What icon best represents magic?
 

For a gui, what do you think would best represent magic? For example, hearts represent health, shield represents defense... so on and so forth. But what can make the player see it and think "that must be my MP?"

This will be fairly large for an icon(32x32), and it is my belief that the icon should be full(aka no sticks or random sprinkles). Door suggested a star, and I like that idea... but at the same time I imagine a star seems childish or fairy-tale like instead of fitting for an RPG. There is also a crystal shard, but I dunno... seems too specific instead of general.

I already have the heart icon, so there is a style to adhere to... I don't think this matters for ideas, but if anyone needs to see it I will post it.

A wizards hat usually represents the concept of 'magic' in some rpgs...

But i'm not sure if thats what you were asking for. XD

Because a wizards hat for MP might be a bit...strange...

Edit: Or perhaps a vial or bottle of green liquid. lol
MP is usually green in Graal...

Magic/MP in general tends to be green, so whatever it is will most likely be that color. And ya, having a hat as a representation of magic would be weird :P

Perhaps some type of glowing orb.. ? Harry Potter's face? A lightning bolt? Really, anything that's green or blue represents magic, so Green Apples or Blueberries = great magic representation. ^^

http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u107/Psi.jpg maybe

http://i40.tinypic.com/35i121e.png
Well that's the heart image that's going to be used on the GUI for health. It won't be like Zelda(display a heart per point), but probably numbers next to it. I'm not entirely sure... but I need an icon to go on the other side of the screen to represent MP that matches the style, and doesn't feel disjointed.

Maybe a blue fire representing the soul?

Heart is representing physical strength

Have you ever thought about making a homebrew DS game perhaps? Just wondered.

But yeah usually for generic representations of magic you'll see a wand or hat or fireball or something of that matter. Maybe try a runic pattern kinda like Elk's suggestion but more detailed.

Not to agree with Door or anything, but I figure a star is not any more childish than the stylised heart.

What about an orb? Kind of like this:
http://www.iconarchive.com/icons/rai...Magic-icon.png

It doesn't show :(

Hand glowing with magical power, or an eye "steaming" with magical power?

it's a tough one.

http://www.iconarchive.com/icons/rai...Magic-icon.png
I think this is the one Luda was trying to show, but black.

An elf tear.

Err it tends to be blue most of time, but I prefer green too.

To represent magic, you could make a little icon of the most famous spell: fireball

or maybe...a sparkle ? An orb is nice too

blue :3

a crystal shad is how i image magic, i've seen stone shads on "magical" tv shows such as "Legend of the seeker" :o

Go to some WoW database website and go through all the caster classes' spell icons.

Blue lightning bolt imo.

Spell Points is Green, Mana Points are blue.

I think a MP icon can be many things, a big book maybe? (Like the Heroes II Knowlege icon f.eks)

A tilde, most epic and confusing image ever

Something that's simple and that everyone can identify with magic, including people that've never played RPGs/MMOs before, like a Wizard's Hat or a Magician's Hat with a rabbit poking out of it?
Crystals are too ambiguous, man

Idk
It would fit for a Magic ELEMENT (Darkness prob), but not a magic icon. By the way, that is an perverted orb if you look closely. x_x

this

This is what I just made going off from Luda's idea, which I think turned out semi-decent. It accomplished what I wanted: it's filling the icon space instead of leaving large empty areas(like a wand or lightning bolt would), and I was able to mold it to fit the style of the heart, I think. This doesn't mean I'm done with it, as I think this is an area not many think about and it'd be nice to still hear ideas(I still might do them!).

http://i43.tinypic.com/34igzec.png

I actually love that...it matches the heart really nicely, and I love the simplicity of it. XD

Very awesome. :3

lmao

Go with this but something about the outer rim of each icon bothers me :S

I like the shape and the design of the outside, but I think the insides need to pop out more, right now they look just kinda flat.

Well, because they're for a gui instead of part of the world I never intended to give them the full depth you'd expect from their shapes.

I understand that, but I think it would look better with more depth. Just my opinion, don't really know what the rest of the GUI is going to look like so it might turn out nice.

I'd go with psychological complementary here using blue instead of green :o

else it reminds me of trafficlights

might aswell change the red tone(violet) and the green tone(blueer)

Yeah, Mana bars are blue, does that guy not know anything?

Sarcasm?

Anyways, green would fit more to some spiritual/nature energy...blue would be more pure

Elk is right that green is too natural of a color to represent something as supernatural as magic. But blue also feels very natural to me as well, it's just not as earthly as green.

I always think of magic as purple.
I guess it depends where you think that magic comes from within the human body.
I associate magic with the power of the mind, but maybe that is just me.
But every time that I have used magic in real life it has manifested as a purple glow around my hands.

It really depends on the background of the class/player using the magic for me, although often that part is not given. In fiction magic usually comes from a variety of sources: nature, mind, body, aliens, gods, demons, etc... So it's hard to peg what people universally recognize as a magical color. Although I do kinda like the purple idea, because generally magic is power, and purple often represents royalty. Also because the stoplight analogy is valid.

To comment on the rest here, I don't disagree that you have used magic in real life, I just don't think it's a good idea. o.O Want to talk more, pm I guess.

No, it is just that mana bars and mana potions are blue in WoW, and also in Diablo I believe~

Yeah but that statement is so nerdy :P

Yah.

I've seen on some Zelda games (ALTTP f.eks) that there is green jars, and the mana is green.

And too Dusty:
I like the orb, it looks nice, and it fits the heart. But I dont like the color of it. :/

Maybe try making it look more like a Water bubble kinda, here's an example from LOZ:OOT http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda05/...aleG_Large.png

Like that but without the scale, would been sweet.

Eh... by popular demand, I guess:
http://i44.tinypic.com/dlrmsx.png