A new Australian gaming print magazine from Mark Serrels and Jackson Ryan has just been announced called CONTINUE. The project is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter and has already received more than half of its initial funding target.
CONTINUE is described as a “defiant, new Australian print magazine designed to explore, celebrate and examine videogames and the different ways they impact broader culture“. In a video on their Kickstarter page, Ryan and Serrels cite the declining state of both the video games industry and also video game writing and analysis, with the shutting down and acquiring of outlets in both Australia and worldwide. This includes the recent acquisition and turning of websites like GamesHub, Videogamer and more into “AI slop factories“.
CONTINUE is pitched as a response to this that sits at the intersection of other gaming magazines like A Profound Waste of Time and established magazines like The Monthly. The magazine will include a focus on Australian games and gamemakers, with first issue cover art by Jack Kirby Crosby referencing various popular Australian-made games such as Hollow Knight: Silksong, Untitled Goose Game and Cult of the Lamb, but also intends to “chas[e] stories from across the planet“.
The Kickstarter page also cites preservation as a key motivation behind CONTINUE being a physical magazine. Likening it to a memory card, Ryan says “CONTINUE is preservation. It is games journalism without big tech, without algorithms, without SEO, without dwell time, without how many clicks we get… we just want to deliver the best stories we possibly can.”
CONTINUE is created by Australian journalists Mark Serrels and Jackson Ryan, who have written for Kotaku, the Official Nintendo Magazine, CNET, The New York Times, The Guardian, PC Powerplay and more. The first issue will also include contributions from Ally McLean, Alanah Pearce, Ruby Innes, James O’Connor, Jini Maxwell, Ben Armstrong, Dan Golding and Dan Van Boom.
CONTINUE’s Kickstarter is now live with the aim of raising $25,000 to cover premium print costs, contributor fees, postage and Kickstarter’s own fees. Tiers range from $20 Early Bird to purchase the first 100 copies, $25 Standard and New Game Plus and New Game Plus Plus that comes with additional features such as a poster print of the cover art and your name being included in the magazine. All the details can be found on their Kickstarter page here.