Since I don't have epic art skills like Riuthamus does, I'm at a loss when it comes to art. Either I find art that's freely available on the net, or I fire up GIMP and do the best I can (which isn't very good either way). So, my game needs a decent splash screen for websites, Windows Metro, steam, etc. and all I could do is slap this together with GIMP and mspaint:

Not very great, is it? My game has a minimalistic art style, and it actually looks very much like this lame splash screen I designed. Even though I guess this is better than nothing, how can I improve this?

Btw, I also need to come up with an icon, and not sure how I'd design that either. Any ideas? Thanks.

Shogun.

EDIT: To see screenshots of the game, click here: http://shogun3d.net/looptil.html

I thought it said Pooptil until I read more carefully.

-.-'

You have two O's in the name, you might try some loops with those... but you don't want it to look like an infinite sign either.

I don't get what that palm tree is doing there.

Your font is rather bland - you might consider a more loopy font, and maybe even be making the player-controlled cursor thing be making the loops that spell the name.

The clouds are all the same size, I'd vary them slightly, but I'd keep the same number. Three is a good number. They steal too much attention though - they ought to be more subdued.

And add some color - maybe in the font name.

Some thoughts:

1. Integrate the loops into the title, as Servant mentioned.

2. Use more contrast for the title, it is hard to read. Change it to avoid something like this

I thought it said Pooptil until I read more carefully.

3. Use gradients. They are really helpful to break up monotonously surfaces in a very subtle way.

4. The drawn line breaks the style of the anti-aliased title/clouds/island, use a anti-aliased line here.

5. A vector tool might be more useful. Use inkscape instead of gimp/ms paint.

Okay, thanks to SoTL, I've got some new artwork.

The splash image (thanks to him):

And my new icon which I whipped up in GIMP (will likely enhance it later):

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm using Segoe UI to universally give the game a Windows Metro feel and a faux Metro UI for each platform since it goes well with the minimalistic art style.

Shogun

If you can afford it consider spending some money on logo design. Bespoke logo design is cheap these days and if done right you can end up with a logo that identifies you, looks good and didn't cost an arm and a leg...

If you can afford it consider spending some money on logo design. Bespoke logo design is cheap these days and if done right you can end up with a logo that identifies you, looks good and didn't cost an arm and a leg...

Never heard of that until now. Just googled that, and £75 ($113) usd isn't cheap, but I guess it could be worse. On my salary, I can afford that. For a serious game project, it's likely worth the investment. Maybe he can do my icon also?

Shogun.

When you pay for these kind of services you usually own the rights to the images produced, so you could always just crop and scale your logo to make icons etc. Usually you pay per image so it would probably cost the same again for an icon. It's best to ask.

I drew my own logo, which is in my avatar, and I'm not really any good with gimp or any other graphics programs. I couldn't afford logo design which is why I did it :)