An RPG Maker eZine: "Advanced RPG Maker"

[Roencia]

Thanks for posting on my topic.  I was just checking yours and though how cool it is that you're starting a online mag or eZine.  I've never heard the phase before, but I'm impressed.

 

[Leonardo Myst]

Nice editorial.

I especially like "some of which would be very useful today". Maybe someone will read that and consider adding those into the next engine.

BTW- I would love to see your magazine materialize. I wish you the best with it.

 

[Sharm]

I don't think you need to remove the humor or first person voicing, but I do think the new mag should sound more professional. Be a bit more authoritative in your commentary both from doing better research and not self defeating in how you present it. If you start an article saying one thing and come to a different conclusion at the end you should rewrite or get rid of the article, not dismiss everything you just said at the end but still publish it. I think the other mag is a good indication that you can be consistent with this, which is really important in an e-zine. I'm going to wait until the first one comes out before I decide on it, maybe a test run is in order.


You may want to ask specific people to do specific articles or get interviews instead of just sending out a general plea for stuff. General pleas are a good excuse for people to think "someone else will take care of it", but when you ask people to talk about their area of expertise you're more likely to get a "Oh, people actually want me to talk all about this?" response. You'll get a lot of "I don't have time for this" responses too, of course, but that's what journalism is about.

 

[arekpowalan]

I love this. I'm looking forward to read future issues.

 

[Ellie Jane]

Sorry for the bump, would just like to say this is very much still going ahead. I haven't had any submissions, but will look to form an actual team of sorts in the future as I agree with what's been said above. At present I don't have an interview because I'm not very good at one-to-one conversations personally, but it's something I'd like to have in the issue. I'm happy for now to write articles by myself though, doing research around the web and bringing it all together. It will be more professional and more finely looked at than HBGames the eZine, don't worry.


I have set up a board for the eZine: http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=320 I'm not sure what it's purpose will be in the end, it's just a board. Discussion is fine, submissions, feedback, etc. Or just keep it in this thread, that's fine too. But that link will be the eZine's official homepage - the issues will be downloadable from where the magazine cover is currently (that's just a dummy) and then discussion goes below it in the board.


If anybody has any information on community contests and such that would be useful - both soon-to-start ones, and finished ones with lists of winners, whatever you'd like featured. If your site's starting a contest just let me know and I will feature it if it's time appropriate.

 

[Ellie Jane]

Hi guys.


I am considering the first issue done, and it will now enter Rigorous Testing!. There's still time to submit anything you want in it though, even if it's just a shout out for your game or website.


Hopefully once an issue is out there this will get some more interest. I'll look to form a team of sorts to develop it, and work out a more official structure.


For now the first issue serves largely as just an example of what future issues could be like (but still has meaty articles to get your teeth into).


Also if anybody has a contest starting in the next month let me know and I'll feature it. You have a few days.

 

[EternalShadow]

Sweet I might send something in about the Zendir trilogy, I don't know how much content you have, but it may help other people send in features about their own games.

 

[Ellie Jane]

Let's see how this goes down...

Issue 1 - April 2014​

PDF Format | PNG Format

PNG is a single, long image. PDF is useful for tablets (looks good on Kindle Fire).

 

[cabfe]

Just finished reading it, and enjoyed it a lot!

The amount of useful advices is remarkable. I especially liked the parts on Presentation and the Windowskins.

That's also a great way of making projects and sites better known.

Some of them I didn't know but are worth a look at.

Thank you for the magazine!

 

[Ellie Jane]

Thanks, that means a lot.


I've noticed a couple of tiny mistakes here and there but nothing major I don't think. Certainly a lot can be improved for issue 2, and I'm not happy with a lot of it (but then I never am).


Next issue will, all things going to plan, be on or around May 16th (so as to space it between the hbgames ezine).

 

[EternalShadow]

Omg there's a Runescape RPG?! O_O

I'll defo be sending more content in at some point! ^_^ A great read!

 

[CharRedBaron]

This is nice

I am going to start collecting these .

 

[Ellie Jane]

Hi guys,


Just an update for you. Issue 2 is progressing well and is nearly done, with a predicted release date of this Friday night, if all goes well (although my schedule is all over the place this week). Currently 6.5 pages left to write, of which 4.5 are planned out ready. There are therefore two (or more) pages left for any additional content between now and then. If you have anything to promote - an event, a contest, a game release, etc - please let me know. Also if you run a site and it didn't feature in the last issue I'll drop a word in, already found a few that I missed including a pretty big one called RPGM, which is an ezine in the more traditional, bloggy sense.

 

[hyde9318]

Hey there, I just wanted to say that this is a really cool project. If you ever need any help at all, I would love to team up sometime. I am up for anything graphical and maybe even some writing. Shoot me a PM if you want to talk further about it.


Also, I would like to promote this a bit on my website if you wouldn't mind. I think this is easily worth promoting.


Anyways, keep up the awesome work! Can't wait to see the next issue.

 

[Ellie Jane]

Have just realised issue 1 has the wrong page headers. It is NOT supposed to have hbgames.org at the top, this is a mistake... sorry if it seems like a blatant advertisement on every page. Issue 2 WILL have the correct headers, which have Advanced RPG Maker's logo in this top left hand corner.


I've addressed a few other mistakes in a short editorial, but this was the most glaring.


There also seems to be a slight DNS issue at the moment with arpgmaker.com, I will fix this when I get home if it doesn't sort itself.

 

[EternalShadow]

I'll send you a quick content filler

 

[Ellie Jane]

Thanks, it's much appreciated!


arpgmaker.com is now fixed but will take up to 24 hours to sort itself. It was a problem with ICANN (missed an e-mail that requested verification, new system).


Magazine's now done and will be tested rigorously by a MASSIVE tiger (not a small one) before release on Friday!

 

[Ellie Jane]

A day early, sorry.

Issue 2 - May 2014​

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PDF Format | PNG Format

 

[Sharm]

Hey Amy! I'm going to give this issue a critique, I hope you don't mind. You've been doing a great job but I'd really love to see this magazine improve with every issue and I think you're more than capable of doing it.


Stop calling it a faux magazine and just let it be a magazine. It's a real magazine, being published online by amateurs doesn't change that.


When apologizing, don't use any phrases that could be misconstrued as a passive aggressive attempt to say the mistake wasn't important. In this particular instance it would have been better to call it an oversight. Here is a post by John Scalzi on the subject, I think it'll be useful.


It feels a little bit more like a magazine this time, not sure what the change is, maybe it's just that it's not brand new. The short bits were a little front loaded, I think it'd work better to use them as spacers between bigger articles so you don't have so many pages of micro articles in a row. Some of them feel a bit too micro and I found myself wondering more than once what the point of the mini article was.


I just skimmed over the review articles but game reviews are awesome and it feels very right to have them. I think you did a good job with it too.


The article talking about including diversity to make your game stronger felt a little under researched. Possibly because I don't think of those things in the terms you used (which isn't a problem) or possibly because other than examples there wasn't much said to support the opinion (which is). Instead of saying "this is my opinion" try for a more "this is my opinion and here's why" approach. Instead of pointing to a game and saying "this was fun" and requiring your audience to have played it, assume they haven't and tell exactly what element was fun or not fun about it. Go a little deeper into the why something worked instead of focusing on the fact that it does. Steer clear of phrases like "you should", it makes it sound more like a forum post than an article. I'd avoid the phrase altogether but if it's unavoidable I'd use "developers should" instead.


The article about Bridgnorth was extremely interesting and it was clever to do an article about inspirational places like that. Well done.


I skimmed the tutorial but I'm glad you included it. Tutorials like this are really great and I'm more likely to read it in a format like this for some reason.


Page 19 was awkward in set up, I thought for a minute that the snipit about savegames was the orphaned end of an article and I'm still not positive what the point of the "Love and War" screencap is. It may have worked a little better if the end of the article took up the top half instead of one side.


I think this is an improvement over the first issue and was an interesting read. Thank you!

 

[Ellie Jane]

Thank you so much for that, I will try and take it all on board. I agree on the "faux" term, I'm not sure why I used it to be honest.


I like to think it's improved (or improving) and certainly issue 3 should be better than this.


That article on apologies is really interesting and useful, thanks.