That’s more visible on the website. I’m ok with that. I meant it to be subtle. Finally drawing the little game pieces at the bottome was probably the most fun part. In the end I wanted to keep them white so they didn’t draw the eye away from the main title. And of course they’re deliberately a little messy with no straight lines. I didn’t want to just trace a photo perfectly. This way they have some more character, and fit in well with our heads.
I guess that’s it for today. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enhoy the show when it launches on June 4th!
Rob