Introduction
My objective over the course of this FMP was to create an informal gaming magazine, my intention was to aim it at an avid game consumer demographic but I didn't want it to be too conventional. I wanted to inject a personal feeling into my magazine, to do something similar to youtubers and brand my work individually with my own style. Obviously because this magazine involves game reviews the content isn't based on 100% objective fact.
Strengths of my final design
Experimentation
Great page layout
Good writing
Lots of length but a consistent quality
Unique in some ways e.g. writing style and the discussion feature.
Weaknesses of my final design
There are likely many grammatical errors and perhaps a few spelling errors too, I’m sure some errors of this nature since I’m dyslexic.
Not unique enough in some ways - I should have included another page in the discussion feature.
Not much consistency between pages in the magazine. The layouts changed as I experimented and eventually found the ideal look.
Front page could’ve been improved with handcrafted art done in illustrator or photoshop.
Some parts of the design look tacky e.g. in the content’s page the blue boxes look ugly.
The concept of my magazine
The bulk of my theme can be described as a magazine built on individuality, with a unique style and layout designed to appeal to an audience of hardcore gamers. This is why I tried to review games outside the mainstream since I hypothesised that hardcore gamers would already know about the mainstream titles coming out.
My influences
I think the main influence on the design and style of my magazine would have to be Rock Paper Shotgun, an independent magazine with a presence online. Their informal style and well written content inspired me since it was so in contrast to bigger magazines like PC gamer or Playstation. However i don't mean to imply that these bigger magazines did not influence me, I analysed them a great deal in the research segment of my project. They mainly influenced my layout and content, in fact their content may have steered my approach too much since i feel my finished product is altogether very similar to their product.
I feel I was also inspired and influenced by youtube channels like “Totalbiscuit” or “Super Bunnyhop” channels that review and debate the video game medium, I've been watching them regularly for many years and I think they've shaped my views on video games and journalistic content in general.
Experimentation and exploration
I had to do much experimentation over the course of my production, my original pages were just really poor, I was using the wrong font, my pictures were too big and the pages were generally just too packed with information.
My lecturer pointed this out for me and was very helpful in suggesting how I could better lay it out making the pages easier to read and more pleasant as well. For example at his suggestion I implemented margins around my pages and started spreading my writing into separate pages.
Eventually over the course of my production I became adept at finding the right balance of text and images on my pages and work began to look more professional. One day I was reading reviews from an IGN magazine and realised that their pages seemed to have a very light grey background, presumably to ease the eye when reading.
I liked this approach and started implementing it into my own magazine using the light grey background for reviews and eventually a black background for my Hall of Game segment and purple for my Hyper Light Drifter review.
Eventually because of all this experimenting the pages in my magazine began to look inconsistent, pages had different fonts, font sizes and overall layout inconsistencies. As a result I began to change documents making them more similar.
The older the pages were the more changes I had to make, so I spent the most time changing my first pages these being the “difficulty in games” segment. I ended up adding a third page to the document, changing fonts, margins, adding captions to images etc.
A comparison between my magazine and the PC gamer magazine.
Similarities
In comparison to a publication like PC gamer I feel my magazine is more informal and also less mainstream. I say this because I feel the style of my writing is slightly more informal than PC gamer with more personal anecdotes that wouldn't be possible in an official magazine like this.
Furthermore PC gamer features more mainstream games than my magazine which is directed specifically at indie titles. I also feel PC gamer is aiming it’s magazine at a similar demographic to my own, a hardcore branch of gamers who are interested in the discussion angle of gaming as well as the mainstream titles.
Differences
On the other hand I also feel the layout of my magazine was heavily influenced by the PC gamer magazine so maybe they are rather similar in some aspects. Furthermore both my magazine and the PC gamer magazine use a lot of features and editorials, in contrast to say the Playstation magazine, a publication that makes heavy use of reviews and little else.
Furthermore PC gamer uses a scoring system between 1-10 to rate it’s magazines for readers who don't want to read the full review, but I just use a system that either recommends a game or does not.
Key areas of development
The key area of development for this project was without a doubt the production, before I started assignment 3 I assumed that the final product would only be maybe 10-12 pages long. But after a long writing session over the easter holidays I realised the project would be much longer eventually taking up 32 pages. This meant I had to work much harder than I did in previous assignments and I became more invested in the project. So the work output and outlook were both very high at this point.
I think another key area of development in this project was my lengthy research phase, this was where I began to really think about what I wanted my magazine to look like and how I wanted it to sound. In this part of the project I came up with the informal style I would write in, the layout of my pages and the content I would write.
How it felt to show my project to peers and friends
Showing my product to my friends and peers made me feel proud of what I had done because they seemed impressed by it’s length and quality. I got interesting feedback and it felt like I’d really created something people might really want.
On the other hand showing my work to people via a questionnaire felt more dangerous since I didn't know who might be looking at my work and if they would appreciate it this is why I included probing questions like “have you ever played a game before”.
Despite this most of the people who filled out my questionnaire had played games and were interested in them. One person in particular had clearly read some of the magazine and seemed to really enjoy it and this made me really happy.
What i would change about my project
Strange as it might sound I think I would add even more pages, I loved writing about games and discussing them in my project and I would’ve liked to include a few more reviews, furthermore I had plans for pages that never made it into the final piece (because it just got too big).
For example I was going to do a feature in the discussions segment about the history of metroidvania games (this is a game genre used to reference games similar to metroid and castlevania). However this segment never got implemented because again I didn't have enough time to format it into pages.
If I had more time I would’ve also proofread the magazine a few more times to look for typos but again I didn't have enough time and I had already proofread the magazine twice (once with a lecturer who could identify grammatical errors more easily).
Reviewing my statement of intent
Looking back on my statement of intent I think I've more than achieved what I set out to do. I definitely made the right choice in making a project centred around video games since I did work much harder and get invested because of the topic.
In addition I have improved my skills a lot since I wrote this statement of intent, I've become adept at writing reviews and I've developed particular skill at using indesign, though I never did need to use photoshop. Furthermore I did end up using a mac, though not a camera and I did do a pre-production page plan as mentioned in the statement.
I did use my project schedule through assignment 1 & 2 but it wasn't flexible enough for the production stage, I underestimated how much work I would need to do and so the project wasn't adequate and I stopped following it. I don't feel this harmed my project overly however.
In assessment of the success of this project, I would argue that I fulfilled almost every target I set and that on some of these targets I over achieved bringing more quality rather than less. Perhaps I should’ve aimed higher in this statement of intent, overall however I feel this project has been a big success and I’m glad I was able to partake in it.
