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Magazines: Game Maker’s Digest 9 and indie(Magazine) 4

Game Maker's Digest Issue 9Issue 9 of Game Maker’s Digest, the first to be published since last July of last year, has been released [left-click only download].

Announcing the release on indie(News) the magazine creator Brian Fetcher explained that “this issue didn’t contain as much content as was hoped. A combination of YoYo Games and real life issues got in the way. A lot of work was still put into the magazine.”

The magazine plans weekly releases but readers are not invited to contribute to future issues, instead all content will be provided by Fetcher or those he “requests” to participate.

Like the redesigned YoYo Games website launched yesterday it looks like this was pushed out to meet an internal deadline rather than concentrating on first getting the product entirely completed.

The PDF download contains 42 pages but take away the cover, contents, introduction, advertisements and section separating pages and less than half is left as real content.

The first article is a list of good and bad points about the aforementioned website redesign, complete what I think was supposed to be an erection joke. Then comes an interview with King Tetiro which puts forwards lots of questions about the work in progress GameMaker RPG Legena – The New Dawn (video).

The initial release of this issue featured empty Tutorials and Games Showcase sections however the first of these has now been filled in an updated copy of the magazine file.  Tutorials links to two of the official YoYo Games tutorials whilst Games Showcase will make its first appearance in the next issue.

There was a lot of bumf, with adverts for GameMaker 8.1 and the competing indie(Function) downright bizarre, but not a lot of real hard content in there which was a shame.  I would much prefer a shorter, less cluttered, release.

 
indie(Magazine) 4The fourth issue of indie(Magazine) [left-click only download] has only one piece of GameMaker content. Aside from game screenshots the design is also rather dull and there are also some transparency issues with the layout, not a great first impression.

Nathan Hurde takes a train journey and chats up a girl in her twenties who desperately tries to ignore him by playing games on her phone in what is probably the best written piece in the magazine. Despite its at times cringe-worthy style Nathan makes some valid, if rather obvious, observations about casual mobile gaming.

There is a review of the “C/C++” Steam game Death and the Fly and the C++ game Proun, a page of indie gaming tweets, a tutorial to give “guard” characters a cone of vision in Flashpunk (though the language is not declared anywhere) followed by 4 pages of code to draw the USA flag in GML and Flashpunk.

The scope is too wide, with the coverage and time spent on the content too low.

What do you think?

8 Comments

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  1. Hey, Phil, I see you commented how it only had one piece of GM content. I’d like to point out indie(Function); is not GM orientated, we’re indie game development news and education. So, I’m not sure why you made that comment, because it seems rather strange you did, since we’re not just a GM magazine, but we’re focused on indie game development in general.

    • The reason I commented on the amount of GameMaker content is because I assume readers of this site are interested in GameMaker content the most 🙂

      we’re focused on indie game development in general.

      Incredibly ambitious, you’re competing with the likes of IndieGames.com and TIGSource. Aside from reviews everything platform specific in the magazine seems to have been focused on Flashpunk and GameMaker so I assumed these were the focus. Also, I’ve only seen the magazine posted at the GMC, Flashpunk forums, GMG and here.

      The focus of your magazine is not my concern but this website understandably focuses on GameMaker content.

  2. I had a few problems with the Game Maker’s Digest release…

    The Foxit reader ad (why was that advertised anyway?) and the editorial relating to it confused me. It’s supposed to be read ‘Side-by-side’? Why? What difference does it make to the magazine’s content?

    I’ll stick with Acrobat Pro, thanks.

    Plus, why was there an ad for a competing magazine?

    Did he actually get permission from Banov to publicize Phantasmaburbia?

    And most of all, why was he advertising Game Maker in a Game Maker magazine?

    I could go on, but it’s better just to let people read Phil’s assessment of it.

  3. Well, other than 1st comment! I will like to say. She must have knew to ignore me before the train even got near our stop, because she was gaming before I got on. lol.

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