SAGE 2026: The Expo Zine

We usually have a whole narrative preamble to our zines, where we explain how they diegetically tie into whatever broader work they're companions to. However, this time it's not needed, because SAGE 2026: The Expo Zine is the official companion zine to a real, actual videogame showcase in our real, actual world!

That's right, this year we had the pleasure to partner up with the Sonic Amateur Games Expo to put together a 56-page publication in the style of old games magazines, featuring a whole bunch of articles, ads and artpieces to celebrate the 26th edition of one of our favourite amateur game development showcases.

In line with the community-driven spirit of SAGE, 8 of the 17 featured articles were submitted by community members, alongside all the advertsiments interspersed between the articles and the collab art pieces at the end of the zine. The remaining 9 articles were written by us at Data Sparrow in the two weeks leading up to the event, and were primarily focused on games we found most interesting among this year's participants. 

Furthermore, given that SAGE is primarily a demo showcase, The Expo Zine is entirely free and not open to donations of any kind. If you want to give us money, we have a lot of other things you could grab alongside it. 

If you contributed to the zine, whether with an ad, an article or a piece of art, we at Data Sparrow salute you and thank you for your help. If you didn't for one reason or another, ask around: there might be one next year!