Pin Details | Patreon Poll #13 (Patreon)

Hey Patrons!

Back in Patreon Weekly #79 I shared a mockup of how a Shattered Pixel pin physical loyalty reward might look. Give that weekly a quick read if you want a reminder of the details. The only thing to add to the details there is that I think the best size for the pin's dimensions is 1”, or 1.25”. For reference, the diameter of a Canadian or US quarter is about 1”.

In this poll, there are three specific details of the pin’s construction that I’d like you guys to decide! Once this poll is done I should have a pretty final idea of how the pin will be designed, and so I’ll move on to looking for a manufacturer.

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This poll has 3 distinct categories (numbered 1 to 3), each category will have a winning option. Please vote for all the options you like, no need to vote for just one in each category! I allow multiple votes as it means that a higher proportion of people will end up voting for the winning choice. It also lets me gauge interest and lets polls be a bit more flexible, I might choose to implement the top 2 choices in some polls for example.

All patrons are encouraged to share their opinion by commenting and voting, but currently only the votes from Golden+ Supporters are counted when determining a poll winner. Votes from Shattered Supporters are worth double!

1. Border Details

In the original image I shared back in Weekly #79 the pin had borders that were 1/2 of a pixel wide and rounding that was even on all sides. I’ve since made a few variants with different edges:

Edges can either be thin (1/2 pixel wide) or thick (1 pixel wide). The corner rounding can also either be identical on all sides, or made proportional to account for the top-right and bottom-left corners having colors further back.

Here is example of each border configuration:
top-left: thin/identical
top-right: thin/proportional
bottom-left: thick/identical
bottom-right: thick/proportional

2. Hard vs. Soft Enamel

Firstly, an important point to keep in mind, for this pin the green sections will be enamel and the black sections will be metal backplate.

Hard enamel pins have enamel that is uniform with the backplate. This creates a smooth finish with a uniform depth over the whole face of the pin. Because more enamel is used, these pins are generally more durable.

Soft enamel pins have enamel that is recessed into the pin. This creates a textured finish with the enamel appearing further back than the backplate. Because of the difference in depth, these pins have more perceived color details, as the recessed enamel reflects light in more ways.

Here’s an example picture, note that this design is much more complex than for our pin, but the difference in texture and color depth are easy to see:

I’ll leave the final choice up to you guys, but in my opinion hard enamel is the better choice for this pin design. A soft enamel pin would mean the black ‘cracked’ parts of the shattered logo would be raised above the green ‘pixel’ parts.

3. Glitter

The green regions of the pin can also either be a flat color (as already shown), or they can have a glitter effect applied! This will make the pin look much flashier, perhaps even resembling the ‘emerald green’ that the game’s Shattered supporter menu icon has. On the other hand, the sparkle effect from the glitter might be too much for some folks. Unfortunately, it’s not possible for me to give you a mockup of how exactly the glitter might look, as every pin will be different, but here are some samples from one manufacturer (including 3 shades of green):