I am going to makes a games box cover based around the game “Call of Duty”. I aim to portray the idea that women are equally as powerful as men and shouldn’t be seen from the “male glaze” by putting both a male and female on the front cover. They will both be in the same stance and wear non-revealing clothing: avoiding typical male sexualisation of females in-game. Calling it “Ancient shooting war”

I will use contrasting colours from the top of the cover to the bottom, mise-en-scene, large bold writing for the title and different shapes to introduce mystery hiding behind them, using both icon and indexical signs to allow for increased interest.

The type of company that would make my cover would be a big brand Eldos who make many popular games and the type of people that would consume it would be both male and female but mainly male aged around 12 and up.

statement of intent

I am going to make a games cover inspired by the Toy Story films. I am doing this because I will be creating two new characters, both of which will be female. One cover will have one female and the other will have the other. One female will be dressed as an ‘Action Man’ toy and the other one will be dressed as more of a softer princess type look. She will represent a ‘damsel in distress’.

I believe I will incorporate both reactionary and radical aspects. The female character dressed as ‘Action Man’ will be dressed as closely as possible to what a male ‘Action Man’ which is radical since females are stereotypically dressed in much tighter clothing which is contrasting to males. She should not be in the position to be sexualised. The character dressed similarly to ‘Bo Peep’ in Toy Story will be reactionary since it is stereotypical for a female to dress in dresses and soft colours. This will make her look like the ‘damsel in distress’ that she is portrayed to be.

The target audience will be younger children, perhaps 7+. At this age children would have watched or heard about toy story so this game would be suitable for them.

My game will be made by a generally big company such as Nintendo or Sony.

1. I’m going to design and make a games cover based around an open world racer eg. Forza Horizon 4/5. My game will consist of an expansive car list and a realistic, huge explorable world. These will be displayed on the back of the cover. Other things people like to see are great user interface and high refresh rates (120Hz), both of which my game will support and will display this and other capabilities on the front and back of the cover. The target audience for my product will be anyone over the age of 3 and will be developed and produced by Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios.
2. The main cover image will be of a 2020 Ferrari SF90 GTS. This is because it is an iconic design of a car today and will attract the eye of the player. I am going to design my own using software called car configurator. I will use a similar design layout of many games covers of the current day. This will include a large title and iconic sign for the front cover. The main image will wrap around the spine and also be featured on the back side. I will also have a Playground Games logo on the front, as well as the PEGI 3 age rating.
3. My game will represent how an almost real experience can be induced in a game, but better than any other currently on the market. I will do this by allowing the use of a steering wheel/pedal/racing seat rig can be used with a Virtual Reality headset, something that is not currently possible on Xbox and PC systems.
4. My game will be playable by anyone who has an interest in it .

For my games cover i will be creating a pirate themed game, my dominant signifier will be a female pirate. I have chosen to create a radical female pirate game instead of a reactionary male pirate to ignore the harmful stereotypes that surround pirates and adventure based characters. I am creating this character to contrast with the usual theme of ‘damsel in distress’ which is presented with many female video game characters. My dominant signifier will be holding a sword which is an indexical signifier to danger and strength, something that is not commonly associated with female characters. My character will be wearing a long skirt or trousers to take away the focus of the male gaze and shine the spotlight on the aim of the game, adventure and fun.

My games cover will feature my dominant signifier on the front accompanied by small photo snippets of the game play on the back to entice the players. The anchorage will be smaller than the dominant signifier but placed near her.

The company producing my game will be XBOX as they have a huge following in the gaming community and will be able to gain the attention of potential players.

Intent:

I’m going to make a games cover based around Indiana Jones Film and Game franchise because it’s a heavily reactionary and stereotypical concept which is very popular so when I transform it into a more radical and counter-stereotypical concept which would challenge consumers perspectives and assumptions much easier since the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise since it’s very popular. I predict my radical product will be perceived as similar to the ‘Lara Croft’ game franchise

Media Language:

After analysing and describing CSP 1&2 I can assume that I can produce a reactionary and radical product which will look professional with the use of similar indexical, symbolic and iconic signs. After looking at CSP 1&2 I now understand what signs game covers typically use and how, knowing this is going to help me make my games cover since I know what signs to use.

Representation:

I’m going to be designing both: a radical cover, one which introduces and explores counter-stereotypical ideas which challenges the consumers reactionary response to a game which has the same concept of the one which I plan on making and a reactionary design, a design/concept of a game which is stereotypical and what the consumer may expect from a game with the concept of the one I plan on producing.

I feel a large, mainstream company would distribute/produce the reactionary version of the game since they’ll know/expect that a mass market will enjoy the game. Whereas I feel a smaller, maybe niche marketed games company would distribute and/or produce the radical version of the game.

For my video games box inlay products, I intend to make two that represent the significance of the male gaze. This means that I am going to make one cover that could be suggested to be objectifying women and another that isn’t suggested to be objectifying women. This is because I would like to support the stereotype of the idea that the female body is constantly sexualised throughout the male gender.

I will do this by producing my first cover with the main character as a woman named Carrie Alpin, this woman will have an over exaggerated definition within her bum and tight clothes, this is because these features can over sexualise a woman’s body. She is going to be wearing a tight grey tank top, which will define her breasts, weight and hips. For her bottom half she will be seen wearing what looks like grey leggings, these also define her hips but help to define her bum. I am going to show two images of her from both a front and back view in order to see how the clothes fit her and to see her whole body. For both of my covers I am going to use a space/galaxy like theme.

For my second cover which will oppose the stereotype of the male gaze, I will produce the main character, who is also a woman named Jennifer Rigley, with baggy clothes on which will be an oversized yellow firefighter jacket which goes long enough to cover her bum and baggy yellow firefighter trousers which will not give any definition to the woman’s figure. The placement in which the woman will be is the exact same as as my other cover, this is so that the audience can focus solely on the difference in how her body and figure is presented.

The type of media language I am aiming to use within my covers are graphical features such as a dropcap. I also am going to use elements of real print product such as an age limit, an age limit is important to use as most video games are mixed with violence so could be offensive to someone of a younger age considering that the target market for video games are also more often for boys of a younger age.

I would like to represent these video games box inlay products as something to suggest the importance of sexualising the female body as I feel that it is wrong and unethical. The context that I am going to include into my covers is the impression of the male gaze.

The kind of company that would make my product would be xbox or ps4 as they are the most well-known video games companies.

Statement of Intent – I am going to make a games cover based around FIFA, because the argument around male and female football being similar principles is quite interesting to me. I am going to do two covers, both based around football, however one version of the cover will be reactionary featuring mostly male characters wearing usual, comfortable sportswear typical of that worn in a football match, however the other one will feature female characters, and so it will be radical to what the stereotypical audience, a young, male player, of a football game would commonly expect for a front cover of these kinds of games.

I am going to base my covers on the standard cover of FIFA 22 which has conveniently been released this month, with a similar layout using elements such as an age rating, company logos, graphical elements such as lines, and indexical symbols to relate to what the product is offering. However, I am going to use different background images, but use the same icons and signs that the normal one does.

I want my product to represent the fact that women are perfectly capable of playing sport and making it entertaining without having to bear the “male gaze” in mind, particularly in the game industry. I intend to prove that women to not need to satisfy the male gaze while being depicted as strong and independent in video games.

The type of product I am going to make would usually be published by a games company such as EA and would be for an audience of fairly young male players.