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App Identity and Compliance

Creating a strong brand identity for your Overwolf app​

In a gaming-focused environment, creating a strong brand identity is essential for helping your Overwolf app stand out. This guide outlines practical, effective best practices for shaping a brand that’s cohesive,and recognizable.

Since Overwolf apps run alongside specific games, it’s common, and often helpful, to incorporate familiar visual elements like items, characters, or stats. These game visuals can help users quickly understand information. That said, it’s important to give your app its own identity. Your UI should feel distinct and not simply mimic the look and feel of the game. Drawing visual inspiration from the game is fine, but what matters most is that your app stands on its own and users can clearly recognize it as a separate product.

Be aware that some games have their own guidelines for third-party content, so you must ensure your app complies with these guidelines. Overwolf won't be able to publish an app that breaks them, infringes on game compliance or on another app's intellectual property.

Define Your Brand Direction​

Before diving into logos, colors, or UI styles, it's important to define what your app stands for and who it's for. This doesn’t require a design background—just a bit of structured thinking. Whether you're working solo or with a creative team, this step will help guide your brand decisions and make sure your app feels consistent and intentional. Use these guiding points to get started:

What’s the Core Value of Your App?​

Ask yourself: What is the main thing my app helps users do? Is it helping players improve? Is it a tool for discovery, strategy, or analysis? Being clear about your app's purpose will help you choose visuals and tone that support that goal.

Who Is Your Audience?​

Think about who your users are. Are they casual gamers, competitive players, content creators, or newcomers? What's their typical age group or vibe? Understanding this will help you speak their language—visually and verbally.

Give Your App a Personality​

Imagine your app as a person. Is it playful or serious? Casual or professional? Is it like a coach, a friend, or a power tool? Think about how it would talk, dress, and behave—this helps you shape a consistent tone, style, and visual identity.

Don’t Just Pick What “Looks Cool”​

Avoid falling in love with visuals just because they’re trendy or “look nice.”

Ask yourself: Why does this style work for my app and my users? Good branding is not just pretty, it’s functional and intentional.

Nail the visual basics​

You don’t need to be a designer to avoid common UI mistakes, but there are a few foundational things that are easy to overlook. These visual basics may seem obvious, but we still see many apps get them wrong. Keeping them in check will instantly make your app look more polished, more usable, and more trustworthy.

  • Logo & Icon—keep it simple, scalable, and recognizable. Avoid overly complex designs or using game assets directly. Your app’s icon is often the first impression, make sure it communicates clearly, even at small sizes.
  • Color Palette—it’s fine to take inspiration from the game your app supports, but your app should still feel like its own product. Stick to a clear, balanced palette with a defined base color and a standout CTA color. Avoid using too many colors that could clutter the design.
  • Typography—choose fonts that offer a clear, easy-to-read experience, especially for dense data or long-form content.
  • Consistent UI Elements—ensure that all UI components, such as buttons, icons, backgrounds, and menus, follow a unified visual language. This means using consistent colors, shapes, and styles across these elements to create a harmonious and predictable user experience. Consistency in UI elements also reinforces your app’s brand identity and contributes to a polished, professional look.

Game and app compliance: know the boundaries​

When designing your app's identity, it’s important to understand the boundaries around using game assets. Many developers use game-related visuals like item icons, champion images, or character avatars to help users quickly understand information. This can be effective, but might be a gray area.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • Game Visuals—Like item icons or characters is common and often helps with clarity, especially when users are already familiar with the game.
  • Don’t Copy Game UI—avoid mimicking the game’s interface. Your app should feel like its own product, not just a visual extension of the game.
  • Be Careful with Official Assets—don’t use official game logos, fonts, or layout styles unless you’re certain it's allowed. When in doubt, leave it out.
  • Overly Similar Apps May Be Rejected—if your app closely copies the branding, look, or content of a game or another app, it may be removed or rejected from Overwolf.

This is why having a unique and well-defined brand identity matters—not just for user experience, but for intellectual property compliance as well.

UI/UX resources​

Webinar​

Overwolf's Jasmin Weizman, UI/UX lead designer demonstrates how to create your app identity with the best UX/UI methods, such as visual communications, creating a smooth interface, and more.

Helpful Resources for Non-Designers​

If you’re a developer building your first UI or brand identity, or just not sure what some best practices flow looks like, you don’t need to start from scratch—or be a designer. Here are some simple, practical resources to help you create a clean, user-friendly app interface and start shaping your visual brand.

UI Kits & Components​

  • Google Material Design
    A well-documented design system with clear examples of buttons, layouts, spacing, colors, and more. Even if you don’t follow the full system, it’s a great starting point for consistent UI elements.

  • Figma Community UI Kits
    Free downloadable UI kits made by other creators, search for a popular kit that can fit your needs.

  • ShadCN UI (for devs using React)
    If you're using React, this is a clean, developer-friendly component library with solid UX defaults.

Branding & Color Tools​

  • Coolors
    A simple color palette generator—helpful for choosing 2–3 core brand colors and seeing how they look together.

  • Fontpair
    Helps you match readable Google Fonts for titles and body text—perfect for apps that need clarity and visual hierarchy without overthinking typography.

Design Inspiration (Non-intimidating)​

  • Mobbin
    Real app interface screenshots to give you layout and UX inspiration across different platforms—especially useful when figuring out common patterns for overlays, modals, and navigation.
tip

You don’t need to follow these tools to the letter, but they’re a great starting point. Use them to guide layout decisions, spacing, and overall visual consistency, especially when you’re unsure how to design elements like buttons, screens, or color palettes. They’re also useful when you're looking for best practices around common user flows such as login, subscriptions, filtering, and sorting, helping you build a more intuitive and user-friendly app experience.