Incline Favorite cRPG cover art/boxart/promo art

[d1nolore]

If only some of these games were as good as their cover art

 

[Strig]

If only some of these games were as good as their cover art

And now most top-shelf games are exactly as good as their cover art. And "good" is really not the right word because they're rubbish. So are we better off for it?

 

[Rincewind]

Betrayal at Krondor

This Krondor cover painting is really really good artistically. Probably my favourite from the whole thread.

 

[Strig]

This Krondor cover painting is really really good artistically. Probably my favourite from the whole thread.

Definitely one of the highlights in the thread. It's not only a great painting but also an outstanding design. There's a reason that makes the composition so pleasant to gawk at, the obvious technique mastery and talent notwithstanding. And yes, I know that the Fibonacci spiral and the golden ratio are "maymays" by this point, but there's still a good basis for it.

 

[Rincewind]

And yes, I know that the Fibonacci spiral and the golden ratio are "maymays" by this point, but there's still a good basis for it.

Can't speak for other artists, but I'm finding that when I produce a photograph that's pleasing to look at, I can recognise all the usual suspects after the fact (golden ratio, leading lines, foreground and background layers, etc). So I suspect it has always been instinctual for most artists before people started to analyse it.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Some Amiga-original RPGs:

 

[Zlaja]

This should have been the cover instead of that stupid elf chick:

 

[Falksi]

Just noticed Jerry Bingham's artwork featured on a cover of Dragon magazine.....

 

[unseeingeye]

Some Amiga-original RPGs:

Awesome! The Amiga had several very good RPGs and even the dullest of games tended to have remarkable box art. I've not gotten around to trying the Captive games yet but have them in my personal collection and am looking forward to them.

 

[Decado]

This is probably not true, but it feels true: there were more RPGs around back then, even though most of them were not very good.

 

[unseeingeye]

Almost forgot about this classic. It may well be my all-time favorite video game cover.

 

[demoman]

Another Lovely Game from 1989 with art by Chris Achilleos.

and as a bonus lemme once more plug it's soundtrack that I freaking love (starts at around 00:25)

 

[unseeingeye]

I know it was already shared, and I mentioned how I've told my daughter that the dragon looks like our Boston Terrier, but I wanted to share a photo of my boxed copy of Dragon Wars for the Amiga.

I just adopted two kittens over the weekend, so during the past two days my dog has been perpetually stuck in the dragons position, locked in a stand off with the male cat.

 

[Atlantico]

Ten bucks says DraQ already masturbated over that image.

 

[curds]

Might & Magic Japanese covers:

Daggerfall. IRL this cover is holographic so it looks even cooler.

Gothic 2:

 

[Falksi]

Jaz just Tweeted this fantastic '82 cover from C&VG.........

 

[luj1]

The Fountain of Dreams

definitely

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Jaz just Tweeted this fantastic '82 cover from C&VG.........

Frankly, you could make another topic on the subject with magazine covers. The ones that had special covers drawn for them are almost always did something coo. Amiga Joker is one of my favorites, even though my German is terrible. They also tended to have a good head on them when it came to reviewing games.

 

[Contagium]

Not a great cover or a great game, but it was the first PC game I bought after our first family PC arrived. So, nostalgia

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Now why isn't that on Gog? And 1-5?

 

[ItsChon]

There is something beautiful and enchanting about this 70's-90's style of art, whether it's used for video game covers, novel covers, or anything else. 10x better than the bullshit that's being pumped out now. I'd love to see more artists getting commissioned for novels or games to add some much needed flavor, as well as just giving people like this income so that they can provide for themselves and keep giving us such amazing things to look at.

 

[Jason Liang]

My favorite video game cover - it's in its own tier~

It was so good that 22 years later AliceSoft homaged it for the final game of the series:

 

[Bastardchops]

Freelancer isn't a cRPG but I bought it in my teens in part due to the box art.

 

[Kruyurk]

Today GOG spammed me yet another mail to sell me something, but this time the cover art caught my eye. The game is Witchaven, a FPS from 1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchaven.

At first I thought the artist could be Frazetta, thinking the character was Death Dealer. But achtually the painter is named Ken Kelly. Wait a minute, I know this name. So I check on Wikipedia and, yes the Ken Kelly that did the cover art for the amazing Rising album from Rainbow! I highly recommend to listen to it, and the first Rainbow album aswell. Both top tier albums. Rising has the amazing Stargazer, a song that I listened countless times yet it still gives me the chill everytime. The Temple Of The King on the first album is also one of my favorite songs. Truely evocative songs, powerful, flawless. Master musicians and Ronnie James Dio at his best.
Ken Kelly also did two covers for Kiss, Destroyer and Love Gun. And a lot of Manowar covers that are rather nice (but I don't like Manowar, expect a few songs).

And his Wikipedia page says he died just a month ago... on June 3rd
Rainbow's music is so dear to me, it made me sad to learn of his passing.
RIP Ken Kelly

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Spellforce ones.