Game Box Artwork

This forum is for artists to post their music and graphics or discuss artistic matters that could be used in Uzebox games.
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D3thAdd3r
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Game Box Artwork

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Right now I am somehow making really good artwork and actually finding more satisfaction in it than the programming side(at the moment at least). This got me thinking if anyone was interested in having pseudo-box artwork. Basically I mean the artwork that was in the cd case/cartridge box like :Image
Image
I love the physical game box and seeing the sales pitch for why it's the most amazing game ever along with a run down of the features. It seems like a lot of the Uzebox Logos, contest artwork, etc has a GBA like style so thats probably the right track so everything flows together. My personal favorites have always been sega cd and sega saturn(all regions).

So if we still have any artists floating around here that want to do it that would be cool. I think we would just need the general framework, seals of quality, 1 player 2 player, Rating?,etc then maybe a nice tutorial about how you could customize one to your own game. Now I estimate the likelyhood of any of this happening at about 3% so mostly I'm just interested in people's ideas on it. It would look good on the wiki page of each game, and if anyone does any expos in the future it would make for interesting displays.
CunningFellow
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by CunningFellow »

reasonable idea,

unfortunately I am artisticly talentless.

That's why I am doing vector games. No artwork needed :)
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Gosma
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by Gosma »

I'm a game addicted so i luv everything that's related to games :D

Box art is really a cool art, My favorite Box arts are from Atari since they needed to have lots of ideas from just
a lots of squares and sticks (that in fact is an atari game)

That art is very important and there's the versions of the box arts example, it was so badly done that became a character (Bad box art Megaman that's a playable character in Tekken X SF)
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Bad_Box_Art_Mega_Man
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by D3thAdd3r »

CunningFellow wrote:That's why I am doing vector games. No artwork needed
I believe your asm feats are, in fact, artwork :ugeek:

Gosma I never knew about it being a character, but that is hilarious. MegaMan 1 artwork always confused the hell out of me, like it says Capcom so I'm thinking quality, but it seems like they were running some kind of primary school coloring contest and the winning students drawing was used directly as the box art. I think this explains the whole controversy :lol:

Ok back to the subject, I don't think this is totally unrealistic and a few people may do it for fun. It would be cool if we could collaborate and kind of agree on the general layout, or at least give opinions. I whipped up a crummy example using the first low res imaged on google...I think if we had a wiki page on some guidelines and links to high resolution logos(for instance pretend ESRB rating logos, and GPL3 logo which looks cool and is actually fitting) then it would be easy to learn.
ffcrummy.png
ffcrummy.png (216.8 KiB) Viewed 14765 times
Most importantly, what do you guys think the actual shape would be? The only way an Uzebox game would be released in physical form would be on an SD card so I think a Nintendo DS sized/ratio box would be good. For the real final product I would imagine the resolution should be some 2048x2048 so you could do a high quality print of it if you wanted.
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Harty123
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by Harty123 »

good idea and very well done!
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uze6666
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by uze6666 »

Hey Lee, good idea! A while ago I recall we had game cartrige art, but not box art. I sure see myself doing one for my next game since I really like doing art stuff. I like the format you proposed, you could indeed create a wiki page with a template (Photoshop / Gimp) and we'll refine it. As for the ultimate size, I would not see it too big perhaps at 5"x3.5" for the front face or perhaps a bit smaller in order to fit in standard heavy matte photo paper you can have printed on your own inkjet and then cut using templates like those:

Image

It's all probably over the top for games that will never sells, but it sure sounds fun. And have a physical copy of something you did is always cool. :)
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Ah nice! I hadn't thought about actually making the whole case out of print like the NES carts had. That is the perfect way all things considered-now just to get some nice paper and give it a try. If my folding skills are up to snuff, I'll throw up a WIP wiki page and we can kind of put together a total standard.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by D3thAdd3r »

I found a nicely done tutorial by GUnitColima on putting artwork onto a template, and then actually printing it out and the assembly of it. So it can be done with a standard desktop printer and some nice card stock. He was kind enough to email me the .PSD files and so far it's looking like the process will work fine in gimp. Check it out:


I will start slowly assembling additional logos and stuff for us to use and throw the templates and everything else on the wiki.
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uze6666
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by uze6666 »

beta1.jpg
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Hey guys, hope I don't steal Lee's thunder on his secret project. But after his last post on Alter Ego, it really got my synapses going. Mixing all the ideas discussed here, I made a box template that hopefully will be distinct of past consoles games box art! It's 9x12x1.5 cm and fits with a standard A4 sheet. So anyone home can print it on photo paper, cardboard, etc.

It's just a rough draft mind you, but the size look quite nice. Not too big and not too small. Thin enough to fit quite a few on your shelf, well if you were to print only fully released games, that would require over a one meter shelf! :D

Unless you guys have violent objections ;) , I propose it becomes the standard size for box art.

Attached is a pdf of the template, let me know what you think. Naturaly, if you guys like it, I'll release a Photoshop (and Gimp if feasible) template.

ps.: In order to get sharp box borders, you have to score the edges. Basically drive a sharp tool (but not enough to cut through the paper) along the dotted lines on the template before folding.

ps.2: there's a bug in the left tab of that template, it's way too wide, I'll correct this.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Game Box Artwork

Post by D3thAdd3r »

I never got around to make progress on this. I am very glad to see you took this to fruition, since I think often of it "wouldn't it be neat if...". Nicely done Alec!

I don't have any design suggestions for anything lacking, I think this is already good for a standard design. I will print once you post the corrected Gimp or PDF, but it seems the size will be nice as well. I need to see if there is some photo cardstock available locally.
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