How to Design a Good Case Front 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 front.

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 Title – This is the title of the game. It is usually the largest piece of text on the case.
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...). This is usually the second largest element on the cover.
3. Company Logo(s) – This is generally the developer and publisher of the game. It's usually the smallest image on the case.
4. 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 or difficult to create at all. Let's examine some of the other covers listed above and see where these elements come into play.

Now, look at the rest of the covers below and try to identify these 4 different elements yourself.

Can you spot all of the elements?

Sometimes a case front might have an additional marketing message like, "Includes..." or "Pre Order Now and Get...!" Sometimes it's a quote from a review like, "Redefines the RTS Genre. - IGN". Sometimes it's a statement that helps you understand what it is you're buying like in the example 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!