Kotaku had an interesting showcase a few days ago, about video game box art from Psygnosis (nowadays known as Sony Studio Liverpool). You can find it here.
I remember the 80s and 90s in terms of console and computer (Amiga/PC) box art. While consoles generally had somewhat lesser quality, with a ton of Mega Man (now legendary for it’s horrible lack of quality) for every Gradius, due in part to the branding on the boxes, on computers the situation was a bit different.
I miss the big boxes of old, with their attractive, eye-catching look and size. When you looked at the boxes for games like Flashback, Another World, Dune II, Shadow of the Beast, or Beneath a Steel Sky, you were immediately transported to amazing, eerie alien worlds or captured by the iconic visuals. And since the in-game graphics at the time were limited, you projected that art using your imagination, making up for what the graphics lacked. There was a child-like sense of wonder there, one which hasn’t gone missing from me personally, but has disappeared from most of the market. Nowadays most boxes consist of realistic depictions of the main character, boobs, and violence.
The identity that Psygnosis went for in those days was fantastic, a Heavy Metal / 2000AD kind of look which just transported you away from the mundane, and into the fantastic.
I wanted to post this so everyone can take a glimpse into game art of old, and be inspired to be more creative in the future and break away from the current trends. Again, here is the link to the article, and the resource from where most of those pictures come from (which includes many more).
Influence Map_2010
Picked up on the Influence Map thing that’s going around deviantART, it’s pretty cool to see what inspires other artists.
Here’s my 2010 influence map, there’s other stuff that is missing here, but at the moment these are particularly inspirational for me and my current project. In fact, most of these are the main references for the project.
Influence Map_2010 by *Gridlinked on deviantART