Computer Game Infographics
An article on infographics in computer game commentary.
Computer Game Infographic Definition & Description
Computer-game infographics are screencaps, spliced-together screencaps or croppings that may or may not contain overlayed annotations and descriptions. Computer-game infographics may also feature insets and employ other graphic-design techniques. As a rule, the screencaps are pixel-perfectly spliced together to form a much larger image that can inform readers at a glance.
Liluran infographic for Sid Meier's Civilization 1 of 1991:
Screencaps are as dust in the wind in comparison to Liluran infographics. Those who rank dozens of low-effort screencaps above Liluran infographics are disservicing their users. Note that there are armies of lost souls that spam screencaps on forums and the like; they are hoping that the sheer quantity of their spam will outrank quality infographics; it's all about driving undeserved traffic to their trashy sites.
Those who view such spam are making the internet worse for everyone.
DON'T SUPPORT SPAM.
DON'T SUPPORT SITES THAT ALLOW THEIR USERS TO SPAM.
Screencaps aka screengrabs were originally referred to as screenshots (because a real camera was used to take a photo of the screen).
I employ the term infographic in its most basic and literal sense: a graphics-images that contains extra information or illustrates a point. My infographics do not feature charts or graphs, only text. And I utilize graphics from screencaps, no imagery external to the computer game is employed.
Lilura1 was the first computer-game commentator to emphasize high-quality image-manipulated infographics over low-effort screencaps, in great quantity (several thousand infographics).
Initially, I generally did not set out to assemble infographics since it is exceedingly time-consuming to do so. For example, it can take three hours to prepare and assemble one (complex) infographic even when I know exactly how to go about it.
I used to assemble infographics when it struck my fancy, but now I assemble them as a matter of course. Most of my early infographics were assembled on a whim, not any more.
Above all, the cRPG Blog concentrates on its computer-game language: the infographics are embedded for support or initial impact, not to diminish the written word.
Evolution of Liluran Infographics
Just like with their writing one is never happy with their infographics. They could always be better. Every infographic is a disappointment in some way, just like every passage of text. But text is editable on-the-fly, not so the uploaded infographic.
At first, when I started publishing articles about computer games in 2014, I did not know that I would attain non-trivial readership levels. Thus, in the first few months I was just taking screencaps. But I did put some effort into them: taking the screencap at the right moment and at a good angle.
But when I started writing my Baldur's Gate review one decade ago, I thought to splice screencaps together, in columns and rows. In this way, readers get to see more per image-view.
A simple, decade-old infographic of mine (crop, scale, annotate, compress, upload). Note how the image defines marquee selection for the reader, aka group-bandboxing.
A simple comparison infographic from 10 years ago (BG1 vs BG2 paperdoll):
An early example of pixel-perfect image manipulation:
A simple trick:
With more frequency I began cropping, insetting, annotating and so on. Thus were my infographics born.
An inset is when you embed one image into another. My insetting at that point was novel in that I had not seen insetting of that level in computer-game commentary before. And not in such quantity either: hundreds of insets in scores of images within one article. And I still have not seen comparable levels of insetting 10 years subsequent. I wasn't trying to stand out, though: I was just trying to make the screencaps more interesting and/or informative to readers.
Decade-old, rough-around-the-edges insetting by Lilura1:
As time wore on I started developing more advanced image-manipulation techniques as well as some efficiency-enhancing automation techniques, but there is no reason to enumerate them here.
At this point I am probably as fast and efficient at basic infographic-assembly as a dedicated graphician. However, I have chosen not to further develop such skills because the process remains time-consuming and the development of my writing takes precedence.
Examples of Computer Game Infographics
The following is a sample of infographics assembled by Lilura1 of the cRPG Blog. This is a small selection: the cRPG Blog contains 10,000 original images several thousand of which are image-manipulated infographics. There is not a single image on the cRPG Blog that is not of Lilura1-origin.
Several of these infographics are famous. All are exclusive to lilura1.blogspot.com.
You can browse through the infographics via mouse-wheeling up and down. To see the infographics in their full resolution (1k-5k px), right-click and open in a new tab.
Computer Game Infographic: Abuse Run n Gun
Computer Game Infographic: Agony Shoot 'em up
God-tier soul...
Computer Game Infographic: Aielund Saga Guide
Computer Game Infographic: Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura
Computer Game Infographic: Baldur's Gate 1
I don't want to think about how long it took me to put this together... I think the original is 9,000 px.
That said, this infographic is famous.
Computer Game Infographic: Baldur's Gate 1 Walkthrough
Computer Game Infographic: Boulder Dash
Computer Game Infographic: Command & Conquer Review
Computer Game Infographic: cRPG Combat Encounter Design
Computer Game Infographic: Computer Role-playing Game Builds
Computer Game Infographic: Computer Role-playing Game Stats
Computer Game Infographic: Deep Gnome
Computer Game Infographic: Diablo 1 Review
Another famous infographic:
Computer Game Infographic: Defender of the Crown
Soul...
Computer Game Infographic: Dune 2 Units
Computer Game Infographic: Falcon Flight Sim 1987
Exquisite 16-color graphics:
Computer Game Infographic: Fallout 2 Guide
Computer Game Infographic: Frog Morton Fallout 2
Computer Game Infographic: Fallout 2 Random Encounters
Computer Game Infographic: Flip-screen Computer Games
Computer Game Infographic: Frenzied Bererker NWN2
Computer Game Infographic: Grand Prix 2
Computer Game Infographic: Papyrus Design Group
Computer Game Infographic: Grief Phase Blade
Computer Game Infographic: Hammerhands
This build-infographic took aeons to put together... and I made several others like it. However, almost no one has seen them because Master of Magic is for non-casuals.
Computer Game Infographics: Icewind Dale 1
Computer Game Infographic: Ice Temple IWD2
Computer Game Infographic: Irenicus BG2
I made one of these for a dozen more BG2 characters. Needless to say, it took a while. I know these images are famous due to the number of views they get.
Computer Game Infographic: Iron Clan Hammer
My fave weapon infographic:
Computer Game Infographic: Jagged Alliance 2 Guide
Computer Game Infographic: Kensai Mage BG2
Computer Game Infographic: Laser Squad
Computer Game Infographic: Mask of the Betrayer Guide
Computer Game Infographic: Marquee Selection Group Bandboxing
Computer Game Infographic: Master of Magic Review
My glorious High Men empire:
Computer Game Infographic: MechWarrior 1 Review
Computer Game Infographic: Oblivion With Guns
Short and to-the-point:
Computer Game Infographic: Planescape: Torment Review
A simple cropped twin-image with bordered text-inset overlay:
Computer Game Infographic: Populous Review
Epic-level soul...
Computer Game Infographic: PowerMonger Review
Soul...
Computer Game Infographic: Computer Game Screen-scrolling
Soul...
Computer Game Infographic: Sid Meier's Colonization Review
I only made this because I was enjoying the replay so much:
Computer Game Infographic: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Computer Game Infographic: StarCraft 1 Review
Computer Game Infographic: Swordflight
Computer Game Infographic: Temple of Elemental Evil
Took ages to assemble:
Computer Game Infographic: The Settlers
Soul...
Computer Game Infographic: Turn-based Strategy Games
Shows my mastery of four Civ games in one image:
Computer Game Infographic: WarCraft 1 Review
Assembling this wore me out a bit:
Infographics from History of Shoot 'em ups
I started to add more info to the images in this article, mainly because it was fun revisiting the ol' shoot 'em ups. This single article has 200+ infographics embedded. Each infographic has been 100% pixel-perfect centered with exact pixel-perfect spacing betweeen images.
Weapon Infographics
Lilura1 has assembled dozens of weapon infographics for Arcanum.
Lilura1 has assembled over 100 weapon infographics for Diablo 2.
Lilura1 has assembled dozens of Fallout 2 infographics.
The Vindicator mini-gun of Fallout 2:
The Phazer and Solar Scorcher:
Lilura1 has assembled over 60 Jagged Alliance 2 weapon infographics with pixel-perfect precision.
The MAC-10 .45 CAL Submachine Gun of Jagged Alliance 2:
The AI AWM .338 Lapua sniper rifle of Jagged Alliance 2: 1.13:
The FN-P90 of JA2 1.13:
Lilura1 has assembled about 100 weapon infographics for Neverwinter Nights 1:
Longbow of the Eldar for Archer Build NWN:
Shoot 'em Up History: R-Type Beam-wave Cannon:
Standard Multi-panel Infographics [1.0]
Standard multi-panel infographics usually employ between six and 24 panels. These are "standard" because each panel is of the exact same dimensions. Here are a few large examples from Run and Gun Games:
Darklands IBM PC MS-DOS 1992 (16 panels):
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon IBM PC MS-DOS 1990 (24 panels):
Then, as often happens in human endeavors, the wild-eyed hack comes along to snatch a piece of the pie. In the name of the quick buck and click the hack cares not for the endeavor, the creative process or genre legacy, but only of shortcuts, leeching and leveling down to the lowest common denominator.
cf.:
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