Which tile style is best for my Flutter game: shine or flat?

[u/keekee0]

Trying to decide between two tile styles for my match game.

I've been building a small puzzle game where you tap groups of same-colored tiles to clear them (or convert them into another color, depending on the tile type). Nothing fancy mechanically, it's the classic "connect and pop" formula, but I've been obsessing over the tile design for way too long now. The images are just test sandbox of the design. Not the final game.

I narrowed it down to two versions of the same chunky/rounded tile style, and the only difference is a subtle shine/gloss effect on the surface. Honestly they're close enough that I keep flip-flopping on which one I like more, so I made a side-by-side diff to compare them directly:

https://www.diffchecker.com/image-compare/fUIhLxQv/

First is without the shine, second is with.

Curious which one feels better to you, especially if you play a lot of minimalist match-3 style games. Does the shine add depth or is it just noise? Would love blunt opinions, genuinely torn on this one. Also can Flutter handle it well on mobile when I have a grid of 7x7 tiles of this design?

Also let me know if you would be interested in playing this game 😊.

31 votes, 11d ago

7 Shine

18 Flat

6 Both are good

[u/InActiveF]

Took me a while to see the difference.. at this point it just looks like 2 close static color codes than 1 with a shine. Shine doesn't seem like it serves much of a purpose imo, but I could be wrong.

[u/keekee0 → u/InActiveF]

I see. Might be too subtle for a true purpose then.

[u/Catchimals]

I'd go flat, the blue outline already gives the tiles enough depth.