This project involved creating a 12-page fanzine called "Press X To Play" focused on video games. Key aspects of the project included researching existing fanzines in different genres, developing ideas like reader letters and previews, conducting an interview with a gaming YouTuber, and refining pages like adding a Shadow the Hedgehog poster and retro game reviews. The completed fanzine consisted of consistent artistic style across pages, a review of Sonic Colors, and an exploration of whether the gaming industry is truly evolving. While more detail could have been added on some topics, the creator is pleased with the final product and application of fanzine conventions and design appealing to the target audience.

1. L3 Creative Media
Production & Technology
Evaluation
Kieran Johnson

2. Project Overview
In this section you will outline the aim of the project/task and give an
overview of the activates you undertook to complete it.

3. What was the theme of your project and
what attracted you to it?
• I was pretty set on the theme of video games as it’s a topic of which I
feel is quite impactful on my life – it meant that I would have prior
knowledge to use, on top of the research that I would eventually
undertake. I also felt that fanzines in general was quite a niche area of
production for me to look at, whilst I was aware of football fanzines
such as United Stand, I was eager to get to know more about how
fanzines originated – and founding out it arose from the 1970s punk
music scene made the inner metal fan within me quite proud.

4. What research did you undertake and how
did it help develop your project?
• Most of my research was based on fanzines themselves. I looked up
the three main genres of fanzines that were found on the internet,
which included a contemporary football fanzine, 80s punk rock, and
fourth-wave (modern day) feminism. Looking up these helped me
understand how fanzines (as well as zines in general) were put
together using both traditional, and contemporary methods – such as
magazine cut-outs as well as computer design.
• Notably the punk rock fanzine MaximumRocknRoll tended to have
more copy on their pages than would feature on True Faith and Grrl
Gang Berlin, although True Faith would also feature vast amounts of
articles in its editions.

5. How did you develop and improve your ideas
throughout the project?
• There were a few pages that I had first planned to put into the fanzine,
such as fan letters and a next issue preview (this can be seen still on the
treatment page). However, these were later changed into more concise
ideas and, potentially, more suitable pages for a fanzine, which were a
poster page (featuring Shadow The Hedgehog and one of his quotes), and
Retro Reviews, which features multiple older video games being reviewed
and recommended for the readers.
• I really enjoyed the idea of doing a retro review page because I feel that
area of gaming is my expertise, therefore I felt like I had a lot to talk about
for the reader to indulge themselves into. The Shadow poster page was
also quite fun to do as I had a lot of different ideas regarding how I could
interpret the character on a poster, and the finished page does look pretty
good in my opinion, probably the page I’m most proud with.

6. What was the outcome of the project/task?
• The fanzine would be called Press X To Play, and it would mostly detail news and thoughts
throughout the gaming industry. The biggest question I had asked for the project was whether the
gaming industry is really evolving or regressing. I wanted to make the points that whilst the
performance of the 9th generation consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S) are generally quite
powerful and the gaming community has generally extended across the globe through concepts
such as online multiplayer, the focus on and general performance of video games themselves are
not as good. A lot of publishers tend to push developing teams to rush certain games out to meet
the intended release dates, leading to them being released in unplayable states with a lot of
glitches.
• Funnily enough, this fanzine project coincided with the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remakes for Steam and the
9th gen consoles being released with game-breaking bugs and glitches. Thus, if an Issue 2 of Press X To Play
were to exist, this would be a good point to bring up to extend on the question that I had asked in Issue 1.
• The rest of the fanzine most focuses on the Sonic The Hedgehog series, probably my favourite
gaming series. The main article is a review of the Sonic Colours 8th gen (PS4 and Xbox One)
remake that was released in September 2021 (October in the UK), of which I included the game’s
box art and screenshots of the game for the reader to gain some context of what is possible in the
game. Additionally, Retro Reviews is a double page dedicated towards games of older consoles,
containing reviews for Sonic Heroes, Doom (the original version), and Crash Bandicoot, going into
detail as to what consoles they were made for and what similar games there are that are out
there today.

7. Personal Response
This section will explore your thoughts and feelings about the
experience. This will help gain a understand of how your personal
feelings may have impacted the final outcome.

8. How did you feel about the project before
you started?
• To be real, the summer of 2021 had been quite good for myself – I felt
I had gained a bit of confidence within myself to make sure the work I
do for the upcoming college year. As the year has dragged on, I feel
that some of the confidence has drifted by, due to the long travel
from home leading to heavy fatigue, as well as working after college
on Fridays, but in the beginning, I was filled with ideas for the project,
notably a board game or video game fanzine. Knowing that I’d need to
talk to some form of subject expert did dwindle my confidence
slightly, I’m not exactly the best when it comes to communicating
with people, however I had gotten along with a YouTuber known as
ThisGenGaming, who specialises in wrestling games, and has spoken
of the video gaming industry itself on Twitter, so I figured he’d
possibly be a good candidate for the interview.

9. What do you think about your project development and
how did it help you to refine your idea?
• The original ideas I had in mind were pretty much narrowed down very quickly. I
was always going to do a fanzine as print-based media, as well as using
photoshop to create such, is what I consider to be my specialty when it comes to
creative media. With the subject, I had thought about a making a board game
fanzine, as it was also a potential choice for my FMP, however my decision to
come to a video gaming fanzine had a few reasons for it.
• Firstly, I had decided to pursue a marketing campaign for a music album for my FMP, so the
urge to investigate the board game industry was suddenly dropped.
• Secondly, I already had quite a lot of prior knowledge with the video gaming industry as it has
been something that has been present throughout my whole life, and I already knew people
who I could talk to about video games, making the task of pursuing someone to interview
about video games a lot easier.
• Adding onto the last point, early September saw the PlayStation Showcase event, where
multiple games were to be announce for Sony’s latest home console, the PS5. It was around
that time when the question of “Is the video game industry actually evolving?”, and I thought
it would be an interesting topic to explore in this fanzine project.

10. Did you collaborate on your project or engage
contributors, etc?
• My interview was conducted with a YouTuber called ThisGenGaming – he
has a reasonably good following of around 220,000 subscribers and I had
spoken to him previously about video games before, so he was a plausible
option for me to choose to conduct my interview with. I gathered his
answers through Discord messages and the answers ended up in the
fanzine. I feel it was a good opportunity to speak with someone with such a
following on YouTube.
• Additionally, I collaborated with some friends I know of to get their
thoughts on several aspects about gaming, such as how PC gaming is
compared to consoles, whether multiplayer gaming necessarily matters as
much, etc. Some of them somewhat keeps up with contemporary gaming
better than I do, so it was useful to ask people who would also fit within
my target audience groups (16–30-year-olds, male).

11. How did you feel when the project was
completed and why?
• I felt that there could have been more done to it. I had completed the
minimum requirement of 12 pages, with what I would consider to be
enough time to spare to perhaps make a start to another double page. I
possibly did labour myself back during the final week of production, with
the knowledge I had only one or two pages left to complete, and ultimately
having the knowledge that I was going to complete the stuff that I had
initially planned for the piece.
• I am, however, quite happy with the final product that has been made. I’m
specifically pleased with how the front and back covers have been
portrayed, as well as some of the detail I had gotten into for the articles,
namely True Colours and Retro Reviews. There could have admittedly been
more added to the “Is the gaming industry really evolving?” question, as I
feel some of space to write more for it was taken up by a screenshot of
Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games at the bottom half of the page.

12. Evaluating the project
In the previous sections, you have been commenting upon the project development. The
evaluation may include some similar information but it will also include critical comment.
An evaluation must include information about the good and bad points of the project and it
is important to be honest. Finally, you should make a judgment about the effectiveness of
the success of the project

13. What were the good points about the project/task and what did you
learn from them? [try and think of at least 3, more if possible]
• I like how the inside pages of the fanzine all seem to have a consistent style
of art. Aside from the poster page, they are all done to a high level of
detail, with similar levels of organisation and all have backgrounds taken
from varying video games, all of which are overlayed by a colour gradient
pattern. I think the colours used for each page in particular suit their own
specific context, such as the cyan blue and the erin green for the Sonic
Colours review.
• Specifically for the front and back cover, I used a filter that wasn’t too
dissimilar to a cel-shaded art style, known on photoshop as poster edges. I
like that these have their own take on the fanzine convention of the cover
images being made in an artistic manner.
• An additional touch that was made for the front and back covers is that the
main figures of them, Sonic and Dr. Eggman, both have some form of drop
shadow forming over the border where the logo is, making it look like
there is some form of 3D movement occurring in the image.

14. What were the negative points about the
experience, and what could you have done to
improve them?
• I feel that the page about the gaming industry evolving could have gone
into a bit more detail. What I think went wrong with that page in general
was that the screenshots I had place on the left side of the page were
placed in areas where I couldn’t fit any more text into. Therefore, I had to
keep the key points made about the opinions short and simple, which for
an article, doesn’t really work a lot of the time.
• On the same page are a couple of graphs describing certain gaming
statistics over the last 10 years, such as what genres have become the most
popular, and how many users there are on Steam. However, the graphs
that were placed on to the page feel like they break the immersion of the
consistent page style I had made throughout the fanzine, and is the one
time that this consistent page style is broken throughout the whole piece.

15. How would you rate the final piece? [think along the lines of
poor, satisfactory, good or excellent...justify your rating]
• I would say that my finished work could be put in either satisfactory or good, but
it is shy of excellent:
• I like that the art style is mostly consistent, applying the poster edges filter on a lot of the screenshots
and the front and back cover, making the art-style for those photos feel somewhat like a cel-shaded
artwork. I feel this gives the fanzine a more creative expression and designer quality for it.
• As well as that is the use of gradients to fill as the background colour styles for the inside pages (namely
the review pages, the interview and the intro page). This once again contributes to the creative
expression, all the whilst giving it a thematic appearance, like it introduces the style I like to use for the
genre of zine I was intending to make. That and I feel the uses of brighter shades of colours, such as a
cyan-ish blue and lime green, also resembles the bright colours typically used in video game consoles
themselves.
• A few things that I think hold it back are the fact that most of the images I have used for the project are
taken from the internet. This was mostly because I would be lacking the facilities to take high-enough
quality screenshots of the games that I wanted to talk about (aside from the PS4’s built-in screensharing
qualities, I have no other means of recording footage directly through consoles).
• Additionally, I feel that I could have inserted a few more “designer-style” pages, similar to the poster I
did of Shadow The Hedgehog, mostly just to make the fanzine feel a bit fuller. 12 pages was the
minimum requirement for this project, and whilst I achieved that number, I’d like to think I could have
done a bit more.

16. What is your opinion of your final piece? What
elements do you think are successful and why?
• I am happy with how the final piece looks, even though I can acknowledge that
there are flaws with the product. What I think that I like most about it is the
gradient-influence backgrounds of the inside pages of the fanzine. The
backgrounds themselves are taken from screenshots of games and altered by
filters themselves, such as the Sonic Colours review being given a background of
Planet Wisp from the said game. I added a cut-out filter to it, and then a gradient
overlay based on the area’s colour scheme – in this case it was a turquoise blue
and an erin-like shade of green – and I think the colours work very well to create
a visually pleasing page.
• Similarly, on the Retro Reviews page, the background of Seaside Hill from Sonic
Heroes was given a mosaic effect to it, which in turn made it look pixelated,
which suits well with the retro theme I had intended to use for the stated page.
The addition of the pale shades of red, yellow, and blue works for the page as
well given the main piece about Retro Reviews was for Sonic Heroes – a game
which adopts those colours throughout its colour scheme.

17. How well did your project apply the characteristics
and conventions of the medium you worked in?
• I think that some of the characteristics taken from other fanzines have
been done so effectively. One example of this being the front cover being
depicted some style of digital art (more common with contemporary
fanzines, such as modern United Stand issues). Using the poster edges filter
for the front cover gives the fanzine somewhat of a comic book kind of
ambiance to it, which is something United Stand do themselves for most
contemporary issues, including a front cover using Marcus Rashford as a
spoof of Roy of the Rovers.
• Another convention typical of fanzines is the cut-out style of textures used
for the photos put in the inside pages. These are generally done to give
fanzines a scrapbook vibe to them, although I feel that mine have been
inserted into the pages more so to pastiche this convention, as I think they
may be missing some effect to make them look like they’ve been cut-out
and stuck into the fanzine.

18. How did you design appeal to your target
audience?
• I feel that the use of bright colours put alongside the types of games I
have chosen to use screenshots for through the fanzine appeal to the
age and gender group, in particular. It could be argued that Sonic The
Hedgehog is generally targeted more towards an even younger
demographic in 2021, but the character’s origins still lies within the
1990s, and as such does keep some form of connection among teens
and 20-30-year-old adults.
• Additionally, the use of the border on the front and back covers as an
homage to classic video game box art designs may be something that
appeals to the older portion of the audience. Due to that sense of
nostalgia, they may be more willing to put their time and money into
reading something that they can relate to.

19. Analysis
In this section, you will focus on the details of the project and make
sense of what happened in the project. You should demonstrate how
your decisions informed the project development and the success of the
outcome.

20. In what ways was the overall project a
success?
• I think that the project was a success from an artistic and aesthetic
standpoint. The colours used for each page in particular suit their own
specific context, such as the cyan blue and the erin green for the Sonic
Colours review, even the poster page fits well I think, because of Shadow
The Hedgehog’s character within the Sonic series being that of one with a
fractured mind, the paper tear and the glitch effect have both been used to
represent this struggled personality that doesn’t know their true value until
later on down the line (sadly Sonic Team themselves just stopped caring
about characters having personality by Sonic Forces, but that’s more of a
personal gripe directed towards the developers of Sonic games).
• The front and back cover used a filter referred to as poster edges that
wasn’t too dissimilar to a cel-shaded art style. I like that these have their
own take on the fanzine convention of the cover images being made in an
artistic manner.

21. What elements did not go well and why?
• The page that focused on the main topic of conversation itself – the
industry page – was a bit of a mess to get myself moving forward with. It
turned out to be one of the later double pages I had gotten around to
doing, and thus lethargy came into affect when I began working on that.
We had just come off of the week break for Halloween, and in all honesty, I
feel that double page could have become better organized and written
than what the final product shows.
• Notably, most of the images have been taken from the internet as well, as I
had a lack of equipment in order to screenshot them through my own
personal means, and buying the equipment itself would have cost way
outside any type of budget I had. It’s a minor quirk in fairness, as they have
all been somewhat edited, but it warrants a mention.

22. How did your skills develop during the portfolio? [remember,
skills aren't just technical, remember things like organisation,
time management, communication, etc as well]
• I think that I managed the time quite well for this project. I was able
to press on with work and match it all up to the due dates for each
piece of work. I feel this was all helped by a clear mind on the
scheduling, as well as my enthusiasm to work on the project,
particularly with it being based on a subject that I enjoy to a deep
level.
• I felt like I learnt a lot more about Photoshop during the production
as well. I finally understood concepts such as smart objects and
clipping masks and applied them in my project. Additionally, I took
the time to look up tutorials regarding certain types of effects to
make some images in the project look unique. One example of this
the paper tear poster of Shadow The Hedgehog, which uses a paper
tear, and a 3D glitch effect, as well as a paper edges smart filter.

23. What meaning and messages did you want to
convey and were you successful?
• If there was a message that I would have liked to convey, it would
have been that the gaming spectrum when compared between older
games and newer games is a tad bit unequal. That the contemporary
gaming industry appears to be missing something, whether it comes
in the form of effort with current games, that its more based around
console performance, or that it could be a combination of the two
points.
• I also wanted to show myself off as a Sonic fan, mostly to put out the
kind of content that I tend to identify myself with.

24. What feedback did you get from your peers
and viewings?
• A number of points were made about some elements of the original front
cover looking a bit too bland, as well as the shade of blue and the
masthead blending in too well. In an effort to change this, I altered the
shade of blue for the border of the covers, going from a dull blue to more
of a cyan, and I made an additional drop shadow to the masthead, which
overall helps the pages look a lot livelier and the masthead pops out much
better.
• What was praised was the level of detail that I had gone into for the review
pages, as well as the consistency and effort put into making the
backgrounds of the pages, making sure the page I chose suited the
contents of each page and that the colour choices were suitable as well,
such as the cyan and green used to overlay the Planet Wisp background of
the Sonic Colours review page.

25. Peer feedback 1
What was good about the product?
• The graphics look well done
• The articles are quite detailed
• The images do well to relate to the ideas I put across
What could be improved with the product?
• The front cover could do with a livelier shade of blue

26. Peer feedback 2
What was good about the product?
• The retro look to it makes it feel quite unique
• All the pages are well detailed
• The images appear cut out to give it an organic and homemade feel to it
What could be improved with the product?
• There could be a few more pages for it
• The introductory page could do with looking a bit livelier

27. Peer feedback 3
What was good about the product?
• The pages are well structured and edited
• Interesting information, helps the product to be informative
What could be improved with the product?
• The masthead of the fanzine could be a bit bolder to help it stand out more

28. Action Plan
This section will identify what you would do differently in the future and
identify ways you could develop.

29. If you were making a similar project in the
future, what would you do differently?
• I’d maybe try to focus on finding someone to talk to who with a much more direct
influence within the gaming industry – for example, people who work on producing
video games, writing stories for them, etc. Of these types of people, I have spoken with
Justin Leeper in the past on Twitter and YouTube, (mostly through his previous
collaborations with ThisGenGaming), who had been part of the production team for
several Smackdown Vs Raw video games, in addition to being a wrestler himself – which
itself is another strong interest of mine.
• In addition to that, I would also like to find a decent way to directly get screenshots of
video games at my own accord. There are numerous occasions in the fanzine where I was
relying on screenshots taken from an outside source online, mostly because I lack the
means to take screenshots of a video game without a HUD (heads-up display) visible on
screen. Some video games require mods and cheat devices to get this kind of stuff
working. This, as well as the lack of a screen capturing device was what led to me
requiring existing screenshots from the internet.
• I had mentioned in the opening slides that if an Issue 2 ever existed, I could talk about
the GTA Trilogy remakes being released for 9th generation consoles in such a glitchy state
that most playthroughs became unplayable, as an extension to the question of “Is the
gaming industry really evolving?”

30. What personal attributes could you develop to
ensure you are working at a professional level?
• I think there is still a lot more for me to learn about using photoshop
if I was to continue printed products at a professional level. Certain
effects and styles I had attempted to use and tried out during the
project didn’t end up working as I would have hoped they would, and
as a result I had to look for other tutorials to find different effects that
would maybe fit a bit better. On that basis, I would like to say that I
believe my eagerness to try new things and not be afraid of
something failing definitely has improved through this project –
including the projects from the first year, I don’t recall any other type
of product where I had attempted to include so many different types
of styles and effects into my work, and I think that this fanzine has
benefited from these attempts, as I managed to narrow down the
ones I wanted to keep on for my work.

31. How could you develop your skills for future projects? Please
identify the appropriate resources and courses. For example,
webpages, tutorials, books, short courses and qualifications.
• I’d suggest to myself to keep seeking out tutorials in order to get
myself good at new photoshop techniques and effects, as well as just
simply trying out new things to do for photoshop and being able to
conclude which effects and techniques work well for each given
project. A website I kept going back to in order to help me practice
and choose what effects to use was Photoshop Essentials, which was
free and went into the smallest details in regards of how to perform
these different techniques.