Awesome Adventures- Cover Art HELP!

[Willow]

Here's my cover art as it stands currently:  http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/cover3.JPG

(It looks better in an image program, without the white background of the cover on the white background of the browser.)

I love the art that Caroline Berg did for the game, but my design skills are... minimal, to put it favorably.  What can I do to spice things up?

[Selene Tan]

I don't have that much graphic design experience, but a couple of things stand out to me:
- The bottom two images don't look like they belong there. The title, ensemble shot, and credit look together like the front cover of a book, but then there's random stuff on the bottom.
- The font doesn't scream "Awesome" to me. Is that Arial?

Anyway, I had some free time and felt like being silly, so I came up with this. I thought the ensemble shot wasn't action-y enough to really convey Awesome, so I used the drawing of the guy jumping out the window.

[Ken]

Hi Willow-

I'm afraid I don't have the time to actual work out a rough like Selene, but I will give you a few opinions about making the cover a bit more dynamic.

1)  I agree with Selene on the font; not very adventurous. Something bolder and more imposing may better fit the bill here. It should be as much of a character on your cover as the adventurers pictured there.
2) The pyramid style alignment for you action scenes kind of drains the energy out of the cover. I would suggest moving the window guy to the top left, and then lead the eye straight down across the other images diagonally. Does that make sense without a visual rerpresentation?
3) Dividers between scenes may also help. Again dynamic diagonal lines.
4) Even if your cover is black and white, some gray tones to the background could help give the cover some dimension and eat up all of that white space. I think action just kind of bleeds out of these empty spaces.
5) The middle character portrait doesn't seem to fit the other two pictures. I would change this to something with more action; like having them firing their sci-fi weapons off panel to an unseen foe; space ships battling in the distance. THAT would be a big change, but hey these are all just suggestions.

I'm old-school graphic design (which really just means that when I was in school, we didn't use computers), and believe in leading the eye intentionally with visual elements. I'm getting that your game is multi-genre and action-packed; so your cover should be too. I have a personal dislike of empty space unless it is intentional (and even then, only if it helps the overall design). You can check out the cover samples at my Ten-Cent Heroes blog to see my work.

I hope that helps. If any of it unclear, let me know. The changes wouldn't take long in InDesign using what you already have here; probably a half hour to make it look sharp.

Good Luck,

Ken

[Willow]

This is great advice, and just what I needed to hear.  Unfortunately, the ensemble look wasn't working, and you guys told me why.

So I came up with a new design, in two different variants, with the position of the title slightly different.

Is this better?  Which title position looks better?  Is there still too much whitespace?  Is the font punchy enough?

http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/cover5.JPG
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/cover6.JPG

[MKAdams]

Hey Willow, I emailed you a cover idea a few days ago.  Did you get it?  Here it is if you didn't:

[Ken]

Willow-

Much better. Out of the two options, I like the second. I really like MK's take of the logo. Diagonal is good and it eats up that empty space a bit better. Its very dynamic.

Looks like you're on the right track; keep it up!

Ken

[Clinton R. Nixon]

MK's take is very nice. The picture in the bottom right corner is possibly the most awesome adventure I can imagine. That is some hardcore axe reaving.