Game Art: The Graphic Art of Computer Games

by Leo Hartas, Dave Morris

A comprehensive guide to computer game art includes some five hundred full-color examples from the most popular games, tracing the history of the art form from such early pioneers as Space Invaders and Pac-Man to such advanced designs as Tomb Raider, Everquest, Diablo, and others.

Genres: Art

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never been an avid computer games player (wrong generation, mostly), but their progressive development, and especially the continuing quest for verisimilitude, fascinate me. I remember when Asteroids and Pac-Man and Space Invaders first appeared (in the lobbies of movie theaters, when “arcade” still meant pinball), and how addicted my adolescent kids quickly became. But that level of 2-D was nothing, of course, compared to the MYST series and to god/simulations like SimCity 3 -- not to mention keyframe animation and real-time interaction and detailed storyboarding that wouldn’t be out of place in Hollywood. This is the first book I’ve seen that really gets into all aspects of video game art and design (there wouldn’t have been enough to say even a few years ago), and it succeeds nicely both in its glossy-paper graphics and in the discursive text, which includes numerous interviews with designers.

[Jules G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visually appealing book, even for those not into computer games.