I also am doing a magazine advertisement for my game.
I have bought a couple of magazines and researched how they design the advertisement. Many magazine advertisements use the cover of there game, this is a good idea because then people will recognise your game more easily. They also have the game case on several different consoles to show the range when the game is closer to its release date. There are also advertisments that don't show the cover. these are more extravigate then the ones that use the cover. This is used to attract people to the game. Advertisments sometimes use screenshots of there game.

reseach for game covers

In my research for game covers, I found out different ways in which the company's design there covers. Game covers are there to attract you, if you see a awesome game cover most of the time you will buy said game. A game could be amazing but if it doesn't attract the attention it will go amiss.

Some just show the main protagonist with a blank background.












Notice how even thought the background is plain, its the plainness that makes the cover image stand out.

whilst others show just a logo:

The upside to having just your logo on the cover is that people recognize the game.

but some game covers do have backgrounds:

This shows the setting for the game. whither it be ancient Greece or a fictional city in America.

I have decided that i will have a background in my cover. I found that games covers that have a background attract more attention and that's is whats needed to attract attention.