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7 ARTIST PROFILE 15 LAZY COSPLAY We chat to Synnesai and Tara reveals her outfits discuss her artwork for our first issue
18 EVENING DRINK Our alcoholic beverage of choice for this month
26 REVIEWS Reviews, reviews, and more reviews.
10 ENTER THE FUNHAUS Killerkel dives into the story of Funhaus so far
21 DIAGRAM In this issue, we create a diagram of The Mad King
30 THE HEIST Chapter One
17 ACHIEVEMENT HUNTERS? Are Achievement Hunter actual ‘achievement hunters’?
EDITOR and GRAPHIC DESIGNER: James Perrett CONTRIBUTOR: Killerkel (RT) Kelly E. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: ellisbredding (reddit) CONTRIBUTOR: Tara (RT) GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Ben Grove CONTRIBUTOR: TropicalRemixed (reddit) CONTRIBUTOR: _broadway (reddit) CONTRIBUTOR: Indomerun CONTRIBUTOR: Michaella Mazzoni
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Synnesai, a self-taught artist, RT fan and dirty Blue was kind enough to talk through her background, art, and Rooster Teeth. Have you always been into art, how did you get into digital illustration? I think it’s the same answer for any artist, I’ve always been drawing since I could hold a pencil. But I didn’t get really serious about it, like pursuing it as a living, till late 2011. That’s also when I got my first tablet ahaha so it goes hand in hand I think. Were you self-taught or did you take classes when making the transition between traditional to digital art and was there any specific reason for this transition? I’m like 90% self-taught. I did go to an art school, but I was in Graphic Design, so not much drawing in the way I do now. But I did take some figure drawing and such classes at first, but when my major took me away from that I couldn’t take them anymore. So those classes helped me a lot in understanding the mechanics of using a tablet for sure, but you really only understand how to get the hang of it with your own practice. Working digitally was just so much fun and I knew that was how most artists do their work, so I wanted to learn to do it too. Talk us through your process from the idea to the finished piece, do you dive straight into sketching
out your pieces digitally or do you sketch them out on paper first? I start my sketch digitally now, so generally I have an idea of what I want to do and I get a basic sketch down. Then I do a more definite sketch where I get the form and other details down. Like composition, where the light source is, how the clothes are fitting on the character, and more details. Then I line art it and color! I make a lot of changes as I go, so it’s not like when I get the line art done I’m committed to that, I go back and forth, sometimes back to the sketch layer if the idea is changing. But basically gesture sketch > definitive sketch > line art > color. I hope that makes sense ahha. A lot of your work revolves around Red v Blue and the Achievement Hunter team. What draws you towards the company (pun intended)? Oh man! Well first I was introduced to AH by my friend Lu. He linked me a video of their Mari0 (the portal one) video and I was like “Isn’t that the Rage Quit guy?” and that video was so funny to me that I just watched ALL their videos. Then my sister told me I should watch Red vs Blue and I fell in LOVE with the characters. It was mostly cause both things are super funny and entertaining to me so I just drew a bunch of art for each. RvB has such a great story and I just fell in love with each character. It’s funny cause in school I’d hear people talk about RvB and I’d see their booth at Comic Con when I go, but I never had an interest. Now look at me...
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Ok, if you had to recommend a series to a Rooster Teeth newbie, what would it be? That’s hard I think! I think it really depended on what they like... I would probably show them a one off episode of a let’s play like The Hidden video or one of the Mari0 ones like how I was started off. For one of my friends, they don’t like watching let’s plays, so I showed them the episode where Tex beats up the reds and blues in season 8 and they were like, “Ok I’m watching this.” and I got them hooked. Basically, AH videos if they like gameplay, RvB if they want a good web show.
You sound like a seasoned expert! Back to your work, have you got a favourite piece of yours? Do I? That’s good ahaha! That’s so hard to answer...I feel like I haven’t created that yet. I want to say they all are my favorites, but I’m so critical of my work that I don’t know... My favourite piece is King Gavin (turn back a page to see), what was your inspiration behind it? Oh thank you! Gavin had just won title of King in their King Let’s Plays and so they always call him jester I believe. In earlier Minecraft episodes he was always burning things with lava and stuff, so he’s burning the jester hat and now has the crown. So it was kind of like revenge for making fun of him ahaha. Like “Now it’s my turn to have some fun.” kind of thing. And of course his outfit is inspired by the creeper skin he has in game, but with a “royal” spin. If you could go back and give your younger self some advice, what would it be? “Hey man, a lot of people will say a lot of shit to you and try to make you feel guilty for doing something you love. Ignore them and keep doing it. Work hard, be happy. Worry about your happiness, not theirs. If they can’t be happy for you then you don’t need them in your life. Don’t hold yourself back for them or cause you’re worried. You’ll make better friends.” Great advice! Thanks for taking the time to chat with me; it was fantastic speaking with you. Thank you for having me! Synnesai has countless amounts of great artwork that span across Rooster Teeth, video games, and her own original characters. This article may show a few pieces and an insight into Synnesai, but to best experience the artwork you need to check out her Tumblr page. Synnesai also currently has work in the form of playing cards in the Rooster Teeth Store Interview by James Perrett
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synnesai.tumblr.com twitter.com/synnesai patreon.com/syvnnesai seateas.net
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As the newest Rooster Teeth (RT) subsidiary, Funhaus (pronounced “Fun-house�) is comprised of six members: Lawrence Sonntag, Matt Peake, Sean Poole (Spoole), Bruce Greene, James Willems, and Adam Kovic. Together, they produce video game and related content which can be found on the RT website, Youtube, and recently on Twitch.
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But, before there was Funhaus, there was Inside Gaming (IG). IG is a Machinima owned channel and was first known as Inside Halo. With what first started at Halo 3 news and video clips soon turned into podcasts, drunken gameplay, regular gameplay, steam roulette, Q&A, and shenanigans galore. Over a span of seven years (Est. June 1, 2008) the channel
flourished, and currently has almost 650,000 subscribers and over 150 million views. On January 29, 2015, the crew posted a video on IG announcing their departure from Machinima, in which Adam references an admiration of RT. Five days later Burnie Burns (RT Founder and Creative Director) tweeted that he and Jon Risinger (RT Graphic Designer and Host) were visiting Los Angeles to establish new company offices. Then, on February 5, 2015, Burnie posted a journal on the RT website officially announcing that Funhaus was joining
In the almost six months since the channel’s establishment, a variety of shows have been established, namely being Dude Soup, Open Haus, Demo Disk, Art Haus, Funhaus Comments, WheelHaus, and FAQ Podcast. Dude Soup, the Funhaus podcast, was also, at one time, a perspective name for the channel. Open Haus is a quick “question and answer” show with even quicker witted answers, whereas the FAQ Podcast has a longer format and seriously answers community questions, often on a specific subject. Similarly, Funhaus Comments allows the team to take comments from Reddit, Youtube, and the RT site and answer them in a variety of tones. Art Haus displays fan art with comments from the crew, and Demo Disk and WheelHaus are both gameplay shows. Along with these shows are a variety of other gameplay videos which include drunken gameplays, Spoole’s 1 Dollar 1 Hour gameplay, Mod Gameplay, and various collaborations (Achievement Hunter, The Know, Robbaz, and The Creatures). Funhaus has also begun streaming more often, and has content posted on Achievement Hunter’s Lets Play channel and RT’s news channel, The Know. Pictures: Funhaus
Funhaus is undoubtedly a success story and was a smart move on RT’s part. Due to Funhaus’ shorter video length and heavy editing, it opens itself up to a demographic that Achievement Hunter’s content usually misses the mark on, specifically working persons who don’t have as much time to watch 30 continuous minutes of content. Additionally, Funhaus already had a dedicated fan base, so the partnership allows each side to double dip and share in each other’s audiences. Overall, the Funhaus team is funny, refreshing, and a quality addition to the RT community. Words by Killerkel (Kelly E.)
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Achievement Hunter is well known throughout the YouTube community as a main place to get achievements and Easter egg walkthroughs. But with their combined 1 million+ Gamerscore how do these Hunters stack up against each other? I researched into the Achievement Hunters and their Gamerscore and compiled these facts and figures presented for your viewing pleasure. (Note: Ryan was not included because trueachievements.com, where the majority of these stats came from, did not show any for his BM Vagabond account.) The main thing to compare is obviously total gamerscore. Since Ray left, the #1 spot has been up for grabs with both Michael and Geoff competing for the title. With all the Let’s Plays and other shows going on, the Hunters play a lot of games, both for videos and in their spare time. Geoff leads the way with an impressive 462 games played on his account. Michael is close behind, but he would be miles ahead if his Rage Quit collection counted, and Kdin is also close due to his previous career as a YouTuber. Words and research by: TropicalRemixed All Facts and Stats from: www. trueachievements.com and www. xbox.com
Some other facts: • Jeremy has the largest number of shooting game achievements, with 1827. Geoff is very close behind with 1814. • Gavin’s oldest achievement is in GRAW. • Lindsay has the poorest completion rate, with only 26% of her achievements unlocked. Kdin is second with 29%. • Trevor’s oldest achievement is in Halo 3, and his newest is in Halo 2 (Master Chief Collection). • Jack’s largest achievement is 300G from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Y’know, the easy gamerscore game… • Geoff has 891 sports achievements.
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The Mad King was created in the Minecraft King Let’s Play’s by lunatic, Ryan Haywood. He keeps cows as prisoners and enjoys watching friends battle to the death.
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We sat down with Karl Smith, creator of ILLSNAPMATRIX, to talk about his photography in Grand Theft Auto V. Hi, Karl! To get us started, would you mind telling the readers a little bit about yourself? Hey there! I’m a New Zealander living in Melbourne, Australia. I currently work for a great media start-up. I love media, design, art, photography. And I’m a proud dad to a little fire cracker of a toddler. How was ILLSNAPMATRIX born? The idea of taking photos in GTA intrigued me for a very long time, but the tiny image sizes that saved out of the 360/PS3 version were (to me) just too small to feature as art. When I got the game on Xbox One and saw how the images saved out (960px wide, which is also a great width for websites) I knew I wanted to share my photography from the game. I grabbed the ILLSNAPMATIX name and set up the site in a day or so and starting sharing photos almost right away.
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How does in-game photography differ to playing the game? Do you set it upon yourself to take a great picture, or does it come about when playing the game? GTA V is a little different to many games in that your virtual character has a virtual camera and you take photos with that device (as opposed to a “photo-mode” in the game which gives you access to a free fly camera that can go anywhere). Having to get into the right position as the right time to take a great photo is so akin to real-life photography. The whole process is genuinely fun.
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Generally I set out for photos. I’ll spawn a motorbike or helicopter to move around the city or
countryside looking for interesting locations. Often just walking is a great way to see interesting subject matter, things that you might blast past at high speed while driving. I try to find places I haven’t been before, maybe alley ways or little sections of mountain, desert or forest. Are there any future in-game photography projects in the works? Nothing right now. I’d love to take 4K snaps but can’t justify getting a PC rig just for that purpose. If the Rockstar Editor (for creating video) comes to console, I’ll definitely experiment with camera options and compositions in that mode.
Speaking of the Rockstar Editor, have you considered creating GTA videos? Actually I created a couple of photo spot videos, highlighting cool locations for people getting in to GTA photography. Time is my enemy though - I’ve only made two, though I should get back in and make a few more.
See more of Karl’s GTA photography over on his website - www.illsnapmatix.com You can also tweet him, @illsnapmatix. Tell him we said hi and we want our cat back. Interview by James Perrett
What is the next step for ILLSNAPMATIX? You know what, I’d really love the next version of GTA to give characters access to a DSLR. Rockstar, make it happen!
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The 2010 TV series Human Target, because no achievements are associated with Plant Targets. This series was mentioned by Ryan in the Wolfenstein HUNT episode with Michael. Before we get started, I’d like to point out in the video itself Ryan did say Hard Target, which is a movie that came out in 1993, but (surprisingly enough) YouTube commenters pointed out that he meant to say Human Target. Either way they do both feature a one-man-army of a protagonist.
The show’s formula is similar to Burn Notice, almost too similar. Yo u h a v e two main
characters, plus one, who operate some kind of secret service, protect the client, and get the bad guy kind of business. You’ve got the main badass, the boss who is a retired cop, and a creepy Jon Lennon look-a-like. About halfway through t¬he first episode it became really evident that this was going to be one of those shows where the good guy always saves the day despite the obvious ‘there’s no way that could have worked’ scenario’s. I think this is the show’s strong point. With the somewhat unique personalities of the main trio, and the Bourne Identity-esque action sequences, there aren’t too many plot developing lulls that, to be honest, only setup more fight scenes and gun battles. Also, there is no over-arching story, just the main three who take on different jobs each episode, which translates into less remembering who’s who and more enjoying the new exciting adventures. The dialog can be pretty funny, they don’t bombard with cliché’s, and Ryan was totally right; the main character looks just like the dude in Wolfenstein: The New Order. If I knew about this show five years ago I wouldn’t mind giving up 40 minutes of my day to watch a mystery super soldier and his wacky friends tackle on the world of evil.
Words: _broadway Picture: FOX
J U R A S S I C W O R L D Applause: The CGI is amazing and the movie is packed with exciting and fun moments. Chris Pratt does his character justice and certainly has one of the better performances in the film. If you go in expecting a lighter Jurassic Park experience, you’ll enjoy this one no problem.
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breaking immersion. Because of this, the film leaves the bitter impression that Jurassic World considers its characters nothing more than tools of progression between dinosaur set pieces.
Overall: Jurassic World tries to be an action-comedy similar to a certain super popular genre of late but falls short, forgetting its action-suspense roots Critique: While the movie is visually impressive and which made the first movie so successful. If you has some stellar action scenes, the story is lackluster want some silly, but badass dino-action, then give it and contains questionable plot devices, sometimes a shot. If not, then I’d suggest waiting to rent.
The Wack Album by the comedic trio known as The Lonely Island, was released in 2013 and is the group’s third studio release. If my notes are correct, it was brought up by Michael and Jack in Part 2 of the Borderlands 2 Let’s Play. I think Geoff threw a comment in there as well, being the resident HipHop Ambassador and all. Not quite Wu-Tang, but this rap album ain’t nothin’ to mess with. If you’re an avid listener of the genre, you may be surprised. If you’ve never heard an urban gentleman lay down lyrics of the rhyme variety, I want you to imagine all the stereotypes about rap and multiply that by the power of awesome. This album takes rap and slaps it across the face with a four finger ring and chokes it out with a gold chain. Not only that, they also tackle a bunch of stereotypes like dude-bros and fedora wearing nice guys. The lyrics are over the top, and even if this is a parody/comedy rap album the production is nothing short of amazing. There’s even an All-Star cast of some of the biggest names in the music biz. Seriously, they got Skateboard P, Kdot, the guy from Maroon 5, Billie Joel Armstrong, and a slew of other top tier artists.
albums club banger tracks. Spring Break Anthem is also worth a mention in terms of lyrics and a hot beat. I’ll let your imagination run wild with that one, then snap back to reality so you can listen to this track. This album covers all the bases and knocks it out of the park. If you like hot beats then peep a few tracks. If you want to listen to the lyrics and laugh your ass off, then you won’t be disappointed either. All I know is I had a whale of a time; Shamu.
A few of the stand out tracks in my opinion are YOLO, which is the complete opposite as the name implies and actually preaches rather over the top ways to stay safe and be a responsible adult. I think music itself really steals the spotlight with the catchy guitar riff. There’s Semicolon, which I found absolutely hilarious and completely rips Big Sean’s flow (which in all honestly Ludacris had first, but anyway). The beat is straight fire making it one of the Words: _broadway Picture: The Lonely Island C O N T A G I O N Overview: Contagion is a multiplayer, goal oriented, zombie first person shooter. The game is a favorite of Rooster Teeth Founder and Creative Director Burnie Burns, and is the product of a successful Kickstarter campaign as a spiritual successor to Zombie Panic! Source. Available on Windows, developed and published by Monochrome LLC.
players, as one hit from a zombie can cause infection to spread through your body. Contagion also recently released an update with new weapons and maps, which definitely invites both old and new players alike. Critique: The graphics are average and zombies often move in predictable and robotic ways.
Applause: This game is a lot of fun with friends, and Overall: If you have friends to play with, definitely a majority of the community isn’t toxic. Additionally, consider picking this one up, especially with the Contagion offers multiple game modes, cooperative recent update. and competitive. It’s difficult – even for experienced
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The final review in this month’s issue is the mobile/ PC game Marvel Puzzle Quest. Quest you say? Quest indeed, definitely not a Saga, because you know, lawyers and stuff. Anyhow, this game just barely sneaked in via mention from James of Funhaus on Dude Soup #17 and Open Haus #16. He must be the Funhaus equivalent of Gus who is really into Hearthstone. I would have reviewed that game, but he talks about it so much he basically reviewed it without even knowing. If you’ve played Bejeweled or Candy Crush brace yourself, because now you can relive that experience again! This time with Marvel characters! I’ll brush past the fundamentals and dive right into what’s new this go around. There are different story’s you can choose that each have a set of missions. Yep, stories and missions in a puzzle game. As if Puzzle Street Fighter didn’t corner the market on that back in 96. There are visual novel style cut scenes before and after the fighting takes place, which you can skip if you’d like. During the game, or fight, matching the colored shapes deals damage to the enemy. Do enough of those and you can do a super attack resulting in more blocks cleared from the field and more damage dealt. The enemies strike back with blocks that have to be cleared in a certain number of moves, leaving those blocks unattended makes for a very bruised and battered Iron Man. Damage taken during the battles carries over to the next one, or if you wait until the timer runs down you get your health back. It’s kind of realistic, but I don’t think
Let’s Play – Couples Therapy in Contagion Applause: If there’s one thing the Let’s Play channel needs, it’s diversity. Couples Therapy in Contagion allows just that - it brings in familiar Rooster Teeth personalities in an unfamiliar setting, which feels good. In particular, Ashley Jenkins (The Know host) is a delight to see in this element, especially with her fear of everything horror, and proves herself by making it farther than the rest of the team. Also the cats. The cats were great.
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that’s what they were going for. It didn’t ruin or slow down the gameplay for me so I can look past it. Speaking of Iron Man, this game also has character leveling and upgrades. It’s a very turn based strategy with how each characters special has its own effect. This is my first time playing a game like this, and the experience left me pleasantly surprised. This game really has too much going on for a simple review. To no one’s surprise, there are micro transactions, but the out of the box content is more than enough to satisfy the filthiest of casuals. The visuals are appealing; the core mechanics have yet again withstood the test of time and reiteration. It’s free too, and who doesn’t love free? Trick question, everyone loves free. It’s more topical than Angry Birds, and easier to pick up and play than Minecraft, so give it a shot if you need a fix for your addiction to colored shapes. Words: _broadway Pictures: Marvel
Critique: While the diversity is nice, the content doesn’t do much to stand out. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but feels like it’s missing that little something special. There are also some technical difficulties, which, while understandable, are noticeable. Overall: You’re going to watch it, let’s be honest. Hell, you probably already have. And you should! It’s not every day we see this cast getting together to do gameplay, which is certainly a treat.
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The dim room was quiet, as the band of weary nihilists leaned casually on chairs scattered around a blank table. Their lack of business and flow of cash led to crushed spirits. Even now, their hearts were lain out in front of them as they openly cracked, lacking in the jobs their lives previously run on. But there was still hope, and glimmer of light shone through the darkness to gleam off the rebel leader as he stepped forward to the planning wall. His head was hung for a moment, but he lifted it up to stare at the other bandits, simultaneously swinging his arm around to slam his hand into the map of the city they made their living from. Heads snapped up, and spirits started to stir, as their lead took charge once again. A grunt from Jack echoed for a moment, as short-lived as most of their hopes in these recent times. Nonetheless, their communal attention was now entirely focused on the one standing at the map. “This is Los Santos.” Geoff pointed to the map and leaned forward slightly to address the group. “Right? We’re all familiar with it.” A murmur of agreement rippled across the room, even passing as a vocal hiss from Ryan. But that wasn’t enough. They couldn’t keep going like this anymore.
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“We’re all broke! So broke!!” Gavin’s voice cracked as he spoke up for the rest of them. He flung himself forward to bend his torso entirely over the plane of the desk in front of him and strike the plane of the wood with his firsts. “Ah, shut up, idiot.” Geoff looked at Gavin as one of his own, but never took that as a reason not to keep him in line. This was still business, and now was not the time to get emotional and lose heart. “I have identified… a location to hit.” A flash of intense ambition and craving struck the faces of the group that was just as quickly replaced with a grimace and a mutter of acceptance from Ray. “It’s a six person job,” Geoff brought them all straight back into the game with this one. Other missions hadn’t involved the entire group, but this was obviously a big raid. It grabbed the group’s attention just like that, and suddenly they were all inclined in their seats toward Geoff, hanging off every word. “Everybody’s going to have an equal share, we’re all gonna do equal work. My estimation is that this location… you guys might be familiar with the 24/7 supermarket? Convenience store?”
Their minds now fully turned toward what Geoff was saying, and heeding the question, they answered quickly. A yes could be heard from every mouth, and then immediately preceded by a comment from Ray, who spoke little unless it was extremely important information. “Open all day, I hear.” The others now took their cue that this was the time to clear their vocal chords again and speak up. Ryan was the first to follow Ray, “That’s a big take!” Michael joined in quickly, immediately shooting down the idea with doubt, “I don’t know if we’re ready to hit that.” But Geoff wasn’t finished, and his authoritative voice cut through again to take control of the conversation. “Well, there’s one downtown. Actually, it’s just south of downtown. It’s in South Los Santos. I estimate, as I’ve done some preliminary research, they are going to have between 12 and 18 hundred dollars down here.” The room was now buzzing at the thought of all that cash, and a subconscious whistle came from each of the lips around the room. “So, we pull this off, everyone is going to come out of this between two or three hundred dollars richer.”
Geoff pointed to the map once again, to where the convenience store was located. “Gavin and I are going to rob the place.” All heads turned toward Gavin, the sporadic one of the group. He froze for a moment, but the thrill of a new job broke the trance and he jumped a little in his chair as he spread his arms, “Plan G!” A reference to their team name used in previous jobs around the city. But Geoff wasn’t as impressed at the idea, and quickly moved on to hand out jobs to the rest of the team. “Ray, you’re the best shot. You’re going to be our sniper. You’re going to provide cover.” A headshake of acknowledgement from Ray, and Geoff moved on to the next member, “Ryan! You are our boat man.” “Nautical. Got it.” “Jack, you’re our driver. Everybody knows you’re the best driver. And Michael…” Geoff paused before turning to face the last man. It was only for a moment, yet it was noticeable. “You just blow shit up.” By. Indomerun
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Bigbite came about through a mock-up magazine cover I created called Achieve Mag. There was so much great feedback and questions in to whether it could be a full magazine that I went ahead and started planning. A group of amazing writers, designers, and editors from the Rooster Teeth community began to show interest in producing content for the pilot issue. With the recruited team, we all began writing and designing our way to completion, and the beginning of Bigbite. The Rooster Teeth Community is the hardest working community that I’ve come across. The amazing example lead by the company has helped RT followers pursue their own projects and ambitions. This is an underlining reason for creating the Bigbite magazine – to highlight community projects and artists as well as the regular internal RT shows. So here it is, all our hard work from just over 1 months work. We hope you enjoy what we have put together over this short time, and would love to create additional issues. If you can see yourself reading this magazine quarterly, monthly, or bi-monthly then we would love to hear from you. Share in any way you can and then we can see if the audience is there to create issue #2! Thank you. Thank you for showing so much support in the early stages of concept through to release. Thank you to the community writers and designers who offered their time, advice, and work towards the magazine, and thank you, for reading our first issue. Tweet us your thoughts @BIGBITEMagazine Thanks, JP
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