I understand - the art style is not for everyone!
I spent a huge amount of time noodling with how to make the gamepieces look, they needed to be very iconic and easy to read during extremely fast gameplay - and they needed to be able to convey what's on the front side, and what's on the back fairly easily. This meant they needed to be very simplified, not very flashy, kind of flat, but overall extremely easy to read (almost on a subliminal level). Unfortunately, this is at the expense of how they'll look in screenshots, but I'll go for hurt sales due to poorer screenshots over a more enjoyable gameplay experience anyday (yeah, I am a bad businessman :/)
As for the characters, I went through a few rounds of redesign with them as well, overall I wanted them to be cute with universal appeal but also not so strong that they'd stand out in too much contrast with the rest of the presentation - and because they are small, they needed to be somewhat SD and very simplified. Programming and memory-wise, we didn't room to do much with them either so kept it short and sweet (but I insisted we needed some kinda characters in there, because there's a million puzzle games out there with "nothing at all" to relate to). This is the point where I would expect a forum like GAF to be picky on these kind of details (which is fine) but a more casual potential user will be attracted to these elements.
At the end of the day I need the casual, cute elements to help draw in that side of the market, but I also need the gameplay depth to appeal to the more hardcore crowd, who might be willing to look past the aesthetic. It's not easy satisfying everybody.
Anyway, I am happy with the results and the reception, the reviews we are getting speak for themselves. I wish we had a game which could sell better from a graphical standpoint, but as I've said I'd rather have a game which might not be noteworthy for it's visual representation, but is appreciated for it's actual gameplay - and I think on iPhone especially (with a $2 game), it's a gamble worth taking.
I absolutely appreciate all discussion on this topic, the fact is that the rules are different now and people are starting to expect different kinds of experiences on these devices (with no-name devs and peanuts prices). The more opinions I can drum up - honest ones - will help me make better games, going forward, and that is my goal
