Kotaku has a lovely post up showing what would happen if video game packaging designers applied book cover design to their games. My favorite is the Grand Theft Auto one, to the left, but the Doom one is pretty funny, too. I can’t even recall any video game package designs right now.
Those are awesome, I hope EA, Valve, or somebody starts using this design ethic in their packaging or websites.
Thanks for the tip, great idea. Doesn’t the publishing industry usually have a more refined design palette for a hardcover book and then devolve into a more low-rent aesthetic for the paperback? Lot’s of raised lettering, metallic inks, lousy typography and such. It would be awesome if the gaming industry went the other way and classed up big-selling games with well designed packaging for special editions.
I love this shit.
Olli Moss (sp?) is doing a similar thing for video game book covers. He’s done Zelda, Half-Life, Silent Hill and a few others. Look him up on Boing Boing.
Anything is better than the vast majority of videogame package designs. Ugh.
Bad video game packaging peaked in the Eighties on the NES- seriously, if you don’t believe me check out the original Mega Man box.
I made my own, because I am a dork.
http://flickr.com/photos/21351856@N05/32…
These originated in a thread called “Make Video Game Covers Classy” here:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthr…