So I've made this version, taking into account various feedback from everyone. I also added a border to make it pop a bit more. It definitely gives a different vibe, it's probably better, but I'd gladly take your feedback on this iteration too!
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
20 points (91.7% liked)
Strategy Games
326 readers
27 users here now
Computer games with a strategic component; construction, expansion, armies, economic development. Discussion on all sub-genres (RTS, Grand Strategy, Economic Strategy) is welcome, but the focus is on generic strategy games and hybrid games that don't fit into the following communities:
- City Builders - !citybuilders@sh.itjust.works
- RTS Games - !rts@reddthat.com
- Turn-based Strategy (4X) - !turnbasedstrategy@piefed.world
- Tycoon / Business Sim Games - !tycoon@lemmy.world
Some other gaming communities across the Threadiverse:
- Adventure Games - !adventuregames@retrolemmy.com
- Automation Games - !automationgames@lemmy.zip
- Cozy Games - !cozygames@lemmy.world
- Incremental - !incremental_games@incremental.social
- Indie Games (variety) - !bside@fedia.io
- Lifesim Games - !lifesimulation@lemmy.world
- Open Source Games - !foss_gaming@lemmy.world
- PC RPGs (cRPGs) - !crpg@lemmy.world
- Roguelike Games - !roguelikes@lemmy.world
- Space Games (variety) - !space_games@piefed.world
- Video Game Art - !gameart@sopuli.xyz
- Video Game Music - !vgmusic@lemmy.world
- Video Game Questions - !askgaming@piefed.social
Game specific communities across the Threadiverse:
- Paradox Games - !paradoxgames@lemmy.world
Rules
-
Follow the Piefed.world Rules - https://legal.piefed.world/tos
-
Be kind. No bullying, harassment, racism, sexism etc. against other users.
-
No spam, illegal content, or NSFW content (no games with NSFW images/video).
-
Please stay on topic, adjacent genres (e.g. RTS, TBS) are of course fine.
founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
I like this version! It's a solid middle ground.
I just can't unsee space hitler though, since it was mentioned. hahaha What are your thoughts on that?
Hahaha yeah I have to get rid of space hitler. But moving things around in photoshop and going back on my drawing tablet to edit an illustration aren't the same level of work so I didn't jump on it immediately.
To be honest I probably need to just hire a real illustrator, those characters are packed with small errors that aren't noticeable at first glance but which make them look "off".
Thanks for your feedback :)
But moving things around in photoshop and going back on my drawing tablet to edit an illustration aren’t the same level of work so I didn’t jump on it immediately.
It's completely reasonable.
To be honest I probably need to just hire a real illustrator, those characters are packed with small errors that aren’t noticeable at first glance but which make them look “off”.
I guess you could. But I don't think there's anything wrong with them. Sure, there might be a few details that aren't exactly what you want, but they look great as is. I can't think of anything to change about them. 'Don't let perfection get in the way of a done product.' Also, don't let it eat you up. The longer you or anyone else works on something, they are going to notice things, the more hours they have it in front of them. But that's not going to be the case for 99.8% of people, I would guess, who view it. Plus, we want to play your game more than stare at your video game store front art and find the "off" bits and pieces.
Personally for a quick visual read I think #1 works best. If you are going to keep the medallion the focus is nice. Just really watch the negative space circled in red. Those create visual traps and minor distractions. You want them balanced or cleaned up. Maybe even fade out the medallion in those area so you don't have competing lines.
The swish of the ring around the planet (yellow) is doing a great job leading the eye to the middle and providing some asymmetry. Don't lose that. The gap behind the first person head (red) creates a visual stop for the eye from that swish of the ring, could shift it to fill that area in and not have a shift on contrast. Or pull the person out or back a little. It's at this not enough or too little of negative space that causes a focus unfortunately at the very start of the visual line aiming toward the middle.
The line should not go all the way across and shouldn't be that thick. You want it to not "trap" the two lines of text. Also the line from one person to another creates a visual relationship that cuts the design in half when it should flow through.
These are all minor suggestions. I'd say the biggest is really watch the negative space between and the competing lines of the shape (medallion) behind the text. Makes it harder to read with all the visual static. All the lines, border of the medallion and the line through are equal thickness to the text. It lacks separation between elements. You need to modify the widths.
Thank you very much for your very professional feedback (I guess you are an illustrator or a graphic designer?), it's really helpful :)
Yup been doing this for a long time. My mantra is essentially "less is more". Because if the design doesn't communicate clearly you're overworking it.
The hardest thing about the job is knowing where to stop. Design isn't about showing off, it's about quick and clear communication of visual elements.
Everything you got going on is working to some extent. I think it speaks "space game". Using purples/blues, literally showing space and ships all melds that message. The aristocratic outfits of the people communicates, they are not doing the dirty work "strategists/rulers". Not making aggressive movements, arms crossed is "thought" again strategy. You could vary them more if you want to push conflict between the two, alter colors change them to reflect opposites.
Depends what on what you're trying to sell. Right now they are similar enough they could brother and sister from the same background. Essentially you have a visual comparison of a green apple vs a red apple, instead of an apple vs orange.
I could analyze this to death ☠️. Just trust your gut. I'm just rattling this shit off as I wait for files to load.
You're absolutely right, less is more. Apart from the actual illustration parts, I didn't spend that much time working on the composition and design, and it shows.
What you're reading is more or less what I wanted to convey though, so I'm glad this works at least.
May I ask you what do you think about this version?
This works really well! Think you did a few other smart things I missed, like simplifying the colors around the title. Double line border with the interior line tucked behind them creates so nice separation between foreground/background.
Much improved with only a few little tweaks.
Think I read someone mentioned the space ship being a little too faded, maybe play with saturating it a little more so it doesn't get lost too much in the fog. But doesn't pop out too much and distract.
But yeah you could slap this up and call it a day as is.
I think I will just do that for today haha
Thanks again for your help :)
I dunno why but the guy on the right giving Hitler mustache vibes and it’s all I can see when I look at either image.
Haha good to know, I'll change that then!
I personally like image two the most. I don't recall the name of the design term, but psychologically, humans tend to prefer uneven counts of things visually. Here I have shown how the order I see things in, and also my count.
A bit of fine tuning might be all you need to do with the ships.
I really like the royalty looking characters you have presented. Quite a bit of regalness to each of them.
The only suggestion I have is to add some facial hair to the fella. I came up with two suggested options.
I personally like the overall design of the background cube behind the title. It's working within the color palette represented in the capsule art. If you take a look at several other Grand Strategy game capsule art pieces, I see all of the well known games holding true to this design rule.
A million thanks for the very detailed answer! Facial hair isn't a bad idea indeed, especially since other people see Hitler's mustache on him haha
I like 2 more because i feel that bolder underline fits the art style better. The first one has more of a modern “clean” minimalist look, which doesn’t work so well with the detailed artwork
True, it looks more coherent in the whole. Thank you for your input :)
I like number 2 more, because the ship is clearer. I feel the ship should be even more prominent (within reason).
Interesting game, I am surprised I haven't heard of it. It's my kind of game, wishlisted.
I am actually going through a playthrough of Star Ruler 2 but with ~3,000 systems, it plays much more like a grand strategy game (the game was designed for 50-100 system) than the intended RTS / 4X hybrid.
Oh I didn't consider the importance of the ship that much! Thank you for pointing it out. And for the comment :)
As for your playthrough, it's quite the change of scale indeed! How is the game holding up? I guess there must be a loooot of micro-management, is it still interesting at that scale?
I have a 5800X and FPS starts to suffer once all empires colonize about ~1,200 systems.
Yes, it does become micro-heavy, but that's what I play it for. A pulp sci-fi galactic empire expansion/management game with cold war style politicking.
It has that "just one more turn" feel because you can keep expanding and the resource system always needs new planets/resources to level up your core planets/system.
One of the three galaxies:
The capital system:
Haha it looks glorious! I love the vibe you're going for.