Dragon's Dogma: Official Design Works Book Review

Dragon’s Dogma: Official Design Works is a very good video game art book. It mostly shows the evolution of the art assets and why the developers went in the direction they did. It has development sketches, iteration art, final concept art, and final CGI models.

0:00 - Introduction
0:37 - Quality of the Physical Book
1:24 - Content
5:53 - Aesthetics
7:15 - Nostalgia
7:57 - Backstage
10:08 - Closing Remarks


QUALITY OF PHYSICAL BOOK
-We start with the book’s biggest flaw - it’s only available in paperback. To me it’s just unacceptable to have a soft cover for an art book. I do feel the need to be delicate with it since it has a soft cover. Having said that, I’ve handled the book a lot and it is still in decent shape. The pages themselves are thick and feel sturdy.


CONTENT/INNARDS
Variety of images and image types
-There are early/unused art, final concept art, and CG renders (which is how it looked in the game).
-At the start of the book there are a number of images that were used to inspire the art direction for the project, and some that were used in marketing.
-There are nice little informative touches throughout the book, like the height chart for some characters.
-There are lots of design images like a diagram of how the hydra should look.

Organization, does it make sense
-The overall organization is divided into characters, monsters, weapons/armor, and locales. There is also a section at the start for “key art.”
-There are color codes so that you can tell where in the stage of development the art was produced - early on (or unused) art, final or near final art, or CG images created for the game. This is a great aspect of the book and I’d love it if more video game art books did this. It really helps you see how things were developed over time.

Is there writing or insight from the artists and developers themselves?
-Yes, all of the writing in the book is from the developers. As far as video game art books go it’s exceptional.
-Many of the design images have commentary about what changes to make, and why they are designed the way they are. It’s like having a tour guide with you throughout the book and it adds so much flavor to the experience of looking through the art.

Does it have what you want it to have?
-There are about 70 pages for monsters, which is great! I think the best part of the game is the monsters and I’m happy they’re properly represented here.
-There are a lot of details about how and why the designers made the decisions they did, including on the monsters. It’s a great deep-dive into the design process. For me, it’s pretty much exactly what I want in this book.
-There are about 85 pages on characters.
-There are about 60 pages for armor and weapons, which is decent, and about 30 for locales.


AESTHETICS
Artistic/pleasant layout
-The pages are a softer color and it makes it a lot easier to look at the images, many of which are not framed but are just on the page.

Full pages of art?
-Yes, and they are very good - they do a lot to ignite nostalgia. They also show how influential the art assets are in designing the look and feel of the game.

Anything else about the book like the cover, binding, feel, etc.
-The soft cover is a sin. I get nervous the binding will break or something, or a series of pages will come loose.


NOSTALGIA/AFFINITY EVOKED FOR THE GAME
-I found the opening images really interesting because you can see how the developers used the “key art” images to create the game, and it’s impressive how well the art captures to feel of the gameplay. Looking at the art is like a trip down memory lane!
-It’s fun to see the monsters and all of the design decisions that went into creating them, and it reminded me of my encounters with them in the game.
-The whole book is cohesive and strikes the same overall feel of the game. It does a good job at evoking nostalgia.


BACKSTAGE
-There are broad design comments, such as the difficulty in creating numerous versions of something as straightforward as a bow.
-More than most art books, you get an idea of what the artists and other game developers were thinking and how they arrived at their decisions about what to put into the game. This aspect of the book is exceptional.
-I think this book helped me gain an appreciation for how the game design choices contribute to the overall tone and feel of the game. For example, what if they went with different design choices, it would feel like a totally different game. It really shows how valuable it is to have some people with a vision of how the whole game should be.


There are 17 book reviews in Season 1 of my series “Mike’s Video Game Art Book Reviews.” I hope you enjoy them!