To begin creating my magazine cover, I first researched a selection of different styles of magazine covers until I found one that I liked the look of and based the layout of mine on that. I liked the layout with the boxes with plugs at the bottom so chose to add this to mine.

To start with, I decided on my target audience. I decided on 8-10 year olds because I wanted to try and take a different approach at gaming magazines. A lot of magazines I’ve seen are mainly directed at adults/teenagers, therefore I wanted to make one for younger people. I added things like the small stars and a round, more cursive font, to make the cover more appealing to my target audience. I chose the colour orange because it is eye catching and bright.

To get my main image, I took photos of a friend. She has very curly hair so we decided that it would be beneficial to make this the main feature of the photo. Once I had got a good image, I put it into photo shop and edited it to give it a more cartoony, mosaic effect. I took a still life image of a hat and used that as a promotional image to interest readers. I have also included plugs at the bottom of the cover to add more images and interest.

For the title I decided to use a larger size to make it clear that it is the dominant signifier on the cover. I also used a different font to the rest of the text, as I wanted to clearly differentiate between the two. My original title of the magazine was going to be ‘Little Gamer’ but after considering the age range more, I decided it would be more appropriate to change the name to ‘Budding Gamer’, as the target market is people who are new to gaming.

On the front, I included a small list of things that would appear in the magazine to make the audience interested. In one of the plug boxes, I created a character on Adobe Fuse and included that. I chose to make a scary, witchy character and wanted it to be cartoon to tie in with the brief of video games.

Overall I am very happy with my gaming magazine cover, as I think I’ve managed to fulfill the brief and I have been able to develop my skills throughout.

Statement of Intent

My magazine cover was aimed at a target market ranging from the ages of 4-12 years of age, KICK-OFF is mostly aimed at boys however girls can also enjoy it too, it is a child friendly magazine which is reasonable, so that means it can appeal to all children it does not affect their economic state.

I decided to create a magazine that had a retro feel to it so I made the whole magazine 8-bit and based the magazine off football. To convey my retro style I used the rule of thirds to place my strap line, iconic sign and plugs. My iconic sign are to footballers reaching for a football to draw my target audience’s attention I used  bright colors such as blue yellow to really engage my audience and have them hooked right from the beginning just from the main image. I used an indexical sign on my different color fonts for example my strap line was yellow where as my plugs had a purple back round with purple writing the idea behind this was to grab my target audience’s attention with the variation of color. The iconic sign was then images of well-known professional footballers as 8-bit characters and the back round of the magazine being a football pitch. Even though a child aged 4-8 may not know these footballers they will be intrigued with the magazine due to the cartoon element of the magazine. I gathered inspiration of many magazines such as Match of the Day for the football element of the magazine and for the 8-bit element I used ideas from magazines such as Retro and Retro Gamer for my strap line and plugs I made a similar version/layout from the Match of The day article, this really allowed me to finalize my magazine as I was able to gather inspiration on what footballer to create to add to the plugs. I used a lexis of words such as Best and exclusive for these words I added extra effect on photo shop by putting both words on bold and using bevel to really make them stand out, I also added a hook to the magazine saying ‘Enter in a prize draw to win Ronaldo’s Football shirt’; this was added as a way of the target audience to really want to purchase the magazine as they all hope to win one of Ronaldo’s shirts.

Representation: I Believe my magazine front cover is radical, i believe my magazine challenges dominant ideology as i made it a retro 8-bit magazine. The reason why this challenges dominant ideology is because in this generation games are improving and the latest technology are allowing games and their quality to be similar to real life. The first reaction the audience may have from my magazine is believing it is a bit outdated because compared to modern day games which the public are used to; it stretches modern society beliefs on how games should be made nowadays. I wanted to challenge dominant ideology by allowing the public to remember where the roots of games came from to how they evolved now, this is why my target audience is from 4-10 year old’s. As they do not critic the outdated games they play them for fun due to the wacky kid friendly play styles and the variation in color.

Audience theory: Reception theory- This is where the media re enforces a message to the audience. some believe this theory only gives the media what they want to see, linking into my magazine by adding this into the audience this may change the opinion on how some people feel about my magazine due to the media re-enforcing a message for example portraying my magazine as one of the best gaming magazines this may influence the audiences ideas, attitudes and beliefs to the comparison of retro games and 21st century games and changing their belifs on what type of game they think they should be playing.

Cultivation theory- examines the long term effect of television and media this would effect my magazine as the audience would be so used to playing certain games seeing a magazine which challenges the games these members of the massed media play they may not be willing to openly try these new retro games and sway towards the ideas of their is no better game it does not mater if its 8-bit or 21st century graphics.

Statement of intent

The title of my gaming magazine cover is Oh my, Gamer! the inspiration for my title was when I heard my colleagues struggling to come up with a title And I heard one of them exclaim “oh my God” so I thought I would set this as my title but with gaming relevance.

My audience is targeted for boys around the age of 4-6 as I put docile but bold format for my magazine as I made it so it would be understandable for the younger target audience as if the magazine had to complex writing the audience I was targeting wouldn’t want to ask their family but I did add the whole free toy for if the magazine were to be real the toy is the part of the magazine the kids want.

For my niche interest content, I made my game names related to genre’s like fantasy, battle, exploration these are types of games that will appeal to the younger generation as it has “cool” factor especially for names like for example Fortress Fire and the whole idea is the targeted audience even though young are able to comprehend that the game is attractive, “cool”.

My magazine is a viable magazine title because it is attractive and stands out and seems musical in a sense when you read it so it can get stuck in your head this is especially important since I have a young target audience so at their type of age they won’t remember a lot unless its key, rememberable information, for example, most young kid who asks to go to places like McDonald’s because they know that this means chips and chicken nuggets so if my title is rememberable enough the kids will want to buy the magazine when they spot it in a shop.

The proposed use of Language style for my audience is very simple and informal due to their age if they had to read very complex and formal writing my audience wouldn’t be able to understand and wouldn’t be attracted to the magazine and wouldn’t ask their parents to buy it.

My proposed use of representation form for the audience is a Pcgamer magazine but for a younger audience around the ages of 4-6 and I made a more docile version with white and blue with cartoonish character that I drew in photoshop but I kept some similarities with the original PCgamer like putting the main character in the middle of the magazine but there still the contrast to make it different as I mentioned before where I did white and blue when they normally do red and black.

Where I get my content from is just random ideas from my head but are influenced by thing like books and shows that I watch and since I had a cartoon rich childhood it affects how the characters look and are drawn as well I have played a good amount of videogames in my past which will also play a part on my content ideas.

Working title: “Game Review” 

Target audience: 12-22-year-old boys with varying skill levels. This magazine can be used for beginners who are looking to fulfil their adrenaline a need of racing and they may look at the magazine for an opinion on the game’s quality and worth. In addition, existing simulator racers would use this to find any new tips and compare this to over games and magazines for their own opinion.  

Niche Interest context: My intent with this magazine front cover is to give comprehensive and balanced views to the gaming community about weather a certain game is entertaining, exciting, enjoyable and fun. I want to do this by showing positives and negatives within a game. In my magazine, my game will be called “M series”. “M series” is a racing game so I would review areas such as handling model, graphics and how the artificial intelligence performs against the player. By giving a fair and balanced review people can save their money if they aren’t intrigued or play, however on the other hand “Game review” can promote a game bringing in money and profit. 

Why is this a variable magazine title? The “Game Review” title gives me flexibility about what type of game used as it can be about any game in the world. It doesn’t just have to be about racing but, about modern first-person shooters of old retro games. 

Proposed use of language: The magazine will use informal language, modern slang and specific vocabulary linked to the game. This would be more interesting to the viewers because they would prefer to read something less informal especially from the age of 12-22.  

Proposed representation form for the audience: I intend to use different images in my contents page to include different races making the overall magazine feel more welcoming to other ethnicity’s and races other that stereotypical white gamers. 

Where will I get my content from: I will create my own opinion on a game created, so the overall view and opinion is my own that isn’t influenced by others so it is as raw and unbiased as possible