AGDzine - choose your content

[m0ds]

Okie doke, I thought I'd abuse the fact I can make topics sticky, and get some ideas in for what you want to read in the AGDzine when it comes back (in September).

Just let me know what you want to read and I'll make a list and cross them off as they get done.

1) Who would you like to see interviewed, and why? I'm talking commercial developers AND independant developers, like you and me. And of course people live Tim Schafer. Etc.

2) Which games would you like to see reviewed? Point and clicks only though please! Amateur or commercial.

3) What would you like to learn about in a tutorial? i.e. drawing a futuristic background, composing a show-tune MIDI or animating an object, etc.

4) What else do you think the zine should include?

I'm still a bit sceptical about having a previews section - but the new design and what not also allows the zine to work in mysterious ways this time, so we'll see.

Thanks in advance for your input.


m0ds

[remixor]

1) Anybody in the industry would be fine, I'd think.  Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Charles Cecil would be great ones, although I don't know how available people that are; those are just sort of the obvious big three for me.

2) All of them, I guess    As far as commercial goes, maybe less-known ones that don't get as much coverage from sites like Gamespot.  For the AGS/amateur games, I would think that reviews of just the long or medium length games would be plenty; there are enough short games released all the time that honestly can be beat in the time it takes to read a review anyway.

3) I would love to learn something about drawing characters; I think it's just a hopeless situation for me, since there are already tutorials about this.  If you know anyone with some sort of heretofore unseen insight, that'd be peachy.  As far as more realistic tutorials go, I'd really appreciate a basic tutorial for composing with MIDI, perhaps one that assumes the reader already knows how music works.  I'm a music major and I can WRITE the music, but I haven't a clue how to turn it into MIDI (I'm probably just an idiot).  That'd be great.

4) Editorials, articles discussing game theory and puzzle design and so forth.

Good luck with the zine!

[Czar]

I agree with remixor on the first 3, but you could always include shading tutorials, the ones loominous(sp?) does .
and 4)You could add something like A has(tho that would be plaguing), the HELP line.

[Svetac]

I would like to see MOST WANTED AGS UPCOMING GAMES LIST. So that newcomers have always have chance to see that there are games like FOY that we're awaiting. The list should include 5 ags games that are wort waiting and become regular in every future AGDzine. And also maybe 5 commercial adventures that are worth waiting.

[m0ds]

Nice idea svetac, but that would surely mean creating some form of poll, otherwise, how would we keep track of the most awaited games of the moment?


m0ds

[Czar]

Then maybe 10 most awaited? Cause i think 5 is too little.And yes a monthly poll could work, and after the poll is over you put it ond the zine as a record from that month. You know what i mean?

[m0ds]

Yup, but that means someone has to decide which "names" go into the poll/hat for people to vote on.

I'm sure once I know cgi and php a little better I'll be able to do that, but right now it won't be easy. Deffinatley something I'll keep in mind for the future though.

m0ds

[Necro]

I may throw something like that together, Ive already thought about it but disregarded it as I thought there wouldnt be that much of a call for it... Guess I was wrong...

[ravenfusion]

1. Don't mind who you interview, Mat Dickie might be a good choice for an interview about all around good games.

2. Don't really mind what games you review as long as you give the little games a chance.

3. Drawing characters has always been my weakness, so i'd like to see a really detailed character design tutorial.

4. Hmmmm...for a magazine I would choose the following (This includes things that are already in and things that aren't):

- Reviews
- Previews
- Cheats/Walkthroughs/Tips
- Top games/projects
- Game of the month
- Links to the golden sites
- Fanmail
- Puzzles
- Tutorials

I'm probably forgetting some stuff but meh, this is rushed.

[AGA]

Walkthroughs?! BAH!

www.agagames.com/AGSwalks/

www.agagames.com/agswalkthroughs/

[Ginny]

1) Tim the god, genius, king. In other words, Tim Schafer. Also any well known game maker of course, like Ron Gilbert etc. And lets not forget Ragnar tor.. Tornqu... Tornaquest... The TLJ man just kidding Mr. Tornquist.
As for indy developers: I think mods is appropraite. Oh wait you are mods j/k but it would be interesting to hear some of your tips in an article . Hmm, how about interviewing Geoffkhan and Big brother about Apprentice and The Find? If I think of more, I'll post.

2)Does GF count as pint and click? Nah, it's keyboard. Anyway there's no reason why, I just like reading GF reviews, heh. I'd like to see a review of less well known games indeed.

3) A begginers guide to composing in general, imcluding some reccomended prgrams for composing music (MIDI or mp3, doesn't matter). If I'm gonna be making my first game all by myself (give or take a few beta testers ) I'll need to know how to compose music heh, and I think many other would too.
Anither thing is and art tutorial for sketching on paper, maybe by Miez i dunno if Miez works with the AGDzine though, or just FoY. Interview Xadhoom about sketching if not, or just have general tips and factors to make a sketch good.
Also, I think what would prove very useful would be general tips and different techniques of drawing, what technique works better for what, and tips for drawing/pixelling in general. Take your time though .

4) Speaking of TLJ and Grim(I mentioned Tim after all ), speaking of dialogs... How about a sort of guide/article/thingy about dialogs and such? You know I think I've never read an article about this. It's almost like this doesn't exist What I mean is like an article of:

-Some favorite quotes of dialogs (I mean full dialog trees, but comments are appropriate too) and what made them great.
-How the characters personality affects what he says and how he says it.
-Voice acting? Important or just an extra? How does it affect the game when it's bad, and how it affects it when it's good.
-Sterotypes: How to do them right.
-How to make dialogs interesting, etc...


edit: OMG smiley overload! Cleared out a bit.

P.s. I just had an idea: since I noticed several people have troubles with character drawing, and possibly design, there could be a multi-part "Characters: Who am I again?" artcile, which would be divided into "Part 1: Nice to meet you" which would tell about the initial char design, and would include "Indvidualising stereotypes" (I love making up names ), and well, character design. Then "Part 2: Drawing your new friends" hehe, and it would be for character drawing, especcially how to implement the personality in a subtle or not subtle way . "Part 3: He said 'Mommy/Daddy/whatever is appropriate to you '! - "It ares speeching"!" would talk about dialogs (expressing his/her/its opinions, commenting, dialogs). "Part 4: Saying it out loud - Voice acting" would be about voice acting and it's neccessity/un-neccessity, how it affects the game, accents, etc.. And finally "Part 5: Learn from examples - Concluding our journey" examples of good character designs, dialogs, voice acting and such. You can bring several examples of maing characters and also non main characters. Voice acting examples can be extracted from LEC games using Scumm (I've exotracted some for my own listening pleasure hehe), but putting them online could be illegal, though it's just a snippet.. And it is good press I dunno, I think it's fine, but who knows...

Hmm, come to think of it, I might wanna write this myself, hehe. If you want to your free to do so, and you'll surely be more helpful in the drawing department, plus I'm always interested to see more opinions. I have a theme sort of idea to use in it so they'd be very different. If I do write it, you could host it on AGDzine if you like, until I finally get to making my website, heh.

Other things: Puzzle Theory, game thory, puzzle design, story design, etc etc etc....

PS2 Arr, forgive me spellin, I 'aven't slept tonight

PS3: Gah, also forgot to add: Easter eggs would be nice in the list Raven made. Most sites have them of course, but seater eggs in indy games especcially, though tthere aren't that many. Yet. I plan to have lots in my games . I just love easter eggs and extra's, interactive elements that aren't puzzles etc.

As for puzzle thory, thi importance of hints and where to place them, how to draw attention to them, that's all nice too .

*pint and click hehe.

[m0ds]

Some nice ideas there GinnyW, certainly. I'll see if I can find some dedicated writers to bring your ideas to life

[Pet Terry]

1. Tim Schafer would be good
2. Goldlagoon... what? Okay okay, I don't really know, there's so much good games
3. I would love to read your MIDI tutorial m0ds
4. 10 most awaited AGS games maybe

Good luck, m0ds

[Scummbuddy]

Yes, I plan on having many easter eggs and funny relations to other games.  I plan on doing something like what Roy did with Night of the Hermit and have the 10 easter egg hunt...

A section on it would be cool.  At least at a later date, so leave the idea open for now please

[Spyros]

An interview with "The Butcher".
And if you find him tell me where he is.

[Evil]

3.) Yeah midi would be good, but I'd really like a fighter sprite animation tutorial...

4.) Shorter interviews... Maybe like a 20 questions thing with somebody. Maybe even two or three people...

[Joseph DiPerla]

I would like to see David Fox interviewed. He was the creator of Zak Mckracken .

As far as the top 10 games waited for, I had an idea. Why not add deathmatch votes. All games who submit will be in a round with five other games, out of those games, one will one from most votes, and will move on to the next round and compete against the next set of games, up until we have the top 10.

What about that Mods?

JD

[Captain Mostly]

I'd like to read a review of Dada: Stagnation in Blue written by someone outside of the community. As far as I can see, the whole point is that it's ambiguous on a lot of levels, so it should make for an interesting one to present to an outsider.

I'd also like to see an article espousing the importance of a balance between planning and producing.

I think another interesting thing to do would be interview industry people from outside of the Adventure Game genre, and probe them on what they think of the genre, and how they would make it better (keeping in mind that it shouldn't lose it's essential adventure-game-ness). This would simply be and excuse for me to read a Jeff Minter interview, because he's utterly incredible, and probably not pro-adventure-game at all, although I'd be fascinated to read about how he would aproach the genre. Probably a difficult man to talk to though.

As for previews, I think that I'd prefur a more speculative article. Since we all know how games pop in and out of existence (often before they're even begun) specific studies of games might be a bad idea. Although some kind of predictive examination of current trends and where they might lead would be fun to mull over. Sort of like a society column, but leaving out all the boring bits about human interaction...

[m0ds]

So basically, you want lens flare.

I'll see what I can do!



Seriously though thanks for the suggestions tho Mostly (and everyone else) - I'll see what can be done about them

[Captain Mostly]

I'm not fussed for lense flare.

Hell, I'd settle for paralax scrolling...