The post lists positions available as usual, with an application template, with some odd bits, such as “1. All conversations and organizing will be done over the forums and if applicable, MSN/Yahoo IM.”. Nothing much here, until we hit their “news update”:

In most recent events of GMS, 3 GameMaker Scope Magazine staff members have now been layed [sic] off, cut, sacked, fired, No matter what you want to call it, they have been removed from the GameMaker Scope Magazine team. These members include:
Broxter: The now-former editor. Some may be shocked by this, others may have expected it. The truth is, he did much work on issue3-4, two issues; then he somewhat slipped up, and this is where he started working on his YYG’s #3 composition entry. This would be fine, if he had of submitted more work to me, I mean, one piece of work is hardly enough. Then Broxter started with this thing where he was talking about other staff members behind their backs, insulting myself, in some sick ways and also saying that he is going to come and take my Girlfriend away and have [...Not too sure if I am actually aloud to say this on this forum, but if I'm not, please blank that word out Mod's ...] Sex with her. I really could not care less if it was a joke; it very much insulted and offended me.
Then, he has really started to get into these rage-type e-mails, where he seems very angry, also not completing work by the set date. So, he is now gone from the team.

And this continues with 2 other staff members being “layed” off. I think that NPT’s (also, thanks to him for sending me a PM about this in the first place) reply to this post sums this up more nicely than I could:

Do you honestly think you are going to get anybody to contribute to your magazine, knowing that if things don’t work out, you’re going to publicly smear them. You have absolutely no class.

You should probably add another important qualification to people consider helping you:

Must be willing to cater to the whim of an adolescent control freak.

GameMaker Scope Magazine reaches a new level of professionality is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Issue 5 is the November issue (?) and features a new layout and 36 pages of content.

Download it here.

Gamemaker Magazine becomes Gamemaker Scope Magazine is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Starting with the front cover there are some obvious similarities. Three gray letters and 4 boxes on the right hand side listing the contents adorn both magazines – but this is just the start of this ‘stolen’ design.

gmjab, editor of Game Maker Tech responded to the release of GMM at the GMC.

“I am not happy with this latest pretty much ‘stolen’ design. The design and article/review layout resemble the Game Maker Technology Magazine to a degree I cannot stand. You have copied almost every aspect of the design me and Rup13 worked on for over a month to get right.. Here is the list of copied things:

• Front Cover layout of where you have display what is in the magazine.
• The content is a complete and utter copy you have even made the first letters bold as GMTM has.
• Page numbers is exactly displayed the same!
• The staff opinion copied the whole quotes around the text (I don’t care if you said you didn’t take that)
• The news is display in the same position
• The article layout is the same. It has the title and subtitle and the “Written by” parts in the exact same positions.
• Reviews are… pretty much a copy of the GMTM review page. It has the positions of all the ratings, download, pros, cons and overall. Not to mention the colouring of pros and cons are the same. You have the same ratings of ‘graphics’, ‘audio’, and ‘gameplay’. You have copied the who pros,cons and overall idea.
• The final page includes most of the titles GMTM has and it also has the ‘next issue’ preview at the bottom which is a copy.

The only thing you didn’t copy was the gloss wave bar. Game Maker Magazine should be put to shame for stealing a design to make themselves look good. Next time EARN your position as every other magazine has. DON’T STEAL IT.”

Mattthew_H has apologised to GameMaker Tech for the similarities. Let’s hope that GMM can move on from what can only be described as an extremely embarrassing event and can produce their fourth issue with a unique design and high quality content.

As far as content goes Issue 3 of GMM was well placed. The first article was a look at the various off-shoot projects from GameMaker, “GM Killers”. G-creator and Enigma were featured but I thought the article was lacking in depth and should have focused more on what each project offered and what its potential was.

A couple of articles mystified me a little. Page 7′s “GMC – New look” described the changes that have occurred on the GMC over the past few months, whilst two pages were dedicated to an article entitled “What is the GMC?”. So far as I know the GMC is the only place where Game Maker Magazine is promoted – so the majority of people reading the magazine would be up-to-date with all the changes.

The Alternative Programs feature looked at free, often open source, alternatives to commercial programs and went through quite a range of software – although once again I thought this was perhaps too brief.

“Good Game Graphics” was a welcome addition, but I didn’t think it could match the quality of the pixel art tutorials previously featured in Game Maker Tech. As someone who is not good with graphics I always find simple guides like this a nice read.

There were also 4 game reviews, several tutorials, a couple of articles about YoYo Games as well as an interview with Sakisa, the creator of Crime Life.

You can download issue 3 of Game Maker Magazine (pdf, 8.6 MB) from mediafire.

Stolen design, but… is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Download GMM Issue 3 (pdf, 8.6MB)

Discussion of GMM Issue 3 to follow.

Game Maker Magazine Issue 3 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Previously MarkUp has been my magazine of choice, but I haven’t really been happy with what has been going on their for the last couple of months. I’m not alone on this as fellow GMB writer tuntis recently left MarkUp and applied to join GameMaker Tech.

I still have a desire to contribute to a magazine though, and I guess to many the obvious choice would be GameMaker Tech. It is a rapidly improving magazine and has strong management, particularly Kay, who I regularly chat with. I’d be perfectly happy working with GMT and it would certainly be interesting to see how working with them differed from working at MarkUp.

However part of me feels that I should stick with MarkUp. After all I have been writing for them for a year now and they were one of the first sites I went to when I returned to the GameMaker world last year. Loyalty is all well and good, but do I really feel I could turn around the magazine? The simple answer is no, not from its current state.

Then my decision became more difficult. Game Maker Magazine may not have had the best start with its first two issues, but I feel my input here would make the most difference. Despite the shaky start I see potential in the magazine and I truly believe that come a few months it could be the main challenger to GameMaker Tech.

Of course another option is not to tie myself down to any magazine and instead submit articles freelance to magazines as and when I feel like it, or if I receive a request for a particular kind of article.

I think I will wait until after the next issues of GMT and GMM are released before making my decision about which way to go.

Which way to go? is taken from: GameMaker Blog

• Interview with Edge and FredFredrickson
• Tutorial “save with your own file format”
• Editorials Gamemaker Magazine, What sites to post your game on and what you think should be in the next version of Game Maker
• The making of “Bloopie” so far
• Making a GM game that sells
• Make your games run faster
• $5 million & YoYo Games
• Game Maker: ’99 to now
• Reviews of Magi, Lux, Ark22, Psychosomnism and the now old book Game Maker’s Apprentice (this hasn’t been reviewed by any other magazine to date, right?)

The amount of content totals to 27 pages. While GMM still has a lot of issues with it’s quality; the mediocre outlook, typos and cluttered text without proper section breaks, it still is a lot more promising than Gnazine.

Gamemaker Magazine, pt. 2 is taken from: GameMaker Blog