This document outlines a proposal for a gaming magazine called "Total Gamers" that would target male gamers aged 16-19 from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The magazine would focus on a specific game franchise, such as Total War: Warhammer, and include rumors, news, interviews and a community forum. It would aim to appeal to gamers seeking social interaction ("belongers") and those wanting to improve their skills ("emulators"). A sample layout is proposed including a community page and a page comparing factions in the featured game. The rationale discusses the author's relevant design skills from past media courses and interest in print-based magazines.

1. Proposal
Working Title
Total Gamers
Audience
My product’s audience will be dominantly male. This is because of the stereotype that men
are more aggressive and like more violent content. Also, stereotypically, women don’t
usually like video games and prefer to go shopping and are often more emotional than men.
Although they may not be true for the most part, I feel it is a good base to start targeting my
audience with. The age of my audience will mostly be around 16-19. This is to hopefully
draw in more of a younger yet mature audience than the one that the game franchise
currently has. The social grade of my target audience will be C2DE. This is because the game
that my magazine will cover is not the sort of game an upper middle class worker would
play. Although not the most common type of class, it is more common near York where my
magazine would primarily be based. As a whole, my magazine would appeal to a few
psychographics. Mostly the belongers and emulators. The belongers will fit right in with my
magazine because of the community section which I plan to add in in which the readers of
the magazine can ask their own questions or help the brand answer the rest of the
community’s queries or questions about the game. They would enjoy the interaction
between fans in which groups can be set up to play together and branded lobbies will be
opened to have online competitions in-game. As emulators buy products to look as if they
are more successful and are achieving things, my magazine would suit the gamers well as it
mainly talks about how to become better at the game and gives information on the history
of both the game’s timeline or its actual production. They would be fed plenty of
information and hints that would make any gamer look like a professional. The audience of
my magazine could be buying it for a few reasons. Some may buy it to help with integration
and social interactions to feel like they belong to a group of people and to create friends
through gaming. Others may buy the product purely to enhance their own experience in
game for their own entertainment. They would be able to escape from the real world and
learn about historical events at the same time almost seamlessly.
Rationale
Throughout the past year and a bit of studying creative media (lvl2+3), I have gained many
skills that I feel would be perfect for such a project as this. I have discovered new software
such as Photoshop and developed my understanding of its tools available to me. In this
software, I have learnt many different methods of editing such as colorization, photo
manipulation and blending techniques. These skills will definitely help with creating a more
professional product. During my time in Creative Media Lvl 2, I had created an extremely
similar product to what I’m planning at the moment in which I made a magazine which
discussed only the tactics in-game in Total War and other games. From that project, I
realized that print based media is one of my favourites. I still have the screenshots of my
production and the finished cover and double page spread that I would be able to use as

2. inspiration for my newest design. Although, I was happy with my older magazine, I still feel
as if there could have been many improvements made to it and I am hoping to make them
improvements this time around.
Project Concept
I will be making a magazine cover design and two double page spreads of a made-up gaming
magazine brand which focuses on one specific game franchise. The magazine will contain
rumours, news and exclusive interviews with the game developers and will also provide a
small but growing community that can get in contact with the magazine makers with
questions to ask and answers or potential leaks to give. This community section will be
featured on the first double page spread. To help me make this, I can take a look at and
gather information from official Total War forums and note down how they lay out their
web designs to inspire my page layout. YouTube would also be a good source of information
on Total War news as there is a wealth of channels that are constantly looking out for
announcements. All of this information will help me add the facts and fresh announcements
to my magazine that will keep it interesting for the audience. It will be especially helpful if I
cover a Total War such as Warhammer 1 or 2 because I have had no personal experiences
with them and therefore cannot write information down about it from my head. My second
double page spread will be more based upon the actual game. It will show a rather large
screenshot of a battlefield from the bottom upwards but will begin fading out halfway up
the page to reveal an article section talking about the world map’s HUD with a supporting
small, numbered screenshot to provide references for the annotations. On the right side of
the double page spread, there will be a ‘top 5 factions’ and their bonuses section. In said
section, there will be each chosen faction’s icon and their name below to show clearly which
faction is which. I will describe what unique units each faction will get and how they can be
used effectively and what specific bonuses their faction or faction leader can give them.
There will be a small image of the faction leader next to each description too.