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the free online magazine of=
video
game design

<=
/p>
I think the tagline more=
-or-less
says it all: Russell's Quarterly=
b> is
a free online magazine, distributed on a quarterly basis in PDF form, focus=
ed
on video game design. It is <=
u>not
a collection of top ten lists, of full-page screenshots, of industry gossip=
or
even coding advice. It's abou=
t game
design, pure and simple, with a strong emphasis on substance over style.
"Amazing magazine. Simple des=
ign.
Quality writing."
Each issue of the Quarte=
rly
features a collection of helpful articles, a ginormous cover feature, and
several reviews of freeware or shareware games. Many of these games were made with=
Game Maker, and we recieved the 2008 Game Maker Blog Community Award =
for
Best Reviews of Game Maker Games on the merits of our in-depth criticis=
m.
"I'm actually
juggling reading Russell's Quarterly with doing a ton of work on my competi=
tion
game, and it's helped me notice some things I was doing wrong, too. I can't wait for the next issue!&q=
uot;
Our fifth issue is slate=
d for
release in the second half of January 2009. You'll be able to download it, alo=
ng
with the previous four issues, from EliteIndie.com. If you're new to the Quarterly, I'd
recommend starting with our third or fourth issue. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm proud=
of
our first two issues. Our ina=
ugural
edition suffered from some formatting problems and wasn't explicitely focus=
ed
on game design; our second issue is dominated by the massive, controversial,
and somewhat-famous 56-page article "The Problem with RPGs". It's all good stuff, but neither i=
ssue
really gives you as full a sense of the Quarterly's purpose and utility as
subsequent editions, which is why those are recommended for new readers.
"I make games
without thinking too much, I merely notice what seems to work and what does=
n't
work. You did express a lot of things about the games that I wouldn't have =
been
able to put into words. Most of what you said seems to be spot on, but I ne=
ver
took the time to analyze my own games, so it's still like hearing those
thoughts for the first time. =
Thanks
for the review, reading it was a very positive experience!"
We're in the process of making HTML versions of our artic= les; as they become available, they'll be linked below. It's a slower process than you thi= nk: there are sidebars (some long enough to be articles in their own right!) and footnotes (sometimes as many as fifty in a single article!) that need to be incorporated into the text or culled. While I'd advise that the articles be read in their unexpurgated for= m, I think the HTML versions still communicate an article's ideas effectively.= p>
Keep an eye on this space; we'll also be adding some website-exclusive content as well, as soon as we can figure out exactly what sort of content that might be.
"You obviously have a sophist=
icated
understanding of game design, and
your Power-ups article was extremely
interesting and insightful."
No. 1: Winter 2008 7= 4 pg.
Articles: Power-Ups, Lexicon: Purposeful and Arb=
itrary
Difficulty
Cover: M. C. Kids
Reviews: Hunter's Island, Fedora Spade, Death W= orm, NetHack, Shush
No. 2: Spring 2008 8= 1 pg.
Articles: Lexicon: Mimetic and Non-Mimetic Eleme=
nts
Cover: The Problem with RPGs (1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5)
Reviews: Wolf, Albero and the Great Blue Emblem, Shotgun Ninja
No. 3: Summer 2008 7= 2 pg.
Articles: Controls, My Wife Asked Me To Write Th= is
Guest: Rethinking Story Games by David Sirlin=
Cover: "God" Games
Reviews: Immortal Defense, Flash Element TD, De= sktop Tower Defense, The Power, Viking Bazooka Bloodbath, Elements of Escape<= /p>
Fiction: Paper Games by August Poole
No. 4: Autumn 2008 9= 0 pg.
Articles: High Concept, Common Narratives in Non-Narrative Games, Promoting Systemically-Cohesive Variety
Cover: Boss Battles
Reviews: Ca= ctus Game Arcade, Lost in the Desert, agalaG
Fiction: Three Button Combo by Daphne Whitaker<= /i>
No. 5: Winter 2009 67 pg.
Articles: Chance vs. Skill, Creating a Visual La= nguage
Guest: Miyamoto's Framework by Paul Eres<= /p>
Cover: Super Mario Bros.
Look Closer: The Narshe Incident—Attack Power=
as a Source
of Meaning in Final Fantasy VI
Reviews: Pinball Panda, Alternate Path
Special Comment:= Gaming with One Hand by Peter Jurich= i>
"It's not a style I associate=
with
video game articles. It's a literary style more often found in fiction. But
sometimes your style also resembles a scientific journal. Where else would I
learn the difference between: mu=
ltiple
strategic spatial weak-points" and "binary temporal weak point with penalties"? I love it."
If you're still with me you've probably got two more questions. First, are we accepting contributors? And the answer to that is and alwa= ys will be yes, yes, yes. If you'd like to submit a game des= ign article or a work of fiction, a response or rebuttal to something published previously in the Quarterly, or if you're a game designer and you'd like to request a review, feel free to drop me a line at russellsquarterly@yahoo.com= .
Secondly, you mi= ght be wondering who the hell this "Russell" guy is. The answer: I'm Tom Russell. You = may have bumped into me before, actually: I'm an award-winning author of superh= ero fiction on the USENET newsgroup rec= .arts.comics.creative and the editor of the Eightfold Universe on the same. I was briefly a politician. At one time I was a comics blogger= over at Monitor Duty and I'll be shortly starting a column over at Comics Should Be Good. And to top it all off, my wife and= I are Michigan-based filmmake= rs whose feature films are vying for spots = on the dreaded festival circuit None= of this helps me financially; I work part-time in municipal government and mak= e a decent amount of pocket change writing college papers for lazy students.