my evaluation powerpoint for my print magazine project at york college

1. Evaluation
William Young

2. Research
• Strengths:
One way in which my research helped my product was in the font I used for most
of the magazine. The vast majority of times I employed font on my front cover, my
double-page spread and my contents page, I employed a pixelated font that I had
downloaded from the internet, called ArcadeClassic. I think that using that font
helped my magazine to look more game-like, which would have appealed to my
target audience (had I gotten this magazine published for real), people who play
video games.
Another way in which my research helped the production of this magazine was in
the research that I had done into other games, such as God of War 2018 (which
ended up being featured on the cover of the game magazine) and Red Dead
Redemption 2 (which was a strong contender for being featured on the cover of
the game magazine), and Just Cause 4 (a game that I had only heard about in
passing), games which I had previously not known much about. This helped
broaden my sights in terms of what games I could accurately talk about.

3. Research cont.
• Weaknesses:
One portion of my research that I think I could have improved on was that I
think I could have done more research into actual magazines with video
games as a focus, rather than just researching the games themselves. In the
process of my research for my gaming magazine, I only looked at one or two
magazines (those being Edge and the now-discontinued Official Nintendo
Magazine). If I were to make this magazine again from scratch, I would have
done more research into actual magazines against just focusing on video
games. An effect that this would have had on my product is that it would
resemble a magazine like Edge or ONM far more than I tried to make it look
like my own thing.

4. Planning
• Strengths:
One thing I really liked about my planning was that I didn’t do much planning for
any part. The only planning I really did was an extremely loose idea of what my
magazine would look like, leaving me open to come up with things to possibly
add, in the moment, to how the magazine would look on the fly. This sort of
planning helped my product because that’s how I believe I work best, without any
restrictions created by myself before the beginning of production, that would limit
my creativity.
Another thing I liked about my planning, looking back at it, is that, as loose as it
was, I managed to stick to the plans that I had set out for myself. For example, my
plan that I would have a game that was nominated for ‘Game of the Year’ at the
Game Awards be on the cover of the magazine (which I did, with God of War
2018), I would have the title of the magazine at the top of the cover (which I did),
and I would feature a picture of an upcoming game (as of the time I began
producing the magazine) on my contents page (which I did, with the video game
‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’).

5. Time Management
• I believe that I managed my time extremely well. I was able to complete
my magazine cover and double-page spread (to a standard that I was,
overall, pretty happy with), as well as make a contents page for my
hypothetical magazine, within the time I was given to do the magazine and
double-page spread, which meant that I completed my project (and then
some) on time. I believe that my cover and my contents page were done
to the highest standard I could achieve (with the Photoshop skills that I
currently know), but however, I believe that my double-page spread could
have been done better, but I was sadly unable to do so with the fact that I
am not very good with the use of Adobe InDesign. If I had had more time
to produce my work, I would have acquired more skills in Adobe InDesign,
and then applied those skills to my double-page spread in order to make it
better.

6. Technical Qualities
Both magazines have
their title at the top.
White background with SMG2 on GamesTM
magazine while my magazine is just GoW2018
GamesTM magazine appeals
more to kids with a kid-
friendly game while GNM has
God of War, a very adult game,
on the cover.
GamesTM magazine has a
circle, containing information
about the magazine, at the
bottom while GNM has boxes
at the top.
GamesTM cover picture is
front and center while
everything is on top of the
GNM God of War picture.
Barcode is on the cover of GamesTM magazine, while
there is no barcode on GNM magazine cover (it
would’ve been on the back cover).

7. Technical Qualities cont.
Certain words in the caption of
the EGM article are much
larger than the others.
The EGM article has a special font
(or at least, special 3D effects
applied to the font) for certain parts
of the tagline, while in the GNM
article, all the text is very flat.
The EGM article doesn’t show a
picture of the journalist who wrote the
article, while the GNM article does.
The EGM article has
more pictures in it
than the GNM article.
The EGM article
has a plain black
background
while the GNM
article has a red
and silver
gradating
background.
The EGM article has
less words in it than the
GNM article, focusing
more on the pictures.

8. Aesthetic Qualities
The main picture on the
cover of GNM is of
characters and a
background, while the cover
on GamesTM is just of two
characters on a white
background.
Much of the text on both
magazines is all in capital
letters.
The font on the majority of the GNM cover is more
pixelated and game-like than the GamesTM
magazine, the font of which looks more conventional.
The GamesTM magazine has
more stuff on the cover
relating to it being an actual
magazine, as opposed to
mine (which would have
that sort of thing be on the
back cover of the magazine).
The boxes in GNM are more prominent on the cover than the GamesTM magazine.

9. Aesthetic Qualities cont.
The background of the EGM article is
one solid colour, while the GNM article
has a red and silver background.
There’s a 3D effect on some of the text
on the caption of the EGM article, while
there is no such effect on any of the
text in the GNM article.
There are
more pictures
in the EGM
article than in
the GNM
article, which
is more
focused on
text.
The starting words of each paragraph in the
EGM article are a different colour and slightly
bigger, as opposed to the GNM article, where
everything (apart from the title of the article
and the caption) is the same colour and size.
There is information about the
subject of the EGM article
alongside said article, while there is
no such information on the GNM
article.

10. Audience Appeal
Most of the font for significant parts of
the magazine (text that isn’t regular text
in an article) is done in a pixelated
manner, appealing to those whose games
were more pixelated than they are now.
Most of the pictures used in the
magazine are pictures of games that are
targeted towards teens and young adults.
The pictures of game controllers appeal
to those who have consoles/a PC.
There’s a lot of the colour red in
each part of the magazine, which
a lot of teens and adults like.