Fluid Design is a company which specialises in getting games noticed. In a recent interview, we sat down with creative and managing director, James Glover who told us why there is still a need for special edition packaging in the face of a burgeoning download market, how to guarantee that a game gets noticed and why some titles lend themselves to merchandising better than others.
Do you get to play the games before you set about designing each package, or are you simply given a brief to follow?
It's a bit of both really, depending on the publisher. We usually go in to see them, we play the game - which is normally still in development at that stage - four to six months before hand. We'll also be shown videos and content screenshots and so on. Some publishers don't show us content, so in those cases we have to look online and look at movies based on the title, but the main thing is getting a good idea of the storyline behind the game. Asset supply is also really helpful, so we know what we can and what we can't do regarding the game content.
Creative and managing director of Fluid Design, James Glover
How much on average does one of your press kits cost to produce?
Most press kits are for triple A titles, and it also depends on the size of the publisher and how they use the press kit. So for the likes of Sony, for God Of War III, that was a £25,000 to £30,000 budget, and they usually have between 2800 and 3000 produced which go out to the key territories in Europe - usually English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
The high end press kits are probably £25,000 to £40,000, while the low end is probably £10,000 for a 1500 production run. But it all depends - we did one for Total War that was more of an asset kit which is a glorified sales sheet with content in there. So we can tailor the concept to the budget in a way, and it's usually the client who defines the budget.
So do you localise the kits in-house?
The publisher supplies the copy, but we design for the different localisations, and box them up depending on the territories. Sometimes they have them as a multi-language kit, so they just go out to all.
The luxurious God Of War III press kit, complete with scroll and coins
There is a big retail market for special edition packaging, yet the most exclusive special editions are only ever seen by journalists. Why are they reserved for such a small audience?
Usually, the press kits are done before the special edition, because it's all about trying to make the press aware. It does vary, but with a press kit for journalists, it's about giving them content so that they can then write reviews of the games. So normally there's content which can be downloaded, and content which hasn't been seen - it's more to drive the PR behind the game.
And when it comes to special editions, they don't usually have assets to print, it's screenshots, high resolution imagery and giveaways - perhaps a figurine or an artwork booklet. So there are two rationales to the target audience and who it's going to. But we're working on one at the moment which is a dual one, which will be available to the public and also used for press - the content in that one will be the same in both.
You also work on commercial branding and retail special editions - do the press kits you create ever inform the retail packages?
The press kit is a lot more tactile, and game focused, while a special edition is more print focused. When we did Final Fantasy, that was a detailed artwork booklet, so it's more for the hardcore gamers who love having the extra content and the extra information. When we do special editions, because it's higher numbers, it's not as bespoke as a press kit. It needs to sit on retail shelves, so it's usually paper based, whereas press kits can be anything and everything.
The disconcertingly blood stained press kit for F.E.A.R. 2
Do you find much time for playing games yourself?
I used to a lot, but I suppose because it's what I do, I class it as work slightly. I tend to play just the games I'm interested in, which is more kind of casual gaming - things like RPGs I just don't have the time for, because it takes 50 hours to complete a game. So I tend to jump on and play just fun action games really. We probably do 15 - 20 games a year, so the ones I do work for are the ones I tend to play.