Judging A Game By Its Cover

So here’s the deal. I’ve been looking at cover art recently. Partly because Joystiq has been running a contest where you modify the cover art of Capcom’s new game Lost Planet. Anyway, last night while I was finishing up my own version of the box art I found myself making fun of the box art.

Well, I went through my library of Xbox and Xbox360 boxes… I really wasn’t impressed. Most of them are just a picture of a guy in the foreground making a cool (I use the term loosely) pose and then other stuff receding into the background. Almost as if this is the main characters myspace photo. Box art should be just that art.

The cover as we know it is getting too standardized. Kind of like movie posters and dvd box art of today. Actually… very much like movie posters. Main guy in the front (usually someone like Hugh Jackman) and some scene in the background. My favorite poster (and later box art) is for The Conversation (1974).

Look at it. It’s very pretty, and fits the tone and the story of the movie. You’ve got crosshairs and people walking, a cityscape... the imagry there sets a mood right away and pulls you in. It’s also very nicely designed.

And then there is the Halo 2 cover. And while the Master Chief is looking pretty damn cool, it’s just a guy. And there is no real background. It’s mostly just a red sky. Nothing too grand really, it kind of says epic I guess… or that could be me knowing how it is because the name attached to it means so much to gamers.

I am trying to imagine myself as a neutral party. Looking at all the box art, a pair of Halo’s, Gears of War, even Pocket Bike Racers… even sports titles! I would think that many of these games are the same. Splinter Cell is nothing like Halo, which is nothing like any Rainbow Six title... and certainly none of those are remotly like Pocket Bike Racers which stands in a catagoroy with only Mario Kart.

Looking around myself I notice how poorly these things are designed. What have we been buying all these years? It’s the same covers over and over. I get comfort as I glance down at my Conversation box, knowing that there is hope out there. Seriously, I’m not sure what is worse though. Box art that’s all the same or box art that shows off graphics that are nowhere to be found inside the box are running rampant in this industry. It’s time for indy games It’s time for indy games to step up.

Indigo Prophecy had a sweet looking cover it made me really want to know more about the game and even drove me to their website. And honestly, I’ll say that I actually didn’t ever play Indigo Prophecy but that cover stayed with me, so that might be an even bigger compliment.



Don’t worry dear readers when I design the box art for Santa Takes Manhattan I’ll be sure to make it as innovative as the game play… or at least I’ll promise that it wont look like a movie poster in which The Rock is the star.

Oh, and if you’re curious (and I know you are) below is my take on the Lost Planet contest. It didn’t win. But it should have… it should have…



[Editors Note: Is it selfish of me to make the image I created the largest in the post? Yes. Yes it is]