<h2>GZine Issue #1:</h2>

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<h3>Intro:</h3><br>

Welcome to Gamehawk's Zine, appropriately giving the name "GZine". I was reading some of the Ludablogs, which I must say Ludamad are very well done and my favorite blogs to read. They're very interesting, but also got me thinking. Why not along with news keep you up to date with reviews and tips? I figure you can add some humor, to keep things interesting too. Anyways, I'll let you get reading.

Cheers,

gamehawk

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<h3>News:</h3><br>

<a href="http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=melee-master&cmd=comments&id=1618">

Melee-Master</a> has a new spreadsheet program, and the interface is very hot. I don't have a DS, so I haven't downloaded but if you have it you'll love it.<br><br>

<a href="http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=Fender_Skills">Fender_Skills</a> has been rendering like crazy and they all look awesome. If you're working on a 3D game and need some models, I'd give him a ring.<br><br>

<a href="http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=DarkSirrusGames&cmd=comments&id=1617">

Dark Sirrus</a> is making a new game called Starburst Zero and it looks awesome!<br><br>

<a href="http://64digits.com/games/index.php?cmd=view_game&id=425">ASCII Fun</a> by cactus can convert real images into ASCII ones!<br><br>

<a href="http://s9.invisionfree.com/CPPGameDev">CPPGameDev</a> is having an election, check it out.<br><hr>

<h3>Reviews:</h3><br>

I'm reviewing Hunter's Island by Turquoise Star and JakeX, overall I wasn't the biggest fan of it. Here's how I broke it down.

<b>Graphics:</b><br> 5/10 Some of the graphics were good, but others were horrible. The concistency was terrible, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the graphics.

<b>Controls:</b><br>7/10 The arrow keys were good, but the jump and shoot keys should have been Up and Space. You also should have had the ability to duck.

<b>Gameplay:</b>7/10 The gameplay was pretty smooth, the jumping and movement was clean, no wall glitches, but sometimes you appeared to be floating in mid-air.

<b>Sound:</b>0/10 Was there any?

<b>Originality:</b>7/10 The story wasn't good until the inscription on the rock part, that I liked. I also like the jumping, shooting atmosphere. It felt like a comfortable blend of Sonic and Mario. I liked it.

<b>Overall:</b>Since there was no sound at all, I won't count that in the rating. If sound had been included it would have been a 58%, but that isn't good enough for a game like this. Your overall rating is 73%, there should be some music. With all the time put in this game it should have deserved better, maybe it's more enjoyable if you play it all the way through.<br><hr>

<h3>Coding Tips:</h3><br>

I haven't used GM in a while, but this tip could be useful in all languages (GM not applying). My tip is simple, but pretty effective. Here's the scenario, you want to have animations in your game, but you don't know how to load GIFs. All you know is how to load BMPs. Here's what you do, it's very simple. Create an array which holds refrences to your bitmaps, draw, rest for a small period of time, and draw the next frame in the array. There's my coding tip.

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<h3>The End:</h3><br>

A great issue one, and a blog. So, what did you think? I hope you liked it. Want to contribute? Email me, I don't mind. Add a review, tutorial, etc. Or submit a <i>Letter To The Editor</i>. I hope you enjoyed this issue.

Cheers,

<i>gamehawk</i> :)

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