Gaming Fanzines (again) and do you want to do one?

[Wil]

Ok,

we've had this come up before but I really have a hankering to do a little games fanzine. Yes, I know you can do a blog/Tumbler/whatever online but that's not what I'm after. I don't want to do reviews/news/previews, I want a little book that that's a bit more esoteric than that. Something full of weird and wonderful stuff and lots of artwork; something that doesn't date. Something that gets me excited about stuff like in the '80s/'90s.

Black & White? Colour? Slick or lo-fi? I'm not sure yet. Subject wise I'm leaning towards one game/game series per issue (but, as I said, no reviews or any normal stuff) but I'm wide open to other ideas. What I would like, though, are people who'd like to contribute. Pictures, words or both. This won't be a massive venture or make any money but I'm sure I could get it mentioned in a mag or two.

I don't mind being editor and doing layout as well as some pics and words (although if someone else fancies a go then that's cool) but if you fancy being involved send me a PM and I'll add you to a mail group and I'll fire off some of my thoughts. Gonna get it done this time.

Cheers
Wil

[Sketcz]

Sounds awesome. I love home-grown efforts like these, especially the subject matter. I always feel nostalgic browsing my collection of old mags (games or otherwise).

Based on my experience with helping to produce indie books at HardcoreGaming101, there's a funny sliding scale with regards to page count, which means there's a cut-off point where you have to make it b/w to be affordable. But if you keep it thin enough, then it's certainly feasible. Actually, I just had a look at Dinkybox and see you've already got experience printing publications, with Smart Bomb. Which is good - you already know it's not as easy as it sounds!

I know we got a lot of comments wishing our adventure book was in colour, despite being mostly text, so colour would be (in my opinion) the way to go.

Keen to see what happens with this and what kind of theme/subject/game you aim for.

[JazzFunk]

I'd love to contribute something but I don't know quite what I'd be contributing...I'm goodish at drawing hands, penises, and seem to be OK at writing random (obscene/pointless) tat.

[Wil]

PM's gone out to those that were interested in helping out

@Sketcz - At the moment I'm sort of torn over the whole - slick, colour book vs lo-fi, original Game Freak fanzine-type thing. There's also the whole 'avoid the print altogether and just do a digital version' to consider. Something for everyone to decide upon. I find it all quite an interesting process, though.

I had the first Smart Bomb (second one's almost done now) printed at a POD comics place in the States and although the price per issue was great, the shipping definitely wasn't. If we do a physical book, I'll definitely get it done over here.

[Decider-VT]

This sounds like a great idea but one of the problems I've found with some fanzines is that the writers will frequently regurgitate commonly-known facts from the Internet, so reading through them becomes a bit pointless. Would you be wanting to cover things like people's personal experiences with a particular game, or a collective "Let's Play" sort-of feature? Will it be aimed at the informed audience that forums like this attract, or would you want it to be accessible to a layman with a sketchy knowledge of the subject?

[Wil]

Ideally, I'd like to do something that celebrated a game/series/character rather than just facts. If I was going to do a 'facts' book I'd want it to be about something there wasn't a lot of readily available info on like, say 'All About Super Robot Wars'. But then, of course, you need someone who really knows their stuff.

I really like the idea of covering just one game series per issue. Then you could quickly cover the basics of each entry and then go onto more esoteric and personal stuff about that game.

[Sketcz]

If you cover games, you might be able to track down people involved with it, who'd probably be quite happy to chat about the project (in some cases even provide photos too!). You'd be amazed at who you'll find on Facebook.