Examples of game manuals

Tell us your thoughts on the WTactics aesthetics, but make sure you stay constructive.
Forum rules
Legal: Only post art that is legally yours. By posting you agree that the material you post may be licensed by WTactics using the GPL2 or later license(s) and/or be re-licensed by us to other open source licenses as explained here. Critics: Are welcome, but no artist will revise his/her work, no matter how correct the critics are. Notice that this is an economical issue.
Post Reply
User avatar
snowdrop
developer
Posts:798
Joined:Mon Feb 01, 2010 15:25
Location:Sweden
Contact:
Examples of game manuals

Post by snowdrop » Tue Oct 11, 2011 18:40

1. Here's one I'd consider to be inferior to many of the books released by big publishers:

http://breandan-ociarrai.deviantart.com ... -255069428 ...seems to be a hobby project (kudos, you can tell they have struggled with it and I'd love to get a copy for free..) that they sell.


2. What we have: http://newworldgamingco.files.wordpress ... cover1.jpg
..should remind pretty much about what we currently have. Personally I like it, but it doesn't measure up with what's on the market. I also think they should have picked another font, don't know if they want to give a steam-punk or wild-west feeling with it...

3. Classic Roleplaying; http://www.keepwargaming.co.uk/ekmps/sh ... 1186-p.jpg ...looks okey but oldschool layout. They haven't struggled with it. Crappy pick of main art as well. Good combo of red and gold, also nice loggo-stuff. Minus for the squareish shit on the frame.

4. Mercs: http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/store_m ... _large.jpg ...probably one of my favourites and a really good looking piece. Good bg texture and really nice logo. Main art leaves something better to wish for, and subtitles should stand out less. Ditch the ego-shit-text - who gives a shit who designed the game when those guys are probably unknown anyway when it's released. In real life only like 0,5% of the persons that will buy that game will ever care or buy it because of who created it. Really. I want to play this game based soley on its kick ass cover... if it just werent for the crappy-laserish-sword... ;)

5. Flames of War: This game is a classic and well known. Also classic an cheap setup of its cover: http://www.janco-toys.com/images/P/janc ... Book_a.jpg ...it doesnt even mind-meld together. Wargamers are howveer used to shitty graphics and nobody will mind. :P

6. All Warhammer 40 000: Same implemenation as above, maybe slightly better. http://importhobby.com/u/31/326721/1583751.jpg ...this is so typical of GW, whose art picks have always disturbed me. I wouldn't ever want us to use such a detailed piece of art as a cover. Way way too much info, it looks chaotic and you really have to look at it for a while to make sense of it.

7. Same as above, other game: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_xNoM2NfE42A/Tc8cl ... image3.png ...nice looking logo-section, rest is disaster. Reeks 90's.

8. Really nice one... https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NKCT ... e+book.jpg ...albeit a little too much info/art. I'd happilystickwith it and just simplify.

9. More 90's a la powerrangers: http://www.beastsofwar.com/wp-content/u ... -cover.jpg ...good idea gone wild... too much of everything.

10. Really classy: http://www.lonegunmangames.com/resource ... 02x579.jpg ..albeit too simplistic.

11. Magic: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o1FEGKpwGk4/T ... e+Book.jpg ....not bad, at all. Would still cut down somewhat on the weight of the deco.

12. http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/media ... Q2_1_2.jpg ...nice, but wouldnt work in the proper format as cove without becoming too much.

13, Star Wars CCG: http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images ... lebook.jpg ....hrm.. text and art doesnt play well in top right corner. Else they were on the right track with it. I redid it in 3 sec and it already looks better, see attached crap.

14. I'm dazzeld >> http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/wp-c ... -Cover.jpg ...think it looks pretty good and makes a strong statement. Nice choice of fontface...Has detailed art yet it doesnt interfere too much...
Attachments
Galactic_Hunters_rulebook.jpg
copyright by it's original copyright holder, lucas arts etc.
User avatar
Q_x
developer
Posts:334
Joined:Thu Sep 23, 2010 15:10

Re: Examples of game manuals

Post by Q_x » Thu Oct 13, 2011 17:28

You have what's considered classic: logo on top and image takes the rest. With or without the frame. Plus mandatory stuff if it's needed, like publisher's logo. The difference is made by budget and game world here. It's working perfectly as a composition, nothing can possibly go wrong, really. Just take good logo, good illustration and put them together.

What stands out and breaks the scheme is Saga cover. It's composed well, certainly a good job in every aspect. Two armies charge each other, fur, dirt, blood. Completely not my taste: the dirt there reminds more a kind of horror, or 2005 "grunge" design wave, two armies are "almost like etched" and the fur under it all doesn't make any sense... But that's taste, not reason. The composition is more of a movie poster.

Mercs made a kind of sci-fi opening. I'd dig the subject a bit deeper - make it look like real hydraulic doors, and the viewer sits inside and hides in a pitch black room, watching the fight. But yes, perfectly good.

I can't really propose any good approach to the subject that was not showed above. I like really subtle stuff, which is completely not WT mood (in general not RPG, which dominated by exaggerated aesthetics) - take blurred lettering, good portrait photo of a beardman in a rocking chair, with a pipe in his hand, or a girl, staring straight into the camera, in soft afternoon light in an empty apartment, and you have what I'd call a good cover. Blurred letters are way underused in the industry btw, that just have to be the next great design trick, after having letters sliced or shredded diagonally (as in Harry Potter and many, many things earlier).

All I want to say is that I'm thinking more in terms of whole line of products - that is cover, title page, publication design, card boxes and booklets that go inside such boxes, and cards in the first place. That's something different than cover alone. And that's why simple solutions are used that often.
I'm the filthy bastard you wish you never met.
Post Reply