Is it too early to look at an icon? I think you need to start early, trying different designs and get into grips with a certain look… It’s these kind of things that, if you wait too long for it to make and when you are trying to finish the game, you will not make a proper icon. Those final crunch days are gruesome because bugs need to be squashed, menu’s have to be made, a settings screen you forgot and maybe the gameplay still lacks some finesse? Eventually  you will not have the time to make it anyway!
One other thing is that you need to know how long your icon could last. Does it bore you? Does it grow on you? Does it stand out? I am on to my third icon now, and it could be the final one.
The icon below was a really early icon I created just to try to lay out the composition and to get off the default Spritebuilder icon, Dave was standing against the wall ready to be fusilladed by german WWII soldiers. I you think this looks familiar, it is! Because a part of the cartoon is actually stolen from the political cartoon for the Peking Olympics
The idea was that Dave would transported back to the present day with a kind of transporter beam. I knew this was only a working icon and I would make a complete overhaul of it. But the transporter thingy, stuck with me though!
A long period after that I thought that the Time Machine had a shape that could be fitted into an icon. So I made a Hires character and put that in the time machine. This was a first draft and the dave character was not recognizable on small icons. The colors were completely off and it did not have the pixelated look I was looking for.
So I came up with this icon. I still use it today. The character is the Dave character as he will walk around in the game. The colours are bright and playful. The transporter twinkling stars makes it as if Dave is actually being transported back in time! Maybe I should tweak the shadowing a bit?
Well, that’s it for now!