Earlier today, Sandy Duncan, CEO of YoYo Games, had the supposed privilege to unveil the all new Game Maker logo. Unfortunately, in the hearts and minds of many, he made the wrong choice. The logo, which was actually revealed two weeks ago Game Maker Blog, only garnered eight percent of the vote in a poll conducted on the set of potential new logos for the program. While there were only 500-odd voters in the poll, the fact that this particular design only received a total of 45 votes (and came in last place) is not insignificant. And, as the leadership of YoYo Games is starting to see in the aftermath of this announcement, many are not happy.

For a program such as Game Maker, its image and reputation is really the most important tool used to sell such a program. Yes, it’s easy to use. Yes, it’s inexpensive and, for a lightweight version, free. But the thing is, Game Maker has grown from a niche tool to a program that is used, by some counts, in schools and university programs and by hundreds of thousands of indie programmers across the world. Some would argue that the old icon was, well, old. Others argue that a change was needed, but not something this big. Frankly, I think YoYo misses the point of an icon or logo. The logo is more than just the icon one sees when they launch the application; it’s the face of the program to the public.

Soon, across the YoYo Games website, the fabled, still respected red ball will be replaced with a smiley face inside of a gear, with a facial expression similar to a person on crack cocaine. If that is how YoYo wishes to represent their program, then fine.