New app icon for Crunchy Numbers Math Arcade is now live across all app stores. Usually when I make an app icon and release it with an app I’m pleased with it completely and confident that it represents the app well. However, with this app I wasn’t initially pleased with the final app icon variations I came up with and got stuck on were I wanted to go with its design back in 2015. So I eventually settled with a design that I didn’t hate but also didn’t really admire much either. Recently I decided to revisit this app icon while I was working on a minor update that improved the performance of the game. Then I had to remind myself of my method of creating an app icon in my usual design style.

I typically go for a minimalist yet emblematic app icon that I think represents the app well. I also try to make it similar to the design of the app itself. I really liked the design I did for this game itself but couldn’t initially agree on a final app icon design. When I recently revisited the design of this app icon I thought about what elements of the game I wanted the app icon to showcase. The conclusion I came to is that I wanted to continue showcasing the main character that you play as which is essential to the gameplay. However, since the design of the main character, Cruncher Bot, isn’t very unique I thought I should add more components. On the previous icon I had just four numbers; 1,2,3,4. This made the game seem too easy and almost like it was geared towards toddlers learning numbers. However, this app isn’t geared towards toddlers but instead kids & adults because the math it deals with is more challenging then just learning basic numbers. The math in this game deals with factors, multiples and more so I thought I’d fill the entire background with numbers because this game contains a lot of numbers. The Red Chomper enemies in the game are a main part of the game as well and show that the game has another challenging element to it. Even though their design isn’t very detailed like the main character I think the two of them together compliment each other.

After quickly deciding on the character placement I came to the final design of the app icon and I was very pleased with it. The characters along with the numbers background give a minimalism yet thorough display of the overall focus of the app. The colors, shapes, and retro numbers text all flow together and show unity as well as dysfunction. Which I think is emblematic of the gameplay of this app. The overall design and contained gameplay space show unity, but the enemies random movements and continuing new questions during gameplay brings the frantic challenge element. However, it all goes together so it feels complete and that’s now how I also feel about the app icon.