This document evaluates a fanzine created about the Monster Hunter video game series. It summarizes the creator's intentions, audience, content style, and areas for improvement. The creator aimed to replicate the notebook from Monster Hunter World and succeeded in creating 12 pages with different elements. Their audience is fans aged 16-34. Technical skills like textures and effects were developed by following online tutorials. While overall successful, the creator notes areas like making the leather cover redder and improving layouts could further enhance authenticity. Planning was smooth but learning new skills took some time initially.

1. Fanzine Evaluation

9. The extent to which my intentions have been
realized
• My original intentions were to make 12 pages (including front
cover/back cover) consisting of 1 story page, 1 multipage interview
that is 5 pages long, 2 list of monsters pages, 2 fact file pages, a front
cover and a back cover. The intention of making 12 pages has been
realized. My other intention was to replicate the notebook that
Monster Hunter World uses in the game and I think I have succeeded
doing it.

10. The appropriateness of my work to my
audience.
• I have made this fanzine for the fans of Monster Hunter and
newcomers to the series. At the time where I was planning my
fanzine, Monster Hunter World had just came out so I thought that I
should make a fanzine about this game because not everyone would
know a lot of information during that time therefor both beginners
and veterans would be interested in my fanzine. The age of my
audience would be similar to the actual games which is 16+ but the
fans of this series will most likely be older because the previous
games are relatively old. So this will make my fanzine appeal to
people age 16 – 34+.

11. Content and Style
• I decided that I will make my own textures when designing my fanzine but I didn't know how to make them so I
looked at some tutorials online. The old paper effect is an effect that I needed to use in almost all of my pages
so I found a YouTube video by HowToPS to teach on how to use this skill.
• So the first bit I did was that I used the exact same colours as the video and then paint bucketed the
background with the lighter colour. After that I made a new layer and clicked on Filter>Render>Clouds. After
that I turned down the opacity of the layer to 40 like the video and made a new layer. This time the video guy
used a custom brush to paint however I don’t have his brush so I had to find one online. I found a website
called Brusheezy that had a similar brush I needed so I downloaded it. So after all that I used the darker colour
and used the custom brush and set the layer style to multiply. After that he turned down the opacity to 55
however I didn't do that in some of my pages because it didn’t look good. He then merged all the layers
together and went to Filter>Filter Gallery and chose the Texturizer filter. I used the same settings as the video
then pressed ok. After that I used the burn tool using a soft brush with the same setting as the video and
burned around the edges of the pages and then everything is done. For the monster list (“Top Predators”) I
decided to use different colours using black and grey to look different and the fact that magazines with
monster lists normally use dark backgrounds. This shows that I have developed my technical competence
because I created the effects from scratch myself rather than finding ones that other people have done online
and using them. Because of this, this has increased my creative abilities. I am pleased with the result
• I wanted to use the same style as the Monster Games. Therefore the title’s font that I used is from the actual
Monster Hunter games (specifically the 3rd game). I had to use this font because the font that they use in
Monster Hunter World is new and the font websites don’t have this particular font. I couldn't download the
font that I used at college so I had to download it at home. The body text font I use is Papyrus which is on
almost every program. I also used the paper brush from earlier to create the worn out effect for the text and
pictures.
• The border patterns you can see I found on Brusheezy while I was finding the paper grunge brush. I decided to
use this border as I thought that it fitted the style that I was aiming for. I simply made a new layer and spread
out the pattern across the pages. After that I used a skill which was new to me which was the paper grunge
brush to make the borders look worn out like the rest of the pages. I learnt this new skill thanks to my own
initiative.
The font from Monster Hunter World that isn’t available to download

12. Content and Style
• For the fact file part of my magazine I decided to do
something different than another old paper effect. I
thought it would be cool to use an image from the game
and make the style look like a lightly sketched drawing in
the background behind the font.
• I develop this skill by making the background layer white
and then desaturating the image by using the
Hue/Saturation tool in the adjustments bar to turn the
image into black and white. After that I turned down the
opacity to 12 to make it fade in so that you can hardly see
it. Even though this wasn’t technically complicated but I
still feel that I did it competently. I like the effect that it
shows.
• I still use the same fonts as my other pages but this time I
used the monster symbols font that I found while I was
finding a in-game monster hunter font. I used the monster
symbols as bullet points for my facts and if you combine
all the letters you get “MONSTER HUNTER”. I think that
this is a creative idea.

13. Content and Style
• This entire fanzine was made to replicate the notebook from the game as
I mentioned in my intentions slide. I used the 2 images above as my
inspiration for my fanzine. The one with the cover was my main
inspiration for the front and back cover. I discovered after looking more
closely at the image that the cover that they used was leather so I had to
find another online tutorial on how to make a leather texture. This is all
so that I can match the in-game style.
• The tutorial that I found to help me develop this skill was also made by
HowToPS. First we need to use the gradient tool and then select the
colours. In the tutorial he used very browny colours but I wanted more
redy colour to match the in-game style so after I chose the brown colours
I used the colour balance tool to colorize the gradient to what I want and
then used the Hue/Saturation tool to make it look more a redy-brown
and also make it look like it was dirty. After this I diverged from the
tutorial by using a leather texture tool from Brusheezy. I made a new
layer and use the texture brush then decreased the opacity to 20. I
wanted to add a little more dirt to the leather so used a different grunge
effect that I got with the paper grunge brush and used some of the grime
shapes from the shape tool. After that I turned down the opacity on all of
them to 5.

14. Comparing to my old work
• Comparing to my old work I have definitely become
more competent at producing original work. Before, I
had to rely on premade images eg this background
that I found on Google Images and just cut and pasted
it on to a piece of work. After that I’ve started use
texture images to texturize my images that I made. An
example of this is when I made a storybook where the
characters had textures on their clothes to stand out
from the plain background. Now I can create my very
own textures so I don’t really need to rely on images
on the internet.

15. Areas for development
• 1. I think I should have made the leather colour
redder then what it is currently to make it resemble
the notebook better. To do this, instead of using the
brown colours like the tutorial I would use brighter
red colours.
• 2. I believe that the Top Predators list needed the
text to look more professional like having columns of
text rather than one big clump of text. I would also
do the same with my multipage article where I
summarize the interview because in my opinion it
doesn’t look correct. InDesign has a function where
you can do this much more easily then Photoshop so
ideally if I had more time I would attempt at using
InDesign.
• 3. Also in the Top Predators bit the names of the
monsters should have been in yellow with a black
outline just like my multipage interview. The reason
is that it would keep up with the consistency and that
it would stand out more in the dark background.
• Again in Top Predators the monsters should have had
the old paper backgrounds like the other pages.

16. Areas for development
• 4. After thinking about the images and
how authentic the fanzine looks, I think
some of the images should go over the
border. The reason is that if images were
real pieces of paper, they wouldn’t be
affected by the border. I think the reason
why they are affected is because I
unconsciously thought that everything
needed to be within the border. If I didn’t
have the images within the border then I
would have had a lot more space that I
could use for the text. Not to mention
that I would have looked a lot more
interesting and realistic. The best
example would be the page with the
interview summary. I think the text would
look just a bit better if the image was
lower.

17. Planning, Prep and Time Management
• Planning went as smooth as it can be. It would have been smoother if the college
internet didn't block all the websites that are listed under games. I was able to
gather all the information that I needed regardless of the blockage.
• For the prep, I found multiple magazine examples of Monster Hunter on google
images however most of the images are in Japanese therefore I could not
understand what type of font they use. The magazine examples however did
show that when they were talking about the monsters they normally used dark
backgrounds so I implemented that feature to my fanzine.
• The mock up prep helped me decide on what I wanted. The page with the
monster drawings was the one that convinced me to use this idea throughout
most of my fanzine.
• I was able to finish my fanzine on time however there where times where I was
behind. I was a little behind at the start because I was learning how to do the old
paper effect skill as well as trying to come up with a nice layout but I did
eventually get quicker as I learnt. Another thing that I was a little behind in was
with the fact file. When I started the fact file I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I
didn’t know whether or not to do the same paper effect or something different. I
ended up doing something different in the end and I finished the design rather
quick to give me enough time to work on the front cover.

18. Work in progress review
• Before the story page was the only page
in normal old paper colours and the rest
of the interview was going to be in
green. The reason why is because I
wanted each section to be different
from one another however what kept
me from sticking with this was the fact
that it would of looked weird alongside
the story page. Plus, all of the pages in
the notebook from Monster Hunter
World uses the same colour as my story
page so having most of the fanzine
colours green would not work with my
original intention.

19. Comments
What works well:
• The cover is very effective and attractive with leather effect and gold vintage style text.
The string tie is a nice touch.
• The style is consistent with layout, borders and text types.
• There is a good balance of images and text.
• It’s very well presented with lots of attention to detail. It is good and appropriate content
for a Fanzine.
Areas for development:
• Would prefer the Fun Facts section to be on the same colour background as the majority
of pages.
• One of the images on the Top Predators page is harder to see on the dark background.

20. Comments
• I think the front cover looks good, the metallic effect on the text works well with the front cover. I
think the string that is used is effective and feels like a binder or guide more than a magazine. This
works well for the fanzine you have put together.
• The old style of the magazine double page spreads works well in conjunction with the front cover
and the theme of the game. The pictures work well around the text and illustrate what you are
talking about well. The questions are a good idea however, I would look at the gold text when
thinking about your theme. This does crossover from the front cover, this is good but does not
stick with the spread theme.
• You have given very good advice to the gaming community about this particular game. It is like a
new starter’s binder and works well. The articles are all appropriate to the magazine and read
well.
• The top predators section works well and differentiates from the rest of the magazine. It shows
the change in topic. The titling is effective at the top of this too! The fun facts page is a good last
page to the magazine and I like how the symbols spell out the name.
• The back cover is also successful in carrying on the theme and is very simplistic. Well done Will!

21. Comments
• This is really interesting piece of work. It uses lots of good techniques
throughout to appeal to its audience.
• The colour scheme is well chosen. The texture of the pages looks very good
too. I like the use of symbols along the top and bottom of the page
throughout.
• There is some really interesting work going on with the text as well. It
bends around images which makes it look more appealing.
• It has pulled together lots of different elements to make a fanzine which
should appeal to people who play this game.

22. Comment summary
• Everyone seemed to like the theme of my fanzine. They like how vintage the front cover
looks and how effective the sting is. The double page spreads were liked because of the
style and how it relates to the front cover. They liked the consistency of the layout,
borders and text. One liked the colour scheme and textures. Some liked how the text
bends around the images and how the images relates to the text. Everyone generally
likes everything about the fanzine.
• The first comment mention that one of my images in the Top Predators page is a bit hard
to see against the dark background. I agree with this person because the image is hard to
see against the dark background however the image was naturally dark when I found it
and I tried turning the brightness up but made the monster look weird so I kept it dark.
• Another thing the first comment said was that they would of liked the fun facts to have a
similar background as my other pages. I made the fact file the way that it is because I felt
that it needed to be different to avoid all of the pages looking the same. I think what I
did was a good idea but if people would’ve like the entire old paper background for my
fanzine then I might have to change it.
• The second comment mentioned that the gold text in the questions might not of been
suitable for my theme. The reason why I did this however was that the image that I was
using for reference used this same type text in their game so I wanted to recreate that in
my fanzine. I definitely this understand though and I might see I can replace with
something better but for now I think its fine.