I think so far this is my favorite book cover:
If I could get all my covers done by Les Edwards, I would.
I’m just saying.
Correct me if I’m wrong but he seems like one of those artists who would draw women dressed in those bikini like armors…
Absolutely. He’s very 80’s in his art, which makes for bikini armors, super beefy men, and random jutting pieces in spaceship designs. Which is partly why I couldn’t get him to make my covers even if I had the cash. 
He seems like a good artist. Not just he, there were many good artists in the 80’s. But the bikini armor thing was always a source of annoyance for me, like look at it with common sense: how much protection would those things give?
At least with a fair share of that sort of 80’s art you could find a huge dude in a loincloth right next to the woman in bikini armour. Even less protection.
I love that style of art, especially Les Edwards, but it definitely has to be one of those styles that stays in the past. It should not and would not fly on any modern book or game cover.
Then again, I’m not sure how much demand has driven those artists to depict women like that and how much it was pure choice on the artists’ part. Les Edwards has painted this as well:
Now that’s aesthetic.
Now this is awesome. (not only bc the decent armor)
Just one criticizm. The character and the background doesn’t seem to mix all that well. Looking at the woman I’d think she belongs in a westerner story about knights and stuff, but the in the background is something what looks like a japanese style building.
I think I see your point about how even when it come to males the loincloth wearing barbarian type was more common than a knight for example. Ok I think this is a 1:1? XD
Dont know if it’s just me but the second one looks a lot lot poorly made to me… I would be just passing on the book if i were to judge it by the cover. I would pass on the first one as well 
For those who missed it, this recent discussion covered a lot of ground on CoG covers:
And I also prefer the atmospheric 80s book cover over the Generic Fantasy reprint. 
Am I the only one who doesn’t like people on the cover? Like it ruins the character image for me.
Same for me, but i have some exception for cover art like hero unmasked and cannonfire concerto since they potrayed the character ambiguously thus not ruining the character while maintaining my interest.
I’m extremely picky when it comes to covers as I have some experience in graphic design and art. That said, I don’t let a cover keep me from reading something — my favorite book series, the first trilogy in Kushiel’s Legacy — has had some rather… unattractive covers. A lot of Tamora Pierce’s works have had hideous covers at some time or another, yet I have bought everything she ever wrote in the Tortall universe.
Still, well-designed covers/cover-art is absolutely critical for success. It’s the most important bit of marketing you’ll ever do for your work. It’s what readers see first and what sets the mood for your writing. Making a good first impression can make or break your game or book. You want something that draws the reader’s eye and hints at what’s in store for them.
Some of the best COG and HG covers (in my opinion): VERSUS: The Elite Trials, Hereos Rise: HeroFall, Heroes Rise: The Hero Project, Paradigm City, The Iron Destinies, Magikiras.
(Disclaimer: There are a lot more covers that I like — those are just the ones that stood out to me as being well-designed, not just well-drawn.)
What a lot of those covers have in common is simplified art and (with the exception of HR:HeroFall) easy-to-read text that serves as just as critical a design element as the art. The art doesn’t (necessarily) represent any one character or any one scene. The text is, again, easy to read and adds to the atmosphere of the cover. In the case of Paradigm City, the text and the background are complementary colors, which makes it even more aesthetically appealing.
(Really, I’d say Paradigm City is my favorite cover from a design standpoint. The minimalism is so refreshing, making it stand out among the other games, and the helmet next to the text gives you a vague idea of what sort of story it is. I also like that the helmet is also used as the game’s icon. The decoration for the game’s splash screen is also appealing, fitting the style of the icon and still employing that lovely minimalism.)
I think a lot of the games that suffer from less-than-appealing covers could be vastly improved by just a few changes:
I think it’d a good idea for us to take a page out of YA book covers, honestly. They’ve been killing it lately.
also, considering it’s the main character you create it’s a little different than a character with a set in stone list of characteristics. it’s even worse when the cover has a charcter it’ trying to portray and the potrayal looks hardly like the character (wrong hair color, eye color, skin looks wrong, ect.) witnessed that with quite a few books I read.
It might look lazy to link another post, but I once wrote a pretty long work on the Choice of Rebels WiP page where I argued that a good cover might convey themes, and how XoR’s cover should, too. Hopefully, it’ll add something to the discussion.
I don’t think I care about cover… at all. But I do care about what genre it represents. For example, if in the cover I see some hero with yet again spider-elephant-monkey-dinosaur power, I will probably ignore the game. But if there is some, let’s say, creepy guy with a creepy long beard and with the knife in his hands - I will definitely buy it. Not because the cover was (or wasn’t) good, but simply because I like the genre,
In short - for me, the cover helps you to find out what the book is in front of you. That’s it.
It’s beautiful!
Thank you for the mention! What you said about Paradigm City’s cover is precisely what I wanted from it. Simple, symbolic, minimalistic.
I have no idea how much it helped, however. I do know that some people complimented the design and the icon and so on. I do also know that one person was very surprised that the story didn’t feature ‘Spartans’.
I’d second your recommendations. I was very much thinking of eye-catching book covers when I drafted designs. I tossed out anything that I felt was too busy, or simply wouldn’t work on a small screen etc. There are a lot of icons and art I see on the storefronts that just feel too busy.
