At the start of the year, we covered a Kickstarter for a campaign aimed at producing a magazine all about stealth games. It was called, awesomely, Sneaky Bastards. Well, good news: the first issue is now printed, and headed off to people's mailboxes.
And it looks awesome.
I've been flicking through a pdf copy of the magazine, and loving the 100% original content (a range of essays on Dishonored), but I've gotta say, I'm regretting not backing for a printed copy, because that's where the goodness is. It's been printed on 100 pages of quality paper, free of annoying ads, and is full of nice screens (and of course led by the awesome cover art by AJ Hately).
Note that this isn't a traditional magazine run. There won't be a second issue next month/quarter. The first Kickstarter campaign only covered the production costs for this issue, and editor Dan Hindes tells me that unless a proper publisher loved what they saw and offered some help, they'd have to return to Kickstarter for each issue.
Hardly an ideal set of circumstances, but then, for a mag this nice it might well be worth it.
Traditional magazines are finding that they're able to survive if they're able to cater to a niche; it's nice to see video game writers doing the same.
If you missed out on the Kickstarter, don't sweat; you can buy a print ($25) or digital ($15) copy here.