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1. Proposal
1
Student Name and Number:
Kieran Johnson, 401100
Project proposal title and date:
“Press X To Start”, September–November 2021
Main area of activity
I’m working on a fanzine (print product) that is based around video games
Target Audience
16–24-year-olds, who have an interest in video games, mostly male, but generally gender neutral
Rationale:
I tend to consider print-based production as my strength, especially when comparing my music
video project to my magazine for the FMP project from first year. As a result, choosing to do a
fanzine instead of the other options (documentary and podcast) was a pretty easy choice for me.
As for the subject choice, basing it towards the video game industry was also a fairly straight
forward choice for a multitude of reasons – I already have a good amount of knowledge on the
subject, I know people within the industry who I’d be able to talk to, and (besides the adventure
project from first year, which didn’t turn out very well) it’s a subject that I have not yet delved into in
my time with creative media.
Project Concept:
The fanzine is going to be based on video gaming, with a starting title of “Press X To Start”. The
main area of gaming I’d like to emphasise in this fanzine is mostly current issues, with a tendency
to ask the question of whether the gaming industry as it is today is truly evolving or is actually
stagnating. With this being said, I won’t be afraid to touch on more retro video gaming content as
well, such as making a page dedicated to recommending older video games for those who play
recent variants of them (for example, fans of the Battlefield series may be interested in playing the
original Star Wars Battlefront series released in 2005). Other pages I intend to include is an
interview page with an established name within the gaming industry – one such person in mind
already is ThisGenGaming, a YouTuber with over 200,000 subscribers and 100,000,000 views on
his channel. His content is mainly geared towards wrestling games, both retro and current day,
and as I already talk to him frequently, I feel he may be a good choice to talk to for this project.
Research I will do will be geared towards both already-existing fanzines, such as
MaximumRocknRoll, as well as looking at general information about the video gaming industry as
it is today. These include looking at news articles, magazines, books, and more that talk about
video games and their impact on society over time, as well as today. Whilst I already have good
knowledge on the subject, doing this research will help me get a better understanding at people’s
views on video gaming today and how they can be implemented into a fanzine.
How will the project be evaluated and reviewed:
I will be evaluating the work I do this project by taking screenshots of the progress I make daily
and giving a brief summary of how it’s going after each day – almost like a multitude of diary
entries. The final reflections will be a summary of how I feel the project has resulted overall,
overviewing how good I think it is, with the context of each challenge I faced throughout. As I’m still
learning how to produce high quality products, projects like these will be crucial in reviewing my
evolution as a creative media student and producer.

2. Proposal
2
Bibliography:
1. Amos, E (2018). The Game Console: A History In Photographs. USA: No Starch Press. p1-
300.
2. Anon. (2019). Video Game History. Available:
https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-video-games. Last accessed 29th Sept
2021.
3. Bale, J (1982). MaximumRocknRoll, Issue 1. San Francisco: Bale, J. p1-47.
4. Durston, C (2021). Video Games: Art, Theory, Design, Philosophy. England: Indepently
published. p1-420.
5. Hurst, A (2018). True Faith, Issue 138. Newcastle: Hurst, A. p1-94.
6. Kent, S (2021). The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony,
Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming. USA: Crown Forum. p1-
624.
7. Koning, J. (2021). Play it faster, play it weirder: how speedrunning pushes video games
beyond their limits. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/sep/29/play-it-
faster-play-it-weirder-how-speedrunning-pushes-video-games-beyond-their-limits. Last
accessed 29th Sept 2021.
Week Specific Tasks
1 Production [in/out?]  Out: Photography, writing up articles, conducting
and writing up the interview. All of the stuff that
occurs just ahead of the production of the printed
pieces, which begins the week after.
2 Production [in/out?]  Out: Finish writing up articles, proofreading
before they’re given the okay to be put into the
fanzine pages.
 In: Beginning of construction, front and back
covers, organising layouts, selecting what types
of colours to use, choose which images to place
on the front and back, decide which font fits best
for the masthead.
3 Production [in/out?]  In: Construction, the double page spreads,
interview page(s), mostly organising the layouts
and backgrounds for these pages, preparing
them to be written on.
4 Production [in/out?]  In: Final refining of double page spreads,
finishing up the writing aspects of them – e.g. one
last article proofread to ensure it is ready to be
written onto the pages – post-production tasks,
the evaluation and garnering peer feedback of
my products.
Be aware which of those weeks are in or out of college,as you may need to plan different tasks around other
work when workingremotely. Budget for approximately 30 hours for production – which is roughly two weeks
of your time in college.