Pixel Nation News

[Lorfarius]

Have been looking at a few mags these past few weeks and that has stood out so don't worry its been noticed, especially with us using smaller paragraphs on a page compared to an A4 mag. We have a new lead designer involved and looking into a much better way to present the text and paragraphs for future issues. That's 3 designers so its practically turning into a full time staff

Qualified proof readers is the next biggie. There are just a few of us involved doing all the checking but its far from perfect, needs expanding upon.

[Retro_Heart]

Got the new issue just now. Looks great, look forward to reading it later. Will come back with constructive criticism after I have read it all.

The writing of articles for future issues sounds interesting. Maybe I can think of something a little off the wall for it.. something that hasn't been covered before... and get back to you with some ideas!

Glad you got it

Looking forward to your critique and feedback buddy !

[noobish hat]

I can probably come onboard as proofreader if you like. I used to proofread phd papers.

[ChipTune]

How often is it going to be between issues as I will obviously be buying every one of them, but not sure if I can afford another £9 a month going out on mags (after RG and GAMEStm subscriptions)

[The Laird]

How often is it going to be between issues as I will obviously be buying every one of them, but not sure if I can afford another £9 a month going out on mags (after RG and GAMEStm subscriptions)

its quarterly as Lofarius already said.

[Lorfarius]

How often is it going to be between issues as I will obviously be buying every one of them, but not sure if I can afford another £9 a month going out on mags (after RG and GAMEStm subscriptions)

I'd grab yourself a subscription for those 2, save yourself a fortune.

[Retro_Heart]

How often is it going to be between issues as I will obviously be buying every one of them, but not sure if I can afford another £9 a month going out on mags (after RG and GAMEStm subscriptions)

its quarterly as Lofarius already said.

I'm pushing Lorfarius for us to put out an issue every day. It's my secret plan to kill him with work

[fujiHunter]

Any plans for a listing of issue 2 on Ebay as was done with issue 1

[Lorfarius]

Yep, just haven't had chance its been that busy But will sort listing over the weekend!

[Megamixer]

My order of issue 1 and 2 came through the letterbox this morning. Had a quick flick through the both of them and I can't wait to properly start reading them because they look ace. This is exactly the kind of thing that I like to see happening in the gaming community so well done to everybody involved and the hard work that has obviously gone into this project. Very nice to see something written for gamers by gamers who obviously have a passion for the hobby.

As an afternote, my order also turned up very quickly considering that everybody at Pixel Nation is very busy so I'm doubly chuffed . Roll on issue 3.

[ChipTune]

Have only read a little but I am slightly disappointed.. there doesn't seem to be the same focus on art that the first issue had, instead being replaced with some fairly dull articles, not so much dull content, but written with no style or fun, just statistics and facts, it can be like reading a manual for something.

and AGAIN with the errors, seriously guys, within 3 pages there is repeated text, typos and spelling mistakes. This is really unacceptable. You are putting all this effort and time into making a book yet can't seem to find one person to spend a couple of hours reading through it before it goes to print.

Also Shadow of the beast was covered in the first issue so shouldn't be mentioned again the following one.

Some articles like the Final fantasy and Shmup one are too long.

Also the cult like blurb at the front is slightly over the top, and wasn't the NES accessories thing done in the NES-bit magazine?

I really want to support this book but when you consider a lot of gaming collectors and retro fans are going to be quite anal about mistakes and stuff you really need to get on top of this.

If anyone wants to buy my copy I will sell it to you. or swap it for an xbox 360 game

[Lorfarius]

The different in art is that we had many complaints about issue 1 where the art was taking over the page. The focus should be the writers words and we have tried to make it as professional looking as possible yet still keeping the retro feel. The Touhou and FF pieces come to mind as having some fantastic art yet which doesn't dominate the pages.

We had a lot of writers put in a LOT of effort into those articles and there is nothing wrong with them, few of which are writers for RG and forumites here.

Shadow of the Beast was a 2 part article each being full interviews with a programmer and the guy behind the music in the series. Rather than have it cover a massive section of 1 issue we did it as a 2 parter. The articles and questions are completely different as is the layout and design so not sure what we could have done better for that?

You have to understand that we aren't some multi-million pound publishing house and everyone produces this in their spare time. I work 9-5 and spent many mornings over the past several weeks sat up until 3/4am just to get the issue ready. I don't make a penny from the book however I'm happy to be involved as it's a big part of my love for the retro hobby as a whole. Mistakes will happen but we are trying our best to improve the big publishers have teams of full timers who are paid to pick up on things like that, we are doing our best to improve as things go along. PN2 IS a big improvement over 1 there's no doubt about it and we have already taken a lot on board to change the layout for PN3 already, things are improving all the time. Sorry to see you won't be buying it, you really will be missing out If you drop me a PM I will refund you in full. Which is the second time I've offered to do that!

The World of NES Accessories was written by a completely different writer who has nothing to do with NES-Bit Magazine System. That's something I do with a group of forumites on the NES-Bit site, it isn't a PN book/mag. The NES deserves coverage and just because I do a mag elsewhere doesn't mean PN shouldn't have it in I thought the art was fantastic for that piece as well, it uses the old art style from the official boxes, looks neat

We have seen the mistake with a single comment on the PN Load page, but this was down to the printers messing up and using an original bleed sample PDF instead of the provided page (shouldn't be a surprise as I'm sure people have read the problems we have had this past fortnight just trying to get the books here!), one of our writers pointed it out before release but was just too late by then. The finished piece should have a SQEnix logo at the bottom with the correct comment, it was only a small error and they have promised to make the change for all future print runs.

You keep bringing up the cost but again just look at the quality of the paper and size. They aren't cheap to produce and most of the cost goes into actually having them printed plus we have paid writers/designers now involved. Sadly this passion of ours costs money. Don't mean to go on but the PN team are trying our best to offer something really special just look at the U-Publish side and recent adverts, we are improving, building and we will get there, we really appreciate your support and apologies if we make some errors alogn the way. If someone would like to offer a copy of Too Human to Chiptune I'm sure he will be happy to accept

[Megamixer]

Looking at the 'People' pages at the front, I just want to know who (Michael or Graeme) has just confessed to fancying Tifa .

You've got to expect such typos/errors though at the relative start of a project like this so I won't let it bother me as I have faith that those involved will work on eradicating them in the future. For now, the fact that such a cool gaming mag even exists is more than enough.

[jdanddiet]

I don't think the FF and Touhou pieces were too long, but maybe they could have been broken up a bit with boxouts/asides etc like RG does so that doesn't seem such a big read all in one.

[jdanddiet]

Looking at the 'People' pages at the front, I just want to know who (Michael or Graeme) has just confessed to fancying Tifa .

You've got to expect such typos/errors though at the relative start of a project like this so I won't let it bother me as I have faith that those involved will work on eradicating them in the future. For now, the fact that such a cool gaming mag even exists is more than enough.

IT WAS MICHAEL! I've never even played the game
Lorf has corrected the PDF version thank god