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Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.

× Talk about Eurogames here.

Box Art . . . It Could Be Worse

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27 Jul 2015 09:04 - 27 Jul 2015 09:24 #207106 by Sagrilarus
A personal favorite euro of mine is Queen's Necklace, a card drafting game with three blind simultaneous auction rounds. It's a great game from a mechanical perspective and its art was both unique and impressive, utilizing a watercolor look in a way that really took it into its own space. Days of Wonder gave it the full treatment with oversized cards to keep the text and imagery big and readable. The cover and some card examples:






They have announced the reprint to be done by Cool Minis or Not (in this case, not) and the new art to go with it.




This isn't throw up in your mouth art, this is go-ahead-and-make-the-trip-to-the-toilet art. Just awful. And to think it's based on Alexander Dumas' Three Musketeers.

To some extent I think game art is getting worse, as the hobby is having a bigger following and game publishers are looking for opportunities to catch your eye on a big shelf of other titles. Can't imagine this one will help sales though. Perhaps their goal is to capture the aging Monty Python fans part of the market.

S.
Last edit: 27 Jul 2015 09:24 by Sagrilarus.
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27 Jul 2015 09:11 #207107 by Msample
At least on the wargame side, the increase in shitty art is due to the dearth of decent artists. Coupled with the huge number of games coming out these days, you get some pretty wretched stuff out there.

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27 Jul 2015 09:26 #207108 by Gary Sax
Heinous

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27 Jul 2015 09:34 #207109 by Black Barney
Why does that peacock have cleavage?
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27 Jul 2015 10:07 #207114 by hotseatgames
I for one am sick of the trend of "hey check out our 'wacky' art style!"

I don't want friendly goofy orcs all ready to be put on a thermos. I want terrifying orcs.
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27 Jul 2015 10:11 #207117 by OldHippy
The original looks great...

In any case I sometimes find that the better a game looks on my shelf the higher the chance it stays there, collecting dust. Whereas some of the uglier games (for a shelf mind you, so really they're just less tasteful) come off on a regular basis and see some actual play.

I kind of like games to look a bit tacky, they're a silly pastime, a bit of a waste of time and slightly childish... so looking good on a shelf is not really the point of them. I don't want them to look good on a shelf. That sounds way too mature to me.

Still, that new version of this game does look like shit, the old one looks cool (although not 'shelf cool') and now I'm slightly curious about it.

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27 Jul 2015 10:21 #207120 by Ken B.
Box art....it could be worse? Oh, absolutely.

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27 Jul 2015 10:34 #207122 by VonTush
The result of the cropping is so...disturbing.
I look at it, and my mind goes into the gutter. I'll never be able to look at the box and not picture something wrong and off color happening out of frame. It looks like she did or has something being done that's very deviant.

Art like this done on a computer for quick color changes and manipulation makes the process cheep and you get what you pay for with cheep looking results.

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27 Jul 2015 12:02 - 27 Jul 2015 12:16 #207148 by Sagrilarus
There's other things going on in the photo that just aren't good decisions. The flourishes on the top of the shield in front of her chest squiggle up to give each of her breasts a point, which just looks unseemly. You almost hear a French "Oh ho ho!" in the background when you notice. And I'm not sure what purpose that shield serves at all -- maybe to indicate that the Queen is French? It's 80% covered by the title so no one will recognize it.

The title is more or less unreadable. The gold frame serves no purpose other than to cut off the top of her head. It's like the artist was paid by the hour. The ribbon on the bottom . . . ? Anyone come up with a reason for an empty ribbon?

Everything is stepping on everything else, and the core figure just isn't good to start with. Is there any attachment to the Three Musketeers theme or even the era? The clothing looks Elizabethan.

Given the look on the woman's face someone finding this box on a table out of context might be forgiven for thinking it contains a marital aid.

Here's a game where the artwork actively gets in the way of the setting.
Last edit: 27 Jul 2015 12:16 by Sagrilarus.

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27 Jul 2015 12:51 #207156 by ubarose
As board game packaging goes, this is actually better than most. You might not like the style, but the illustration does have a focal point. The composition guides the eye to the illustration of the the necklace. The title isn't legible, which is a ding against it. However, overall, the image is memorable, takes on a graphic quality from a distance, and is instantly recognizable, which is what you want for branding. Compare that to say also most any FFG game box. Despite many of their games being among my favorites, I could not tell you what the heck is on any of the covers. Talisman? Wiz War? Runebound? DungeonQuest? They are all just big ol' busy color mash ups.
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27 Jul 2015 12:54 #207158 by VonTush
She's wearing a necklace? So she is...

My eyes went to her eyes...Those are the eyes of someone that just ripped the 3' bong without coughing.
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27 Jul 2015 13:04 #207161 by Sagrilarus
That's what you want for branding if it's dish soap. A repeat purchase. This is a one-timer, so it has to give you an elevator pitch. Nothing about this cover explains what's inside the box, and the little text there is is unreadable.

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27 Jul 2015 13:18 - 27 Jul 2015 13:22 #207167 by quozl
Sure, the artwork is crap quality but it describes the gameplay really well:

Last edit: 27 Jul 2015 13:22 by quozl.
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27 Jul 2015 13:40 #207171 by Michael Barnes
I actually agree with Shellie on this one. I don't care for the illustration style (particularly the overdone Photoshop 2000 effects) and there are a couple of layers too many, but this is at least a game with a discernible style and it's one that would be appealing to a lot of people. I'm not talking about the cleavage, which is silly but also kind of expected given the setting and the publisher. They're obviously trying to give it a little lighthearted "ooh la la" sex appeal and it's pretty clumsy, but I don't think it's nearly as tacky as a bunch of garish fantasy art that looks like it was made to appeal to the "red dragon shirt" crowd. You know the one I'm talking about.

I like the original, muted watercolor style myself...but in today's marketplace, that would be considered "bad" artwork. Most people have no taste or sense of aesthetics and assume that "cool" drawings=good art. Any time a game comes out with exceptional, unusual and artful illustration you can bet your bottom dollar that somebody is going to have a shitfit about it. Witness Sylvion. That game looks A-MAZ-ING. It has a very, very interesting and expressive style _and_ it's artfully packaged (it's not just pieces thrown into a plastic tray- it's actually THEATRICAL to open the box). But it's been criticized for having "bad art". By people that probably think Paul Niemeyer is "great art".

Cave Evil is one of the best games, visually speaking, ever published. Its artwork (and there is a TON of it) is not as accomplished as FFG's freelancers. But it expresses a very specific atmosphere, style and concept and it is 100% committed to having that black metal LOOK.

Modern Art was (and is) criticized for having ugly, terrible artwork. BUT THAT IS EXACTLY THE ARTISTIC POINT. If you play Master's Gallery, the art is replaced by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, etc...completely nullifying the satire.

But most people don't understand that technical execution does not always equal great art...or art at all, really. There's a reason why Thomas Kinkade is a more well-known and popular painter than Odd Nerdrum (who is amazing, BTW).

I also completely agree with Shellie about the FFG cover illustrations- but I would single out Wiz-War as at least having a DIFFERENT art style than the usual post-Larry Elmore, post-manga style that is on all of FFG's games (barring Cosmic, which is probably the best-looking game they've ever made).

I love that Wiz-War box. It comes from a time that was very different, and at that point that sort of homespun style said a lot about the industry and the people making the game. It's complete garbage, on a technical level. But at least it had heart instead of digital coloring.

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27 Jul 2015 13:44 #207173 by Hex Sinister
I just don't want my boardgames to look like browser Flash games. I hate that style. It can die.
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