HEAD BLOG

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.