Some Changes
A brief look at some of the things we have and haven’t been doing.
Now as you may have noticed, the first has come and gone and the new issue still isn’t out yet. Which isn’t all that unusual for us, actually, but because there’s still a significant chunk of work left undone and I’m still recovering from the double whammy of GDC and Gamescom, it’ll be more than just a few days until you finally get to see what we’ve got in store for you. Andrew Walt is still a swift and diligent design ninja, but he hasn’t even gotten a finalized content document from me at this point, and it would be silly of me to expect him to make up for my own tardiness.
So the issue will be delayed a little while longer. That’s on me and I hope you understand and will be patient for a little while longer. It is coming, promise, and I maintain that the convention experience was well worth wrestling with its associated diseases, and it looks like we got some interesting content lined up because of it.
The other big thing, which I meant to share on the first pages of our latest issue, is that Andrew will soon return to university for a Master’s degree and well-deserved teaching assistant position. Both will demand a fair bit of attention. He has, for now, graciously agreed to continue doing design work for our little games magazine, but so as not to tax him overly, I’ve decided to use the opportunity for some generous trimming of our concept.
So far, we have been running a varying selection of columns in our issues. Following this one, they will be moved to the site itself. Zachary Brictson starts us off on Sunday the 8th with a new Off The Grid, sKanDle will offer observant comparisons in Same Difference on Sunday the 15th, our Editorial Assistant Taylor Hidalgo will begin an exciting, new and yet unnamed column on Sunday the 22nd, Andrew Huntly will take us to The Other Screen on Sunday the 29th and then it’s back to Zach and so on and so forth. The order and exact time might change, but the idea is to have something new for you every week.
The reason we had columns in the magazine initially was to offer a bare minimum of content regardless of pitch influx. As a guarantee for me that even if I had no ideas, and no time to poke and prod various contacts to see if they want to write something, we’d at least have something to start from. This is not to devalue the great work our columnists have been delivering, but merely to note that in the context of a themed issue, they have always been slightly unrelated. Tacked on.
The second reason for this is that when we started out, I had never planned on doing a strong online presence. It’s one of the many things I worked out as I went. Now that we have this shiny new site though, we might as well show it a little bit of love.
What this means is that, in the future, I will put greater effort into thematic consistency for our issues. Unrelated pitches will most likely be turned into articles for the site itself, and if not enough related material comes in, well I guess then I better get used to writing more myself. For another thing, it might allow me to have another go at specific, themed Intermission pieces. I like the idea of a little bit of breathing room between lengthy features, and if I start talking big, artsy words about creating a thematic whole, I might as well go all out. I won’t make any promises about this though, because it’s a lot of work for something comparatively small.
For now, you’ve got one more “classic” issue to look forward to, even if it might be overtaken by the newly moved columns. Which will hopefully help with the wait.
Cheers