HEAD BLOG

The beautiful thing about working with video games is the sheer range of subjects you get to cover. One minute you are working on a sci-fi game and the next you are producing visuals for a cookery app. “Normal” agencies don’t get to flit around the product gamut as we do. It means that even though some companies see as as “specialist” others see the experience that we bring.

So when MBN Events came knocking we were pleased to put on our Sport Billy hat and begin producing the kind of exciting visuals that have helped sell games for UEFA, WWE, Race Pro and many other titles that in a normal world would take all the energies of top agencies.

Head First approach work in the same way, regardless of client size. We take a look at the consumer market in which such products rest and create imagery and ideas that measure up to the standard of quality expected whilst also standing out in terms of recognisable identity. Again, coming from the video game industry where every (for example) war game can look the same we have found that being distinctive can make all the difference.

For MBN we have begun producing high quality visuals to continue their already high quality approach for both print and video.

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We’ve been following the series of articles about cover art over at Kotaku very closely indeed. Here at Head First we understand that cover art is a vital part of the marketing mix. For some games it is the only form of advertising a game will get and so conveying the right degree of quality and content is essential.

It’s not, of course, the last word. The under-discussed back of box is an area that serves a vitaly important role in helping consumers decide whether or not the game is for them (and this goes for pretty much any related product subject to the whims of casual browsing – books, films especially).

If you’ve not read our ‘hilarious’ take on the process of buying games then you can catch up here.

Right. The laughs are dying down and it’s time to outline a few of the reasons why the back of box is so important.

It’s estimated that 40% of purchases are impulse. That’s a pretty big chunk of people deciding right there and then to buy a game. They could be gamers who have a vague idea of the sort of game they are looking for or they could be Ma and Pa, looking to buy a game because little Johnny has eaten his peas.

Now that’s a pretty diverse audience right there but let’s assume they have all missed your advertising campaign, or at least that it’s not the influencing factor. Price and packaging are key factors in this (showing how a proper sales strategy – something games don’t do that well – and cover art is important).

It’s the back of pack that is interesting because that can make a real difference here. Ma and Pa may well be looking for cover art that resembles what they’ve seen before so they will be drawn to “that sort of thing”. That means they will be picking up the box and taking a closer look. They need to be impressed and convinced that the game will be right.

The back of box can do this by being impressive and by being clear as to its message. Great visuals will give an idea of what the game will look like but how do you go about doing that? Is one big screenshot better than five smaller ones? One might be impressive but five smaller ones might give a better impression of the varied gameplay. Then again, five smaller screens might get lost in translation as the detail becomes too small to make out so maybe you opt for a montage of screens to make, in essence, a new piece of cover art derived completely from the game itself.

Or maybe you get brave and decide that your screenshots look pretty much the same as those of the competitor. That’s not an unreasonable stance to take. Nor is it anything to be ashamed of. The quality of games these days is remarkable. Having something “just” as good as the competitor isn’t bad, it’s “just as good”. And even if it is only marginally better – is that really noticeable in the screenshots or do the elements that make it better come across during your involvement?

In which instance you can see a strong case for doing something different on the back of box. Making an argument, or a claim – “Makes Modern Warfare 2 Look Like Jet Set Willy” you might opt for over a simpler image just to show that your visuals are amazing too.

There’s no correct route.

The decisions made when designing the back of box art depend on all the questions, all the intended audience data and the ultimate goal of the publisher.

Ok, so your customer has seen the ad you placed in obscure.weekly, made the effort to view your clever viral email featuring the talking monkey, wandered over to view the game trailer and then waited for two hours in order to get a bus into the city centre where they rushed into the nearest video game store and began hunting for the dazzling box art they have now committed to memory thanks to it featuring heavily on all your communications. You couldn’t afford to wallpaper the store with it but that’s ok, your customer knows what to look for thanks to a bit of clever wordplay on the ads. Copywriting, as we all know, is the ONLY thing that matters when it comes to marketing.

After ten minutes rearranging the stock on the shelf so that the first letter of each game now spells out a pretty rude word followed by “lol”, your customer has the box in his hands.

Life is good. Close this one sale through the power of marketing and you’re on your way to LA and the big time. Screw the PR, this was all your doing.

But wait. Is that a wobble? Is that doubt creeping into the customer’s mind? It’s been a few hours since he last connected to the Internet and, well, attention spans aren’t what they used to be. Times gone by would see us retaining information from before conception but these days we’re lucky if we remember what we lol’d about on our last Facebook update let alone what game we were about to buy.

Hang on. Where was I?

Oh yes, thank god for Outlook tasks.

He has the box but there’s a wobble. The pack next to yours, by chance of titling and the newly arranged order of things alone, has a pretty similar looking design. The competition’s robot looks even shinier though. And it has a woman standing next to it. Damn, why didn’t you think of that? You have women in your game and the lack of a shiny robot was SUPPOSED to convey the intensity of the battle. You really dropped the ball on that decision didn’t you? Two robots, one battle scarred and one shiny might have done the trick.

So what have you got up your sleeve to nudge the customer in the right direction? In your direction? There has to be something? Online advertising won’t work here. The POS is only being displayed in Bulgaria and the store manager, well, you’ll sort him out once the sequel to last year’s mostly successful game comes out. Then he’ll learn what purchasing power means.

At least the customer is still holding your pack. That’s something isn’t it? If he’s not distracted anytime in the next five seconds then chances are his eyes will get back to it. They have to at some point in order to successfully put it down. You factored for that right? Replacing packaging on the shelf can be a pivotal purchasing moment.

It’s not looking good. Although… that, there. Is that a twist of the hand? Yes. It is. The customer is flipping your game over and looking at the BACK OF PACK. Oh beautiful. This is where you’re home and dry. This is where 80% of your budget went because you knew that this is the meat of the matter. If cover art is the brawn then back art is the brains. And nobody marries the brawn. Right?

Let’s move on.

On the back you’ve thought about the information. Properly. This is where the customer begins to consume information. This is where they learn that there are TWO robots and ONE woman in the game. That’s good. He likes robots but couldn’t deal with more than one woman in a game. It’s not a game for girls.

You’ve thought of the three best features in the game and explained them v e r y  c l e a r l y in 4 words or less. You’ve added every variation of screenshot to make sure he knows that there are different terrains, different enemies, multiplayer, single player, puzzle solving, action sequences, storytelling, customisation, personalisation, social networking features, voice activated missile silos, dressing up sections (in armour because this isn’t, y’know, a girl’s game), rollercoaster high adrenaline, face shaking, ball shrinking, horror comedy tragedy grandparent friendly motiondetectingdancecrazysingtillyourvoicebreaksthen come-out-fighting-with-the-girl-on-your-arm-and-the-robots-beneath-your-personally-selected-boots gameplay.

Yep. When it comes to weaving a compelling argument around that back of pack we can safely say you’ve covered every base.

Hold on a minute. He’s put it down. He was only pretending to look at the game whilst he checked out the cute girl choosing her PS3 game in the aisle opposite.

Didn’t think of THAT now did you?

Working with the new breed of developer publisher has been an exciting challenge. In a world of digital downloads how are you going to make your product stand out? Do you confine your promotions solely to the online world or do you learn from companies such as Google and utilise the power of old media and the attention it still attracts?

At Head First we ask all of these questions and help shape the creative campaign to suit the product and the client. With The Mysteries of Little Riddle we have been lucky enough to bring our skills to this issue and create a series of images that are sales focussed.

And luckily there is still great fun to be had in creating real world objects.

The issue of how to create exciting packaging is one that comes up, from time to time, here at Head First. As one of the leading agencies responsible for creating the “look” of video games we wrestle with what, exactly constitutes good packaging.

Of course this is nothing unique to video games. Designers of every discipline struggle with this one and there are many answers. For us it’s a balance between creating an aesthetically pleasing image and ensuring that it serves its primary purpose – getting noticed. If it came down to laying down cover art with a big star and the words “contains cheaper thrills than Halo” then as long as we were convinced it would help sell more units we’d probably propose it. We might have to weep silently into our pillows at night or silence the artist within but we’d have to admit that advertising & design has a job to do. Aesthetics is just one part of that job.

So when this article appeared over on Kotaku it got us talking.

Without a doubt the European packaging is pretty cool. It’s intriguing stuff that draws you in.

Then there is the Japanese version; different approach but still intriguing. Kotaku don’t seem terribly impressed but that’s where these sort of appraisals start to blur. Where does prior knowledge of a game begin to inform and even pollute opinion of what makes packaging effective?

And finally, the US packaging. Despised, it seems, by all – an opinion not difficult to fall in line with all things considered.

But why is the intriguing style of the European art “better” than that of the US? Is it more effective because it’s more stylish?

These are questions which can only really be answered with hindsight but there are things to consider.

Target market. Is the European target market more sophisticated? Will they be likely to respond positively to the neat, origami style and subtle blood stain?

Is the US audience just looking for a pack that says action, and team based action at that? I can’t say that the posing of the characters or their rendering conveys what I think the designers were hoping for (but there will be many reasons why that is so let’s not blame any individual for that) but it is clear that a specific genre is being sold to the viewer.

Placement. Is the pack going into retail stores or online? Often cover art will be produced with the player in mind. But they won’t always be the person who is actually buying the game. In-store purchases can be made by mums, dads, grandparents or any number of “well-meaning” people. The way they choose a game will be vastly different to the way in which the gamer will choose one. Books are a great model for this. Look at the number of books that reflect the style of the Harry Potter books (and then look at the different covers available for Harry Potter). Publishers understand that people who buy books will sometimes look for something “in the style of”.

Maybe that’s what the US publishers of Heavy Rain were going for. Maybe they knew that the gamers would buy the game because they’d read about it online, seen the trailers and experienced, firsthand, the hype. So maybe the packaging was simply an attempt to tell Mum that here is a game of the style she has seen lying beneath a pile of boxer shorts on her son’s bedroom floor. Mum won’t know that it’s a great game or a poor game (unless there are clear stars on there saying “contains cheaper thrills than Halo”) so she’ll be looking for a gift that shows she knows him.

And that can mean playing it safe and sticking to styles she’s seen before.

Nothing wrong with that.

If anything it says more about the wider state of packaging video games than it does the choices made for Heavy Rain. Line up all the different World War II games and judge which one stands out (you’d be picking ours for Brothers In Arms of course).

But even when all packaging follows a certain style it still has to stand out and get noticed. It needs something that is louder, more colourful, sexier, than the rest of the pack.

In the end it comes down to creating packaging for a purpose – and knowing what that purpose is, being honest about it and identifying the real target market – not for the game but for the packaging.

We’re back on the sizzle today following a discussion about Scott Adams. Not the creator of Dilbert but the designer of video games from the early days. Read more…

There’s been a lot of talk over the years about the death of print. Newspapers have been terrified by it and, in turns, avoid, deny and confront the possibility. Video games seem to be moving away from it, lured by the sultry promises of online advertising and smooth online deliveries through systems such as Steam. Apple have made digital delivery a reality with the App Store and we have all seen, and perhaps experienced, the ease with which new software can be obtained, bypassing the traditional bricks and mortar distribution channels.

There’s little point denying it or fighting it. The future of print and boxed product has changed radically. Read more…

Play MotoGP

A project that went live recently was www.playmotogp.com and it’s a sweet one.

Taking its cue from the key art and advertising campaign we produced, the website is a repository for information about the game. And what a game it is shaping up to be. Our trailer (featured on the site) gives you the first, early glimpse of just how radical the game will be. All the realism you’d expect from a licence that prides itself as being the fastest bike event in the world but with the kind of game development thinking that makes these sorts of products stand out from the competition. And let’s face it, there’s plenty of pretty excellent competition out there. Read more…

Nobody likes a committee. Creatives and critics alike unite to condemn work created by committee. You know the sort of work: it starts off “great” and then gets passed around by the client, first to team members who make their changes, then to the colleague in accounting who is supposed to represent the impartial purchaser or end user. Finally the work gets passed upstairs, to the first boss who repeats the process before handing it further up the chain. The work gets watered down, altered beyond recognition and marked with ideas that were never intended. Nobody likes a committee. Read more…

Would you hire an architect on the strength of his ability to use AutoCad? Wouldn’t you want to know he’d been trained in the principles of architecture, in the bricks and mortar of practical design as well as aesthetics? Your safety, as well as your ego, would be at stake if you hired the architect who could draw pretty but didn’t understand the forces involved in realising his dream. Read more…