nesdev.com

I rant that someone linked to and which I agree with. Basically a symptom of the wider trend in graphical design that every logo becomes trademark written in a plain sans-serif font.

http://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/ ... re-rubbish

_________________
Gameboy Genius (Blog) - Gameboy development forum (+wiki and file area)

I'm sure they're rubbish because it doesn't matter for AAA sales anymore. As far as design by committee, they're looking to avoid lawsuits. For example, Coke lawyers would clamp on like headcrabs if their logo was red and white and "ribbon-like." But only if you're a large enough target to sue. And if you're part of a large enough target, of course you want it to look very corporate and monolithic.

I'm imagining a Dilbert-esque situation where a corporate employee calls up and asks for a monolithic logo (a logo that can be used on multiple similar products), the snarky graphics designer takes it literally and designs it to look like a monolith. And of course the punchline is that from all the variant choices, the corporate committee chooses the monolith because they didn't know and wouldn't ask what marketing really meant by monolithic, either.

A scroll through the Steam store page would say otherwise to logos being a dying art, however.

I think that article is narrowing down "modern logos" quite a bit though. While the old logos in the article are of a better mix, pretty much all of the examples of modern logos seems to be of American or western games. Especially North American game developers tend to not focus so much on the aesthetics as much as on realism or mechanics, making most games look alike. European developers seems to focus more on aesthetics but their work tend to become quite wacky for some reason.

I think Japanese game logos are as stylized as ever, although the general style has changed a lot over time, I don't think it's necessarily for the worse (although I am a big fan of the art of '80s and '90s games and manga/anime).
Just check out logos for: Yokai Watch, Rhythm Tengoku, Dangan Ronpa, Gunvolt, Mighty Number 9, Shovel Knight, Monster Hunter, Yakuza, Splatoon, Arms, Nier: Automata and Setsuna (especially the Japanese logo).
I'm trying to list only modern games here, that isn't part of a long running series since the '90s or '80s like Mario, Castlevania etc.

Maybe a distinction can be made between AAA titles and the rest? Those are more closely linked to and sensitive to the current hollywood formula.

_________________
http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

I think it's more of a western thing in general, but yeah it probably has connections with current Hollywood trends (which is also heavily using realism nowdays).
Yakuza is the only AAA title with a creative logo I could think of that is not Metal Gear, Zelda or any other franchise from the '80s though.

Just because a logo is not decorative doesn't mean it isn't designed well. Negative space, alignment, balance, etc. are all very deliberately handled. But I generally have a kneejerk reaction to any "modern -x is trash. X of yesteryear is better" arguments (which are understandably expected on a retrogaming forum).

I would agree that many modern game logos are boring because they are too similar to others, just as many movie posters are boring for the same reason. But again, the logos are likely intentionally similar to others to communicate to the player that they will be getting a similar experience. I actually think the monochromatic, distressed Tomb Raider and Doom logos are stronger than their predecessors, but will likely be just as dated in 15 years as design trends continue to shift.

_________________
www.mteegfx.com

I think they went a little overboard with the doom logo specifically, when throwing out all of the innards/details and replacing it with the usual adobe-ready distress of the 00s/10s. I think there's a place for distress/wear, but it being the go to solution is watering out its textual content. Doom is such a strong brand in itself that it seems a bit wasteful to do this. It is also (probably unintentional) a bit more reminiscent of the logo of the uk hardcore band with the same name.

_________________
http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

Yeah, the whole original post is, while interesting to some degree, terribly biased and very selective in its examples to prove its own point.

I honestly think the new Rainbow Six logo is incredible. To the point where it almost made me want to play a game in a series and genre that otherwise has absolutely no appeal to me.

I don't think he meant that modern (western) logos are poorly designed, but that they are so similar and colourless compared to classic logos.
But yeah the article is very selective in its examples, that's the main problem with it as I pointed out.

Modern games are rubbish, period.

Go play some Rabi Ribi and say that again.

_________________
Here come the fortune cookies! Here come the fortune cookies! They're wearing paper hats!

Looks like rabi ribi rubbi-sh to me. jk. By "modern" games I really just meant overly polished 3D extravaganzas of various sorts. Things that are old and rough around the edges are dramatically more appealing to me for whatever reason. Plus most modern games have utterly terrible music. They're all ambient soundscapes. It's like all composers have collectively forgotten how to write melodies.

Even the absolutely, positively perfect, 100% best gaming experience ever, Breath of the Wild?

Modern games don't appeal to me at all... The more realistic they look, the less interested I am, and the realistic ones are precisely the ones that tend to have the most boring logos.

Nintendo franchises have remained good for longer but even those are starting to fade from what they once were. I didn't like Skyward Sword nearly as much as all previous instances of the franchise. I felt the music was particularly weak compared to earlier games, though still better than the "ambientsoundscapeitis" that I mentioned earlier, for the most part. I haven't played Breath of the Wild yet.

Donky Kong Country: Tropical Freeze had some nice moments in it. Some good music, and some engaging gameplay. But it suffers from modern gameitis as well: Waaaay too many in-your-face fireworks extravaganzas of EVERYTHING on the screen moving all at once. I think the game really should have been called:

Donkey Kong Country: Everything Falls

I just like the calmness of old games (relatively speaking). It's very similar to how old movies often told a story with really well written dialogue you had to pay attention to with the camera not moving at all. Now you go to a movie and it's like a damn fireworks show with the fireworks exploding right in your face and your ears. I actually have to take earplugs to the movie theatre anymore because I have tinnitus in my left ear which sounds like sizzling bacon when I see movies like this. And I really like the sound of sizzling bacon, but only when it's actually coming from sizzling bacon.

Am I just a grumpy old man?