Boxshot

[Silvernite]

[quote name='H

[Enoch]

People really care what the box looks like?

 

I mean, I could understand it affecting casual players browsing through the aisles at Best Buy, but we're all here participating in the developer's online forums. I say let Sega/Obsidz do whatever they want on the cover, if they think it'll help the game sell. I'd rather discuss the game than the marketing.

[Oner]

People really care what the box looks like?

 

I mean, I could understand it affecting casual players browsing through the aisles at Best Buy, but we're all here participating in the developer's online forums. I say let Sega/Obsidz do whatever they want on the cover, if they think it'll help the game sell. I'd rather discuss the game than the marketing.

If everyone on the forum would call it ugly, you'd get a pretty clear picture how "inspiring" it will be for casual buyers.

[Wrath of Dagon]

People really care what the box looks like?

 

I mean, I could understand it affecting casual players browsing through the aisles at Best Buy, but we're all here participating in the developer's online forums. I say let Sega/Obsidz do whatever they want on the cover, if they think it'll help the game sell. I'd rather discuss the game than the marketing.

We want the game to sell well, and I don't see how the cover will help that. Remember that for a lot of people, the cover will be all they know about the game.

 

And Morgoth's version is better, at least it would catch someone's eye while the official one wouldn't, plus boobs!

[Oner]

And Morgoth's version is better, at least it would catch someone's eye while the official one wouldn't, plus boobs!

I find it too cheesy.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I'm not suggesting they go with that one specifically, but at least it's an improvement.

[Oner]

Imo it screams 'spy parody', and I wouldn't call that an improvement.

[Morgoth]

I thought Alpha Protocol is a spy parody!

 

Matthew! Josh! Say it is so!

[Wrath of Dagon]

It's certainly turned into one. The cover needs to be cool, like the Kotor 2 cover, that one really stood out. This one will get drowned in a sea of 100 other generic box covers.

[Zoma]

My fanmade Boxart.

 

 

Forget to add a line: MICHAEL BAY PRESENTS:

[Oner]

On a side note, how about pepping up the marketing with Marilyn Manson's The Death Song?

It has two lines in particular that would greatly reflect the moral ambiguity of Alpha Protocol. Namely:

 

I saw a cop beat a priest on the TV, and they know they killed our heroes too

and

I saw priest kill a cop on the TV, and i know now they're our heroes too

 

Don't you agree? I think it's a really good idea.

 

just kidding of course

 

[SirPetrakus]

[quote name='H

[jjc]

I think I was five years old the first and only time I bought a game based on what the box looked like. I honestly doubt that anyone who thinks box art is a deal breaker in a purchase would even know what the acronym "RPG" means in this context.

[Purkake]

I actually like it. It looks like a spy game and isn't all plastered with explosions and chicks.

 

Just you against the world.

[Tigranes]

Pretty average. Nobody on this forum will really care, yeah, but is this cover really going to have random people pick it up in the store? Well... I guess the phrase 'espionage RPG' might.

 

It's not bad enough to drive away sales, though - you can't beat Torment for that.

[Slowtrain]

[Forget to add a line: MICHAEL BAY PRESENTS:

 

 

lol. ZOma wins.

 

Needs more explosions though.

[Pop]

It speaks to the average forumite intelligence on this forum that people are assuming from the outset that the person on the cover is Thorton.

 

Are you all retarded? It says The Espionage RPG on the cover and you're assuming the guy in shadow with a scar on his face is the ****ing protagonist? Really? Jesus Christ. I was expecting people to at least have knowledge of basic James Bond conventions. This is just embarrassing.

 

That having been said, the art is very reminiscent of the Bourne film posters in their color scheme, with a little more Bond-esque "mystery" thrown in, which is just as well.

Edited July 3, 2009 by Pop

[Deraldin]

I think I was five years old the first and only time I bought a game based on what the box looked like. I honestly doubt that anyone who thinks box art is a deal breaker in a purchase would even know what the acronym "RPG" means in this context.

 

I know that it's what kept me from picking up Torment. I remember walking into the store wanting to try something other than my usual RTS games and looked over the wall of RPGs. Fallout, Torment, Baldur's Gate and various other games. Fallout ended up being a no go because it was on the top shelf and I could reach it. Torment was put back because the box art really turned me off the game.

 

I think you'd be surprised how big an effect the box art can have on sales. It won't stop people that know what the game is about, but it could kill impulse buys among the uninformed, which let's face it are a much large section of the game buying public than we are.

[Pop]

I think the cover art is intriguing enough to rope in impulse buyers. Genre games have to display certain elements to grab undiscriminating potential consumers - for action games and action-RPGs, it's people (the protagonist or an enemy) brandishing weapons threateningly. For strategy games, it's military units, probably of different types, portrayed working in tandem. The use of shadow in the cover hints at a stealth component and/or a mystery.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I don't see the problem. The cover art is pretty intriguing, actually.

[mkreku]

Someone in the art department has a fetish for huge, manly chins, that's for sure.

[jjc]

I think you'd be surprised how big an effect the box art can have on sales. It won't stop people that know what the game is about, but it could kill impulse buys among the uninformed, which let's face it are a much large section of the game buying public than we are.

It used to take magazine subscriptions to keep informed on upcoming game releases. Now you're a couple seconds on Google away from a release calendar for the next several months and profiles on the games, developers, and publishers therein. I'm not denying that there are people who'll pass over a game because they don't like the box, I'm saying that trying to predict and manipulate what those people will actually respond to will drag you into profoundly weird territory: high-level Cola Wars sorcery.

 

The AP cover here looks informative enough in that it evokes Bourne or any of the other spy stuff from this decade. Someone might see it and think "I like this genre of fiction, I did not know there would be an RPG of this kind. I MUST INVESTIGATE THIS." If anything stands out, it's the glowing text in the middle with the title and the "RPG" description. I don't know how you would visually depict the idea that it's an RPG, apart from pinning a character sheet to Thornton's back and showing him machine gunning a group of thugs who are bleeding negative red HP floats. Going with a subdued image in the hopes that people will focus on the words seems like a reasonable decision.

 

There was clearly a thought process behind this. This isn't the Planescape: Torment cover, which communicates that "the blue man is angry."

[213374U]

[quote name='H

[Morgoth]

What Agent uses two guns in a sneaking mission anyway? John Woo style does not apply to undercover operative.

[Oner]

What Agent uses two guns in a sneaking mission anyway? John Woo style does not apply to undercover operative.

In Hollywood, everything applies to everything.