For this Kickstarter spotlight, we have something a little different compared to the other ones I’ve talked about lately. Little Player is not a video game, but a magazine aimed at an underutilized demographic of the Game Industry.
Little Player:
Little Player is a video game magazine for 7 to 12 year olds and is being run by Martin Alessi who used to be a senior editor for EGM. His goal is to create an entry level magazine for kids who are just discovering games and to fill the void left by Nintendo Power.
They will only cover games rated EC, E and E 10, which I know for my audience reading this may not sound too exciting, but remember this is aimed for kids. The magazine will have reviews from both adults and kids to provide insight for both parents and the children reading the magazine. The goal is to get funding for a bi-monthly magazine with stretch goals to add more items for kids and possibly go once a month.
Considering one of the goals of Game-Wisdom is to educate people on Game Design and the Industry, I’m definitely for someone trying to get kids interested in the Industry. There really isn’t anything exclusively for the kid market these days, with most magazines and sites that skew older to the teenager and adult crowd.
My main concern about the Kickstarter is what will be the standard offering in each issue? Reviews are great, but every site and magazine does game reviews. Of course they still skew older, but just having reviews for kids isn’t enough in my opinion to stand out in today’s digital world. There’s no mention of additional content like editorial pieces, interviews or even educating kids on the industry.
One of the issues (no pun intended) with Nintendo Power was that it was of course controlled by Nintendo, meaning all coverage had to be exclusively related to Nintendo products and platforms. A good way to differentiate Little Player would be to offer coverage on all aspects of the Industry, while still being written for kids. I would have loved to read about how games work when I was growing up and that’s true even to this day for many people.
At this moment the Kickstarter is just getting going, but hopefully coverage like this will help spread the word. Getting kids interested in games is a good thing and providing them with a magazine specifically catered to them would be a great way to get their feet wet in this industry.
