Ferrán González, publisher specialized in informative video game books

Gonzlez worked in various animation studios before devoting himself to advertising and graphic design, but games were always present as a hobby. When he played Dreamcast he began to wonder who was behind the video games to the point that, he says, he became a little obsessed. "With Tetsuya Mizuguchi, I was very impressed by his games because they were very different from what was done, after their rather arcade stage, with Sega Rally Championchip and things like this, and with Space Channel 5 and, above all, with Rez Dreamcast was when I became obsessed with saying: I have to know more about this guy. I proposed to Meristation does a kind of study and that's when I started to write sporadically about video games there in Meristation or in IGN. I've always wanted to write about people more than games, or series or worlds, about who is behind, what producer, what publisher or what artist is behind. Even in the last stage of writing about video games, in EdgeWhat he was doing was also catch people who were not very well known, do a little research and try to discover new people, "says Gonzlez.

There comes a time when he decides to take a leap and create the magazine that he would like to have and launches himself into the adventure of putting a paper magazine on the market, Star-T Magazine, a project that now defines the interviewee as "crazy, half suicide. But hey, it was very intense, it was very interesting".

In 2008, he began to design the magazine, for which he had some experience in publishing. I contacted two friends, lawyer and financier respectively, to try to make a development plan. In the end, Gonzlez organized it with Transpop, a small cultural company and recruited "a people who knew how to write quite well and start to develop the topic itself and its philosophy, "because Star-t Magazine He did not want to be one more magazine in the kiosk, according to Gonzlez: "It was good that there were all kinds of different magazines, but I was missing a bit something that was done in movies like, for example, Positif or Cahiers du Cinma. That apart from making a review on a film there would also be reports, rather mini essays, on people or on genres, on Hitchcock or anyone who was interesting and not to explain who was born, lived and did this, but why he did it. That why was very interesting to me and the only thing that I had seen similar, but do not dare too much, was the English magazine Edge. Here I did not see that address and decided to do a little bit of what is a professorial film magazine in Spain that is Directed by and have that deeper, critical style about games

"I decided to do a little bit of what is a professorial film magazine in Spain that is Directed by and have that deeper, critical style about the games or about the people who create the games"

The magazine began with an editorial staff that was quite large for what was then the average in other Spanish publications composed of Gerard Aragn, scar Garca Paella, David Catalina, S * T * A * R, Pablo Muoz, Alberto Catena, Vctor Porras, Daniel Gmez, Ramn Nafria, Jordi Snchez-Navarro and Jos Manuel Fernndez and Sergio Melero although later it was reduced as the economic problems began. and in the first issue there were even invited signatures. The biggest problem the magazine faced was, acknowledges its founder, who miscalculated that it takes time for paper magazines to recover the money invested: "It took us a long time to collect to continue producing magazines. We wanted to do it monthly, we couldn't and it became bi-monthly and then when we can. Really it was a daring experience, especially daring, more than smart. 10 years later I see it as something thrown, an experiment. It didn't quite work because people weren't very well prepared either, especially the general public, and we didn't have the support of a big publisher behind it either. "

After publishing two numbers on paper, Star-T Magazine It became digital, something that, seen from now on, did not work either: "It was a mistake, but it was the only possibility that could be done And that's what I think killed the magazine. That is, if he had held out a few more numbers on paper, he could have possibly made a base endurable enough, but the revenue, liquidity and all that in magazines is very slow and you have to have a big box to hold on. If you are not a large company, it costs a lot to endure many numbers. I was going completely independent and I had to eat my loans, of course. It was one of the hardest parts. "

Star-T Magazine wanted articles with intellectual depth, but which were informative; according to its founder, they fled both from banality and from a "cumbersome academic language that often costs many people to understand". Gonzlez is satisfied in this regard: "each one of the editors did a very good informative work and that people enjoy that reading, that they have rhythm. The content still seems quite interesting to me. Many of the magazine's articles are on the Star-T Magazine Books website, at Game Critica, "he says.

The design created by Gonzlez was very sober, in line with the film magazines that you used as a reference "and also I am a big fan of Swiss graphic design between the 50s and 80s. I think they have made an incredible graphic design and that part is so clean, of that large spaces without breaking anything. It's silly, but to break a screenshot I don't like anything about a game, have a screenshot and in the middle they cut it off or take away a corner is like putting a frame from a movie and taking off Harrison Ford's face, right? I think there are none in the six magazines that have been cut. But, apart from that, that it be clean, that it come out in a good body of print And above all, what I tried to put in, which was not very common or was practically non-existent, was to put footnotes. Many editors during the history of Spanish video game journalism or even elsewhere say some things and you say: well, and where did you get this from? Is it your invention or not? and even if it is superficially put, if you quote high, say where you got it from. In the magazine, at least in the essays, but even in the analyzes, some had footnotes, bibliography. "

Once the magazine finished, the change to editorial was by chance, although since it startedStar-T Magazine The idea was already around Gonzlez, although it was not possible to carry it out. When it was already decided that the sixth issue would be the last of the magazine The possibility of working with Jaume Esteve, author of Eight Carats, I was looking for whoever could design the book, correct it, edit it, in short. Gonzlez had worked. And I said: I want to edit books and you want to make this book. We are going to put the mark Star-T Magazine with the tagline of Books in English and so I am starting that book catalog path and you publish your book ", Gonzlez remembers. Initially it was going to be a tome, but it was so big that they decided to split it in two in order to make it more visually appealing instead of opting for a very small print to make it manageable.

Gonzlez acknowledges that he had no experience in book publishing, but he studied every step he took with the principles of Star-T Magazine Books carefully. "Eight Carat" was undoubtedly an excellent way to start an editorial label; the book was very well received, "Jaume did an impressive journalistic job, he toured all of Spain," says Gonzlez. Co-publishing was initially maintained With the authors for a couple of more books, but Gonzlez decided that this method was too difficult and he wanted to edit it alone and decide what editorial line he was going to do. "It is also when I create the two lines, that of Premiere and Thewhiteline and I do on Thewhiteline Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Video Games "with Mr. S * T * A * R

The idea of ​​creating two lines, says Gonzlez, came "after an afternoon of coffee with Mr. S.T.A.R., who has worked on Mondo Pixel and works on the radio. I wanted bring a line a little bit cheaper, that's why the white line (whiteline), with books below the normal price, 14 or 15, and not about the video game itself satellite themes that are related to the video game ". Being the fruit of a easier investigation and without such philosophical questions, Gonzlez also wanted for the books of this label a simpler language, and these elements would differentiate them from the Premiere line, which have more depth, "without reaching the most academic" clarifies Gonzlez. The themes also differ slightly: "One is much more basic, like an encyclopedia, a compendium of those satellites, icons related to the video game, and the other is to get inside and get questions and answers to the video game."

One is much more basic, like an encyclopedia, a compendium of those satellites, icons related to the video game, and the other is to get inside and get questions and answers to the video game.

Magazine publishing is very different from book publishing, says the interviewee when asked. "The magazine is very stressful, you have to go with the times. The book is different, especially if you are very small, because you go at your own pace if you do not have to live on it practically ", he says, although he clarifies:" It also happens badly because when you announce a date you have to get to it, but it is calmer. Apart, I take care of everything, from design to editing, minus correction, which is done by another contributor. There are eight books in five years. It's almost a book and a half a year. I don't exactly have a need to make big numbers, to go to profits every year. "Gonzlez admits that he could get to edit two books a year, but speaking with him it seems that he prefers to take care of all the details of the product without so much pressure.

The pace is calm but incessant and there is always a desire for the project to growGonzlez tells us; He admits that going slowly helps on the economic level but he also has the dissatisfaction of reaching more: "little by little. He swore to me the day I started with all this that he wouldn't stress me out like with the magazine, that it will not suffer as much as with the magazine and, for now, I am holding it quite well. I am making and happy with almost all the books, "he points out.

In some cases it is the publisher who comes to the authors because he has read many texts about them and he thinks they are suitable for a topic and he proposes it, but he also receives numerous manuscripts. The last book published on the Premiere label came up like this, when Adrin Surez sent The father of dark souls: Hidetaka Miyazaki through his work, in which he analyzes the evolution of the director from his beginnings in the series Armored Core until Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

What does not convince the editor is when someone proposes an idea to write a book but there is nothing written "as much as they tell me it is a fantastic idea, yes, but send the manuscript or at least a hundred pages or whatever and then understand where you are going, but if it is not very difficult because you can get into an aubergine of all kinds. If you commit you have to make a contract and that's a brown if the quality is very low. "

Quality in content is an issue that Gonzlez always influences. That idea of ​​a content with almost academic depth but expressed in an informative way that was embodied in the six numbers of Star-T Magazine it has been passed to the books: "It is my maxim in the editorial. I don't want to do something flat, only with cold data, but rather have a little grace. Since I do not have an industrial responsibility with respect to the market, but I am pulling a small line, at least doing something that is risky but, at the same time, important for the legacy of the video game. I try to make my books go down in history. My purpose is also that in ten years my books will be remembered for their rigor and the thought that each author has left ", Gonzlez says.

In the future of Star-T Magazine Books a continuous line is drawn, at least until you reach ten books, Gonzlez laughs, "because there a new path opens up where I can already talk to other people and make other new proposals; some are in the drawer, but until I get to the ten books I cannot reach certain circles. As soon as I have those ten, we are going to destroy, "he says.

The launch of PLAY HISTORY: The 50 Videogames that changed the worldby Marc The Funs Rolln, "I had this in mind for many years, a replay or a ultimate and we want to get it out now, at the end of April, but between the folio we have from Covid and some personal things, because the final I have decided to postpone until further notice because, really, it is all so uncertain, "says the editor with some sadness and adds that maybe it commits to a launch for July and can only make sales online "and we are going to annoy the bookstores, and without presentations or events it can greatly affect the sale." There are no dates, so while they take the opportunity to leave the book "as neat as possible", he says to close the interview.

Ferrn Gonzlez in five questions

1- What is your favorite video game?

Rez from SEGA / UGA. There is no more intense experience than the Mizuguchi game.

2- What stage in the history of video games do you think has been most interesting?

It would be a mistake to believe that one is above others, since each one has contributed new characteristics and new paradigms to make great video games. That is, each one has had its key moments, whoever thinks otherwise, perverts nostalgia or rejection of history.

3- Who is your favorite video game creator and why?

Oops, I have many. Shinji Mikami, Yoko Taro, Hideo Kojima, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Art Jensen, Keita Takahashi, Kazuma Kujo, Hideki Kamiya, Jason Rohrer among others. But if I have to stay with one, possibly with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who was my spur in creating critical thinking and a fundamental person in the videogame world for works like SEGA Rally, Space Channel 5, Lumines, for putting on some of his masterpieces.

4- Would you like to reissue the magazine?

Yes and no. Yes, because I keep missing a magazine of that style that I think no one has yet dared. No, because I understand that no one dares: because perhaps it is impossible to edit a publication of that philosophy here without smiles. Spain is not a country prepared for this type of magazine and that is economically viable in the long term. Look at the second time of Edge Spain. We live in a country that likes to be told what it wants to hear, in a culture that rejects dissonances instead of debating them. The clearest example is in many of the video game books.

5- How do you see the rebirth of the written press as GTM or Manual currently by subscription and with a style far from those that existed 10 years ago?

I have a lot of suspicions about this model and I think they do what they can do. Still I see it to sustain professionally in the medium term, but not in the long term, sadly. The consumer base is still very limited and as a journalist is generally paid today, since the future of magazines is more than difficult, for many stickers and postcards you give away. Regarding style, I think that your editorial can still dare to commit themselves much more to issues such as the social, economic (not in neoliberal terms) and above all human perspective, something that I always miss when talking about video games. Forget about the benevolence of exchange and cronyism that contributes absolutely nothing to video game journalism, and not keep what you did Star-t Magazine Formally, from which these magazines have been inspired by many sections, but also be inspired by their content and delve into a critical and not at all condescending vision if you want to move forward and be serious about writing about games.