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Official LSL Box Art Contest (e-tailers)!

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Total Posts: 78

Joined 2005-12-09

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MoP - 15 May 2013 08:04 PM
Gonchi - 15 May 2013 10:16 AM

Wow. I know it sounds really mean, but I’m glad I didn’t pledge for a boxed copy, that art is just awful. Second one is better, but I’m not particularly thrilled by it either.

Wait, I thought this was just for the e-tailers? Oy, if that’s indeed going to be it… I’m gonna have to hide this ugly duck in a dark, lonely corner somewhere. Not exactly what I had in mind.  Meh

Oh, I don’t know, maybe this is for the electronic stores only. Sorry, I haven’t been following LSL:R too closely for a while.

     
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Gonchi - 15 May 2013 10:16 AM

Wow. I know it sounds really mean, but I’m glad I didn’t pledge for a boxed copy, that art is just awful. Second one is better, but I’m not particularly thrilled by it either.

Actually, the collector’s box is worse. Here is the art used for it:

It was never revealed directly to backers for feedback. When some people saw this art being used for promotional material, people expressed disappointment at how bad it was. See here: https://forums.replaygamesinc.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=881

The cheap-looking art Replay has been using to promote the game was also discussed. See below for the banner art they have on Steam, Amazon, their official site and elsewhere:

This discussion seemed to lead to a contest in order to give the game suitable promotional art. Josh Mandel commented in the above linked thread. He never seemed happy about the contest or the criticism the box generated. It seemed he announced the contest reluctantly, though that was just my impression. Entrants were given about a week and no direction about what Replay wanted. One of the most persuasive (and always respectful) critics of the above art was the artist TAHR, whose entry I posted earlier. I think his work is terrific.

The winner was recently announced, and it was Tom King, an artist who worked on the bad collector’s box that led to this whole contest in the first place. So, a very crappy cover art was replaced with less crappy cover by the same artist who had contributed to the collector’s box. This was despite having better art to select from. The way it all played out and the choice of winner left a bad taste in my mouth. I think they resented the criticism at the beginning or didn’t think using bad art to market the game was anything but a “peripheral” issue, sadly. Josh Mandel is a genius at game writing (and is the person I consider THE best at these kinds of games, FYI), but I question his promotional art selections. Even with a small budget, I think they could have wound up with better promotional art.

This is probably more than most wanted to know, but I think it’s interesting to follow and shows things that can be learned by other campaigns. I think it shows the importance of revealing art early to backers for feedback. Also shows the potential usefulness of such contests to generate great art, save money, get backers engaged, etc. Seems like a great option for smaller-budget games… provided they give entrants enough time and give them feedback and direction.

It would be great to see more of the Larry fans here over at the Replay forums. There are a lot of adventure game fans here with lots of great knowledge. I think they need a Lambonius type over there who isn’t afraid to stir things up and set people straight. He’s one of my favorite posters here because he makes good points and adds a spark to the discussions. Better than having only sycophants post at a company’s forum.

     
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TimovieMan - 15 May 2013 02:21 PM
tomimt - 15 May 2013 01:23 PM

On the bright side, the art could be much worse.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-6-roger-wilco-in-the-spinal-frontier/cover-art/gameCoverId,221/

If you think that Roger Wilco one is bad, then you forgot about *this* monstrosity… Wink

Both Larry box covers are great compared to that one…

LOL. That is so awful. I thought marketing was supposed to attract interest, not make you want to turn away in disgust and horror. Definitely one of those “what were they thinking?” moments.

     
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The background in the original box is actually very well done, it’s just that the characters in the foreground don’t fit in at all. And Larry looks like he has jaundice.

Biggest issue I got with the original artwork could be fixed by having painted Larry and the Girl with the same style the background is. Now they feel over brushed and clash with the rest of the picture, making it look like amateurish.

I shopped the original picture a bit, you decide if it’s better or not, but for a 15 minutes Photoshop job I do dare to say it looks a bit better. Original on the left, my edit on the right.

     

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Thanks for the rundown Quest1, didn’t have the time to keep up with the development of the various KS projects lately. That original cover that You say will go on the actual box looks a bit better to me (bleh, uppon closer inspection, not really), but still a far cry from what could’ve been (or I was imagining/expecting… was hoping to be reminded of something like this, instead it’s more like this).
What a wasted opportunity for a beautiful keepsake.

To be honest, the BigBoxes are/were the major draw for me to back at the ‘higher but not yet crazy’ levels, even though that’s way over my budget normally anyway. As shallow as it may sound, this’ll make me think twice or thrice before going that road again. So maybe that’s the good thing that came out of this Tongue

Oh well, enough whining, can’t really complain as I haven’t been paying attention. Can’t help but feel disappointed though, really regretting spending that amount. Hopefully the game itself will more than make up for the packaging. Thanks again for info.

tomimt - 16 May 2013 07:07 AM

I shopped the original picture a bit, you decide if it’s better or not, but for a 15 minutes Photoshop job I do dare to say it looks a bit better. Original on the left, my edit on the right.

The image isn’t showing up, seems like that’s some private/restricted url?
Edit: Fixed now. Yeah, at least Larry doesn’t look ill and his skin color doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb. But… now I wish i hadn’t seen it this bit bigger Crazy

     
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Oof.  Yeah, the box art for this isn’t the greatest.

Bt

     
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Tomimt, your edits do improve things (and show what just a tiny bit more work could have done), but I think the problem is that Larry is not drawn very well. The drawing, combined with the generic Broderbund Printshop-esque logo, scream “cheap” to me. It looks like amateurish fan art or like a fake Disney knockoff DVD cover. No offense to the artist, who I’m sure is great. Maybe they were just having an off day.

I don’t understand how anyone at Replay could have looked at this and said, “love it!” ... It just doesn’t seem worthy of representing an official LSL cover. I think once the criticism started coming in about the logo (and the cover, though the cover was never revealed directly to backers), there was more of a stubborn insistence on not giving in to calls for changes more than there was a true inability (in terms of time, budget) to improve the art; after all, your own edits show what could have been done at next to no expense. Also, an artist on the Replay forum offered examples of small tweaks to the drawing that improved the appearance considerably. I think the stubbornness also came into play when selecting, as the winner of the contest, an artist who had worked on the original collector’s box. One of the contest entrants could draw Larry so well and was basically offering his services in the form of a contest entry. It seemed like they had this great opportunity to get high quality art from this person, but they ended up looking the gift horse in the mouth. It was like, “we’ll stick with our same artist and won’t be told what to do, thank you very much.” Can anyone say with a straight face that the winning entry was the best? Anyway, this is just my impression. I haven’t read many recent posts on the Replay forum in the last week, so maybe this has all been explained differently and maybe I have missed recent developments.

     

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It could have been worse:

     

Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale

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diego - 17 May 2013 09:09 AM

It could have been worse:

Haha, very true. That pic also raises am issue I had been wondering about. Of course, I am talking about the issue of nipple protrusion. I hope asking this doesn’t undercut all the other points I made earlier. I was genuinely wondering about this, and I don’t bring it up for prurient reasons. I’m curious why it seems like none of the new in-game Larry Reloaded girls have any visible nipple protrusion through their clothing, when such a characteristic was a staple of the original Larry girls’ appearance? Seems like a conscious decision. See attachments for examples. I thought it made them look sexier. Again, I’m being totally serious here. By the way, this issue really doesn’t relate to the problems with the collector’s art shown above, and not even some visible nipple protrusion could have saved that art.

     

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tomimt - 17 May 2013 09:43 AM

This is par none the most horrible take on Larry ever created: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/screenshots/gameShotId,362238/

That’s how I imagine Advie looking like. Don’t insult the poor guy Grin

     
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You know, that 1987 Magenta-Day-Glo-80’s masterpiece box art looks like a Rembrandt compared to this stuff.  I think a pastiche on that would have been fun.


Bt

     

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