Lemma Soft Forums

Hi there!

So I've had this idea floating in the back of my head forever: a Visual Novel Fanzine/Mini-magazine.
I used to work on a monthly magazine styled newsletter for a .hack fansite ages ago, and since then I've had a special place in my heart for "zines." Of course, I'm into ones with more content than just plain pictures, so I was thinking that Visual Novels would be a great topic to tackle with a wordy zine. Of course, I'll probably focus on EVNs at first because of scope.

I already have a visual novel blog that gets updated about quarterly, so I was thinking about taking it and transforming it into a quarterly mini-magazine that focuses on EVNs.
It will be free (unless people want to print and distribute it for some reason) so I would be willing to accept material from a variety of sources (as long as it is the person's own creation.)
If some folks did want it printed, though, I'd totally want to pay contributors. I just don't see a market for that currently, since it's a fledgling idea.

Anyway, I thought I'd do an interest check here on lemmasoft since there's so many EVN devs.

I'd say that I'm aiming for the first edition to come out Summer 2016, so probably around June-July-ish. Which means, if there's enough interest, I'd better get to work soon!

Do let me know your thoughts on the matter, and if you'd like to contribute or have any ideas. This is just for fun, so have fun with it.


EDIT:
I'm glad people are interested! Here are some topics and featured items that I'd love to include, if people want to submit them:

-Featured VN(s)
-Developer Interview
-Short Stories
-Featured Art
-Suggested KNs
-New releases
-Game Jam Feature
-Engine Comparison
-Reviews

Please message me if you are interested in covering any of these topics!


EDIT #2:
Since there's been such a positive response, I wanted to open this thread up to accepting submissions for articles and content for the zine.

So far I have the following lined up:

Introduction to the zine/Forward - Mystery Corgi
An Introduction to Visual Novels - Mystery Corgi
Developer Interview - Kkoro
NanoReno Coverage - paradigmshifty
=TOP SECRET= - Dreamgazer

But I'd also like to include the following:
-Featured VN
-Short Stories
-Featured Art
-"Kinetic Corner" aka Suggested KNs
-New Releases
-Game Jam Feature (SuNoFes for this issue?)
-Engine Comparison Segment
-Tip of the Quarter
-Common Features
-Polls
-Cover Art (Front)
-Cover Art (Back)
-Various Art to sprinkle into the pages
-Anything else you can think of!

If you want to participate, PM me!

I wont be able to help for the first issue, due to exams, but I'd be interested in joining in later.

burnt_offering wrote:I wont be able to help for the first issue, due to exams, but I'd be interested in joining in later.

Good luck on exams! ;u;
I'm glad to hear it. Summer break will give us time to work on the fall edition.

I'm really interested! I love to read about people's interests in visual novels, and to follow updates about new projects and their thoughts behind them. Unfortunately, I have to read about those things on Lemmasoft, Fuwanovel, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. So, a bit scrambled.

Having them all in one magazine would be amazing. Especially with the input of the magazine's writers, readers and EVN developers.

It sounds very interesting! I know I would read it for sure.
Actually, several years ago, there WAS one, it was called BTW.
http://www.jaded-perspectives.com/2012/ ... n-one.html

But it's been a while, so I would really like to see a new one happening.

I think it would be fun. I remember really enjoying BTW back when they published it, and I always hoped to see another 'zine appear someday.

I'd be interested in contributing, if I have the time or ideas! Maybe I could even go through some of my old reviews to revise a bit and put in there?

Love the idea! Please let us know when and if it starts.

I think that's a great idea! Sounds like a lot of fun.

My only feedback would be maybe limiting it to teams who already have released games. Or for teams about to release but want to build a little hype first. Otherwise you're going to be left with a magazine full of games that may never get finished. Kinda the issue being chatted about in the "Why So Many Unfinished VN" thread. But yiss, I love the idea.

I'm glad people are interested! I'm going to edit this into the main post, but here are some topics and featured items that I'd love to include, if people want to submit them:

-Featured VN(s)
-Developer Interview
-Short Stories
-Featured Art
-Suggested KNs
-New releases
-Game Jam Feature
-Engine Comparison
-Reviews

Please Message me if you want to cover any of these topics!

What about Tip of the Quarter? One major tip for Ren'Py or VN development in general. I'd love to guest write a writing section, btw if you'll have me. I'm an author and programmer so I would love to talk about writing specifically for VNs.

Another idea: maybe have a special long feature in each quarterly 'zine. Like, in one feature, look at common features in popular commercial games and features in some popular free games. Maybe in the next 'zine, feature a few polls that can be run on the site to look into some things relating to gamers and creators (i.e. favorite genre, preferred game length, character stereotypes for dating sims versus very unique characters, etc.).

These are just a few ideas

Kate wrote:What about Tip of the Quarter? One major tip for Ren'Py or VN development in general. I'd love to guest write a writing section, btw if you'll have me. I'm an author and programmer so I would love to talk about writing specifically for VNs.

Another idea: maybe have a special long feature in each quarterly 'zine. Like, in one feature, look at common features in popular commercial games and features in some popular free games. Maybe in the next 'zine, feature a few polls that can be run on the site to look into some things relating to gamers and creators (i.e. favorite genre, preferred game length, character stereotypes for dating sims versus very unique characters, etc.).

These are just a few ideas

Great ideas! I'm loving seeing what people are coming up with, I think this will turn out great!

I think something like the Tip of the Quarter is a good idea. I think that creators would love to read something that they've never thought about in order to improve their work.

I'd like to help out with something like the short story or featured art, but I don't think I have the time to do that right now. Unless somebody else wants to do it, I can offer my help for the dev interview.

Sounds really cool. I'd certainly read and enjoy a zine like this

I'll PM to see if I can help out at all!

Nice! visual novels are basically becoming this century's 'thing' so I think it's a good idea. Sounds fun!