Hi Shaun, I think you are being overly pessimisticwhen it comes to your personal views of the audio games community. Weather you realize it or not there is quite a lot more going on than you have given credit for, and I'd like to take this time to give some credit where credit is do and perhaps give you a more positive outlook on the community in general.
Shaun wrote: However since the issue release seems to only be one every time you remember, or something, hmmm I don't know. My reply: I think that's a little unfair. Ron has had a number of personal issues to deal with, some he is willing to discuss and some he is not, but as with game development its all pretty much done on a voluntary basis, and I think you can give the guy a break for putting the magazine off until he was mentally, emotionally, and physically up to taking on the magazine again. If he can now dedicate himself to a quarterly release schedule that's great. If not we should be understanding enough to see that he is only one person and is doing this voluntarily on his own time and energy. Shaun wrote: There is almost no need for the letters section or the emails sections as these are shoved on the list. My reply: Not everyone is on the Audyssey list. Many are over on the audiogames.net forum, not on this list, and there are likely some people who aren't on either the forum or list who receive the magazine. The letters/e-mails section is a great way for them to keep up to speed with events without having to sub to the list or forum. Shaun wrote: There are so many opensource and freeware companies now that there are to many to count. My reply: You make that sound like a bad thing, and it certainly is not. From my perspective this makes the magazine all the more worth while as it gives new freeware and open source developers another outlet to talk about their games, announce their existence, and something we all can read regardless of what list or forums we may be on. While I might agree that someone's new Guess the Number game might not be particularly news or magazine worthy there have been a number of free games that should be mentioned in the magazine. Jeremy has released a surprising number of decent freeware games like Castaways that certainly deserves mention in the magazine, and its possible there are plenty of VI gamers who haven't tried Jeremy's games simply because they are so new and perhaps just haven't heard the news. Shaun wrote: Development has slowed to barely a crawl. With most of the devs either out of business, sitting on their buts as far as the rest probably cares or working on their projects without putting out any news, and a few other things the major community as it stands comercially is quite dead and bare. My reply: I really think that is pretty unfair. Blind Adrenaline is continuing to add games to the card room, and Che has become a leading commercial developer because of it. Blastbay Studios, AKA Philip Bennefall, has released a number of commercial and freeware products in a row including BGT, Q9, Kryngle Crash, Palace Punch-Up, and is working on a new commercial game as we speak. GMA released Time of Conflict last year. BPC Programs released 3D Velocity in this past year as well. Mysteries of the Ancients, my current commercial project, is scheduled for release this fall. My point being that far from dead commercial audio game developers have picked up production rather than slowed down as you seem to suggest above. Shaun wrote: Jim kitchen is the only person doing any real stuff and that has slowed its mostly been data updates. My reply: Even if that were true there is nothing wrong with updates and upgrades. However, Jim Kitchen has released Awesome Homer as well as TJS in the past year in addition to those "data updates" you mentioned. That's not bad for a single developer. However, Jim isn't the only one doing stuff. Good grief, man, Jeremy has released several games in the last year, and it would make sense to give the guy a little bit of credit where credit is do. He has actually been giving the audio games community more games to play around with in the last few months than we have seen in years. So saying "boo who the audio games community is dead" is far from the truth. Shaun wrote: Both draconis, pcs and gma are aparently still in development but no real news as of yet. My reply: Just because you don't get a news letter mailed to your inbox each month doesn't mean they aren't doing anything. GMA consistantly releases a new game on a 24 month schedule, and months usually do go by before we hear about the latest and greatest products from GMA. Draconis is being pretty tight mouthed about what they are doing, but its understandable. If they say they are working on game x the next thing the community will do is ask, and ask, and ask over and over again "when will game x be released." Developers simply do not want that kind of pressure. As for PCS no we haven't seen the new update for Sarah, but for good reason. Phil is waiting for David Greenwood to update the GMA Engine he uses, and he has kept the community apprised by releasing trailers and sound clips. So far from dead PCS is still working on said project. Shaun wrote: Audiogames.net and its forums have sporned loads and loads of small devs which have kept the game industry alive though no real big things have come out for a bit at least not enough to call the community fully alive. My reply: Oh, yeah? What do you call Castaways? I haven't seen this must interest in a game in quite a while. Castaways is free, written by one of those "new small devs" and is attracting a lot of interest on Audyssey and on Audiogames.net. I have to say you need to wake up and smell the coffee so to speak as you are spouting quite a lot of non-sense here. If a game like Castaways isn't a "big thing" then what is it? Shaun wrote: I am not sure what of the old system is still running. My reply: Well, it doesn't really matter does it? The fact of the matter is that things change and yes the magazine should change as well to stay current with those changes. New formats, new sections, different schedule, different content, whatever are just a fact of life we must deal with. Anyone who says "the more things change the more things stay the same" is obviously dreaming. Everything changes over time, and its how we as a community meet those changes that is the matter at hand right now. Thing is when the magazine got started back in 96 the leading developers of the day was Kitchens Inc and PCS Games who were cranking out several games for MS Dos. Now days we have different developers like Jeremy Kaldobsky cranking out game after game for Windows along with Blastbay Studios, Blind Adrenaline, etc. I don't think it matters that much who is developing the games as long as somebody is doing it. The "old" is just that "old," and we need to move on. 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