Mupen64plus-ae: POLL: Icons

-1?

I actually _really_ like the current logo, but I would get behind a Material Design version of that. Nevertheless, I would want to see how the logo you proposed looks before giving a solid vote. It does sound like it could be cool too. :)

I would love to see new designs if you want to contribute.

I can make a rough one tonight or tomorrow; a good one will have to wait
till next week when I am at my Illustrator computer. I'm replacing some
action icons right now.
On Apr 4, 2016 2:00 PM, "Francisco Zurita" [email protected] wrote:

I would love to see new designs if you want to contribute.

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OK. I found a bunch of better icons for the settings, so we don't have all those duplicates.

For a cheat code, which do you like best?

Hmmm, personally, I like the key that we have right now for cheats. Although, I do agree with you. The splash screen is ugly.

You agree that it should go in the app version though? Because it still deserves to be in the app. I like it but it definitely isn't a splash screen thing.

You mean in the app version dialog or the menu item that you have to click to get into the app version dialog?

We don't currently have any icons in the about section of the dialog. So one item having an icon while the other two don't would make the other two feel out of place. IMO.

App version dialog. It will be right above the text. I can put together the layout.

Gotcha, in that case it makes sense. Yes, that dialog seems like it could have more stuff on it. An icon would make it look nicer. Feel free to submit a new layout with an icon for it as a pull request and I'll consider it.

I'll also deorange the gallery.

Also, my rough app icon is ready. (I'm OCD. It _will_ be much better than this.):

Not bad! You definitely have some skills. Now, I wish other team members would comment. But please keep refining this. @littleguy77 @Gillou68310 @paulscode

Maybe they will comment if it gets more refined.

I can't really refine it much right now. I am only using Inkscape, I won't have access to Illustrator until next Monday.

Ok, I'm sure it would be worth the wait.

@ZAD-Man what do you think ↓

I found that either a black or a white label works best. Also, I tweaked the colors a bit, fixed some alignment and added a long shadow.

I still need to work on the Mupen logo, the inside is a bit awkward.

I think black looks nicer.

Oh nice! I agree with the black background - I prefer it too. :) Is it safe to assume it will be squattier in the improved version? That's all I would say to change. The shadow was a nice addition too.

@ZAD-Man this is a rough. Alignment will be better next week when I can get to Illustrator. I'll even use an actual N64 cartridge image for accuracy. Inkscape just isn't the best in the alignment department.

Hey, I was wondering:
Maybe, in-app and in the app drawer, we should reference the app name as just "Mupen64+".
That will help with identity as well, because the AE is not necessary. You look in the Play Store for Mupen64+ and you get this. In the Android world, we are just Mupen64+. In general, we are AE.

It is like saying, "My computer runs Windows 7 Professional. I really like Windows 7 Professional, it is a lot better than Windows Vista Home Premium".
You don't. You just say Windows 7.

@easyaspi314 Oh, OK! I thought "alignment" just meant centering the label better or something, haha. OK, great. :)

Also, I absolutely agree about the AE removal - I've actually edited that off on my phone.

Yes, I agree, the AE is redundant. You are obviously Android edition if you are already running in Android.

And it isn't even saying, "Android Edition".
What else could it mean? "Angry elephants?" XD

Also, this would make the app icon label not look unsure or incomplete:

Well, that depend a lot in your launcher.

But still, 18 out of the 122 apps in my app drawer are are truncated and the launcher uses the condensed font. Most of those are small indie utility apps, only one or two big-name ones are truncated.
And if you say I have too many apps..........._I will completely agree with you._
Some people use the full width font and they might see Mupen64 Plu..

I'm OK with making the app name be just Mupen64Plus. As long as at least someone else in the team agrees.

No, Mupen64+.

In reality, we are very loosely associated with Mupen64plus at this point. All the core changes are made in the upstream project. We have been reduced to just a front end with a couple of plugins that we maintain which are the audio and input.

Yep. Good point.

Wait... "M64". Just that.

All good suggestions I think. I would rather get input from others before making a drastic change.

We are basically pulling a TD Bank. (Banknorth → TD Banknorth → TD Bank)

Any ideas?

For renaming the app?

Just anything in general.

Mupen64+ should be the name. It is the first result in the Play Store, and it shouldn't change much to the users.

For the icon, any suggestions? What about the colors for the M? These are the recommended colors:
http://www.google.com/design/spec/style/color.html

Should we maybe use a complete recolor?

Maybe a flatter icon with the material colors. Flatter icons fit the material design better.

How about a controller? The N64/M64 logo is 3D, and not much can be done to flatten it.

You mean like the Google play games icon?

No, like this:

Obviously needs tweaking.

Oh wow. Now my reply email sends.

I also realized that I had snapping in Inkscape off. No wonder. Now things are snapped.

Oh, for the splash screen you mean. I was talking about the app icon.

For the splash screen I don't personally like that very much.

Flat doesn't mean the removal of 3D perspective, it means the removal of gradients. These are flat icons:

True, true.

IIRC I recommended changing the splash screen a long time ago, but whoever was in charge at the time said we need to ask Paul what he thinks.

@paulscode where are you?

Here was my recommendation, back in March 2015:

http://www.paulscode.com/forum/index.php?topic=1130.msg14954#msg14954

Remove the gradients and boom. Had this suggestion for what to do with the old splash screen in case Paul actually cared:

http://www.paulscode.com/forum/index.php?topic=1130.msg14956#msg14956

Ooo, I like that recommendation a lot.

What does the current splash screen look like? I haven't updated my copy of Mupen64 in over a year.

Neither has the splash screen. :cry:

BonzaiThePinguin's idea is not bad either, if you want to do that easyaspi314.

I wonder if I would lose my team member status if I just pushed on with those changes without asking :P.

@paulscode hasn't been active on GitHub since December 9th, 2015; according to his profile. I sent him an email.

Yeah, Paul tends to disappear a lot for long periods of time.

Wow, the splash screen hasn't changed a bit!

I know, right?
On Apr 5, 2016 9:07 PM, "Mike McFadden" [email protected] wrote:

Wow, the splash screen hasn't changed a bit!

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I think the M logo is pretty integral to the project, though – the Play Store has a lot of Mupen64 clones that use an N64 controller as its icon. Your flattened version of the M logo looks quite nice, though, @easyaspi314.

For my mockup I just took the image that was used for missing cover art at the time and slapped it into Inkscape, so the design for that is of course nowhere near set in stone. I think that image was originally designed for tablets running _Jellybean_ too, hence the gradients and thick fonts.

Sometimes, I miss posting screenshots with #HOLOYOLO #33b5e5.

Though, Material is a lot better.
On Apr 5, 2016 9:20 PM, "Mike McFadden" [email protected] wrote:

I think the M logo is pretty integral to the project, though – the Play
Store has a lot of Mupen64 clones that use an N64 controller as its icon.
Your flattened version of the M logo looks quite nice, though,
@easyaspi314 https://github.com/easyaspi314.

For my mockup I just took the image that was used for missing cover art at
the time and slapped it into Inkscape, so the design for that is of course
nowhere near set in stone. I think that image was originally designed for
tablets running _Jellybean_ too, hence the gradients and thick fonts.

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If only he had a copy without the watermarking.

I am remaking (or at least attempting to) the M logo to the isometric pixel angle grid. (26.565°; y=1/2x)

This guarantees a nice, clean image on all screens.

There may be a copy. Look in the drawables in this branch:

https://github.com/mupen64plus-ae/mupen64plus-ae/tree/2.x-bugfixes/res/drawable-nodpi

@fzurita I forgot to reply: Nope. But the logo would be Easy as Pi to edit the watermark out of.

@fzurita Well got some good news and bad news:

Good news

I have a pixel-aligned logo that is _almost_ ready.

Bad news

The school website blocks blocked me from uploading the art to GitHub and now it is April Vacation. _Well_ _that_ _just happened._

Fun!

FYI, we have done competitions where the current logos and spash images were voted on and selected by the user community. I am a little reluctant to change them as it may appear to be a dis to the original artists. Is there a problem with clashing themes or something?

I wouldn't personally mind changing the splash screen. Everything is going "material" now a days and the splash screen doesn't seem "material" enough for me.

BonzaiThePinguin did suggest using the current splash screen as part of the "about" dialog. So it wouldn't go to waste.

In case anyone is curious, the reason for two different application icons is because we held a separate competition for the OUYA port of the app (as part of the Kickstarter rewards).

I think we should at least let easyaspi314 show us what he has.

Do you know who the original artist is? Besides, I am not dissing him (or
her). Dissing them would be saying that the logo sucks. I am saying that it
is a little out of place and dated.
On Apr 15, 2016 8:55 PM, "Paul Lamb" [email protected] wrote:

FYI, we have done competitions where the current logos and spash images
were voted on and selected by the user community. I am a little reluctant
to change them as it may appear to be a dis to the original artists. Is
there a problem with clashing themes or something?

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Since I haven't been involved much in the project lately, final decision probably shouldn't be up to me anyway. Just saying that there is history behind the current artwork, and that the decision probably should not be made in a silo. Original artists are listed in the credits.

@fzurita @paulscode
you are gonna have to wait. :(

It is on the school computer. School is closed for the week. Can't get it until then.

The rough is above. It isn't much different.

God I am slow.

I do think that it is a fair point that the community should be involved in updating art. Although, I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing that since the community does feel very sparse now a days.

Basically, we just have to pray Dolphin (GC/Wii emulator) doesn't get support for OpenGL ES 2.0, or we will be screwed. :D

Good point, @fzurita about the community being sparse (mainly my fault for being a workaholic as of late). WRT the name, I don't mind tweaking if necessary, but I would personally be against naming it anything other than a variation of Mupen64Plus (abbreviating to fit certain character limits is fine). I think it is important to give credit where due, and this app is nothing without Mupen64Plus.

@paulscode do you think it's appropriate to drop the ”AE" from the app name? I feel like it's redundant since it's a given that it's ”Android edition" since it's running in Android.

No problem with that. I named it that originally (plus the disclaimer in the description that it is not officially supported by the Mupen64Plus team), due to the multitude of original issues that ARM and GLES brought to the emulator, to try and prevent folks from bombarding Richard and the upstream team with issues that needed to be addressed by us. Since all of that maturation has happened and we really are just a front-end, I don't see any problem with downplaying the distinction.

Cool, I'm on it :)

You know, for revitalizing the community to talk about artwork updates, what we could do is publish the update with a message in the notes dialog inviting folks to visit the website to discuss. Maybe come up with something to catch their attention.

It is worth a try.

Those school blocks are so annoying: They block Wikipedia, scripts, images,
and other random stuff. (Yet it is terrible at blocking what it _should_
block, like half of the forum sites out there).
On Apr 15, 2016 9:54 PM, "Paul Lamb" [email protected] wrote:

You know, for revitalizing the community to talk about artwork updates,
what we could do is publish the update with a message in the notes dialog
inviting folks to visit the website to discuss. Maybe come up with
something to catch their attention.

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If it wasn't for those blocks, I would have near-final drafts by now.

@paulscode that wouldn't be a bad way to go about it.

@paulscode @fzurita @ZAD-Man @BonzaiThePenguin

The wait is finally over. I have made the flat version of the current logo. I don't have the cartridge finished, though.

But now that I am thinking, the cartridge isn't really necessary. Maybe the recolor is the only thing that we need.

I still don't know what to do for colors on the inside.

School blocked file upload; I have a Drive link instead.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxk_L8QgNv7TZ1JGbC1zRGw2Zzg

I like it!. Here it is for reference.

And, I made sure that they scaled nice and cleanly to all densities (even the tiny 48x48 MDPI size, having a MDPI phone a while ago made me really make sure that the low res phones get some love), using the pixel art angles.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxk_L8QgNv7TeFRrdE0tT3ZVT0k (xxxhdpi and playstore seem to have a rendering issue because they are downscaled, click on it for a better preview.)

I also uploaded the .ai file. It has artboards with each size. You can open it in Inkscape if you don't have Illustrator. Or as a PDF.

Looks great!

I am open for suggestions on the inside color and any other color.

Here is the official Material color palette.

I updated the drive folder with the MDPI version (downscaled for the OUYA icon) upscaled using nearest neighbor (so each pixel is 4x4 with no smoothing).

It looks a lot better.

One thing I have noticed about material icons are that all corners are round. It's a very subtle rounding. Maybe we can do the same here?

Although, I'm not sure if it would look better that way.

I mean I _could_, but those are not 90° angles, and they are meant to
resemble a 3D object with multiple colored faces joining to a point. You
can't easily round those logically. Because then you would have to round
all the corners and that would make things weird.

It is already an unorthodox Material design icon. Maybe very small rounded
corners would work.

If you want to see the rounded icon, here it is.

I don't personally like it. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxk_L8QgNv7TcDByWnluQW1NdHM

That one seems to be the low res version. Do you have the high res version? Although, it's good enough detail to see what you are doing.

Yeah, it's hard to round up the inner corners. I think you are right, it's probably too hard to make it look right by doing it that way.

Either way, the first one you did I think looks more material than what we have now.

It is going to be the detail on the high res smartphones. No Android is going to use a bigger icon. Except for the Play store maybe.

@fzurita
How about we put in the new icons and I make a quick Google Form.

Put in the new icons, set it up, and add this to SplashActivity.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    ...

    if (!mPrefs.getBoolean("seen_survey", false)) {
        LinearLayout dialogLayout = new LinearLayout(this);
        dialogLayout.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
        dialogLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
        TextView message = new TextView(this);
        message.setLayoutParams( new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
        message.setText("We have recently changed our icon and we want your feedback.\n\n" +
            "Please take a few moments to fill out this feedback form so we can make improvements. " +
            "You will need a Google account to fill out this form. This is so we don't have duplicates.");
        dialogLayout.addView(message);
        ImageView icon = new ImageView(this);
        icon.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
        icon.setAdjustViewBounds(true);
        icon.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_playstore_ouya);
        dialogLayout.addView(icon);
        AlertDialog dialog = new AlertDialog.Builder()
            .setTitle("We want your feedback!")
            .setView(iconLayout)
            .setPositiveButton(getString(android.R.string.ok), new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                    Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, 
                        Uri.parse("https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1F2stkHvb0Rx5vfmaz50OtTfT73XjHK2GEXZj9a_x-yw/viewform?entry.356261308"));
                    SplashActivity.this.startActivity(i);
                }
           })
           .setNegativeButton(getString(android.R.string.cancel), null)
           .create();
           mPrefs.edit().putBoolean("seen_survey", true).apply();
           dialog.show();
    }
...
}

Hmm, well, right now they have to go to paulscode website to download the app anyways, we might as well put a link to the poll in that page. Your idea would make sense of the app was downloaded through the play store.

Also, your idea also makes sense if we can't get collaboration from Paul to update the site..... He seems to be MIA.

Just put it in. We can always revert the commit.

Here are the icons in their respective folders:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxk_L8QgNv7TRmtJRlktVklPSEE

Icon in AndroidManifest.xml is @mipmap/ic_launcher_ouya.
512x512 is @drawable/ic_playstore_ouya.

If you do it, responses will be viewable here. I put a chart with the number of 'yes' and 'no' votes (with some Excel magic). That first vote is mine :smile:.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZoeGbTRFqLcrrdGiEg-qPAWnT08dxEa5D8NK9V5Mp24/edit?usp=sharing

I found out that there is a built-in analytic site here.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1F2stkHvb0Rx5vfmaz50OtTfT73XjHK2GEXZj9a_x-yw/viewanalytics?usp=form_confirm

@fzurita are you going to do it or should I?

I will take the blame if you get in trouble. :smirk:

Make a pull request with this change and I'll merge it. With the code change that includes the poll that is.

I will try tonight. I am busy right now.

@fzurita

Can you attempt to make a build and see if the dialog and the launcher icon work?

Yep, I'll check it tonight.

@fzurita I am looking at the new icon on my phone's screen and now that I think about it, the colors are a little…dark?

Maybe I will try lightening the colors.

That can depend a lot on phone screen. It looked ok on my phone.

Huh. And the icon is tiny in comparison.

Hold off the merge.

You are right, I hadn't noticed that.

You probably put the wrong resolution images in the folders.

No that is right. I was so focused on sharp edges that I forgot about size. :sob:

This will be a pain to fix.

I fixed it for you guys!

Cool, what changes did you make? Is that fixing the size issue?

I removed the barely visible translucent padding around it. Thought I'd give back to this project for once since you fixed the app not installing on ICS devices.

Gotcha, thanks! I think I'm going to make my play store version use this icon.

So it seems that Mupen64plus FZ has been tagged for violating the "impersonation" policy of the Google play store.

This is what I got when I tried to submit the last update:

Hi Francisco Zurita,

Thank you for the reply.

After further review, we found out that your app Mupen64Plus FZ (N64 Emulator) is still in violation of Google Play policy. Your app icon is currently similar to Nintendo 64.

You can read through the Policy Coverage and Impersonation and Intellectual Property policy page for more details.

Please update or change your app icon to fix this issue and submit your app for another review.

Let me know if you require further assistance.

Thank you for your time and have a great day.

Regards,

Dennis

I have been using the same icon for around three years now and it had never been an issue, but now they are refusing the update until I change the app icon. So I guess we need a new icon. I may ask my wife for some help since she is pretty good a graphical design.

I'm wondering if the color scheme is to blame here. There could be a reason why upstream Mupen uses that red and white logo.

If they think upstream Mupen's logo is too similar, then yeah, that's overreaching on their part by far.

I guess it might be safer to just do some other random stylized M.

It could be, I have no idea how they came to their conclusion. I can't believe they are confusing an M for an N. It is what it is though. We are going to need a new icon.

That sucks. Dealing with google on these matters is usually painful and slow.

I was thinking the same thing about the color scheme and upstream's use of red and white. I recommend getting in touch with Richard and seeing if he's ok with us using the red and white scheme. Or, if we still want to differentiate ourselves from upstream (so that Richard isn't flooded with Android-related help requests), we could use a green and white scheme or something. Green like the android logo.

I'd be wary of green or blue, only because those are the primary colors of the front of the N64 logo.

Also, I'm going to have to change the app name as well due to the impersonation policy. Mupen64Plus FZ is too similar to Mupen64plus AE which was in the play store before me, which they don't like. Although, this is probably not too relevant here is it's technically my own build of the app.

I simply updated the icon and app name in the playstore. I will change nothing here since it's definitely fair use.

Google is making my life really hard all the sudden.

Hi Francisco,

Thanks for contacting the Google Play team.

Status: Latest app update not available on Google Play

I’ve reviewed your appeal request and found that your app (org.mupen64plusae.v3.fzurita) still violates Google Play Policy. If you submitted an update to an existing app, the version published prior to the update is still available on Google Play. I’ve included details below about the specific issue with your app and what you can do to get your app back on Google Play.

Step 1: Fix the policy violation with your app

During review, we found that your app violates Google Play policy, and determined your app to be a high risk profile. Google Play identifies high risk profiles by using signals such as:

apps that contain assets prone to abuse

previous app enforcements

relations to other previously suspended apps or accounts

user rating and uninstall data

You can read through the Policy Coverage page for more details.

For example, your app currently contains an unclear affiliation with Nintendo.

If you are authorized by the content owner to redistribute the content in this manner, please reply with verifiable documentation with the following examples: distribution agreement, authorization contract (PDF file).

If you are not authorized, you'll need to make modifications to the the store listing including icon, images, description, app title etc in order to avoid any confusions with the content owner.

Please update your app to fix this issue. You may also want to double check that your app complies with all other policies listed in the Developer Policy Center as additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy violations.

Step 2: ......

Regards,
Jon
The Google Play Team

I haven't had a problem for 3 years and now all the sudden they are giving me issues. For now, I removed a reference to being a "N64 emulator" in the title and replaced that with just "Emulator". I also put a trademark symbol next to any references to N64 in the app description. Hopefully they will accept that.

Closing old issues.