Game Art in Hosted Games

[dwsnee]

I’m reaching out to a few folks to commission cover art and an icon for my HG. It’s, perhaps, premature for my state of progress, but I’m thinking I should give the artist runway. Plus, I think it would encourage me to be able to look at. Some questions:

1. I know the functionality is included for images in a Hosted Game. However, I’ve played twenty or so HG/CoG and can’t recall seeing, say character portraits in a HG. I really enjoyed the ones Amy Wilkins did for VtM: Night Road. TL;DR: can I use art in my HG? Is there an example of an HG that has done this which I can refer to? (Beyond the cover.) Sorry if this is a repeat–I did a search and couldn’t find anything.

2. If so, are there file limitations (size, format) for those images? I found information about icons and covers, but not in-game pictures. And then, is there a limitation on total file size? I wouldn’t want to commission ten portraits and then not be able to use them.

3. Is there another question I should be asking about this which I am not smart enough to have thought of? If so, what is it? And what is the answer to that question?

I’m doing sort of a strange fantasy and I think images will help readers imagine what I’m describing, e.g. a frog dragon. Don’t know if that runs against the grain of the form. I’m in Austin, so there a number of talented local artists I think I could afford if I had enough information. Thanks so much!

[Writing_Fever]

@dwsnee

can I use art in my HG?

Yeah, you can totally do that.

@dwsnee

Is there an example of an HG that has done this which I can refer to? (Beyond the cover.)

I recall there being periodic images in the Sabres books, Way Walkers, Samurai of Hyuga, and probably a few others I’m forgetting.

@dwsnee

If so, are there file limitations (size, format) for those images?

I searched the forums, and the general advise seems to be “don’t make them too large”. Both in dimension and file size.

EDIT: You probably want them to be able to be viewed comfortably on a mobile screen and not, like, add tons of MBs.

[The_Lady_Luck]

There are a few HGs that use illustrations, and there has been some discussion (and at least one poll) about it, here on the forum.

Some people like it, some people don’t.

There’s an argument for at least having the option to toggle them off, as some phones can take forever to load them.

Personally, I enjoy the art if it fits the story, and is in a style I like, and really dislike it when that isn’t the case ( low quality art, style I personally dislike, or the description of a character in the text not matching what is depicted!)

[Loudbeat]

I also want to add some artwork to my game and just yesterday I reached the CoG staff with a similar question, here is the most relevant part of the answer that might help you.

“There is not a requirement for the internal art in games, but we do recommend that the files stay small, and generally JPEG images. Currently we do not support GIF files in games. You can include as much art as is reasonable in your game, but please be aware that too many images can cause a game to load slowly or crash”

The image sizes used are still the ones MeltingPenguins showed us on this post

@MeltingPenguins

Icon: 1024×1024, but mobile devices will resize it down to 48×48. This icon should NOT include the name of your game.
Splash Screens: This screen will be displayed briefly as the game starts (on various devices) and will act as the first screenshot in the store.
480×800 portrait (Android)
640×960 portrait (iPhone 4)
1242×2208 portrait (iPhone 5+)
1536×2048 portrait (iPad portrait)
2048×1536 landscape (iPad landscape)
Other Promotional Art: These landscape images can include the name of your game in a large font.
1024×500 landscape
1400×560 landscape
480×320 landscape

I have made some polls about what people preferred to see regarding the art in the game. You can find that here.

More drawings more fun? polls!

Hi everyone! This is my first post and I’m already apologizing if I did something wrong (just in case), but back to what I have came here for, I want to know what you think about some aspects of my (apparently never ending) game. Just rambling here ↓… More unblured rambling ↓… Thinking about the future I started to research and I found that I have to deliver the whole book with the icon and the cover art, I read about some artist charging between $60 to $300 for a drawing and I decided to b…

[Writing_Fever]

@Loudbeat

The image sizes used are still the ones MeltingPenguins showed us on this post

Just as an aside, these are dimensions for different marketing/splash screens/covers and not specific to art included within a game.

[Loudbeat]

Yes

@Loudbeat

There is not a requirement for the internal art in games

As far as I understand that applies for every in game art, though you should have in mind that those images should be visually appealing in a small format that could be displayed on a phone or so. So maybe not much detail that can be lost with the downscaling.

[choicehacker]

GIFs work, even if unsupported, and they are great for awesome tricks. Also, the viewing window is fixed to 664 pixels. Anything wider will get scaled down by the browser.

[Loudbeat]

Are you sure that they work in all the platforms the games are published? I guess there’s a reason why they say that.

[cup_half_empty]

@dwsnee

Is there an example of an HG that has done this which I can refer to?

The Soul Stone War has character portraits.

[anon21485497]

The Aegis Saga has art and even music in it as another example.

[choicehacker]

The *image command simply generates the HTML img tag. Support for GIF is very broad across browsers and HTML engines. Animation may not work on an e-ink reader, I would guess, but I expect it to work on most platforms.

[Loudbeat]

@choicehacker

Animation may not work on an e-ink reader

Maybe that’s why they say it’s not supported. Anyway, I didn’t have the intention to add GIF to my game, though it could be cool to make some small ones for the stats screen …