Happy Monday, pizzas!
I have been busy drawing icons recently, and wanted to share some notable updates that can be seen in the latest Raid Boss build released today (v0.3.8).
The goal of my recent work has been to make Raid Boss more understandable for new users. Whether that is through better button labels, improved grouping of information, or adding animations that clarify the actions you are taking.
Where do we want to take our user interface aesthetic? How do I retain the charm of the current game and build on old-school nostalgia while modernizing the user experience? These are things I kept in mind while establishing our new look and feel.
Welcome Home!
The home screen has been reimagined with newly painted custom icons and buttons! Check out the animation transition too!
A few buttons such as Inventory, News and Mail have migrated to the top. Hopefully these changes reduce clutter and allow you to make quicker decisions about what actions you want to take next.
Currency Icons
Icons that were changed in this update may have been chosen for image quality reasons (solving for really bad pixelation) or to provide better clarity regarding what the object does (no more purple rocks representing all Tier 4 ability tokens 
).
Above you can see my update for the standard four currencies! The original icons worked fairly well as representations of their functions. They were brought in line with our new color palette and all items follow a outline + offset drop shadow style.
Expedition Token
The Expedition Token was re-designed from scratch to more clearly depict its role in the game. Its new compass look implies “discovery” and is again tied to its function by being the icon to access the Expedition feature on the Home screen.
Class Icons
I decided to keep the shape language of a circle with four corners, but repainted the asset for better legibility. The interior class icons have been cleaned up and should read at a small scale. The outer shape has also been carried over to the Ability Tokens below, since they are used in relation to the class at higher tiers.
Ability Tokens
Thank you, all players, for your patience with our old Ability Token design.
This refresh should bring much more clarity to the items you are collecting and which ability you can tier up with it, now that the class is clearly represented on each item. Don’t forget to complete those Challenge events every day to collect more!
Summon Scrolls!
In order to keep with the MMORPG theming, I decided to revise the iconography from being megaphones to magic scrolls. The color and Class symbols should now clearly depict what the purpose of the scroll is, so there is excitement instead of confusion when one drops for you!
Animations and Transitions
Some animation was added to the Home screen to create a more fun and dynamic feel. The animations also reinforce button states by visually confirming when a button has been pressed. In the example below, the button picture swaps to a happy Gedran when it is clicked.
Gedran is SO HAPPY you are playing Raid Boss!!
Next Steps
There are many more icons I would like to update in future releases!
After these changes, I would like to know which remaining currencies confuse or concern you the most? Please comment below OR in our Pizza Club Discord! 😀