Well, here
we are, the last Eccentric Sphere for 2019.
I started
this blog way back in 2012, October 16th to be exact and
now I'm looking forward to taking it into 2020.
In order
to go forward it is sometimes necessary to look back at what came
before. Today I want to look a bit at video game art. Cover art to be
precise.
Within
some franchises the art is both predictable and boring. Take the Call
of Duty games. Usually it's a silhouetted soldier with a gray or
green tint. The Battlefield games have pretty much the same but with
a blue or orange tint. Dull, but serviceable. Do a Google image
search if you're curious.
It's a
natural fact that the cover art has to be illustrative of what the
game is about. A sports game has to show the relevant sport,
Minecraft shows off the blocky nature of the game, etc. If the game
has a cover theme or very recognizable icon, that goes on the cover.
The Fallout games has a dude in power armor on the covers, which lets
you recognize that it's Fallout from far away.
But what
happens when this methodology goes wrong? Well, see below for the
answer. A video from the Norwich Games Festival holds some examples,
going all the way back to the early text only games. But, fair
warning, you may well see this and tear at your hair in confusion and
horror at the baffling “art”.
Anyway,
please enjoy and I'll see you next week, next year and next decade.
Until then, have a great time! See you in 2020!
