What's make a good banner to you ?

[Gwedelino]

Hello,

I'm not the kind of player that pays attention to banners usually, but I noticed on some topics that a lot of people were giving a lot of attention to thoses and it seems like a good banner is really useful at game advertising.

But what makes a good or a bad banner ?

I often see nowadays what's looking like a winning pattern with the "all girls lined up" formula.

Do you really think that there is indeed a "winning formula" regarding banners ?

Do you have your own examples of good banners ?

How much banners matters to you when picking new games ?

 

[Meaning Less]

An image that singlehandedly explains the game premise while also catching the player's attention, that's the gist of it.

Make something unique that distinguishes your game from everything else.

When I'm looking through the latest updates page banners are the main thing I'm looking at and usually it is enough to know if I played a game or not. So they are important.

 

[Mr. TurTur]

A good banner works both on the small ,,Latest Updates,, and on the larger game page.

It needs to be simple, but also convey the vibe of the game, the style and unique selling point.

Just a random collage, all girls lined up or worse, just a random naked woman looks effort less.

Make your banner a unique piece of art for the game.

Also, the first screenshot you use for the preview will be displayed while hovering the game.

I think that's part of it too.


Example: Slice of Shool (haven't played yet, but looks best on the first page atm, imo).

The banner tells me that it is a colorfull game in a shool setting with happy people.

It's very well drawn in anime style and decently laid out, if the whole game looks like this, the quality is top notch.

When you hover it, you are greeted with a bestiality image that still tells you the same things about the game.



Whether that's your taste or not - well done Slice of Shool.

Also dont do this :

 

[Douve]

Same as Meaning Less, they're the first thing you see on latest update so a good one might attract your attention. I don't really mind the banner but I can't object that I decide to click or not on a game partly due to the banner (also the tags, rating, and how much I heard about the game).

I think the "align all the girls" formula is an easy way to do a banner that will look ok (you hardly can do ugly banner like this). And it has the advantage to show all the girls so more chance for the player to notice one. You don't have to have any skill anywhere you put them next to each other, small pose, easy light and render. Fast, easy and it works pretty well but you wont achieve something exeptionnal neither original (people might assume it's a basic harem game more or less).

Do you really think that there is indeed a "winning formula" regarding banners ?

No.

But what makes a good or a bad banner ?

Same as what makes a good or a bad image. Compo, lighting, colors etc...
Or you bet everything on your model and hope the model is good enough to attrect people. In this case it's only about posing, facial expressions, lighting and mostly the quality of the art.

It needs to be simple, but also convey the vibe of the game, the style and unique selling point.

Couldn't say better.

Do you have your own examples of good banners ?

Spoiler

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I kinda like this one. It simply tells "sad story incoming" and girl looks nice (for what we can see). Perfectible but good imo.

Spoiler

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Looks nice to me, show some good art. The dev took at least a few min to think about his render and banner, wich tells me he may put some effort on trying to have a good looking game. (and not basic renders, poses, lighting etc...) Also I can guess it's not gonna be a harem (nothing against them btw).

 

[woody554]

there's so many of those girl roster banners I highly doubt it catches anyone's eyes except the harem people. and I mean the actual harem people, not people who just want all girls to be fuckable.

but pretty much what meaningless said. I'd also add that ANY good image tells a story. one look at it should instantly imprint a story in your head, and even better feelings. almost all of the banners on latest updates page fail that right now. they're just noise.

it's not even that they don't read well, there's just nothing there. for some the title helps, but at least for me my eyes don't even catch the title before the image first grabs my attention.

 

[ManOfDarkDesires]

My reply may look trivial, but I think a banner may be considered good when it makes you click on it to learn more about the game it advertises.

 

[GreenGobbo]

Eye catching and different.
Bright colors usually help, but a unique layout compared to what everyone else is doing is good too.

Spoiler: A few examples:

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I haven't even played all of these games, but all of them stood out enough from the endless sea of boring looking cast line-ups on the Latest Updates page that I clicked on them to see what they were about.