Soldato
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I am a sucker for gaming art books so I thought it’d be an idea to summarise some useful information I have gathered on the subject into one post. This is coming from the perspective of a fan here, apologies to any art/gaming students/professionals who disagree with my ramblings. Also note that while there shouldn’t be any spoilers in this post, I would advise against getting any of these books or visiting any links without finishing the respective game first. Lastly this is copy-pasted from my website, so I've edited out anything not forum friendly and any competitors, but let me know if I missed anything.
Books of note
Half Life 2: Raising the Bar
The daddy of all art books. This is a fascinating look into the art behind Half Life 2, including concept art, rendering and discussions about the process from start to finish. This includes interesting sidebars on creating characters that can express emotion, bits they had to cut (interestingly some of it has reappeared in HL2: Episodes 2 and 3) and the propaganda of the Combine.
It is a hardback (the picture under the paper sleeve is the same as the cover minus the text), hefty tome at 288 pages and sadly as far as I can find, almost no longer in print. [Competitor] has second hand listings for it ranging in the hundreds of pounds and [competitor] is not much better. It does look like it’s in stock on the Prima Games website, though I have no experience with ordering from them.
Useful links: Wikipedia page, Prima Games page, Valve Store page (including PDF sample pages).
The Art of Mass Effect
This is another hard cover book, this time without any paper sleeve. At 175 pages it contains a lot less information that would fall into the ‘interesting tid-bits and insights’ category but has plenty of concept art. This is definitely ‘just’ an art book: there are no renders or wireframes and the book lacks a ‘making of’ structure, instead it is split up into the different components of the game: Heroes and Villains, Life-Forms, Transport, A Galaxy of Details and Alien Worlds. Don’t let this read as negative, I especially enjoyed the art work on the races, which capture the ‘mood’ of each race, the beautiful and smart Asari, the intellectual Salarians and the stern Turians. This is definitely one book where you would just flick through the pictures, rather than sit down and read.
The book is available in most of the major book/gaming establishments for around £15. I bought mine from [competitor] for about £18 when I spotted it in the shops bundled with the walk-through (it’s still advertised as part of that bundle if you are looking for it), as I was waiting on [competitor] who had a seven week lead time on getting a copy at the time.
Useful links: Prima Games page.
Assassin’s Creed Limited Edition Art Book
This art book is similar in structure to Raising the Bar, in that it covers everything from pre-production through to release, including concept art, renders and interviews with the art and development teams. Assassin’s Creed is a beautiful game and this is reflected in the art work. The commentary provides an interesting insight into the process of ‘theming’ the game, including the balance between creating something realistic and something that is fun to watch and play. If you ever loaded up Assassin’s Creed and stopped to go ‘wow’ when riding into a city on horseback, this book is for you. It is 157 pages long, hardback with a paper sleeve. The blue ‘genetic’ cover is the paper sleeve, the white assassin’s knife cover is the hardback cover.
A couple of points to note. A new art book seems to have recently surfaced which is of a different size to the one I describe. It is also £40. I have no idea if this is the same as the one I have, but the one I have can be picked up from the high street for less than half that price including the strategy guide, so avoid the expensive one until someone works out what is in it. Also, the blurb for the one I bought mentions a ‘high quality lithograph’- I have yet to find this!
Useful links: Prima Games page.
Gears of War: Destroyed Beauty
Destroyed Beauty is a short art book that was bundled with the collectors edition of Gears of War. It contains a lot of stunning concept art and a few renders along with a foreword describing the artistic goals of the game. While apparently not available outside of the collector’s edition of the game, a smaller version of the book with different pages was released to the press before the game was released and can be found in the link below. Higher resolution artwork can be found in the section below describing CGsociety.org.
Useful links: ‘Pre-release’ version of Destroyed Beauty.
The Art of Guild Wars
The collector’s edition of each of the three main games that make up Guild Wars came bundled with an art book. These are definitely ‘flick through’ books with limited text but plenty of pictures. There are some interesting bits of information you can pick out of the art, for example the original ‘asian-oriental’ style they went for and then ditched for Guild Wars Propechies, which became the art style of Guild Wars Factions.
Again sadly this is not available separately outside of extortionate [competitor] auctions, however there is a huge amount of artwork released by the artists on ConceptArt.org and a few pieces on the Guild Wars website.
Useful links: Art on the official site, art on ConceptArt.org (warning, massive images).
Edge Presents The Art of Videogames
I’ve added this to the list to point out one book to avoid. This ‘collector edition’ is a paperback special edition of Edge magazine and is 258 pages long. Don’t be fooled though, there is next to no blurb or commentary with the pictures and at a guess 95% of the pictures themselves are those you could find by putting ‘(game name) art’ in Google Images. A hastily put together book with few interesting pictures which luckily is now out of print. Resist the urge to splurge silly amounts of money on it when the odd copy pops up for sale.
Useful links: Edge page.
Books of note
Half Life 2: Raising the Bar
The daddy of all art books. This is a fascinating look into the art behind Half Life 2, including concept art, rendering and discussions about the process from start to finish. This includes interesting sidebars on creating characters that can express emotion, bits they had to cut (interestingly some of it has reappeared in HL2: Episodes 2 and 3) and the propaganda of the Combine.
It is a hardback (the picture under the paper sleeve is the same as the cover minus the text), hefty tome at 288 pages and sadly as far as I can find, almost no longer in print. [Competitor] has second hand listings for it ranging in the hundreds of pounds and [competitor] is not much better. It does look like it’s in stock on the Prima Games website, though I have no experience with ordering from them.
Useful links: Wikipedia page, Prima Games page, Valve Store page (including PDF sample pages).
The Art of Mass Effect
This is another hard cover book, this time without any paper sleeve. At 175 pages it contains a lot less information that would fall into the ‘interesting tid-bits and insights’ category but has plenty of concept art. This is definitely ‘just’ an art book: there are no renders or wireframes and the book lacks a ‘making of’ structure, instead it is split up into the different components of the game: Heroes and Villains, Life-Forms, Transport, A Galaxy of Details and Alien Worlds. Don’t let this read as negative, I especially enjoyed the art work on the races, which capture the ‘mood’ of each race, the beautiful and smart Asari, the intellectual Salarians and the stern Turians. This is definitely one book where you would just flick through the pictures, rather than sit down and read.
The book is available in most of the major book/gaming establishments for around £15. I bought mine from [competitor] for about £18 when I spotted it in the shops bundled with the walk-through (it’s still advertised as part of that bundle if you are looking for it), as I was waiting on [competitor] who had a seven week lead time on getting a copy at the time.
Useful links: Prima Games page.
Assassin’s Creed Limited Edition Art Book
This art book is similar in structure to Raising the Bar, in that it covers everything from pre-production through to release, including concept art, renders and interviews with the art and development teams. Assassin’s Creed is a beautiful game and this is reflected in the art work. The commentary provides an interesting insight into the process of ‘theming’ the game, including the balance between creating something realistic and something that is fun to watch and play. If you ever loaded up Assassin’s Creed and stopped to go ‘wow’ when riding into a city on horseback, this book is for you. It is 157 pages long, hardback with a paper sleeve. The blue ‘genetic’ cover is the paper sleeve, the white assassin’s knife cover is the hardback cover.
A couple of points to note. A new art book seems to have recently surfaced which is of a different size to the one I describe. It is also £40. I have no idea if this is the same as the one I have, but the one I have can be picked up from the high street for less than half that price including the strategy guide, so avoid the expensive one until someone works out what is in it. Also, the blurb for the one I bought mentions a ‘high quality lithograph’- I have yet to find this!
Useful links: Prima Games page.
Gears of War: Destroyed Beauty
Destroyed Beauty is a short art book that was bundled with the collectors edition of Gears of War. It contains a lot of stunning concept art and a few renders along with a foreword describing the artistic goals of the game. While apparently not available outside of the collector’s edition of the game, a smaller version of the book with different pages was released to the press before the game was released and can be found in the link below. Higher resolution artwork can be found in the section below describing CGsociety.org.
Useful links: ‘Pre-release’ version of Destroyed Beauty.
The Art of Guild Wars
The collector’s edition of each of the three main games that make up Guild Wars came bundled with an art book. These are definitely ‘flick through’ books with limited text but plenty of pictures. There are some interesting bits of information you can pick out of the art, for example the original ‘asian-oriental’ style they went for and then ditched for Guild Wars Propechies, which became the art style of Guild Wars Factions.
Again sadly this is not available separately outside of extortionate [competitor] auctions, however there is a huge amount of artwork released by the artists on ConceptArt.org and a few pieces on the Guild Wars website.
Useful links: Art on the official site, art on ConceptArt.org (warning, massive images).
Edge Presents The Art of Videogames
I’ve added this to the list to point out one book to avoid. This ‘collector edition’ is a paperback special edition of Edge magazine and is 258 pages long. Don’t be fooled though, there is next to no blurb or commentary with the pictures and at a guess 95% of the pictures themselves are those you could find by putting ‘(game name) art’ in Google Images. A hastily put together book with few interesting pictures which luckily is now out of print. Resist the urge to splurge silly amounts of money on it when the odd copy pops up for sale.
Useful links: Edge page.
