New Pascal Game Dev Mag: Pascal Gamer?

[Brainer]

Pascal Game Developer?

cheers,
Paul

I'm for this one, too.

[WILL]

I sort of wanted to give this mag it's own identity. PGD is well... PGD. But one thing I've noticed over the last while is that a lot of separate community sites have either vanished or possibly gotten eaten up by other interests. I was hoping to start a separate, but adjacent thread of news and information for Pascal game developers with it's own distinct look and feel. This may give potentially new Pascal programmers a bit of a variety which may be attractive to them.

Of course I would always make reference to the PGD site and it's events as I would anyhow we are all a part of the same community. It's just a separate watering hole to mill over ideas.

I dunno what do you guys think?

maybe with a subscript "Game design made easy, the Pascal way".

I like that tag line. And Pascal Game Design isn't too bad either.

Keep the ideas coming guys!

[paul_nicholls]

I like "Pascal Game Design" too, I think it pretty much says it all

cheers,
Paul

[Brainer]

Hmm... Here's my ten cents.

First of all, I don't think the mag should only be about programming games. There's a plenty of other things that can be written on its pages. Articles about code formatting, useful algorithms, and complete tutorials about certain subjects (for example, about script libraries) are a must, IMHO.

There also could be a section concerning news from the game dev world. I.e., new trends, new hardware, and so on.

Also, what I like in every mag are features.

I'm very interested in the printed version of the mag, that's why I wanted to share my opinion.

[Traveler]

To be honest, I fail to see why there needs to be a magazine. We aren't exactly stuffed with new material. Or are people suddenly going to write now that they know its for a magazine?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the effort that is going into it, I only wish people would do the same for the website...

[WILL]

This is some great feedback so I'm going to try to tackle one at a time to focus on each good point.

Hmm... Here's my ten cents.

First of all, I don't think the mag should only be about programming games. There's a plenty of other things that can be written on its pages. Articles about code formatting, useful algorithms, and complete tutorials about certain subjects (for example, about script libraries) are a must, IMHO.

There also could be a section concerning news from the game dev world. I.e., new trends, new hardware, and so on.

Also, what I like in every mag are features.

I'm very interested in the printed version of the mag, that's why I wanted to share my opinion.

Yes, you are right. The mag won't only focus on just game design or development per say. I will try to delve into other areas revolving around the Pascal language, programming it's self, some general computer stuff and of course the game industry.Thought mostly the independent side of it. The more commercial side already has a TON of coverage and really by the time my little mag gets out there who wants to read yet another take on a media darling like 'StarCraft II' once more?

I've taken ideas from Dev-Mag, another independent style mag and other recent mags that I've seen in the past few years and I'm going to try to get things in there that are non-programming and even non-Pascal language specific too. If you know a thing or two about graphics or sound or even math and physics I've got a nice clean (relatively) white space available for you in one of the future issues.

Another thing I'd love to do again is some interviews. I had so much fun with the huge one I did for PGD a few years back, I'd be more than happy to do another. This time a little more focused, and maybe I'll do some followup questions too.

There will be lots for everyone that I hope won't make the niche too narrow for those interested in reading. I'm also hoping to generate connections with other non-Pascal sites, magazines and independents that could use the help and exposure as well. It'll be a bit of a DIY effort, but with a lot of community to community marketing.

To be honest, I fail to see why there needs to be a magazine. We aren't exactly stuffed with new material. Or are people suddenly going to write now that they know its for a magazine?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the effort that is going into it, I only wish people would do the same for the website...

Long answer made small, it's a new and alternate medium and people LOVE variety.

Now the long answer...

PGD is great and I would love for it to continue to grow back to the glory it once had with all the news postings and articles. (Well those were a struggle since day one honestly, but I'm not beyond taking full responsibility for that. The I know that the wiki will do much better. ) Lets be honest, new site software, older content being ported over to the new site... we're practically starting over fresh here. But that's ok, I personally feel it was needed. However, I digress.

I think the main motivator I've gotten in doing this magazine is not only have Jason and Dean decided to drop 'Delphi Gamer' and it's own magazine, but I've not only seen those get dropped, I've seen other sites that were either Pascal-centric or Pascal-friendly all drop from existence. Ref: turbo.gamedev.net, Delphi3D.com, DelphiGameDev.com (it's still there, but it's not updated anymore) and a few select others. The spread of information is getting thinner and thinner the more information alternatives are getting lost.

When Dom, Ivan and myself first created PGD there were still many sites dedicated and PGD was supposed to be that one shining tower among them, with the idea that it would become the Pascal mecca for game development. Sort a punch through the small size barrier that all the others were struggling with. It was a chance at doing newer things with Pascal that you couldn't before.

Now, PGD is sort of working on what makes it effective and as such some of it's shininess isn't quite there yet. So as a support mechanism the Pascal Gamer/Game Design mag can work independently to help complement it. Kind of how the military uses artillery and infantry together to become effective. That's basically how I see it.