How to Design a Good Case Back Cover

Designing your own game cover is a fun and rewarding process. If you're new to graphics design, then the idea of creating a cover can be daunting. Not to fear, Steam Game Covers is here to help. In order to create a great cover, you must understand the design elements that make up a great cover.

In this guide we will be studying a case back.

To begin, let's examine what makes up a good cover by studying what the pros make. Take a look at the covers below.

All of the covers shown above are professionally created, official game covers of retail PC games. They're a mixed assortment of popular games from various years and countries. As diverse as they are, they all share similar elements. Let's take a closer look at one of them:

Viewed in one piece it looks pretty complicated. This cover, however, can be broken down into the following elements listed below:

1. Game Description Text - This is a brief description of the game usually found at the top. It is also common to find bullet points about features with in the game next to the screenshots.
2. Game Info Logo(s) - This mostly consists of the game's rating (ESRB, PEGI, etc...) but it can also contain info such as the disc type (CD-ROM, DVD, etc...) or other logos (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc...).
3. Company Logo(s) - This is generally the developer and publisher of the game but can also include other smaller companies or technologies that were used in the game.
4. System Requirement - The requirements needed by your PC to run the game.
5. Legal Info - Required by company lawyers, this text can vary in size and content.
6. Screenshots – screenshots from within the game. Usually around three but can vary in number.
7. Big Background Image – By far, this is the largest element on the case. It is usually a piece of promotional artwork from the game and always behind all of the other elements.

Now, let's separate all of these elements and stack them all neatly to get a better view of them.

As you can see, this cover is not as complicated as we originally thought. The most difficult part in making this cover is assembling all the elements need to make it. Let's examine some of the other covers listed above and see where these elements come into play. I've darkened the images so you could see the elements better.

Now, look at the rest of the covers below and try to identify these 7 different elements yourself.

Can you spot all of the elements?

When designing for different size cases merely "shrinking" everything is not enough. When converting an Amary (DVD) case to Jewel (CD) you will notice that some elements are dropped due to space limitations.

In the example below you will notice that one of the top Big Background Image has been dropped completely (though the bottom one is kept). So has one of the screenshots and the critics review quotes. Also, some of the text has been shifted around. And, of course, all of the images are smaller in the Jewel case version.

The problem with "shrinking" text is that eventually becomes unreadable so it's better to edit some out or drop it completely.

Designing the spine to your case is quite simple. It's simply just the game's logo in the middle and a company logo at the bottom. Take a look at the covers below:

Hopefully, this guide gives you a clearer understanding of what makes up a good cover by understanding what the professionals create. Armed with this information, you are now prepared to create your first cover. Good luck and have fun creating!