Scratch

wiimaster · 2012-02-20 17:46:57

Yes, this is another magazine. I have high hopes for this one though.
It will be in project format. It will focus on scratch GAMES, and scratcher's companies and stuff like that, not about MIT and Scratch itself like most magazines on this website.

I will need lots of help, and that, quite obviously, is where you guys come in.

PEOPLE I NEED:
-Artists (Front page artists in particular)
-Some interviewers
-Article Writers
-A review crew!

I will do some work for each.

So here's how I envision the magazine:
There will be a cover page featuring artwork or a screenshot of one game featured inside.
Then, there will be a brief introduction about the month. (the issues are monthly)
Then comes the main sections:
The Interviews: We will interview a programmer, artist- anybody from a gaming company or if they are a standalone GAME maker.
Front Page Game: This is where the 'game of the month' goes. It will talk all about it and the creator(s).
Articles: There will be 3-6 articles each issue. They can be about specific games, gaming companies, or any other scratch game news.
The Reviews: We will review 10-20 scratch games. The reviews will be brief, except for 2-3 that are our highlights.
Upcoming Games: We talk about what we know of upcoming games and what their creator's have to say about them.

So for this issue, here are my ideas and what I need:
Interview: No idea who.
Front Page Game: Skywire VIP Extended (Not to be arrogant since I am partially the creator of that game- its just that the whole Nitrome business is big news for all aspiring scratch game makers.)
Some articles: One on the Collab Camp, perhaps?
Reviews: I need suggestions here. They should be higher quality games that are on the front page, or are just less known. But remember- we don't purposely review poorly programmed games just to be mean.
Upcoming Games: Blight, perhaps. Or... WiiMoke's next game. Those are the only two I know of (because I am involved with both lol) so I will need help here too.

Lastly, I need a snazzy title. Not just 'Scratch Gaming Magazine'.

Once some people join, I will go into details about what each person does and jobs and such. I will also start on the base for the magazine. Hopefully when more people join I will be able to move down from being 'head' of the company and just be a member of a well-working, self regulating company.

People who want to join, go here: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/wiimaster/2349736

Last edited by wiimaster (2012-02-22 16:21:24)

joletole · 2012-02-20 17:50:15

Is this gonna be a project or forum thread. I think it will be better if it was a forum thread.

wiimaster · 2012-02-20 18:08:22

joletole wrote:
Is this gonna be a project or forum thread. I think it will be better if it was a forum thread.

A project. It would be much better as a project because we can support better images and have a nicer layout. Plus, we don't want to spam up the forums with each issue.

wiimaster · 2012-02-21 16:52:34

Bump? sad

Base is done, I've already started an article. I'm looking for projects of a good enough quality to review.

NeilWest · 2012-02-25 05:13:13

Okay, here is my first tip:

First Impressions - Tip #1

Many will know that you can never judge a book by it's cover. But it helps. If you made a great game, but the thumbnail, or the picture that represents the project, is the Scratch Cat, you wouldn't expect many views. But, if the thumbnail was the Scratch Cat flying out of an explosion, then you could get to the top viewed or top loved! So, to make sure that a user sees your project and straight away clicks it, then you really need to think about your thumbnail. To make one, it's the screen on your project when you save it. So, if you were halfway through but stopped the game, the order of the sprites would be shown in the thumbnail. Try doing a logo in a paint program (Photoshop, Paint.NET, GIMP) but keep in mind that the quality will be lost, so any small details might be gone. And it never hurts to have an exciting background, so maybe the game, but stopped, but the sprites will still be there. Keep in mind that the thumbnail needs to go, or you can't play the game. I hope this helps and remember, please keep the content appropriate for all ages.

Thanks, and Scratch on!

wiimaster · 2012-02-25 08:19:29

Good idea, but the tips were longer than I expected, so I can present two options for you:
Either you can make shorter tips and have multiple in a section.
Or have one tip per issue (which means less tips).

Either way, I am going to be your editor- this tip is great, but needs some revisions.

Thanks for your help!

NeilWest · 2012-02-25 08:35:05

wiimaster wrote:
Good idea, but the tips were longer than I expected, so I can present two options for you:
Either you can make shorter tips and have multiple in a section.
Or have one tip per issue (which means less tips).

Either way, I am going to be your editor- this tip is great, but needs some revisions.

Thanks for your help!

I guess I'll stick with one tip per issue.

wiimaster · 2012-02-25 13:07:14

Ok.

Revised version:

First Impressions - Tip #1

Many people know that you should never judge a book by it's cover- but sometimes, this is how people choose which projects to view. If you made a great game, but the thumbnail (the picture that represents the project), is simply just the Scratch Cat, you shouldn't expect many views. But if the thumbnail was something exciting, like the Scratch Cat flying out of an explosion, then you could get to the top viewed or top loved! To make sure that a user sees your project and clicks it straight away, you really need to think about your thumbnail. To make one, save the project on the screen you'd like as your thumbnail. Try doing a logo in a paint program (Photoshop, Paint.NET, GIMP) but keep in mind that the quality will be lost, so any small details might be gone. And it never hurts to have an exciting background, so the game, even when stopped, looks vibrant. I hope this helps- and remember, please keep the content appropriate for all ages.

Thanks, and Scratch on!

I hope you don't mind the changes. I kept your main idea but just tightened up some phrases and reworded some tricky stuff. I think it flows better now.

Borrego6165 · 2012-02-25 15:07:19

Would you mind reviewing this? Generation:3000. It is an epic city building game, with 48 different buildings. Also includes a U-DRIVE-MODE, tornado and UFO disasters (with a working laser beam) and many intelligent factors including: Crime, fire, health, education, traffic, tourism, pollution and of course money! This has got to be the smartest AI for a city, and I hope you'll agree. However, I cannot let it get featured or curated, otherwise I will not be able to get my Rayman4 game front paged when it's finished.

Also, I would be LOVED to be interviewed, especially on questions about my history of games and how I started in game programming, I'd love to talk about my power-point experiments among other things from almost 2 years ago!

Last edited by Borrego6165 (2012-02-25 15:07:32)

lundfamily3 · 2012-02-25 16:32:13

Can I join? I can do art and articles...

zackman94 · 2012-02-26 02:26:19

Hello, I think I could help work on this. I have been working with scratch for four years now, and I have some pretty good games, and I am currently working on a new one, but I have hit a dead-end on it. I put a lot of time into my games, but few people ever see them, and that is why I want to help with this, to get the word and and to get some artistic help with my current project. I can do anything from talking about my games, my experiences, tips, I could write reviews almost anything really. Name idea: Games of Scratch, The Scratch Gamer, Play Scratch.

My most recent full game
My upcoming title
Development blog

Last edited by zackman94 (2012-02-26 02:31:24)

NeilWest · 2012-02-26 07:05:04

wiimaster wrote:
Ok.

Revised version:

First Impressions - Tip #1

Many people know that you should never judge a book by it's cover- but sometimes, this is how people choose which projects to view. If you made a great game, but the thumbnail (the picture that represents the project), is simply just the Scratch Cat, you shouldn't expect many views. But if the thumbnail was something exciting, like the Scratch Cat flying out of an explosion, then you could get to the top viewed or top loved! To make sure that a user sees your project and clicks it straight away, you really need to think about your thumbnail. To make one, save the project on the screen you'd like as your thumbnail. Try doing a logo in a paint program (Photoshop, Paint.NET, GIMP) but keep in mind that the quality will be lost, so any small details might be gone. And it never hurts to have an exciting background, so the game, even when stopped, looks vibrant. I hope this helps- and remember, please keep the content appropriate for all ages.

Thanks, and Scratch on!

I hope you don't mind the changes. I kept your main idea but just tightened up some phrases and reworded some tricky stuff. I think it flows better now.

Ok. That is what an editor does in a real company, so I don't mind.

wiimaster · 2012-02-26 07:48:07

@Borrego
@zackman
Your games will both be reviewed.

zackman94 · 2012-02-26 22:28:31

Nice, but if you need any actual articles or anything, I can help out with those... Also I would be very happy if you talked about my upcoming game, mainly because I can't really continue until I get a decent artist on board.

kayybee · 2012-02-26 23:15:59

Could I edit please?

I could also write some articles if needed.

zackman94 · 2012-02-26 23:22:09

@ kayybee I can't speak for Wiimaster, but I belive that he is the editor, so I'm not sure of your chances as far as editing the articles.

lundfamily3 · 2012-02-26 23:47:07

Uh... I said COULD I WRITE SOMETHING?!

Sorry for the caps, but I had to yell.

zackman94 · 2012-02-26 23:54:29

Calm down a bit lund... wiimaster is not working full-time on this, he only has so much time to get this organised. I'm sure he will announce writers soon.

lundfamily3 · 2012-02-27 13:05:40

Ok, lol. xD

wiimaster · 2012-02-27 15:17:06

Once I round up a few more writers, I will let you in, lund. Same goes for anyone else who wants to write.
And Kayybee- Zackman is right, I am the editor.

Borrego6165 · 2012-02-27 17:06:14

here's an idea for an upcoming game: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Borrego6165/2342381 hopefully it looks epic enough already. Sorry i'm too busy to actually work for you in any way, I know I'm just doing the opposite and giving you more to do but I'm so busy!!! My Generation:3000 project I sent you earlier is getting curated by Programming Freak soon, so I've been rushing to get that sorted- so it might be a good idea to prepare that game seen as it'll be getting popular very soon.

mcjohnso · 2012-02-28 11:10:42

So am I the cover Artist? smile

kayybee · 2012-03-06 01:16:57

wiimaster wrote:
Once I round up a few more writers, I will let you in, lund. Same goes for anyone else who wants to write.
And Kayybee- Zackman is right, I am the editor.

Are you sure you don't need another editor? Sometimes people may not catch small errors.
Then can I be a writer?

zackman94 · 2012-03-10 03:02:48

...so is this still going to happen?

wiimaster · 2012-03-10 08:36:05

zackman94 wrote:
...so is this still going to happen?

Yes, if people would hurry up and write their articles.

Scratch

archived forums

#1 2012-02-20 17:46:57

Scratch Gaming Magazine

#2 2012-02-20 17:50:15

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#3 2012-02-20 18:08:22

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

joletole wrote:

#4 2012-02-21 16:52:34

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#5 2012-02-25 05:13:13

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#6 2012-02-25 08:19:29

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#7 2012-02-25 08:35:05

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

wiimaster wrote:

#8 2012-02-25 13:07:14

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#9 2012-02-25 15:07:19

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#10 2012-02-25 16:32:13

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#11 2012-02-26 02:26:19

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#12 2012-02-26 07:05:04

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

wiimaster wrote:

#13 2012-02-26 07:48:07

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#14 2012-02-26 22:28:31

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#15 2012-02-26 23:15:59

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#16 2012-02-26 23:22:09

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#17 2012-02-26 23:47:07

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#18 2012-02-26 23:54:29

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#19 2012-02-27 13:05:40

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#20 2012-02-27 15:17:06

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#21 2012-02-27 17:06:14

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#22 2012-02-28 11:10:42

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#23 2012-03-06 01:16:57

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

wiimaster wrote:

#24 2012-03-10 03:02:48

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

#25 2012-03-10 08:36:05

Re: Scratch Gaming Magazine

zackman94 wrote:

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