Here’s the creative thought process behind Sunset Overdrive’s awesome box art

A lot goes into the creation of a video game's box art. Rightfully so too because as trivial as it may seem, Insomniac Games makes a good point when they say it's "the only physical representation of a game you own and love." To that end, they've shared with fans the creative process and thought process behind the box art for Sunset Overdrive, which was created by England-based studio ilovedust.

"We’ve loved their work from a distance, and thought they fit the game’s art style. When we met them, it was clear they didn’t just understand Sunset Overdrive, they truly got us and our mindset. It was a perfect match," said Insomniac Games community lead James Stevenson.

"When we all set out to create a box art for Sunset Overdrive, we knew we had a major challenge ahead of us. First, Sunset Overdrive isn’t a character-forward game. The character in Sunset Overdrive is YOU. You’ll customize your character and play as yourself. So the cover couldn’t really solely focus on just a game-style rendered character and weapon [today's “standard” videogame cover].

"That presented the second challenge – how do we present not just the world of Sunset City, but also the characters and factions that inhabitant it? Now, for all you minimalism loving folks, this will hurt, as we quickly decided the best way to show all of the variety and build the world was to go for a dense, detailed illustration.

"ilovedust set out to create a densely layered composition that not only showed a hero character/weapon but also the rest of the world of Sunset Overdrive (And there’s actually additional hero characters traversing!). This is the result, one that uses dust’s unique style, while also staying true to Sunset Overdrive’s color palette and world," Stevenston said.

As you can see from the screenshot above, there is a ton of detail packed into the cover of Sunset Overdrive. Below are a few fun facts about what's shown:

• Hero Character with Roman Candle gun. This was one of the tougher parts, as showing any sort of “hero” in a game where YOU are the hero and can play as male or female, various body types, and tons of customization options, means you probably won’t see this guy in your game much.
• OD, Overcharge Drinkers. Multiple varieties of OD in the mutant OD horde.
• Survivors. Other residents of Sunset City who didn’t drink Overcharge Delirium XT that you’ll meet during the game.
• Scab. The human ne’er-do-wells who are taking the opportunity to loot and plunder Sunset City.
• Effects. Fourth wall breaking effects from the Scab’s gun.
• Fizzie. Fizzco’s corporate mascot insisted on being on the box cover! He’s impossible to resist, as you’ve seen on Twitter so far. Check out his robot blimp hovering menacingly in the clouds.
• Game logo. ilovedust’s logo for the game, in bright Overcharge Orange.

What do you think of the box art for Sunset Overdrive?