Gearbox's The Art of Homeworld Sells Out in a Day

[StewShearerOld]

Gearbox's The Art of Homeworld Sells Out in a Day

Earlier this week Gearbox released The Art of Homeworld, a 236 page compendium of concept art from the making of the Homeworld games.

Back in February Gearbox did the gaming world a favor with the launch of the <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/homeworld%20remastered?os=homeworld+remastered>Homeworld Remastered Collection. With its release, the company introduced an entire new generation to the franchise while also reminding the rest of us of just how special the series is. Not content to just leave it at that, Gearbox decided to add one more feather to its cap: The Art of Homeworld.

A <a href=http://www.amazon.com/dp/0985902248>$60, 236-page art book filled with drawings, level concepts, ship designs and more from the making of <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/goodoldreviews/13565-Good-Old-Reviews-Homeworld-Remastered>Homeworld and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/goodoldreviews/13595-Good-Old-Review-Homeworld-2>Homeworld 2, the book released earlier this week in the United States via Amazon and was an immediate hit among the game's fans. It was so popular, in fact, that the entire stock allotted for the U.S. sold out in less than a day. In other words, much like the game that preceded it, The Art of Homeworld is a success.

The big question now, of course, is how Gearbox intends to get more books to the clearly hungry masses. Speaking with The Escapist, the company confirmed that it's currently looking into options for getting more copies to readers in the United States. It couldn't, however, reveal any specifics for what it plans to do. In the mean time, the studio has plans to release the book in Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan. While we wait to hear more, feel free to check out some sample pages Gearbox was kind enough to give us.
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[Soviet Heavy]

How much of this artwork goes back to Relic and how much of it is new concepts pitched by Gearbox? If Gearbox had the ability to make Homeworld 3 based off of Relic's Dust Wars concept originally for Homeworld 2, I wonder what new art designs they could bring to the table.

 

[Ironman126]

How much of this artwork goes back to Relic and how much of it is new concepts pitched by Gearbox? If Gearbox had the ability to make Homeworld 3 based off of Relic's Dust Wars concept originally for Homeworld 2, I wonder what new art designs they could bring to the table.

While I am normally quick to discredit the notion that Gearbox has ever had an original thought, it does look like most of these pictures are new. The original concept art (what you find in the manuals or over the end credits of the original games) was mostly black-and-white sketches. While I'm sure they added color later, in the original game there wasn't really a defined color scheme for each race. The defaults were something you could edit before you started. Here, we see that the salvage corvette (among others) has a definite color scheme, one that it did not have in the original.

I wonder what Gearbox could do with the Homeworld IP if they were to make a new game out of it. It would be interesting to see the results of something that has a serious plot (and a distinct lack of Claptrap) from post-Borderlands Gearbox.

As a side note, I don't have anything against Gearbox. In fact, I own most of the games they've produced and enjoyed them. However, Borderlands is basically the only new IP they've ever come up with. And I guess Brothers in Arms, but no one ever talks about those games.

 

[GundamSentinel]

That looks really great! Really love the Homeworld designs and have put a lot of time into imitating it myself.

At the same time: Goddammit Nappa Gearbox, why no Europe?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Damn, I don't even play Homeworld and I want that. That's amazingly detailed and in-depth.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I was late pre-ordering and just had an email saying I'm not getting it.

How can I put this politely.

Bollocks! Actually, one just came up on Amazon, to quote a well known species of birds, MINE!

On a less blunt note, this book has been a success largely because Homeworld is so gorgeous and Gearbox made sure to do such a good job on it. I'm not sure this can be translated over to Borderlands very easily, although Borderlands certainly has an interesting look it's not quite as iconic as the ultimate space banana.

Another things is that Homeworld was made in an age when organic media was still the king of creative design, so a lot of the artwork has more charm (for want of a better word) than often sterile renders and matte paintings that pop up in Art Of books nowadays.

 

[Giolon]

How much of this artwork goes back to Relic and how much of it is new concepts pitched by Gearbox? If Gearbox had the ability to make Homeworld 3 based off of Relic's Dust Wars concept originally for Homeworld 2, I wonder what new art designs they could bring to the table.

All of it is original art from the original game. From Gearbox:

The story behind this art book is that we had a collection of art that we got as part of the acquisition of the IP. A lot of that art is what was included in the Collector's Edition art book.

After the art for the CE book was submitted for printing, we got talking with Aaron and Rob and found out that they had a bunch of original art in the archives that they were happy to scan and send over to us. This new art is what makes up the majority of The Art of Homeworld art book. There's over 200 pages of content!

Source: http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/art-of-homeworld-available-now/262518/4

And actually, this is the 2nd print run (but potentially last) of this art book. The first print run went out approximately alongside the release of the re-master over a month ago. I bought one then, and it's absolutely fantastic - one of the best quality video game art books out there, IMO. I hope they make enough so that everybody who wants one can get one.

Edit: I'm actually seeing Amazon showing the book in stock from Bluecanvas, the publisher. That's how the book has been sold the entire time - through Amazon, but from the publisher directly as an Amazon Third-Party Merchant.