[lock-on] Volume 1 - A Gaming Journal (Kickstarter campaign)

[Necron]

Update: FUNDED! See most recent threadmark.

My previous thread focused primarily on the past and present of video game magazines.
Here, I'd like to look on ahead and dedicate this thread to an on-going Kickstarter project specifically, that's creating a new format in this area:



[lock-on] Volume 1 - A Gaming Journal - link to the Kickstarter campaign

Thank you again metsallica for bringing this to my attention in the first place.
The premiere issue will partially focus on Sony's accomplishments past and present, Demon's Souls being the Special Feature with original painted cover art. Some key impressions:

I am in no way associated with this project (except for being a backer) and basically just acting as a messenger. However, I personally want to see a project like this come to fruition as I've waited quite some time for something like it. I think it's an opportunity to try out something a bit new and different. But I'll partially quote the campaign as well as the creator's response, LostinCult from my previous thread on this:

Through our experiences in and around the industry, we have carefully selected and curated a list of content creators promoting inclusivity and representation who will be sharing their talents through as part of an amazing portfolio of work, including:

• Unique long-form features with cultural, artistic, and sociopolitical themes
• Fascinating case-studies into all facets of gaming
• Exclusive interviews with leading industry professionals
• Thematic retrospectives with thoughtful critical analysis.

Every single one of them has bought into our vision, and the content on offer will be relatable, informative, academic, unique, thoughtful and, most of all, entertaining.

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We care deeply about media preservation and offline accessibility / Physical media and that seeps into the ethos of lock-on, this product is a love letter to gaming.
We moved away from being a typical magazine and we are a collection of very personal stories around the broad spectrum of gaming, as such we have allowed our creators maximum creative freedom and we have signed many indie writers and artists who previously could not get signed on a traditional SEO website model that relies on click-bait.

Every issue of lock-on will fund several writers and artists to talk about what they care about, if that was not feasible we wouldn't go forward.

We want to be a platform for enthusiasts to access tangible well designed content, as we believe the future of any physical medium is aimed at fans and not a regular "consumer" as viewed in the eyes of many companies.

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Also, John Linneman (Dark1x ) from DigitalFoundry is involved in its first issue!

Update #1

I know Nintendo Force came about the same way on Kickstarter before transitioning to Patreon if memory serves me right – Lucas M. Thomas please correct me on this if I'm mistaken.

So, Era: what are your desires and expectations behind a project like this?
I shall share my own thoughts on that key question at a later date... the campaign itself has around 22 days to go at this point.

Not sure if highlighting specific Kickstarters are allowed in accordance with the Terms and Rules, but please close the thread if they aren't.

Oh, and thank you for reading the OP! :)

 

[Lucas M. Thomas]

Looks really cool!

Nintendo Force's history: Issue #1 was available as a standalone purchase on a rudimentary first website, and it was really overpriced, but luckily enough people supported us out of the gates for us to commit to the magazine long-term. The first year of subscriptions rolled on through website orders (with individual issues being a lot cheaper). Then in 2014 and 2015 we did year-long subscriptions via Kickstarter, you're right. Finally, recognizing that I didn't want to ask our audience to go through the Kickstarter process again and again every year, we transitioned to Patreon at the beginning of 2016 and have been there ever since.

This project's got it right. That first year was awkward for us, and Kickstarter is structured a lot better and is far less confusing for people. If this campaign meets its goal and then maybe a couple of follow-up Kickstarters for more issues prove that an audience is interested in continuing to support it long-term, it could follow our same path and shift to Patreon eventually.

 

[LostinCult]

Looks really cool!

Nintendo Force's history: Issue #1 was available as a standalone purchase on a rudimentary first website, and it was really overpriced, but luckily enough people supported us out of the gates for us to commit to the magazine long-term. The first year of subscriptions rolled on through website orders (with individual issues being a lot cheaper). Then in 2014 and 2015 we did year-long subscriptions via Kickstarter, you're right. Finally, recognizing that I didn't want to ask our audience to go through the Kickstarter process again and again every year, we transitioned to Patreon at the beginning of 2016 and have been there ever since.

This project's got it right. That first year was awkward for us, and Kickstarter is structured a lot better and is far less confusing for people. If this campaign meets its goal and then maybe a couple of follow-up Kickstarters for more issues prove that an audience is interested in continuing to support it long-term, it could follow our same path and shift to Patreon eventually.

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Hi !

Yes that's absolutely the intention, the obvious task being building the initial awareness and the audience knowing you exist, and kickstarter has a slight benefit in this regard.

And thank you for the continued support Necron it is very much appreciated !

 

[Rogote]

Looks interesting and well made. The art is gorgeous as well. Will give my support for this.

 

[Lacrimosis]

As Backer #4 Im really looking forward to this. :)

 

[Magio]

Backed it. Some really interesting people working on this, really hope to get my hands on it later this year !

 

[Nagito]

I'm interested in reading about the history of PlayStation in India and of course the article looks great.

 

[Carmelozi]

Backed it a few days ago! It won't be too long before the campaign will be completely funded, I hope we see a few stretch goal as well.

 

[twisted heart]

I see Jawmuncher is doing a Dino Crisis retrospective, nice.

 

[metsallica]

Woo hoo, everyone needs to get on this, looks awesome!

 

[LostinCult]

Thanks for the support :)

obviously building the initial awareness is the main hurdle so any exposure is extremely helpful as we have hit the dead zone of the campaign now, but we have plans already in place for volume 2 onward :)

 

[Rogote]

Best of luck with the campaign!!

 

[Necron]

Looks really cool!

Nintendo Force's history: Issue #1 was available as a standalone purchase on a rudimentary first website, and it was really overpriced, but luckily enough people supported us out of the gates for us to commit to the magazine long-term. The first year of subscriptions rolled on through website orders (with individual issues being a lot cheaper). Then in 2014 and 2015 we did year-long subscriptions via Kickstarter, you're right. Finally, recognizing that I didn't want to ask our audience to go through the Kickstarter process again and again every year, we transitioned to Patreon at the beginning of 2016 and have been there ever since.

This project's got it right. That first year was awkward for us, and Kickstarter is structured a lot better and is far less confusing for people. If this campaign meets its goal and then maybe a couple of follow-up Kickstarters for more issues prove that an audience is interested in continuing to support it long-term, it could follow our same path and shift to Patreon eventually.

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Oh wow. Sounds like a rough start... but I'm glad it all worked out in the end!
Releasing over 50 issues so far is definitely an achievement - congrats!

I see Jawmuncher is doing a Dino Crisis retrospective, nice.

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Looking forward to reading that retrospective, Jawmuncher :)
Love Dino Crisis 1&2 and really should replay them... maybe Capcom will finally bless us with a remake one day.

The art that will accompany it looks splendid as well.

Hi !

Yes that's absolutely the intention, the obvious task being building the initial awareness and the audience knowing you exist, and kickstarter has a slight benefit in this regard.

And thank you for the continued support Necron it is very much appreciated !

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Much obliged! :)

Stuff mentioned in Update #9 sounds great!
I think in terms of expectations, I of course share this opinion with Ethan:

The unique concept of merging artwork and writing, and making them complement each other as a joint focus, is perhaps the most exciting aspect of [lock-on] for me [...]

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Related to this and in regards to using the term 'journal' instead of 'magazine': is it to highlight a greater distinction and focus in comparison to other publications? As someone working in academia/research/paper-writing, I'm of course curious to why this term was used ;)

Thanks for the support :)

obviously building the initial awareness is the main hurdle so any exposure is extremely helpful as we have hit the dead zone of the campaign now, but we have plans already in place for volume 2 onward :)

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Looking forward to the next updates in the campaign!

 

[Mezoly]

Plesdged the other day, looks really cool!

 

[LostinCult]

Related to this and in regards to using the term 'journal' instead of 'magazine': is it to highlight a greater distinction and focus in comparison to other publications? As someone working in academia/research/paper-writing, I'm of course curious to why this term was used ;)

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Yes, exactly that. plus at 156 pages its more of a book at this stage but in a more zine form, we felt journal worked well.

 

[Necron]

I'm interested in reading about the history of PlayStation in India and of course the article looks great.

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This will make for an interesting story.
In more recent history: it took quite a while for the PS5 to launch in India due to securing the IP (a curious case), resulting in the PS5 only just launching last month, if I'm correct. EDIT: though some reports seem to suggest this wasn't in relation to this issue. Regardless, worldwide it's still a difficult unit to find.

Yes, exactly that. plus at 156 pages its more of a book at this stage but in a more zine form, we felt journal worked well.

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I was surprised at first at the size you're aiming for in your first issue. But does make it more distinct and allows for greater creativity. Edge has fought these past several months to receive their usual page count which they promise to have restored in issue #357. Understandably, this is the result of the pandemic in part and its impact on their business/distribution side as a whole...

Slightly off-topic:

Spoiler: Still printed scientific journals...

I do still love to hold a printed version of certain scientific journals - especially those that still print in colour! But with the number of papers and search for very specific information rather than an entertaining read, it's becoming rarer and very often purely reserved for the 'Top Journals'. Still, I share the enthusiasm when you do get stuff like this (as posted the other day on Twitter):

 

[LostinCult]

Slightly off-topic:

Spoiler: Still printed scientific journals...

I do still love to hold a printed version of certain scientific journals - especially those that still print in colour! But with the number of papers and search for very specific information rather than an entertaining read, it's becoming rarer and very often purely reserved for the 'Top Journals'. Still, I share the enthusiasm when you do get stuff like this (as posted the other day on Twitter):

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There is definitely something special about that tangibility

 

[KiDdYoNe]

This looks sexy af. Thank you for sharing this on ERA!

 

[Necron]

Link to Update #10

Michael is a freelance journalist from the U.K. currently living in Western Japan. His love of video games started from a young age, watching his dad play sonic on a beaten-up old Megadrive and he was always a Nintendo boy - until he watched his friend play Dead Space on a PS3. Michael's mind was blown and soon he was diving into all the Playstation classics he missed whilst swinging a Wii mote around wildly.

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What I wouldn't give for more Dead Space... one franchise that is dearly missed from that era.
The Plasma Cutter still ranks amongst my favourite weapons in gaming.

The sound design in that game is perfection and I'd go so far as to say that headphones are mandatory. The UI is also very elegantly designed. At least we're getting the Mass Effect trilogy presented in a remastered version very soon from EA. Dead Space deserves its own compilation too, I find... but alas...

Over the last year, Michael has been steadily building a portfolio of writing work ranging from industry interviews to in-depth cultural analyses and is always looking for a new challenge both within writing and gaming as a whole. Except for anything souls-like. That'll make him cry.

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Souls games are nothing to cry about! ;)
(well, except most of the character storylines - the great majority being quite tragic.)

 

[Carmelozi]

 

[Necron]

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A nice giveaway indeed!
Returnal is shaping up nicely based on the HouseCast podcasts they did the past few months.
The trailer they launched yesterday looked great as well:
Returnal - Story Trailer thread

Hope Housemarque themselves will be involved to some degree in the planned Housemarque article and hope Returnal does well for them. I've played Resogun during PS4's launch but missed out on Nex Machina...

 

[Necron]

Link to Article: Is There Still Room For Gaming Magazines in 2021?

If print can't compete with digital, it shouldn't continue fighting a losing battle. Instead, the medium should become something new. The best step forward would be to use print to help legitimize video games as an art form. While most inside the community consider video games to be art, many outside of the industry have yet to accept that. Any step gaming can take to mature will be to its benefit in terms of recognition. One avenue is to produce video game magazines that operate like academic journals.

Just about any area of study and interest has related journals. These publish infrequently and aren't beholden to current news, as they instead focus on intellectual discussion. These are the types of publications that are cited in academic papers and hold real-world merit. If the gaming industry moves in this direction, it could gain a lot of ground. These are starting to pop up, but they're often about the industry from the outside rather than coming from the gaming world itself. They also don't typically tackle the sort of material that would be pertinent to the community or relevant for discussion.

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Congrats for getting in on an article from CBR.com, LostinCult!
I've picked out a few choice quotes that ring very true.

 

[Moksha]

A nice giveaway indeed!
Returnal is shaping up nicely based on the HouseCast podcasts they did the past few months.
The trailer they launched yesterday looked great as well:
Returnal - Story Trailer thread

Hope Housemarque themselves will be involved to some degree in the planned Housemarque article and hope Returnal does well for them. I've played Resogun during PS4's launch but missed out on Nex Machina...

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This journal sounds great! Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

If you enjoyed Resogun, no doubt you'd enjoy Nex Machina. If you're interested in Housmarque and the production of Nex Machina there is a good documentary "The name of the game" about it's production.

 

[Necron]

This journal sounds great! Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

If you enjoyed Resogun, no doubt you'd enjoy Nex Machina. If you're interested in Housmarque and the production of Nex Machina there is a good documentary "The name of the game" about it's production.

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Yeah, I don't know why I didn't get around to playing Nex Machina... it even has couch co-op!
In celebration of Returnal soon coming out, I'll look into it this weekend and this documentary.

 

[Necron]

Link to Update #12

Ben Bayliss is a freelance journalist who has had a number of gigs during his career so far. We love him most for his work on accessibility within gaming, and he can often be found educating and inspiring others online. We just had to reach out to him for this project, and we've got quite the feature in the works that we know is going to offer an incredible insight into everything 'accessibility'.

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We've had quite a few discussions on ResetEra about accessibility. It's often brought up when talking about difficulty amongst other topics. I look forward to reading what new insights that Ben Bayliss can give on this. No doubt, The Last of Us Part II offers a new level in terms of accessibility settings in a AAA video game. It's still rare you see that many options on display but it's getting better, I think (?) The Last of Us Part II just won ResetEra's Game of the Year 2020 award and amongst its many qualities are definitely the extent of its accessibility settings.

In terms of entire inputs/controllers, Team Xbox should be congratulated for developing the 'Adaptive Controller' (link to the thread here on Era) which was thought to be offered to Sony & Nintendo according to my latest knowledge... I guess we'll see.

 

[Necron]

Hello weekend-Era!
Time to highlight some of the cool art in this post that will go into the [lock on] journal. Here are some of my favourite pieces shown so far with links to the respective artists. I will highlight the source on each of these separately.

Artwork by @rayluaza will accompany words by@ASpecialHell in our Resident Evil 8 feature "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

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Source - wonder where that right one is from... even Cloud is starring at it questioningly.

Artwork by @bossmonsterbani will accompany @NateAndDestroy retrospective on Castlevania Symphony of the night.

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Source - somebody has their Amano-inspired art down! ;-)

Artwork by @saproartist will accompany words by @cvxfreak in our Resident Evil retrospective.

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Source - "How the secrets beckon so sweetly."

 

[Necron]

More information on the Journal in their own words:
Link to Podcast

Also...

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Nearly there!

 

[Necron]

Second podcast:


Highlights why preservation is important. Puts it in to perspective on what's happening with the PSN Store (PSP, PS3, Vita)...

 

[Necron]

Bloodborne-aficionado and the very talented Lance McDonald talks about his work in the Journal:
Link to Update #14

We are very pleased to share that Lance McDonald will be contributing to Volume 1 of [lock-on]. The team love his work and feel fortunate to have him on board. Lance will be writing an article entitled 'The Northern Limit' and will be discussing everything about the cut content from Demon's Souls. It will offer insight and intrigue, and we can't wait to read it!

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To some extent, it was understandable that this area wasn't included in the Demon's Souls remake but... I feel as though Bluepoint could have really tried their hand at a wholly new creation here. It would have added something 'special' for players already so familiar with the game.

Maybe it'll be in the rumoured film ;-)

 

[Necron]

Congrats LostinCult for passing this milestone!

 

[Necron]

It's Monday evening - good a time as any to share some art!

Some new art mentioned in Update #15 and contributor for the journal, Sam McKenzie.
Check out his profile for more cool pieces.

It's nice Ecco the Dolphin can still find work.

 

[Nightengale]

Less than $1000 to go for this.

 

[Necron]

Funding reached!

Congrats!

And with roughly 4 days left to spare...

 

[LostinCult]

Many thanks for the kind support all !

 

[LostinCult]

Today is the final day to get a pledge in :)

 

[Necron]

It's nice that a stretch goal could be reached, with just 10 hours remaining.

Though that next one would be very nice indeed if it can be reached... here's to the next one! 🍷

 

[Necron]

Seems Stretch Goal #2 was met while I was asleep! To have a further three artists contribute is really nice to have reached.

Still, just a few £ shy of reaching goal #3 and about half an hour left until closing...

 

[Necron]

Third Stretch Goal reached within the final few minutes! Nearly 400 pledged, amounting to just over £16'500.

Congrats on the very successful campaign LostinCult!

I wish the team great success in realising the journal and look forward to one day reading its pages over a cup of coffee. ☕

 

[LostinCult]

Third Stretch Goal reached within the final few minutes! Nearly 400 pledged, amounting to just over £16'500.

Congrats on the very successful campaign LostinCult!

I wish the team great success in realising the journal and look forward to one day reading its pages over a cup of coffee. ☕

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Thanks for the continued support !

Pre-orders for anyone who missed the basic issue are available now over at www.lostincult.co.uk