Here are some Icons I’ve done recently for GoatRBX’s Games “Agents” and “Seconds Till Death”.
All thoughts, comments, and feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
The first one has just been put up, and we are checking the analytics for it soon.
The bottom one bumped his player counts from 200 to about 1k continuous. The game is now at 2k continuous.
Both are in “RTHRO” Category on the Homepage.
Hi @chadnome77,
Firstly, excellent job on the icons. They cater for a wide audience. Unfortunately, I have noticed a few flaws in both icons. I will refer the first icon as Icon 1 and the second icon as Icon 2.
Icon 1 - There appears to be a lack of consistency with the colours. What I mean is that there is yellow and black and grey, however the actual position of them is a bit congested. There is also a watermark on the text that could make it harder for people to read.
Icon 2 - More Flavour!! This icon is a perfect cliche, I see it in every one of these games. Pick something original, instead of someone with a knife trying to kill someone else with a knife. These cliches can provide a negative opinion on the game.
These are just my ideas, but they are very good! Excellent Work! 
My first impression for the 1st icon was that it looked quite good and reminded me of arsenal, which is a game that I like. So, I would’ve been attracted to the game by the icon. Keep in mind that I’m a fairly mature player and that I don’t really like games that pander to younger players.
For the 2nd icon, I would not of clicked it. Not because the quality is bad, mind you, but because I don’t like the scene in it. It’s a combo of the over-the-top faces used and the really strange body shape which makes it feel cartoony, and thus makes me want to stay away from it because it tells me the game caters to children. Which is fine if that was the targeted audience. But it is also because it just seems like yet another one of those murder games, which I’ve played enough for a life time. The thumbnail would have to be far more exciting to actually make me want to play it.
And for both of these, this is just a matter of personal taste, but I feel like the art style you’re using is overused. I dislike the style (personal taste), which makes the game less appealing to try out, but more importantly it makes it blend in with all of the other thumbnails. If you put a bunch of games with the same thumbnail style next to each other, none of them will stand out regardless of quality. On the other hand you have games like wolf’s life, which instantly stands out and is enough to make a lasting impression even though I’ve never played it.
But it also makes an excellent example; I believe wolf’s life has 2 sequels and use the same art style for all of them. I cannot tell you which sequel it is just by seeing the thumbnail, yet again they mix together and fail to leave a lasting impression for their own game.
All in all I’d say your thumbnails are more than sufficient. However, I still think you would benifit from having a more interesting art style. Until that style gets popular too, and then you’re back at square 1 
The watermark is just so people don’t use these game icons elsewhere, the final product has no watermark of course. Thank you for your feedback!
I’m not sure how my style is popular already? If you could write down some examples of other games with this kind of style of renders that would be great! The only game that’s popular with my Icon and style atm is “Wizard Simulator” and then also put some names down of games icons you do like, that’d be very helpful. The only thing is your comparison refers to icons that aren’t rendered, that’s more of a personal opinion, saying that I should basically stop rendering and start drawing 
but personally wolf’s life games have not awe struck me with their icon in the same way. I feel as though their icon looks a bit more like a gamepass and even though I’ve seen the game multiple times, their icon has never stuck in my mind, just a personal opinion. Also you kept saying “Thumbnail”, this is a post about game icons, not thumbnails; thumbnails are the rectangle images you see next to the play button. Those require more detail than the icon. Thank you for your feedback! Really appreciate it!
Sorry, I use both icon and thumbnail interchangeably since icons are comparable to thumbnails on youtube. I know they’re different things on roblox, my bad.
The style you’re using is comparable to games like wizard simulator, lumber tycoon,weight lifting simulator 2, after the flash : mirage, etc. They’re not exactly the same, but they have a very similar gist to them, that being roblox characters as rigs being rendered in a way to make it look like it came from a game with better graphics than roblox (Unless it’s an in-game picture with a heavy layer of effects added in post, which would still make it look similar.).
Even if the composition is different, like the light, the focus, etc, it still just ends up blending in together for me. If I had to describe the style as a whole then :
If it looks like a roblox youtuber would get someone to make him a graphic and stick that in his youtube thumbnails, it’s either really good or has this style.
If you want a different example besides wolf’s life, rogue lineage has a very unique art style and it sticks out like a sore thumb in the ocean of icons
I’m not super good at describing things, but I think the main take away from all that I’m saying is that even if it’s hard to understand or I may be a little biased in what I consider being part of this “style”, it does affect what stands out in the game list and what doesn’t for me, and I’m probably not the only one in this boat. You don’t have to change anything if it’s already getting an audience, but if you were to figure out a way to make it stand out for people like me you’d probably be able to draw in way more players on top of what you’re currently getting. Kind of like how rogue lineage has 2k players even if the concept of the game isn’t super appealing (for me and people I’ve played the game with, anyways).
After the Flash is drawn, weight lifting simulator is similar, Wizard Simulator I MADE the icon for… Lol. Lumber tycoon looks nothing like mine, sorry, but it’s lower quality and completely different from all of my icons in terms of style. Renders have their own style just like people draw in different kinds of ways.
Also the concept of Rogue Lineage may not be fun to you, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to eithers. Most of what I’m hearing is complete personal preference and nothing of a fact. You just like drawn stuff more. That’s just your own opinion, but you shouldn’t say for someone to just completely think about changing their job to just apply to you There are way more popular games that DO NOT have drawn icons.
I like the second one the most, the first one needs a lot of work on it it doesn’t look that great, maybe spice up the lighting and shadows then it’ll look good. But the second one looks very good I like how you even added blur in the background. Nice job!
I mean I did mention that I don’t find the concept of rogue lineage super appealing, for me AND for the people I’ve played the game with (Rogue lineage basically requires you team up with players in a voice chat if you want to start making real progress), and never claimed it is objectively unappealing for everyone else. I also don’t think it’s super relevant to this topic, so moving on.
Yes, it is personal preference. I said I was biased and don’t really like icons that I consider are part of this “style” because they just often fail to grab my attention.
I agree with you on lumber tycoon being off lesser quality, but that is due to it’s age. It is still very much the same style. It is much more poorly lit and most likely uses a different rig, but it is one of the earliest game from recent memory to use the style you’re using. Feel free to disagree, this is really nuanced.
“That’s just your own opinion” yes-- that’s the point. I’m giving you what I personally think about your icons and how I would react to them as a player. I’ve prefaced that I’m a mature player and that I would personally not click on the game with the 2nd icon due to the cartoony looks. It being cartoony is not a bad thing in itself, the game is just targetting a different demographic than me, which is fine. You don’t have to change it, nor did I say you had to.
The 1st icon wouldn’t have grabbed my attention purely due to the style, but it does make the game appealing for me. I would probably have clicked on it. It blending in with the rest (for me) doesn’t make it any less appealing, it just makes it stand out less when scrolling down in games.
If you want me to give feedback about the actual icons beyond first impression (I’ll preface this by saying that I will be focusing exclusively on what could use improvement, so don’t take any of this personally, these icons are still really good and me even having to nitpick is a testament to that. I’m saying this because it seems like you took what I said previously personally even though it really wasn’t meant to be), here you go:
1st icon having only really, 2 colors isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It makes extreme contrast and helps put the focus on the character shooting the bad guy, which is reminiscent of super hot. However, the bad guy does kind of blend into the background. I’d try making him a little brighter. Also, more of a nitpick than anything but the shadow on the hat for the 1st icon makes it slightly hard to see the eyebrows and might make it a bit hard to tell the expression (unless you already know what the face is beforehand)
For the 2nd picture, the potted plant behind the character made me think he was wearing headphones. I’d move it or just completely get rid of it, since it’s not even really visible in the first place. The right foot on the character running away seems a little strange, like it’s slightly rotated to face the camera. It honestly looks like the character is either about to trip or break his ankle. Another slight nit pick is that the knife burrowed in the ground is at an angle that doesn’t make sense for the character throwing the knife, but I do see why it is like that, because it makes it more visible. Personally, it just looks strange.
The left hand on the character running away looks uncanny, like the shoulders, but this is more because of the rig than anything else. The arm, however, doesn’t really convey a sense of momentum super well, I’d try to find a way to make the arm more contracted (I don’t really know how to explain this well, but basically have the arm be more “closed”) without hiding it completely behind the character.
Final thing I can say before having to get unnecessarily nit picky is that both of these have very flat perspectives (Unlike the wizard simulator icon you made) that makes them both look a bit unexciting. They also share really similar composition (character in foreground, character in background, characters both taking left and right side of the screen, projectile being shot at a character by other character, blurry projectile close to camera, both at roughly 45 degree angles), which makes them look a bit uninspired.
So yeah, your icons are good.
