GarageGames.com Site Update: Feb. 4, 2009
by Jacob Fike · 02/04/2009 (10:16 am) · 34 comments
As promised, we rolled out another version of the website this morning. Since we had more time with this release, we pushed in a lot more features 'n' fixes than we have in our last two releases.
Doing these little point releases is a bit like a strategic game...you have to pick and choose your battles in order to win the overall game of pleasing the most users in the shortest amount of time.
Here's what you can do with the current push:
Now with a lot of the smaller issues fixed with the site, it's time to see what bigger issues we want to tackle to satisfy the hungry community.
We'll continue to check and log your feedback into our bug tracker and take care of the normal fixes. However, moving forward, we also want to add some bigger pieces of functionality. We're taking your bigger ideas to heart and thinking how we want to continue to make the site better over time. Expect the next big push on Wednesday, Feb. 18th, and until then, watch out for zombies!
Doing these little point releases is a bit like a strategic game...you have to pick and choose your battles in order to win the overall game of pleasing the most users in the shortest amount of time.Here's what you can do with the current push:
- View a user's blogs, resources, and forum threads/comments on their profile again. Now you can do some P.I. work on your community neighbors once again!
- Link directly to a comment. Want to reference what someone else said in the middle of an 8-page forum thread? Just link to the thread and the specific comment.
- Login TDN, even if you're a new user. Some new users were seeing issues with TDN, but that should be fixed in this release.
- View all 200+ games made with Torque. The Powered by Torque pages are back! We've also included a page for our developer interviews so you can read how successful indies have created their own games. For anyone who would like to see their game up on Powered by Torque, please send the game's URL, a short game description, pics, and videos to Deborah for review at deborahm@garagegames.com.
- Check out updated doc pages. We've done both a formatting and content pass on our documentation pages. We've updated some links with new content, plus we've done a pass on the Torque X pages to reflect the 2D and 3D changes to Torque X.
- Read more pragmatically formatted e-mail notifications. We took a recent suggestion to change the format to heart, so it should be less wordy now.
- Registering Marble Blast, Constructor and other products: taken care of. All ignition products should be solved now. However, some keys may have been corrupted if you tried to register too many times. If you have issues, contact support@garagegames.com, and they'll give you a brand new key.
- Edit blogs in Safari problem: solved. Safari users were seeing some problems with the blog edit icon, but that should be resolved now.
- And a bunch of other backend work you can't see, but might appreciate. A large part of this release was do a pass on admin functions so we can serve customers better. Things like coupon functionality for educational customers, better sales reports for both internal and 3rd party use, making refunds easier for administrators, better integration with Google Analytics and an improved accounting back-end don't really affect you day-to-day, but keep the site running smoothly in the long-run.
- Activate your account. Some new users were seeing an issue with account activation. If the Re-send Activation form doesn't work for you, please contact support@garagegames.com and they will be able to activate your account for you.
Now with a lot of the smaller issues fixed with the site, it's time to see what bigger issues we want to tackle to satisfy the hungry community.We'll continue to check and log your feedback into our bug tracker and take care of the normal fixes. However, moving forward, we also want to add some bigger pieces of functionality. We're taking your bigger ideas to heart and thinking how we want to continue to make the site better over time. Expect the next big push on Wednesday, Feb. 18th, and until then, watch out for zombies!
About the author
As the CTO of Avalon Labs LLC, I am responsible for the technology behind Fellowstream, our team-based to-do list.
#2
Again, major kudos to the team for the restored (and new) features. Now I can properly stalk community members via their thread/blog listings in their profile muhahaha
Quick note that the doc changes will be occurring a little later today.
02/04/2009 (10:40 am)
Last Night on Earth is my favorite board game. I'm lovin' the zombie themes of your blogs Jacob =)Again, major kudos to the team for the restored (and new) features. Now I can properly stalk community members via their thread/blog listings in their profile muhahaha
Quick note that the doc changes will be occurring a little later today.
#3
02/04/2009 (10:44 am)
Nice Update ... Sadly I still can not visit the TDN pages for my owned products Short of my core programs.
#4
02/04/2009 (10:55 am)
@Michael Branin: We're eventually going to zip all that TDN content for 3rd party products and put it into your "my account" page so product owners can access it, but that didn't quite make it into this website release. However, Michael Perry has those docs, so if you need it ASAP, e-mail him (michaelp@garagegames.com) with the product you own and the pages you can't access, and he'll send that to you. 
#5
1) Having all links be blue may be fine for a site with 4 or 5 pages... not so nice for a site with thousands. Please, please, pretty please let me see which links (especially in the blogs and forums!) I've visited already.
2) Still only plain text in your profile description? Still no denotation about who works for garagegames, who is an associate, etc?
3) (this was an issue with the old site too I suppose) Please strip out the Markup Lite stuff from the notification emails.
02/04/2009 (11:07 am)
Still have a few items on my list of "things I really want fixed" that haven't been.1) Having all links be blue may be fine for a site with 4 or 5 pages... not so nice for a site with thousands. Please, please, pretty please let me see which links (especially in the blogs and forums!) I've visited already.
2) Still only plain text in your profile description? Still no denotation about who works for garagegames, who is an associate, etc?
3) (this was an issue with the old site too I suppose) Please strip out the Markup Lite stuff from the notification emails.
#6
02/04/2009 (11:11 am)
Great work guys! 
#7
02/04/2009 (11:14 am)
Hey, magnificent! Even more: my long lost blog post is back! :) Thanks for the fixes. Now, you'll have time to concentrate more on screen estate usage! (What's new, Blogs)
#8
Edit: Glory!
02/04/2009 (12:04 pm)
I second the visited/unread colors for links. My old routine of reading every blog takes much longer now.Edit: Glory!
#9
02/04/2009 (12:10 pm)
Awesome work! I know you've been bustin' ass to get this to us! 
#10
How about emails we cannot see each others emails any more and it make getting in contact with some people much more difficult. To my knowledge there was no abuse going on because of this. at least I never received any.
Also Profile Pictures. I really am missing seeing whom I'm bantering back and forth with.
02/04/2009 (12:15 pm)
when is the forums search gonna be fixed. It is getting very annoying.How about emails we cannot see each others emails any more and it make getting in contact with some people much more difficult. To my knowledge there was no abuse going on because of this. at least I never received any.
Also Profile Pictures. I really am missing seeing whom I'm bantering back and forth with.
#11
02/04/2009 (12:53 pm)
Nice work. Thanks for fixing the blog edit icon in Safari...now we just need to be able to actually edit the actual body text. Still missing...
#12
02/04/2009 (1:20 pm)
Could you add the feild or the ability to find people based on region? It would be nice to try and find local Torque'rs 
#13
02/04/2009 (1:46 pm)
Thanks for the colored links! 
#14
using Gravatar for avatars would be cool, but that's just a gimmick. RSS feeds are much more functional.
02/04/2009 (2:14 pm)
I have one big request : RSS feeds please. (If they're there, I can't find them)using Gravatar for avatars would be cool, but that's just a gimmick. RSS feeds are much more functional.
#16
02/04/2009 (2:45 pm)
Great work web team! 
#17
One small request on the documentation page if you go to say the TGEA tab you get two scrollbars which is a pain to have to scroll both bars to get down the page.
02/04/2009 (3:22 pm)
Ahhh great work guys ... finding my or other uses posts is a huge plus, missed that feature the most :)One small request on the documentation page if you go to say the TGEA tab you get two scrollbars which is a pain to have to scroll both bars to get down the page.
#18
I second (or nth) James' request for profile pictures to be brought back, as well as email addresses. And the forum search currently is a three-step process of clicking Search, check All Documents box, click Search again, where it should just be clicking Search.
I'm also very thankful that I can now see who's an employee again (I knew most of you, but still).
All in all, I'm happy with the progress and getting used to the new layout, so kudos to the web team :)
02/04/2009 (3:29 pm)
To add to Donald's request, maybe a Google map with those pins of where people are? Obviously not high-priority, but it would definitely be cool.I second (or nth) James' request for profile pictures to be brought back, as well as email addresses. And the forum search currently is a three-step process of clicking Search, check All Documents box, click Search again, where it should just be clicking Search.
I'm also very thankful that I can now see who's an employee again (I knew most of you, but still).
All in all, I'm happy with the progress and getting used to the new layout, so kudos to the web team :)
#19
everything looks good and ya it might be best to change the links color to something people can see.
all in all it looks much better now with this site update.
02/04/2009 (3:35 pm)
hmm the The Powered by Torque pages is good but once once this is out of the top 10 blogs how are we to find this page. i already looked all over and i cant find a link some place else to it other then here.everything looks good and ya it might be best to change the links color to something people can see.
all in all it looks much better now with this site update.
#20
02/04/2009 (6:35 pm)
Quote:Thanks for the colored links!hrmpf... thanks, I suppose, but.... care to make it SLIGHTLY more visible/obvious?
Torque 3D Owner Novack
CyberianSoftware
Edit: I would like to add that the polishing since the new site release has been outstanding. I'll be anxiously waiting for the next improvements :)