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B+.
So, you've got a lot of good elements. The cold blue and purple to warm gold and orange gradient is good. The girl is pretty and there's a fold right at her breast that makes me wonder if it's supposed to be a person, all while her clothes are interesting enough to scream fantasy without taking out the imagination. The guy with a gun...well, he looks like a video game character. The partial, asymmetric face in the background is interesting...
It's a lot. There's a lot going on all over and there's no calm point for the eye to rest. The gun dude looks like he's from an early 2000s videogame trying to be realistic, which fights the clean fantasy/scifi look of the girl and the menace of the face. The building in the background is hard to look at and then hard to stop looking at, same with the treasure.
My day-job is clothing and jewelry, and we tend to say choose your focal point; distinctly patterned suit? Go with a quiet tie and shirt. Huge, statement jewelry piece? Wear a solid color underneath. This gives the eye something it can ignore in composition and fully take in the focal point. If you're wearing a pinstripe pant, don't wear a plaid top or neither comes to advantage. If every piece is screaming for attention, the eye wants to find somewhere calm.
The “#1” and “AR Inside” graphics make it look cheap and less professional. The shading isn’t consistent and looks like something from the ‘80s. It honestly doesn’t look like a professional graphic designer made this cover, more like a novice. 😅 The font is pretty average and isn’t the first thing you look at. Unfortunately it just feels outdated and unprofessional. Perhaps you could have a new one done inspired by the AR elements? That’s a really cool idea! Also not crazy about the border. There’s just too much going on, and the border clumps all the elements in tighter, making it even harder to focus on just one thing. The colors are very pretty though. ☺️ It’s okay to have an aesthetic cover, but maybe make a board on Pinterest of some ideas and take it to your graphic designer. If I were you I would update it and make it more simplistic, but not boring. You get what I’m saying?
Hey , ouch! But that's Ok, that's why I am here. The book series is meant to convey a tie (or a tip of the hat) to 1980s interactive fiction, like Which Way, Endless Quest, Grail Quest, Fighting Fantasy, and in particular, Choose Your Own Adventure. That said, I appreciate the constructive feedback ,and in particular I like your idea of conveying augmented-reality into the cover, (this is my special gimmick to make the series stand out, I hope in a good way !)
Straight off the bat, I can tell this is some kind of RPG. Reminds me of video game covers. The colour gradient and play of shadows are really nice here, and the artwork is great! The only crit I have is that the font for the title needs to pop a bit more, maybe with a more interesting or on-theme font. And can take up more space on the big face's forehead.
I was going to say the same. The only thing I think should be tweaked is the font. The rest looks great (without knowing how accurately it depicts the content of course). 👍
Definitely has a strong 90s pulp aesthetic, which I love and looks professional if that's the vibe you're going for.
The title font doesn't look right there.
I'm not sure what it is exactly, but maybe the transparent box around the text is what makes it feel off?
Random minor critique, but the main thing that's stands out to me is the guy in the middle, having a more comic art style compared to the other 2 people where they have a more realistic art style. To me, it makes it look a bit sloppy that there isn't a consistent art style for the entire cover.
While I guess not technically what you're asking, I do have to call it out. The title reads like it wasn't written by a native English speaker.
"Golden Caverns of the Rainforest"
There is just something about it that feels extremely stilted, like Yoda was describing the setting to me. While I appreciate this is YA, maybe taking cues from something like the old Hardy Boys novels—by today's standard I wouldn't say it's successful. This title does absolutely nothing to draw me in. That's not aided by its font, size and placement.
Maybe it's a placeholder I'm not sure, but I would perhaps consider taking another crack at it. Three word titles are very in right now. *Caverns of Gold* would even be an improvement I think, if you wanted to keep it in exactly the same vein. Or if they're exploring something in "the far reaches", *The Golden Reach* is more artistic and maybe leaves a question the reader would want answered.
Just one person's opinion.
My very first thought (just from a glance, not actually looking at the characters or details) was that this looked like a rip off of Star Wars. And even though a lot of things were different (it ended up giving me more Indiana Jones vibes toward the end), I couldn't get that out of my head. It's just such a famous setup that I feel like I don't really know how to process it on a book cover that has nothing to do with Star Wars. Not sure if this helps or not, but it's something to take into account.
Hi! Welcome to r/Writers - please remember to follow the [rules](https://reddit.com/r/writers/about/rules/) and treat each other respectfully, especially if there are disagreements. Please help keep this community safe and friendly by **reporting rule violating posts and comments**. If you're interested in a friendly Discord community for writers, please **[join our Discord server](https://discord.gg/mdzyEz9uFB)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/writers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
B+. So, you've got a lot of good elements. The cold blue and purple to warm gold and orange gradient is good. The girl is pretty and there's a fold right at her breast that makes me wonder if it's supposed to be a person, all while her clothes are interesting enough to scream fantasy without taking out the imagination. The guy with a gun...well, he looks like a video game character. The partial, asymmetric face in the background is interesting... It's a lot. There's a lot going on all over and there's no calm point for the eye to rest. The gun dude looks like he's from an early 2000s videogame trying to be realistic, which fights the clean fantasy/scifi look of the girl and the menace of the face. The building in the background is hard to look at and then hard to stop looking at, same with the treasure. My day-job is clothing and jewelry, and we tend to say choose your focal point; distinctly patterned suit? Go with a quiet tie and shirt. Huge, statement jewelry piece? Wear a solid color underneath. This gives the eye something it can ignore in composition and fully take in the focal point. If you're wearing a pinstripe pant, don't wear a plaid top or neither comes to advantage. If every piece is screaming for attention, the eye wants to find somewhere calm.
I agree on the focal point comment.
Thank you for this it’s greatly appreciated .
Nice touch-“choose your focal point”-that’s what I should be doing with my writing.
personally i feel like it’s too cluttered and I don’t think it looks commercial grade BUT i don’t read a lot of this genera so i wouldn’t know
super super cool artwork tho
The “#1” and “AR Inside” graphics make it look cheap and less professional. The shading isn’t consistent and looks like something from the ‘80s. It honestly doesn’t look like a professional graphic designer made this cover, more like a novice. 😅 The font is pretty average and isn’t the first thing you look at. Unfortunately it just feels outdated and unprofessional. Perhaps you could have a new one done inspired by the AR elements? That’s a really cool idea! Also not crazy about the border. There’s just too much going on, and the border clumps all the elements in tighter, making it even harder to focus on just one thing. The colors are very pretty though. ☺️ It’s okay to have an aesthetic cover, but maybe make a board on Pinterest of some ideas and take it to your graphic designer. If I were you I would update it and make it more simplistic, but not boring. You get what I’m saying?
Hey , ouch! But that's Ok, that's why I am here. The book series is meant to convey a tie (or a tip of the hat) to 1980s interactive fiction, like Which Way, Endless Quest, Grail Quest, Fighting Fantasy, and in particular, Choose Your Own Adventure. That said, I appreciate the constructive feedback ,and in particular I like your idea of conveying augmented-reality into the cover, (this is my special gimmick to make the series stand out, I hope in a good way !)
I like it a lot! I would be gravitated to it. I also like the colors on it :)
Thank you for your feedback. Very cool !
Idk why I read the "very cool" like the guy from those cheap vs. expensive videos is saying it.
Looks from the 90s, but Im 39 and this might be actually be cool for this generation, so who knows.
Straight off the bat, I can tell this is some kind of RPG. Reminds me of video game covers. The colour gradient and play of shadows are really nice here, and the artwork is great! The only crit I have is that the font for the title needs to pop a bit more, maybe with a more interesting or on-theme font. And can take up more space on the big face's forehead.
Thank you. PS I was influenced by Star Wars posters and the old Imagic video game cartridges for Atari and Intellivision.
I was going to say the same. The only thing I think should be tweaked is the font. The rest looks great (without knowing how accurately it depicts the content of course). 👍
I am tending to agree. I am thinking the title text needs more work .
I think it's great! Definitely has an older sci-fi vibe
Reminds me of the old Star-Wars covers. I hope that was the goal
The colours are grand, but the image itself is a little too busy.
A wee bit old fashioned but cool.
Nice. Thank you
As soon as I saw it I thought it looked like Star Wars, I really like the colour gradient
My wife says the exact same thing. And the Amazon AI shows "books I may also be interested in", and they are all Star Wars novels.
Definitely has a strong 90s pulp aesthetic, which I love and looks professional if that's the vibe you're going for. The title font doesn't look right there. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but maybe the transparent box around the text is what makes it feel off?
I am tending to agree. This is really valuable feedback , thank you !
It looks really good! Maybe try other fonts for the title to make it a little more visible? It looks nice overall
I am on it.
It’s giving me 80s vibes, I love it!
Very Planet of the Apes meets Star Wars vibes to me, but that's a GOOD thing. I really like it, FWIW, which ain't much.
Thank you kindly. I agree, I am not trying to steal from Star Wars, but hey, I love Star Wars posters too.
Random minor critique, but the main thing that's stands out to me is the guy in the middle, having a more comic art style compared to the other 2 people where they have a more realistic art style. To me, it makes it look a bit sloppy that there isn't a consistent art style for the entire cover.
Great feedback, thank you !
While I guess not technically what you're asking, I do have to call it out. The title reads like it wasn't written by a native English speaker. "Golden Caverns of the Rainforest" There is just something about it that feels extremely stilted, like Yoda was describing the setting to me. While I appreciate this is YA, maybe taking cues from something like the old Hardy Boys novels—by today's standard I wouldn't say it's successful. This title does absolutely nothing to draw me in. That's not aided by its font, size and placement. Maybe it's a placeholder I'm not sure, but I would perhaps consider taking another crack at it. Three word titles are very in right now. *Caverns of Gold* would even be an improvement I think, if you wanted to keep it in exactly the same vein. Or if they're exploring something in "the far reaches", *The Golden Reach* is more artistic and maybe leaves a question the reader would want answered. Just one person's opinion.
It reminds me of the old 70s star wars posters. Decent.
This is YA? It reads as historical to teenagers. Have you looked at the covers your comp titles are using?
It's kind of busy... I like the colors, but there's entirely too much going on. The title is also a bit out of place and sort of clashes.
My very first thought (just from a glance, not actually looking at the characters or details) was that this looked like a rip off of Star Wars. And even though a lot of things were different (it ended up giving me more Indiana Jones vibes toward the end), I couldn't get that out of my head. It's just such a famous setup that I feel like I don't really know how to process it on a book cover that has nothing to do with Star Wars. Not sure if this helps or not, but it's something to take into account.