Happy Monday, everyone! Also, happy eclipse day. I would have posted this a bit earlier today, but I was out watching it on the campus roof as my location was on the path of totality. It was nighttime during the day for a whole 3 minutes! It may not seem like much, but imagine experiencing dusk and then dawn within that timespan-- it was quite surreal, as though time itself was speeding up. Anyways, that's not what I'm here to talk about!

Last week (the week this devlog should have been posted), I ended up hyperfixated on something unexpected: the logo design for my yet-to-be-legally-established studio, Heart Drive.

Before we get started, let's address a handful of things I'm sure at least someone other than me has on the brain:

- Surprise! This isn't about the logo for Wordlike, or actually the lack thereof. What you see at the top of the page isn't meant to be an official logo; it was something I bashed together in 30 minutes or so because I wanted a header that looked remotely decent (the default is a single line of text). There were a few variants, but nothing major. All of it was from existing game assets, too.

- Yes, I'm aware that LevelUp (and by extension, the release date for v0.3) is now in less than 2 weeks and I probably have better things to do than go on flights of fancy. Unfortunately, the heart wants what it wants.  More on that in just a moment.

- This is not going to be an introduction to logo design! There are many people better qualified than me to teach that (graphic designers, mainly) and the scope would be far too large for a single blog post anyhow. It's also why this post is categorized as Game Design instead of Tech Discussion, Tutorial or Marketing. For those curious, I did everything in Photoshop 2023 (which I'm only using due to the free license tied to my lab computer; I use a one-time-purchase software called Affinity Photo at home).

So if this is about none of that, then what?

(For those keeping an eye on word count, start here! Ignore the caption, pretty please...)

Well, the actual topic of this post is the thought process behind my new studio logo. I'm not sure how Itch will show the icon, so I'll embed it here just in case:

There are a few variations of this logo, most notably one with a dark outline instead of the white pictured here (intended for contrast on light backgrounds) and one with a bright green circle around it (which has its own symbolism that I lack the space to properly describe). There's even one with the opposite colour filling in the transparent gaps (cyan on the left and magenta on the right), though that one felt a bit too 'madcap' even for my taste.

Each side of the heart carries its own meaning... only half of which I made up on the spot after sketching out the whole thing, if I'm being honest. That's more common in the creative process than you'd think! Feel free to interpret the logo however you'd like, as that's part of the fun. If you find a different meaning than what I describe below, go with that! I wouldn't be much of an artist without leaving some things up to interpretation, after all.

To me, the Magenta half represents the creative, emotional, excitable self, carried along on whims and vibes. The spiral represents a grasping hand, or maybe an emotional spiral, upwards or downwards. As a whole, it could also represent a smiling face. Compared to the other side, it is much more hollow, perhaps showing a lack of greater understanding or structure.

The Cyan half, in my eyes, represents the analytical, logical, determined self, driven by plans of action. The original concept only carried one set of inner lines, appearing more like a harp or a ribcage, but I was much more satisfied after enabling two layers at the same time, which gave it a webbed or net-like appearance. It brings to mind the idea of patterns and repetition, or the network of countless associations, thoughts and impulses that make up our brain. Compared to the previous side it is a lot more dense and consistent, valuing formality over whimsy.

I'm sure most of you have heard the old 'left brain/right brain' adage at some point-- it's a lot like that, at least on the surface. To me, the combination of the two sides represents the heart and brain or the body and mind: one abstract, the other logical, both necessary for the human experience. To deny one is to deny part of who you are; core to my outlook on life (and the philosophy behind the design of my games) is to employ the mind to understand the heart, while utilizing the heart to soothe the mind.

To wrap this up nicely, I'll leave you with an observation-slash-proverb I've toyed around with:

One is unlikely to find joy in games without the freedom of play, yet will be hard-pressed to foster play without the structure of games.

'Til next time!

~Jack