Grifter: Making a game (cover)

I'm sick of covers on books, movies, and video games. It seems like the popular and easy way out is to paint floating heads of the characters from the story in a cheesy montage. These images, conceptually, have absolutely nothing to do with the game / movie / book they're supposed to be representing. When I get cover projects, I take pride in creating images with significance and good concept on top of aesthetics. So in between jobs, I thought it would be good practice to create a video game cover that doesn't fall under the floating head stigma. I didn't want to make a cover based off of an existing game, so I decided I'd start from the beginning.

So, I came up with an idea for a game that I'd want to play, a game that isn't the typical FPS or whatever. I did some browsing of photographs for inspiration and ended up thinking up this story about a con-artist. So I got to work. Here was the result.




Right off the bat, I didn't want to make a busty stereotypical video game chick who serves little more purpose than to please the forever-alone demographic (no offense to the neckbeards, much love). So anyway, thanks to Wikipedia, I learned that con-artists are also called 'grifters'. Game title, check. According to Wikipedia, 'The perpetrator of a confidence trick is often referred to as a confidence man/woman, con man/woman, con artist or grifter.'

So I crack open photoshop and paint this woman who would be the anti-hero of the game, the grifter. But again, I wanted to avoid just presenting her in a way that just shows off her likeness. I wanted to show off what she was about, and what the game was about. She's holding up her fake badge to show that she's FBI. She's mid-job, and busting (conning) someone for their loot. Under the title, though, all of her other badges are lying in a pile, letting you know that FBI isn't her only get-up (some choice badges being aviation, doctor, sheriff etc). To ice the cake, I threw in a barely noticeable tattoo of a snake on her right arm just to hint at the type of person she is. Cover finished.

Game companies, feel free to rip off my idea as long as you hire me to make a non-shit cover for it.