Wireframe asked how games were made as well as whether they were worth playing. Raspberry Pi Press launched it on 8 November 2018, with a £3 print edition and a free PDF. Developer interviews, reviews and history shared the magazine with Toolbox, its practical section on making games. The launch announcement described programming, art, music and design as parts of the same activity. (Publisher’s announcement.)
A finished game and a small piece of code
Issue 1’s Gris cover presented the visual work of Conrad Roset and Nomada Studio. Inside, its contents ranged from Alex Hutchinson discussing independent development to a history of the early British games business and a feature on Treasure.
The first Source Code article made the editorial connection concrete. A discussion of Defender’s explosions sat beside a Python example for making particles move, slow down and disappear. It offered a small mechanism to examine, rather than pretending to reproduce the whole arcade game. The issue’s masthead names Ryan Lambie as editor and Ian Dransfield as features editor. (Issue 1, pp.4–7, 32–33 and 67.)
Looking back while covering new work
At launch, Wireframe described its approach as particularly interested in independent games and their makers. Its practical features gave readers another way into the same subjects: an interview could explain a design decision, while a tutorial explored a mechanism behind it. The publisher initially announced a twice-monthly schedule.
Contributor Jack Yarwood later recalled meeting Lambie at EGX 2018 and hearing a pitch that included the human stories behind both influential and forgotten games. That is a participant’s recollection of the magazine’s aims, rather than a claim that it covered every part of games history equally.
The last print issue
Issue 70, released in January 2023, was the final print edition. Yarwood’s contemporary report records the staff announcement and a proposed return in an evolved form. That proposal did not establish when or how a successor would appear. His report also notes the magazine’s later move to a monthly schedule and identifies Aaron Potter as features editor at the end of its print run. (Report, 5 January 2023.)
Sources
- Ryan Lambie, “Wireframe issue 1 is out now!”, Raspberry Pi, 8 November 2018: original publisher announcement, launch date, price, schedule and free digital edition.
- Wireframe 1, November 2018, pp.4–7, 32–33 and 67: contents, editorial, Gris artwork, particle example and masthead. Original issue PDF in the public archive.
- Jack Yarwood, “Wireframe Magazine Releases Final Print Edition, Will Return In ‘Evolved Form’”, Time Extension, 5 January 2023: contemporary closure report and attributed participant recollection. Yarwood discloses his work for the magazine between 2018 and 2022.