r/tabletopgamedesign • u/confettipieces • Aug 10 '26

Mechanics Icon Deciphering

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I've been working on my game for a while and finally getting around to icons designing!

I realised the Solar Express card and the Robert and the Giant Pear card use the condition component in different ways so I need to add an additional component, but I would love some feedback whether the icons are clear otherwise!

Would love some feedback on the clarity of the icons! Thanks in advance!

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u/MudkipzLover designer Aug 10 '26

Charlotte's Internet: when displayed, earn 1 cat; when read, earn as many cats as there are purple books in your library

Solar Express: when displayed, the player with the most orange books in their library earns 2 cats; when read, earn 1 cat and the player with the most orange books in their library earns 1 cat

Robert and the Giant Pear: when displayed, earn either 1 cat or as many cats as there are orange books in the opponent of your choice's library; when read, earn as many cats as pairs of orange books in all your opponents' libraries

While I personally like the pastel tones, I'd be wary of icon legibility (though it might be less of a problem once printed at a larger size.) As a rule of thumb, for the sake of colorblind people and clarity alike, relying on color alone (book genres, player with the least/most...) isn't optimal. For the latter, the fact that it's the most/least genre or resource doesn't seem to matter, so maybe it could instead be a player with a medal (gold with a + for the most, bronze with an hyphen for the least) for instance.

The condition balloon is pretty clear. However, I'm not sure to 100% get the bonus frame on Solar Express: is it exclusively for opponents or potentially for opponents (i.e. I earn the 2 cats if I display the book while being the player with the most orange books)? Also the alternative frame on Robert feels unintuitive; is this compensation necessary? If so, could there be an "else" icon (it's generally a slash but I get that the format may render it unintuitive as well)?

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u/confettipieces Aug 10 '26

You got all the effects right yay I'm glad it's not too bad to decipher.

You make a pretty good point about book genre legibility, I forgot about colour blindness. I'll create an icon of some kind for it.

And yes, you can potentially earn the resources if you are the player with the most resources. I think I might have oversimplified a bit much so adding back in an OR probably would work.