This is the new logo that will be used to represent Game Maker and has earned its creator, 15 year old Albert Zak, the $250 cash prize.
The logo was selected by Game Maker creator Mark Overmars and YoYo Games CEO Sandy Duncan from more than 500 which were submitted by Game Maker users. In a poll we hosted asking Game Maker users to choose between 4 of the finalists just 8% of the 552 voters picked this as their favourite logo.
History of the Game Maker logo:
Icon used since Game Maker 6:
Logo used since Game Maker 5:
Game Maker 5 icon:
Game Maker 4 icon:
Game Maker 1.1 – 3 icon:
With that I was trying to say that the logo doesn’t really fit. It is good, it just doesn’t really give me the “Game Maker” feeling.
I didn’t enter the competition because I’m not a graphical artist. But I would have used another motif, and that is what I meant when I said a better logo.
I tried not to write something too stupid.
scoz and Mattthew_H express this so much better than I am, so listen to them instead 🙂
How can anyone feel sorry for the creator? He got an undeserved $250. Ha.
My reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ
But come to think of it, if the logo was just designed by marketeers and released without any community involvement, there would still be the same amount of bile and anger, I think. So maybe it wasn’t quite so avoidable after all?
You certainly have a point, scoz, and I think you’re right on about that sense of ownership and entitlement.
Silly and emotive it is Tom, but it was also avoidable. In Australia we’ve had two very similar cases of this sort of thing in the Internet medium recently: first, there was the branding of “new” vegemite and there was the removal of TV host “Junglist” from the popular gaming show “Good Game”.
“New” Vegemite had a competition almost identical to this logo competition; entrants sent in names for the new vegemite and the executives chose the “best”, which was iSnack 2.0 (*cough*). This “betrayal” set internet forums alight, and was eventually pulled. Here, the problem was the company gave some control to the community, but it was only a token effort. The fact that the new name was utter bollocks was merely the match that ignited the gas filled kitchen. So, getting community input cannot be a token effort; you either genuinely value what they say or you don’t; anywhere in between in infuriating to most people.
Similarly, Good Game removed Junglist without warning and replaced him with a new female host, Hex. To cut a long (LONG) story short, Junglist stated that the move was made for “mass appeal”. The channel denied that, citing “performance issues”, but never backed it up because of “confidentiality agreements”. So, here you have a community suddenly realising they don’t have any control over the identity of the show, despite thinking that it was a community oriented show in the past. As a result, viewing figures were slashed in half. Additionally, as most of the viewers where hardcore gamers, the move towards “mass appeal” alienated them, because the show was now allegedly targeting a demographic they weren’t a part of.
All of these mistakes and consequences are inherent in the logo swap. The GMC has always thought that it had some ownership over the direction of Game Maker. This, of course, was an illusion. The actual power the community has over the company is relatively small, but token efforts such as the logo competition and the GM8 release candidate testing give the community a bloated sense of ownership. The nature of the logo competition revealed how little control the community has, ergo the community becomes emotional. The fact that the logo is one that most people don’t like exacerbates how powerless the community is. Additionally, the logo is strikingly stylised, which can be (and has been) interpreted as being childish and casual. As a result, the community feels that the company is addressing a new demographic, and they resent the change. All of this culminates in the overwhelmingly hateful clusterfudge that has been sweeping every GM affiliated site over the last few hours.
I’m not supporting the move, nor am I resisting it. However, the way that this whole thing was handled was always going to cause this type of outcry, rational or not, which shows a tremendous lack of foresight on the part of the company.
A good point, and an excellent reason why I shouldn’t be writing lengthy comments at 2 in the morning (my time). I still don’t think it’s the catastrophe everyone is making it out to be, and I think my basic argument– that the people who are going to look down at Game Maker because of the logo would be looking down at it regardless– is sound.
(And this isn’t in response to you personally, but: I also don’t know why Sandy has gotten so much flak– because this was, as I understand it, a joint decision made by Mr. Duncan and Mr. Overmars. But I suppose Mark Overmars is “ruining” Game Maker as well?)
@Tom Russell:
Then why did they bother to design a new logo?
(This is, it should be said, not directed towards any one person but towards an attitude. Please keep this in mind, even and especially if I used some of your arguments below.)
I really don’t understand this fervor.
Really, you’re going to be embarrassed to have the icon on your desktop? People are going to think it’s just for kids?
Not to discount the vast number of fourteen-year-olds making fan-games screaming at each other on the GMC, but I’d like to think most of the people who are going to be interested in Game Maker and going to use for the long-term– as opposed to those many who download it, despair at the learning curve, and begin whining about how it’s impossible to make anything good with it– are mature enough to not let the logo dissuade them; those who are dissuaded are unlikely to have the intelligence, patience, and maturity to use the tool well.
And even if someone does decide, “Oh, bro, this is totes for kids, bro, I’m leaving this shiznit alone and going to download Construct instead”– what does it matter? He likely wouldn’t make particularly interesting games otherwise, if that’s his attitude. How does this affect us?
Or do you think that if someone sees that logo, they’ll think that your game is “kiddie stuff”, that it’s not worth playing? Well, again, the kind of person who avoids “kiddie stuff” is likely the kind of person who isn’t going to be playing/downloading freeware games anyway. They want their games in 3D with fully-rendered bump-mapping or what-not, so that they might better see the face they’re humping after dispatching an enemy in “Halo”. If they did play your game, they’d probably give it a one-star rating and imply that you are homosexual, which from them is probably meant some kind of insult.
But, of course, since you bought the professional edition of Game Maker anyway, they’re never going to see that logo in the first place. Hold onto this, we’re going to come back to it in the next paragraph.
I’m not saying people can’t have or voice opinions– that is, after all, what the internet is for– but I don’t understand the ire this has raised. Unless you’re just passionate about Game Maker and YoYo Games and want them to succeed, and you feel that this new logo is not going to invite new customers in but rather alienate them. In which case, if you’re so concerned, you’ve already bought the professional edition (told you I’d come back to it!).
And you certainly weren’t part of the thread way back when that was bitching about how people who bought version seven should get version eight for free, regardless of when they purchased seven. You didn’t go on about how YoYo is greedy (for not wanting to go bankrupt) or some such nonsense, because you do, after all, want them to succeed.
Again, I’m not directing this at any particular “you”, or even at the whole lot of “you”; I’m just trying to point out how ridiculous this fervor is. Signing a petition is ridiculous. This is not some great injustice that needs to be corrected. This is not some betrayal of the community.
This is not a bad decision on YoYo’s part– because 100% of good game designers don’t care what the icon is, and 100% of game players certainly don’t care. Both groups are concerned with the same thing: good games. And Game Maker is tool to make them– nothing more and nothing less. If the icon is a smiley face or if the icon is a vampire frat-boy with blood bags strapped to his double-drip beer helmet, the language and features are the exact same. The professional-ness, the quality, the maturity of your games– and, ultimately, the success of YoYo and Game Maker– are dependent on what you do with those features and resolutely not the logo.
If YoYo removes the ability to save games, then you have grounds to complain. If they put advertising in your games, then you should sign a petition. This? This is just silly, people.
@RC
That’s not a bad concept you know… Makes me wish you did it properly and entered it 😛
@True Valhalla
Indeed, I feel sorry for the creator who has been put in the middle of the storm by YYG. It’s a lack of foresight on behalf of YYG; a majority vote wouldn’t have had this impassioned flaming because at the end of the day there is a cold hard number behind the decision. It’s so much easier to accept defeat when 57% of the community disagrees with you than if only one bespectacled CEO disagrees with you 😛
:O , Junglist! Come backkkk, although, Hex isn’t that bad-a-host. Anyway, I do agree that this is rather similar, with GG and GM. A great deal of GM users are the hardcore audience that followed GG, and is now gone because the long-time host was replaced, just like how the long-time logo has been replaced.
The same thing with GG is happening to me here, the feeling, that, we will lose some ‘hardcore’ users, and that, people WILL be discouraged by the logo – @Tom, you said “what does it matter? He likely wouldn’t make particularly interesting games otherwise, if that’s his attitude. How does this affect us?”, well, you see, it does affect us. “He” could have been a common forum-goer, or contributed to others projects, or even little things – ANYTHING really. It DOES affect us, Tom.
Even though I’m not a frequent user of GM anymore, I still check back with the community now and then, and it’s always good to see a fresh-‘face’ (metaphorically) who’s contributing. And what happens if people are discouraged by the logo? They’re won’t be as many of thoughs fresh faces.
Again, I don’t agree with you. If I’m going around looking for freeware games, I don’t go for the “kiddie stuff” that you imply that all freeware down-loaders are looking for. I’m not trying to single you out, I just don’t agree with a lot of what your saying.
Also, bullying is a huge issue these days, so, people seeing that on your desktop, or you using it, will probably get given the common “your gay” insult, referring to it as a bad thing – and of course, it isn’t something very accepted in society today even.
I have to say, I can only see this logo doing bad for people, not good.
(sorry for so many comments in a row, I was reading though a few and got the urge to reply)
@Mattthew_H
I agree. That logo is fantastic. YYG, use this one, seriously:
That one actually looks really good.
@Broxter
Yeah. It’s not really his fault though, he could have edited it at YYG’s discretion – but they didn’t seem to say anything about the similarities between it and Yahoo Messenger’s logo.
I think that Fred’s logo should have won however; clean, simple, appealing, easily recognizable and brilliant.
I don’t like the logo. It is too childish in my opinion. 🙁
Sorry YYG, you get a [/facepalm], i want the old logo back ASAP.
-NessXX
This is terrible. I’m very dissapointed.
I’ll make sure to use the original ball + hammer whenever displaying GM in a project or anything.
“No one is personally attacking the logo itself, but they are disappointed with YYG’s choice.”
You think so?
“OH MY GOD. YYG PICKED AN UTTER PIECE OF SHIT.”
Sure…
He shouldn’t feel bad. No one is personally attacking the logo itself, but they are disappointed with YYG’s choice. The logo looks great. It’s well detailed and has professional aspects, but it just doesn’t match GM.
I lol’d hard at Broxter’s “Improved version”.
They said that they’d just be taking the theme and the art department will be jazzing it up, so I’ll reserve judgement till then. It’s not my cup of tea but meh, neither was the red ball and hammer. I must admit, I really did like the green man with hammer *sad face*
I think this is a copy of yahoo messenger … with a gear around it.
Gives me a notion at first look that it is for a software which is related to yahoo messenger, for example a software to tweak yahoo messenger.
I think, this logo can be improved upon by changing the smiley a little bit.
For example introducing green colour smiley with white border instead of yahoo smiley. Also tweaking the similarity of yahoo like smiley to little bit different. A happy face is welcome, but we dont want a rip-off of yahoo smiley either.
Hope you all agree…
Words cannot describe the FAIL i have witnessed here and at the Glog today. No one likes this descision. Just one question, WHAT WHERE THEY THINKING?
I’m going to be setting all my shortcut logos as my own revamped ball and hammer.
The logo they selected is very childish. Its very hard to believe that this was the best out of 500 logos, considering there was at least 1 that was better then this just from the 4 that were leaked.
This logo is a terrible mistake… This is the worst marketing decision they’ve ever made. And I know what I am talking about…
For once I have to agree with all of the people complaining about the changes YoYo Games is making. I’m not a fan of this logo; GM and YoYo Games need a very specific first impression and this logo does nothing of the sort.
Well, say goodbye to your GM8 sales, probably more GM7 sales.
Death threats are really mature and I’m sure get your point across excellently. -PG
Wow I’m surprised. Mine’s not that great, I don’t know If I deserve to win, but I definetly thought my 39% of votes would not get beat out by a design that only got 8% of votes. Well if they keep this design as the logo I will be embarassed to have GM on my desktop and will most likely be changing the icon to this: http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/4585/screenicon.png
I’m shocked. This has to be some sort of joke, there’s no way YoYo would pick that…
My head says no.
And I especially hate the style of those eyes.
It’s not the quality that bothers me, but a smiley with that expression?
Even I can create something better, if I really wanted to, and my 2D graphics skills aren’t great. Why not choose another?
No way that this won. I’m not sure I can put my stunnedness into words. So, I’ll just say that I’ll be using this logo instead:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w221/Revel_games/GMIconVectorHuge.png
(Made by Revel, not me)
Wow, this is ridiculous……..
Yes, it’s very nice. Perhaps a bit too shiny, though. 😛
An improved version of the old GM logo: http://indy.idhost.kz/logo/2.jpg
Oh god, why this one. I mean seriously; even starting Game Makers will think this is just a children’s tool.
Even more improved version: http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn102/hegemege/logo.png
I just can’t believe it.
*Epic Facepalm*
Improved version: http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/jay712x/16X16.png?t=1259348692
For once I disagree with you, Tom. 😀
And, yeah, I’m still gonna use GM. 😛
@tuntis Game Maker users having melodramatic over-reactions – how could anyone of predicted this 😉
I dunno, I like it. The little cog is happy because now he has the ability to make games. I know that’s the way I feel about Game Maker, the way I feel about digital video which allows me to make films, the way I feel about the internet, which allows me to make new friends. I don’t see anything wrong with a logo that expresses that happiness.
It’s hilarious how overdramatic some people are getting over this.
Baww!
I think I just gained a new fondness for the old logo.
Good thing they didn’t let Sandy pick the XBox logo back in the day.
OH MY GOD. YYG PICKED AN UTTER PIECE OF SHIT.
I’ll grow used to it.
But there is going to one hell of an uproar about this.
I was bored and decided to kill the smiley.
http://64digits.com/users/RC/game-maker-8-logo-yyg-fix4.png
If they’ve already paid the winner it most likely won’t be changed. I feel especially bad for the guy who made this because everyone is hating on it.
If this logo was for something else, would anyone complain? Is it because of change? I don’t know. Granted, it resembles the Yahoo! smiley logo a little too much, and I feel it would look better without it.
Please help GMVision Petition against this madness!
http://gmvision.tv/gmvision/home/2009/11/logo-petition/
I am also very upset about the logo. Not only is it a ripoff of Yahoo Messenger, but it is JUST PLAIN DUMB.
I hope YoYo is ready for the shit-storm they’ve just started.
daaaAAAAAARRRRRRRNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!
NOT THE STUPID YAHOO MESSENGER ONE!!!!!!
What the hell?