The game cards have been finished
Space tale
Progress of Quest for berries:
A mock up was made:
Final poster:
Final update
The box art of video games
As mentioned in my previous post, I wish to research how major game companies package their games. What I’ve noticed is that the cover , always, contains an attractive illustration of the game, intended to “lure” the consumer to pick the game up and read what’s on the back cover. The back cover contains a short story of what the game is about (most games use two sentences to describe the story) and show a few screenshots of the in game graphics. They also include some credits, the needed specs to play the game, copyrights and the minimum age requirement. The back covers look really cramped, but at least, the illustrations on the front gets a lot of space, without anything unnecessary damaging the art.
Based on that, I believe my game cards should include an illustration to attract interest, a short summary of the game and the, absolutely, required information to understand the game. Nothing more as it will make the game card seem too cramped and distract from the main idea (the game you’re presenting).
Box art research articles for the Alice game (space tale)
I found a really in depth article about the lack of female protagonists in video game’s box art. Several reasons are named, one of the most important ones is still, the fear that games will sell less if a female lead is shown. Because somehow women are still assumed to be “weaker” than the average looking masculine, white, stereotype male game protagonist.
Unless, she is being sexualized, here is an article explaining this matter. According tho the article, the game industry is really “masculine”coded, focused on hypersexualising/objectifying women, violence, war, primitive needs and not really focusing on what the general audience demands.
Video game covers
I have looked in to how “professional games” are presented to the consumer, I think the game card should be a combination of the front and back of the examples shown above.
Weekly summary
I have been mainly focusing on the personal game card for the past week, the look of my main character was chosen, it’s name has been changed in to “Berry Fairy”, the look of the villains/foes has been decided on and the lay out for the game card has been created. As for the Alice game card, I have only adapted its size to A2 and applied some minor changes. Both game cards still need proper typography and important game information, so that’s definitely something I should work on.
The deadline is next week and by then both game cards should be done.
Weekly update
Quest for berries
I kicked this week off by doing another character exercise and these are the results:
Soon, I moved on to determine the look of the Berry Fairy (I changed the name of the creature because of personal preference).
Afterwards, I created the first rough sketches of the layout/set up for the game card and picked one to develop further:
The next step was to combine everything and start working on the final game card (it’s still a work in progress):
Space tale
I regret how little sketching/experimenting was done for the Alice game card, as there was simply not that much time to do so. We had to prepare the typography test in the second-third week of the ongoing project and I was convinced that without a lay out or decent set up, the typography tests couldn’t be done. Or the tests wouldn’t be of much use considering how much I’d change later on. So looking at all the background and character sketches/tests I was able to do for my personal game card, I feel a little discontent about the lack of it for the Alice game card.
I have been mainly focusing on the personal game card for the past week. As for the Alice game card, I have adapted its size to A2 and applied some minor changes.
After viewing the result (above) I have decided to move the picture up a bit, so the typography gets a little more space. The result will be shown over the course of next week, as my old laptop isn’t capable of editing a file of this particular size (446mb).
Background sketches 3 and background progress
Station project update
I’d really like to create a 3D printed model of one of the characters from the group project game. So I’d signed myself up for a basic course “creating 3D art with Maya”.
There weren’t that many participants (simply because, in my opinion, it wasn’t that well known). So I talked to the teacher personally and told him my end goal was to create a 3D model of a character and he showed me this program called “sculptris”. A program much more suited for 3D modelling.
Notes taken during class:
Shift: smoothing
Mirroring: symmetry button
Right mouse click: turning your sculpture
Alt + Left mouse click: dragging your sculpture
Space bar: changing your brush preferences
Save/export your finished file as OBJ and open it in Maya
The following notes were taken in case I wish to create 3D art:
In Maya, select the sculpture/model, right mouse click, assign new material, Maya surface, Blinn, Lambert or Phong.
Select attribute editor to add and modify textures.
Adding your own files by selecting, file, attribute, click on the map icon, load drawings. Save images as Tiff!!!
Select texture shape to see the textures on your sculpture/model without rendering.
In the action bar chose, light, point light. Turn light on on you sculpture/model using the icon next to texture shape.
Click on the second movie board for a render example.
Click on the final movie board for the final rendering.
Background sketches 2
Feedback from Rachel
Hi Yao,
You’re doing a great job keeping your blog up to date, it’s interesting to read the progress you are making and the research you do. I specially like the fact that you are researching about female game characters. Women are, after all, 46% of game buyers.
I think you’re on the right track with Alice and the berry game looks fun, the characters are very inviting.
As for the typographies you’ve chosen for Space Tale, I would try to stay away from fantasy sci-fi fonts. They are not very legible and can affect the impression of your game in a negative way. I find your illustrations a lot more striking than the fonts. The ones you’re testing look somewhat comical. I would suggest a sans serif black font, something heavy and striking to go with the boldness of your character. Something like this:
https://www.fontfont.com/fonts/super-grotesk/condensed-bold
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/blazej-ostoja-lniski/cervo/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/berthold/akzidenz-grotesk-bq/bold-condensed/
I have some of these fonts if you are interested. Let me know.
See you Friday.
Response:
I really appreciate the feedback, especially the feedback on my typography tests! I absolutely had no idea where to start and where to go, based on your feedback I have done some other test. But, as I have stated in one of my previous posts, I am still working on the drawing so please don’t pay attention to things in the background that may clash with the text or the composition for now.
I tried to find typography tutorials, but I find it quite hard to stumble upon one, that is capable of explaining typography well enough for me, to fully grasp the concept. But I did find a post on different type rules, which I find worth sharing/posting.
I am really looking forward to class Friday and I’d love to try your suggested fonts, talk about the progress I have been making and receive verbal feedback.
Weekly summary
Names were created to refer to the individual projects, Space tale for the Alice game card and Quest for berries for the personal game card.
As for space tale, the project is really taking off, a set up has been made and the game card is coming along nicely. Quest for berries is still in an early stage of development. This week visual proposals for the foes of the game have been made. By next week the look for the main character will be determined and the first few sketches for the game card set up will be made.
School related work 