What is Art?

So glad you decided to use Dungeon Degenerates (my favorite game art of all time) as your image for this. It's tied for 1st place in my favorite games of all time with Dragons Down... the game w/ the WORST art lol (that game play though). Dungeon Degens is the best looking game I have. Those garish colors and totally unique look just speak to me. I even picked up his halloween decorations and my wife loves them. Outside of Dungeon Degens I would say my art tastes sway to classic 80s and 90s western fantasy/sci fi stuff. Things like HeroQuest, and Shadowrun. I used to love the anime art style but these days I think it's just so played out and BORING. Everything with it looks the same. Arydia has great art consistency for such a huge game. It looks traditonal, but also cartoony, but not in the anime sense. More like a Saturday morning cartoon. Love it.

To me it's less about the art being necessarily high quality and more about immersion. Many dungeon crawlers and adventure games have amazing looking artwork but it's just cool pieces of art in a rulebook that don't enhance the game experience much - it would do just as well being in an art book as it does in a game. For example as cool as it is that HexploreIt is adding art to all the cards these days, I barely look at the pretty pictures and really the art that most matters to me in that game is the map tiles (which is very good, especially the Mirza Noctis map). I guess a lot of the time it's even more about the graphic design than the art and about putting the art where it matters - on the elements you're going to spend the majority of the time looking at. Some games that I think have amazing art and also use it effectively: Dungeon Degenerates (obviously) because the art and graphic design encompasses everything and the game just vomits colour onto your table - even cards with no art have bold colours behind the text. Aeon Trespass Odyssey/Kingdoms Forlorn - beyond just the cool imagery and great graphic design of basically every element, the games are full of little scribbles and simpler artworks on all the monster cards which you'll be looking at a lot - for AT:O they're done in a Greek pottery art style and KF in a silly Monty Python cartoon style, both of which I love. Especially the fact that all the body parts are depicted as to what exactly it is you're attacking - makes the battles feel really up close and personal. Kingdom Death Monster's (mostly) minimalistic art style really draws you into the world, like, the board literally feels like a zone of darkness on your table even on a bright sunny day. Outside of Dungeon Dive style games, all the Leder Games art done by Kyle Ferrin - Oath in particular is so immersive, the game is all about telling emergent stories and has absolutely zero flavor text beyond card titles and yet the artwork leaves so many possibilities for interpretation and story telling with your group. We've had so many discussions about how exactly the Buried Giant lets you move to any location on the board with only a single secret - does he carry you? One player is convinced he just tosses you across the continent.

Expeditions is a game that comes to mind when thinking about good art. For me it’s about nailing a “correct” aesthetic when joined to the theme of the game. The Bloody Inn is another example. Or Resist! I think I’ve mentioned before but I really don’t know anything about the game The Others: 7 Sins but I want to play it solely based off the oddball, creepy picture of the Sins lounging in like a living room.

Here is a nominee that I know you have played: Kinfire Delve. If there was a specific award for best card/card-back art, Kinfire Delve should win in a landslide. I have all the Kinfire games -- three Delves, Night's Fall and Council -- all are gorgeous and their interior packaging/storage is the best in the business. Every other game throws a bunch of baggies in the box and call it a day. I know this isn't really in the scope of what you are getting at, but they deserve a shout-out.

"Good Art" to me focuses on the illustrations specifically -- Dungeon Degenerates being a prime example (which I love). In this case the overall art/aesthetic of the game can sometimes actually detract from the readability of the game board. I also value just the overall design of the board/pieces on the table, and this includes typeface choice and readability/usability. The best looking overall boardgame I own is without a doubt, Voidfall, a space opera 4x-ish game visually designed by Ian O'Toole. Iconography is critical in many games and O'Toole is the master. Other great looking games: Nemo's War (gorgeous and super functional board), Burning Banners - fantasy wargame with *four* stunning hand-drawn map boards that can be used separately or joined together into one giant map -- great design via excellent cartography and very nicely done unit counters. The one game that will probably supplant Voidfall as the best looking game I own -- once my copy arrives -- is The Old King's Crown. Stunning visuals all the way around -- the card art, board, etc. And the best designed rulebook of any game I own by a large margin. Superb typeface selection, layout, well-written. This game is a visual masterpiece. Granted, most of the games I listed are not in the Dungeon Dive wheelhouse, but excellence is excellence.

Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more? Sorry I felt the urge to say that 😅 Great art is of course subjective and we all have our taste. To me, when it comes to boardgames, visual consistency across everything comes first. I've seen games with exceptional illustrations, looking horrible due to their graphic design and vice versa. For example the Unmatched series has amazing looks overall, with it's unique illustration style and bold graphic design choices. I'm not too crazy about the boards, but I understand that visual clarity came first. Overall Restoration games does great in the look and feel department. I also love the overall look of Escape the Dark Castle. Same goes for Dungeon Degenerates. BUT! My all-time-favorite-looking game is the original Horrified. Everything is perfect, from the board to the card illustrations and layout, down to the box cover.

I was even thinking that there are probable more good looking games than there are good playing games!

Great idea! It’s the first thing tgat draws me to a game!

Cool topic! I would say that when I state that I think a game has good art, that could be dissected down to meaning a) I like it, b) I consider it skillfully executed, c) there is something striking about it. Game art could be none, one or two of the above, but I would then describe it in such terms. For me, rightly or wrongly, liking art needs to tick all those boxes.

I'd yes yes, all of the above, plus one thing: human-made.