2. Research
Before I was able to start planning out my magazine, I first had to research different magazines in order to see
what they put into them in order for the magazines to do as well as they have done, as well as to get an idea for
what I could do. I had researched 3 different magazines, them being PlayStation Magazine, Xbox Magazine and
PCGamer. I had researched different aspects of the magazines (such as the Front Cover and the Double Page
Spread) as well as their respective websites (minus PlayStation’s as the magazine didn’t have a website) in
order to see what worked and what doesn’t work as well. The good part about doing this was that I’d get more
of an idea on what to do from doing research on similar magazines prior to developing my own, but a downside
of this was that some aspects weren’t as developed as others, as with the websites of the magazines,
PlayStation Magazine didn’t have a website to begin with, and Xbox Magazine’s had shutdown, with the page I
used only working if the Wayback Machine was used. One change that I would’ve made when doing the
research would’ve been to change the magazines that I would’ve researched, as whilst PCGamer was
informative and helped a lot when it came to planning out the magazine, the others weren’t as helpful, and
when it was they were practically the same as PCGamer, so instead of using PlayStation and Xbox Magazines, I
probably would’ve used Empire and MOTD instead, as then I would’ve not only have been looking at 3 different
types of magazines instead of just 3 gaming magazines, but I also would’ve been able to get more out of the
research, as they would’ve been structured differently as they all would’ve had different target audiences to try
and influence.
3. Planning
After doing the research, I had to plan out what my magazine was going to look like, this included planning out the
Front Cover, Double Page Spread, and a Website for the magazine. First of all I had made a practice version of what
I’d think the final product would’ve looked like, and analysed them in order to find the strengths and weaknesses of
the Prototype in order to see what was good and what would need to be improved for the final product. I had
included several key components that would be in the final product, such as the intended layout for the Front
Cover, the Images, the Headline etc., since I already knew what game I was going to talk about in the article.
After that, I had to generate a Flat Plan for each of the things that I was going to make for the Magazine, as well as
make a style sheet and a website plan. These were needed in order to make sure that there was proof that I’d put
some thought into how I’d want the different pieces of the magazine to look like, rather than not putting anything
on the PowerPoint and just going ahead with the final product without having anything to show for the planning
stages. These were also needed as it would at least give an idea of what the initial plans for the magazine were like,
and it would be easier to see what had changed in the event that it ended up being different from the initial idea,
as well as the practice version. As well as this I had to write up a copy of the article that was going to be used in the
Double Page Spread, this was needed to be done during the planning, as then I would’ve been able to structure my
DPS around the article, instead of just trying to write one into an otherwise completed DPS and being unable to fit
it into the gaps.
4. Production (Front Cover)
The Front Cover was made using Adobe Photoshop, and the final version ended up looking somewhat like my initial
ideas, however everything was slightly altered from the original design. For example the Logo was enlarged and moved
from its original position, the poster section was moved down into its own section in order to make the top look better,
the headline was moved into a better location with the text edited to be a lot easier to see. Overall the difference
between the initial ideas and the final product wasn’t too different though, as the differences for the most part are
small, and the initial idea of where everything was going to be is still shown clearly, just small changes were done in
order to make it look more like a proper magazine compared to its prototype, however one thing from the Flat Plan that
wasn’t implemented was an image for the secondary articles at the bottom of the page, this however was due to the
fact that trying to implement it there would’ve made the area look off when compared to other magazines, thus it had
to be cut from the final product. One issue that I had with making the Front Cover was due to the custom fonts (i.e.
Saiyan Sans and Arcade Classic), as every time I loaded up Photoshop I’d need to reinstall the font just for it to work
properly, however no other issue really came up a part from that.
6. Front Cover Comparison
All of the main conventions that
would usually be included on a
Front Cover for a magazine are
present on my Cover, however one
difference that is quite noticeable is
that on the Xbox Magazine cover,
there is more on it than there is on
my Front Cover, so whilst the Xbox
Cover is giving small hints to readers
as to what they’d expect to read
about when opening the magazine,
on my magazine it’s mainly just the
main headline as well as one small
line at the bottom of the page,
other than this one difference, the
comparison seems to be quite
similar. If I had to redo the Front
Cover I’d mainly just add a few more
small pieces to it just to fill up some
of the gaps left by the lack of space.
7. Production (DPS)
The Double Page Spread was created using Adobe InDesign, and the final version ended up looking quite different
compared to its prototype, with the main reason being because of the article itself, since the article was too big to
fit on just one page I had to move around where the images would go in order for the full article to fit on the DPS,
and in order to make up for the loss of the bigger image on the first page, I took several images from the game
itself and inserted them into several gaps that I could make with the limited space that I had left, the result is the
final product on the next slide. Another change that I wanted to make was to change the colour of the page, as it
not only matched up well with the background of the Front Cover, but also because I felt that having white text on
a blue background would help it to be easier to see. The main Issues that I had with this part of the Production
was because of the Images, both with replacing what couldn’t be used because of the article, but also because of
the new images that I needed to get from the game itself, another significant issue specifically regarding the
software was that there were times where the software wouldn’t allow me to edit the DPS because of it being an
older version, as well as having to reinstall the custom font every time I started up the software.
9. DPS Comparison
For the most part the two Double Page Spreads look similar, however there are a few differences that I have
noticed, for example there are certain quotes taken out of the PlayStation Magazine DPS and emphasized, in my
magazine there is no such thing as not only did I feel like this wasn’t needed, but even if I did try to add this in, it
wouldn’t have been able to fit onto the page due to the space taken up by the article and the images. There is also
other content that was included on PlayStation’s DPS, such as the ‘Info Patches’ on the right side of the page, with
my magazine this would’ve been almost impossible to implement properly, as there simply wouldn’t have been
enough space to fit it into, especially if emphasized quotes were also added onto the page. Whilst my DPS is a lot
simpler compared to PlayStation’s, at the same time I feel like this is preferred, as having too much on it could
possibly end up ruining it.
10. Production (Website)
The Website was made using another website called Wix, which is a website building that helps to easily structure
sites for those new to building their own site. Like with the Front Cover, the website is quite similar to the prototype,
however at the same time some changes were made, such as the images, the placement of the name and menu,
and the background being changed to be more animated. As well as that, the rest of the website was implemented
into this version as there was a lot more time to make this one, as well as the fact that I had actually planned out
what the rest of the website was going to look like. Some problems that I had with making this included once again,
the fonts glitching out however it wasn’t nearly as bad with the website, I also had some issues when it came to
images and trying to wrap them around the text, as there wasn’t an automatic way of doing that, meaning that not
only did it have to be done manually, but sometimes the text ended up moving into one of the images (however this
was eventually fixed). Unlike the Front Cover and the DPS, the Website was more complicated to finish in time, and
because of this some things I would’ve been able to implement had to be cut in order to finish it in time, one of
these things was a gallery, where images from games could be viewed, as well as ‘fan-art’ sent in related to said
games.
12. Website Comparison
There are quite a few differences between my website and PCGamer’s, for example unlike my site, PCGamer’s
keeps to their colour scheme of Black, White and Red, however in my case this was because there not only wasn’t
a default colour scheme that could be used for the site, but also the colours that were used on the Front Cover
didn’t work as well as the colour I ended up using for the background. The way PCGamer showcases the
news/reviews that it wants to share is also a lot better than my website, as theirs is structured into several boxes
of easy to read headlines that would be topped off with a little funny remark about the game in order to convince
the audience to take a look, meanwhile my website just has them in single file with some of the information next
to an image of the topic in question, looking a lot more bland as a result and looking less likely to be convincing to
the Target Audience.
13. Conclusion
In some ways I’d like to say that the final result of my magazine went quite well, however
after analysing them and comparing them to similar products, I’d have to say that there is
things that would defiantly need improving if I had to do this again, for example with the
front cover more would need to be added onto it as at the moment there are too many
gaps on the page where other headlines could’ve been. For the Double Page Spread it
would need to be planned out slightly better, as the major problem with it was that after
inserting the article into it, I wasn’t able to add more onto the page because of the lack
of space that it presented. For the website there is multiple issues that would need fixing
in the event that I’d need to do this again, for example I’d need to put some more time
into finishing off the pages that didn’t get much time invested into developing them
(such as the About Us Page and the Gallery), as well as this I’d try and improve the overall
quality of the website, adding small pieces to it in order to make it look more appealing.
Overall however I do feel like I did a good job with the magazine, however it does need
improvements in order for it to be comparable to actual magazines.
