Game Thing + Recreating the Beta Style

Hey Jammers!

Yesterday I noticed something odd.

I remembered that the game Fast Foodies exists, and that it's really fun, so I stopped by the Juice Hut to play it, because I remembered there was a game icon right by the door. 

...and it's gone.

My memory is correct. It says on the AJ Wiki that it's supposed to be here.

Hmm. This must have been a recent change.

But don't worry, guys! You can still play it. The game itself still exists, you just have to use the Games menu:

Still, it's more fun to play the game straight from Crystal Sands. I hope AJHQ fixes this eventually.

Along with Fast Foodies, I played a lot of other games yesterday: Spot On, Gem Ball, Double Up, and more. While I played, I came up with an idea for a new post:

Things in today's AJ that look like they were from beta testing!

Well, I'm pretty sure that Gem Ball and Double Up look beta because they were from beta, but there are also a few things that look beta but are recent developments.

This item, for instance:

It is the pink variety of an item called Abstract Pottery. It looks like a beta item, but it literally came out last August. 

It's funny that this item looks more like a beta than some of the items in the shop at the actual Beta Party:

The only thing that's beta about them is that they're front-facing whereas most current AJ items are turned to the side. (The reason for this is that the beta den had straight walls instead of diagonal walls)

Aside from items, something that looks beta because it is beta is the second floor of the Chamber of Knowledge:

It's basically gone unchanged– which is how it should be. I'd imagine the Chamber of Knowledge is like a museum of the past, so it would make no sense to update things to look more current.

The only difference is on the far left end of the second floor. This is how it looked in beta, before the third floor was built:

(These screenshots are from this video by a beta player.)

Do those three staffs on the wall look familiar to you? You can actually find them in the mysterious Basement of Secrets:

The Basement of Secrets is another beta-looking non-beta thing, probably because it uses assets designed during beta testing!

This brings me to my main point: how could the unique style of beta AJ be recreated?

To start, let's compare a beta item with a more recently released item:

 (Image credit)

Hmm...

Something that catches my eye immediately is the amount of gradients on the Venus Flytrap– they're everywhere but the soil in the pot! In a way, it looks almost metallic, but not so much that it looks weird.

The item below is far more simple; the only gradients I can see are on parts of the orange cushions, and they're very subtle.

Another striking difference is the kinds of shapes used. The Venus Flytrap is jagged and geometric but in a fun natural way. It's more unpredictable.

Alright, I'm going to go to sleep now. Comment any other ideas you have about how to recreate the beta style!

See you in Jamaa!

~DoomyPanda