DVD Inlay - A Look Back At Previous Game's Advertising / Cover Art

In my previous blog I looked at what various things need to be included in my game DVD inlay. Now I want to focus more on the art styles and graphics that have commonly been used in the past for both sets of games.

So to start off with lets have a look at the first doom inlay.

This is basically what I remember the back covers being like. A big picture of a demon head on the front with some gameplay shots and legal information on the back. The more iconic picture I also remember is this one.

All 3 covers feature an art style with heavy red scenes and images of hell or demons. The yellow and blue Doom logo is featured prominently at the top. The “iconic” image features a lone character in green armour shooting the demons trying to get to him. The scenery is supposed to represent hell and is of a rocky outcrop and no vegetation is sight. You can see a set of mountains and a yellow glow in the background. There is also another marine seemingly rushing to help the other one. This may be a nod to the fact that the game can be played co-operatively. The "main" character is above the demons and looking down whilst firing at them. His armour is quite badly damaged in places indicating he has been "in the wars" so to speak.

Both the "iconic" and "basic" cover art also feature the ID Software logo which is the team of programmers who developed the game. 

There does not seem to be any ISBN / barcode information. I would think these would normally be on there but due to the lack of images I couldn’t find ones with them. There were also many versions of Doom released including the shareware version, the Ultimate version and Final Doom. All of them had different artwork.

Final doom looks more like an ammo box and has very little imagery on it.The ID logo is still present as is some information of the new levels that this version of the game comes with.

Moving on to the follow up game imaginatively entitled Doom 2 we can see how the art style has changed.

The cover this time seems reminiscent of the iconic Doom 1 cover in that we again have a guy in green armour who is firing at a large hellish character. The scene still uses quite a lot of red and orange in it to try and depict the colours of hell. Doom 2 is sub-titled "Hell on Earth" and so the background has changed somewhat from rocks and mountains to what appears to be sky scrapers. Like the first one the marine's armour is again badly damaged.

The main Doom logo is still present and in the same colours as before but now with a II (2) added below it. 

There is also the ID Software logo on the front and an ESRB rating as well as a banner at the top telling us this is for the PC platform.

On the back we have a large piece of text which is broadly letting those know who enjoyed the first game that they are going to be equally as enthralled in this one. Below that there are 6 screenshots of in-game footage and some text as to what is happening in the game and to set the scene for new players.

We also have legal information, a barcode and the developer / publisher logos.

Doom 3 was released quite a bit later than the first two; 11 years later than Doom so the packaging style is now reflective of a more professional look. Back in 1993 when Doom came out PC gaming was still a very niche market and so production values of the boxes was very low. Over the next decade the gaming industry would become massive and hence more money and effort was put into producing the advertising materials for them. 

The Doom 3 BFG edition was the latest and last version of Doom 3 to be released. It is apparent straight away that the DVD inlay is of a much higher quality than the first ones which largely still used printed cardboard boxes to house the games. 

Whilst there has been a shift away from the overall red and orange tones of the original there are still some amount of red and orange in the Doom Logo itself. It is more similar to the Final Doom box in that the front cover design is very simplistic. The background seems to be an engraving of some sort in black metal. The game itself had similar textures in it so it may be from them that the box design was conceived.

On  the back of the DVD inlay we still see some screenshots, a large font text piece at the top to grab your attention and then some more descriptive text underneath this. The hellish themes continue more subtly than in the previous games but the hellish creatures are pictured strongly on the back cover.

I think my takeaway from Doom is that the front cover has to have the traditional Doom logo on it as fans can instantly recognise it. On the back there should be 3 or 4 screenshots and some descriptive text. It will be worth putting some kind of larger type sentence at the top to continue to keep people's attention and focused on the product.  

Now I'm going to look at some of the Duke Nukem games box art or inlay art. Duke Nukem started as a platformer but became far more widely popular when the FPS Duke 3D was released. As I'm really interested in the FPS genre I will start with Duke 3D's artwork.

 Had some issue with actually finding a PC version of the game box. However as I do own the game I know that this box for the Sega Saturn version has the same artwork on the front although it has been cropped slightly from the PC version to get the Sega Saturn text down the side. 

The back cover is again similar in style to that of the PC version. Some screenshots and some descriptive text. Albeit a lot of the text is in various different languages on this inlay. 

The 3D Realms logo is prevalent on the front but not anywhere else. As I have mentioned in previous blogs Gearbox Studio's now have the IP rights to this. 

The 18 BBFC certificate is almost synonymous with Duke Nukem 3D games. They nearly always receive this certificate due to their depiction of nudity, strong language and in-game depictions of violence with dismemberment.

The overall art style is actually very similar to that found on the early Doom packaging. The "hero" standing above some aliens / demons that he is firing down at. Once again there are heavy red and orange tones used. The Duke Nukem logo is front and centre on the front cover. It is slightly more weathered and concrete looking than the more metallic Doom logo but they are similar size and both incorporate yellow. In the background there is an atomic explosion cloud. Unlike the Doom marine Duke's armour, such as it is seems undamaged. 

Hopefully given the similarity of the two it might be possible to try and merge the two front covers together in some way if getting the two faces facing each other is problematic. I may even try this first to see how it looks. 

After Duke 3D there were several expansions and a few games that were released purely on consoles but nothing on PC for quite a staggering amount of time given how successful Duke 3D was on PC.

The next game which I remember hearing about was on the Playstation.

It continues to use a similar colour palette in that orange and red are still the dominant colours. There is still a picture of Duke Nukem on the cover and the familiar yellow concrete effect Duke Nukem logo lower down the cover this time. This time Duke is aiming a gun right at us. The background still looks to be of a atomic explosion. The scenery looks to be of a curved building.

There were several other games that used the Duke Nukem license such as games on the Nintendo Gameboy and other console games. However most Duke purists would probably discount these and actually say that the next "proper" Duke Nukem game was Duke Nukem Forever......although a lot of fans refuse to acknowledge this game either!

Duke Nukem Forever - a game 13 years in the making!!!!! It couldn't possibly live up to 13 years of expectation from fans of the series and upon release was largely panned by game critics and gamers alike. 

The game that I am looking to promote is the game for fans of the original games and to try and remove the bad taste left from Duke Nukem Forever, hence a return to the "old school" stlye of packaging and art. 

However it is still good to see several staples are still there, the Duke Logo is still the same yellow although the concrete effect seems to have been removed somewhat. The 18 BBFC certificate is still there. This is actually pretty important for the promotion of the game so I will be putting the 18 classification quite prominently on my DVD inlay. Probably the front back and spine. 

We still have a big picture of Duke Nukem on the front and a large pistol similar to Duke Nukem Time To Kill. Doom is looking down again although from a different perspective to the first box art in Duke 3D. It is a close perspective picture like the Time To Kill artwork. In the first two box arts we see Duke grimacing but in this one he is smiling, possibly the feminine hand reaching around from behind him has something to do with it.... The background is still a large atomic explosion and the ensuing mushroom cloud plus there is also some neon signs of girls. The first part of the game is set in Las Vegas where Duke Nukem is supposed to reside so I believe that the scenery is supposed to depict that. On the other side it appears to show some aliens. 

On the back similarly to Doom 3 we have 3 screenshots and then some descriptive text beside them plus a attention focusing large type slogan at the top. 

Below that is the legal info, barcode, logo's and I'll be adding min and recommended specifications to comply with modern day packaging and match what I would want to see on a game inlay.

After this look at Duke Nukem box art the main things I take away is the Duke Nukem logo needing to be prominent on the front cover, along with a picture of Duke himself. The 18 classification should also be here. 

Then the spine will be the game name,"Doom VS Duke Nukem" plus the 18 certificate. The back will probably be some attention grabbing text at the top, 3 screenshots somewhere below that with some extra descriptive text to the side of these. Then below that I will have the legal stuff, classification again, barcode, system requirements, logo's and possibly a warning of some sort if there is any left over space.

References:

The images used in this blog can be found at the following web addresses in order they appear in my blog.

1. http://i.ebayimg.com/t/The-Ultimate-Doom-PC-Big-box-floppy-disk-version-VGC-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/xzIAAMXQiNdReYxb/$%28KGrHqVHJEwFFy,lgeEwBReY%29,wSl!~~60_35.JPG
2. http://pics.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1244329684-00.jpg
3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Doom_cover_art.jpg
4. http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_small/0/347/262038-finaldoom_cover.jpg
5. http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs22/i/2007/329/d/5/Custom_Doom_2_DVD_Cover_by_Harrison_H.jpg
6. http://www.dvd-covers.org/d/311628-2/Doom_3_BFG_Edition_DVD_NTSC_f.jpg
7. http://www.theoldcomputer.com/game-box-art-covers/Sega/Saturn/D/Duke%20Nukem%203D%20%28E%29/Duke%20Nukem%203D%20%28E%29%20Front%2BBack.jpg
8. http://www.emuparadise.me/PSX/Covers/Duke%20Nukem%20-%20Time%20to%20Kill%20%5BU%5D%20%5BSLUS-00583%5D-front.jpg
9. http://www.covershut.com/covers/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Front-Cover-54925.jpg