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Robert Buckley   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:35 GMT)

woot...it looks awesome

Keith Killilea   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:39 GMT)

Very nice, it is a major change! :)

Tim Muenstermann   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:42 GMT)

ooooo pretty....

Nathan Martin   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:43 GMT)

It would be a quite a bit better if it used up all available width space instead of a fixed size, other than that great work! :)

Joseph Greenawalt   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:44 GMT)

I like the new look. Navigation is also greatly improved. Well done.

Jeremy Alessi   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:45 GMT)

Amazing!

Levin Beicht   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:50 GMT)

Great!

The structure of the website makes much more sense now!

Robert Geiman   (Dec 16, 2005 at 21:59 GMT)

Definately an improvement over the old design!

However, one small gripe: on the community page I'm not longer able to view everything at once. That is, normally I go there multiple times a day to view all new GG blogs, associate/community blogs, threads, and resources. It was easy as I could click on my bookmark then see everything on the same page.

However, in the new page I can't view thread and resources simultaneously, nor GG blogs and associate/community blogs.
Edited on Dec 16, 2005 22:55 GMT

Johnny Hill   (Dec 16, 2005 at 22:01 GMT)

LOL it looks good! thought something was wierd, GG down or something. Looks Good :) really nice

John Kanalakis   (Dec 16, 2005 at 22:15 GMT)

The new site looks very clean and polished, Great Job!!

Sean H.   (Dec 16, 2005 at 22:27 GMT)

nice.

Mathieu   (Dec 16, 2005 at 22:30 GMT)

Can we have a unique RSS feed for all blogs at once?

Edit: Oh and would be sweet if you can change the swapping menus to not use <a href="#"> : the browser try to fetch the top of the webpage every time we click on a menu.

Edit2: Oh, I would advise you to buy a new domain name for the Game Store to add more visibility to it. It's lost behind the development products now :( http://www.garagegames.com/
Edited on Dec 16, 2005 22:58 GMT

Simon Love   (Dec 16, 2005 at 22:54 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Wicked!!!! The new look really rocks.
Navigation takes more steps, but after 30 seconds of use I already like it better.
Having tabs to sort the .plans is the smartest thing since...well..ever!!!
The community page is really spectacular.

For a long-time fan, it feels really special to see GG come to this...proud to be part of it!

The only concern I have is that it looks really commercial...I miss that 'indie-I-gotta-fight-through-7-levels-of-hell-to-get-my-game-done' vibe :) hehe
Oh well, awesome all the way still.

Vashner   (Dec 16, 2005 at 22:57 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Looks sweet so far...

David Tiernan   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:04 GMT)

I really like the new look and the watched forums page, Would it be possible to have watched forums without the e-mail hitting you? Would feel more like a personal sticky for the forums themselves and could be very promising for projects.

Just a thought.

Chris   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:10 GMT)

Much better. Variable width pages always pissed me off. This is quite nice.

Todd Pickens   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:20 GMT)

Ha ha ha aha ....guess I'm the only one who liked the old design :P

Todd Pickens   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:25 GMT)

Did I mention that It doesn't display correctly in the Opera browser? ...but then I imagine I am probably the only one here that uses that browser. Any other opera users out there?

Maybe I should check for an update.

Joseph Euan   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:28 GMT)

Looks cool... just going to take time to get used too.

Anthony Rosenbaum   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:31 GMT)

Wow, that was quick and what a change feels like new site entirely. It looks great very polished!

Todd Pickens   (Dec 16, 2005 at 23:36 GMT)

Crap! even less functional under the latest version of Opera.

Greg Cushing   (Dec 17, 2005 at 00:06 GMT)

Ugh i cant stand the new design too bad there isnt a way to revert the to the old one :-(

Allen Turner   (Dec 17, 2005 at 00:22 GMT)

I'm an Opera user and I confirm Todds issues. Though I like the new look I can't look at any of the forum stuff in Opera.

-Allen

Philip Mansfield   (Dec 17, 2005 at 00:31 GMT)

Not too impressed I have to say.

I just bookmarked the fourms, and then used the Community link to scan for new blogs/gallery entries.

Now my link to the forum gives me no way to check on new/unread threads and the blogs/galleries are all over the shop.

The rollover menus at the top are going to take some getting used to as well.

Is there likely to be some decent forum software being installed as well? There desperately need to be quote buttons when replying to posts, and being able to jump straight to the latest post in a thread would also be a welcome addition.

Josh Moore   (Dec 17, 2005 at 00:59 GMT)

I like it alot. The only problem I can see so far is that everytime you click on a menu item, it forces your browser to the top of the page.

Kyle Hagin   (Dec 17, 2005 at 01:08 GMT)

My eyes, My eyes, Ahhhhhh.... Great job on new features and getting it to convert so quickly but the grey colored side bars just kill my eyes. Just scrap the side bars and stick with the old colors. Great new features though.

Andy Schatz   (Dec 17, 2005 at 01:26 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Love the layout, love the tabs, LOVE the search bar on every page, love the fact that more information is only 1 click away.

The only thing I have to complain about is that even though much more info is only 1 click away, less info is available with zero clicks. Before, I could see employee blogs, community blogs, associate blogs, snapshots, news, and latest threads with no navigation. It gave me a pretty good idea of what's going on. Now I have to click around a bit more to get an overall picture of what's going on.

BIG step forward in visuals and functionality, small step backwards in casual usability.

Prairie Games   (Dec 17, 2005 at 01:27 GMT)

I completely agree with Mr. Schatz

Todd Pickens   (Dec 17, 2005 at 02:09 GMT)

Yup, Andy Schatz nailed it, as did Philip.

I had The community link set as my book mark, and could navigate everything from there, now I have to click around to see what had been presented in a single page.

Like the new look and features however.

Valador, Inc.   (Dec 17, 2005 at 02:09 GMT)

I think it's a big step forward. It's looks more professional and a little less...um...garage. I could see that box on the store at Best Buy already.

Ben Ewing   (Dec 17, 2005 at 02:35 GMT)

Nice new design ,....shiny :)

Justin Woods   (Dec 17, 2005 at 03:40 GMT)

Just a couple things. First off - holy crap this is a GREAT redesign, and everything is so much easier to find. There were some things I didn't know were availible, now I do. Asthetically pleasing as well.

Only bug I see so far is that you can't view the screenshots tab on TGE or TSE product pages. Otherwise this is good!

abc   (Dec 17, 2005 at 04:16 GMT)

Looks good, displays right at 800x600....slightly longer to load, but that's not a big issue. If I find more issues I'll be complaining in the next .plan :)

Vernon Finch   (Dec 17, 2005 at 04:20 GMT)

Yea Opera is borked for me as well. Had to bust open Firefox to even find the plans. Hopefully its just teething problems though and they'll fix it up shortly. Would have been nice to have tested it in Opera though.

I agree with Andry Schatz etc. Nice update in general if it can get all its quirks ironed out. Mathieu said what I've been thinking for a while as well. Maybe a completely different site for selling games will be a good idea when more games start flowing through GG.

I'll give it more time before bringing up any specific complaints :)

Michael Cozzolino   (Dec 17, 2005 at 04:31 GMT)

I likes alot. Just need to get used to it.

Will Pall   (Dec 17, 2005 at 04:54 GMT)

I'll just say "Noice!"

Vashner   (Dec 17, 2005 at 05:55 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Also maybe a link to or minimap of the GG Frapper? (just a suggestion)

Quote from Widgets info at the frapper.

Quote:

---

Just copy and paste this html code to your own webpage! You can change the five frappr_mapXXX variables to change size of the map, and the default center in (lat,lon) and zoom (1 - street level to 15 - world level) for the map. For example, setting the map to show all of USA would be var frappr_maplon = -98.14, var frappr_maplat = 40.98, var frappr_mapzoom = 13. Setting the map to be 300 pixels tall and 400 pixels wide would be var frappr_mapheight = 300, var frappr_mapwidth = 400
<script>
var frappr_mapheight = 300;
var frappr_mapwidth = 300;
var frappr_maplat = 40.4173585;
var frappr_maplon = -98.14;
var frappr_mapzoom = 16;
var frappr_host = "http://www.frappr.com/";var gid = 11979;</script>
<script src="http://www.frappr.com/ajax/mapwidget.js"></script>

---

Jimomighty   (Dec 17, 2005 at 07:14 GMT)

another way to confuse the jimmy once again :(

Chris   (Dec 17, 2005 at 07:40 GMT)

Ya, community pages don't work so well in opera.

Dreamer   (Dec 17, 2005 at 09:43 GMT)

Looks nice, but dang man! I was still trying to get used to the last "major update" ;)

Do like the searchbox though.

Nice work!

Donald \"Yadot\" Harris   (Dec 17, 2005 at 13:30 GMT)

I agree with Andy Schantz and Randy I like to so all of the updates in one place and bring back the mini frapper. other than awesome job.

Eric Forhan   (Dec 17, 2005 at 13:52 GMT)

Firefox leaves a big empty space between the "What's New" and the blogs window. Also (and perhaps related?) it doesn't show the "More blogs >>" or "More unread posts >>", etc.

Looks good on IE, though. Huge fan of tabbed browsing. =)

Melv May   (Dec 17, 2005 at 15:00 GMT)

Love the new look; definately hard to get so much information together in a coherent way. Great job!

EDIT: Found the "More Unread Posts >>"; thought that feature wasn't around any more; come to daddy!
ADDED: Developer / Community / "More Unread Posts >>"

Great site update!

- Melv.
Edited on Dec 17, 2005 19:53 GMT

Adam deGrandis   (Dec 17, 2005 at 15:50 GMT)

WOW. I've been watching this be developed here and there but I had no idea how awesome it actually was. Really REALLY great job, guys!

Chris   (Dec 17, 2005 at 17:42 GMT)

The more I look at it, the more I feel that this update was less about streamlining, and more about trying to be like everyone else... Don't get me wrong, it looks nice, but what happened to the individuality of GG?

Vashner   (Dec 17, 2005 at 18:05 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Can't make everyone happy I guess.

Chris   (Dec 17, 2005 at 18:23 GMT)

Gee, really? How astute of you! I bet NO ONE has ever realized that before.

Unsung Zero   (Dec 17, 2005 at 19:27 GMT)

Where am I?

Vashner   (Dec 17, 2005 at 20:07 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Yea I am sure GG had a meeting and decided "let's be like everyone else on our web design"?

GG staff trying to improve things and it's just not a fair statement to be made because it's simply untrue.

How do you think people feel after they spend time working on website updates? Saying you don't like something is one thing. Fine, but saying GG had a specific agenda on it's design other than improving it is uncool.

Jeff Tunnell   (Dec 17, 2005 at 20:18 GMT)

@Chris: You hit it on the head! Rick and I were sitting around and we thought to ourselves, gee we need to be more like everybody else:)

Kidding aside, individuality has nothing to do with it. Functionality and responding to our customers had everything to do with it. Huge companies with huge web budgets have proven certain techniques for better web navigation and better sell through. The individuality of GG has nothing to do with the navigation of the website. The site is a neccessary evil to sell our products and communicate with our community and customers. Our individuality comes in our people, our business model, our technology, and our games. How many companies invent ground breaking Indie licensing and pricing schemes? How many lose money to bring developers together for IndieGamesCon? How many have employees that constantly patrol the forums giving away free advice and support? Etc, etc.

We do not see ourselves as web artists, but we do see ourselves as groundbreaking in nearly every other aspect of our company. Sorry you don't like the new site, but we feel it is a big step forward to do a better job for every one of our customers.

As I posted in another thread, we will be making a bunch of incremental improvements on the community area of the site. Remember, that I probably use this part of the site more than any of you, so I want it to be as functional as possible. Some of the changes work, and some have taken us back a little, but this new base gives us a lot more power to make it much better than it has ever been. Every time we change the site, we gets complaints, and we will do our best to bring everybody around to the new design.

-Jeff Tunnell, GG

Greg Cushing   (Dec 17, 2005 at 21:18 GMT)

@Jeff Well you might try and bring people around to your new design, but do you think about how it turns off your customers? Do you sell more when you change stuff? Do you sell less? I can tell you right now im not very happy with the current site not that my complaint will change what will happen, but i can tell you with this new system it doesnt make me want to check out the resources GG has to offer. I wont be buying new products to something i consider less functional now and annoying to look at / use. I might be the only one that feels that way and some people might think im being unreasonable about this, however my view should be important because it cost you money.

Vashner   (Dec 17, 2005 at 21:36 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Why don't you tell them what you don't like instead of just "I don't like it".

Jeff Tunnell   (Dec 17, 2005 at 21:54 GMT)

@Greg: We certainly like to listen to our customers. However, a simple "I don't like it" does not help much. Edit: If you can elaborate on your problems, maybe we can fix them.
Edited on Dec 17, 2005 22:19 GMT

BobJones   (Dec 17, 2005 at 22:13 GMT)

Greg,

I really like your web design skills on your website... Really makes me want to buy. http://www.violetgames.com/

Jacob   (Dec 17, 2005 at 22:39 GMT)

There seems to be an issue using Netscape: when I click on a forum thread and then go back to the previous page, (the list of unread posts in this example) - only the top half or so of my screen is filled with the list of unread posts. It cuts it off and it is not possible to scroll down unless I change the size of the text - then it magically appears whole again :)

Edit: Also, on the what's new page, if I change the text zoom to anything above "original", it cuts off the link to "more unread posts".
Edited on Dec 17, 2005 22:41 GMT

Jason Swearingen   (Dec 17, 2005 at 23:05 GMT)   Resource Rating: 3

honestly, i dont really like the navigation that much. why? because i like to see a list of all the most recient stuff on one page.

i really dont like having to go to 4 different pages just to see what new things people have posted.

Bryan Edds   (Dec 17, 2005 at 23:05 GMT)

Absolutely WOW! Wonderful job! Big props to everyone involved!!!

Frogger   (Dec 17, 2005 at 23:51 GMT)

Why the crap does everyone complain whenever GG does something for themselves? I think it looks absolutely stunning, and the only complaints I have is full compatibility for Firefox and Opera, which I use much more often.

Andy Schatz   (Dec 18, 2005 at 00:00 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Cameron- 95 percent of the comments on here are about how much people like it. There's a few bits of constructive criticism. And then there's the other stuff. Yeah, the other stuff is annoying, though.

Mincetro   (Dec 18, 2005 at 00:33 GMT)

I love it! Best design yet!

Chris   (Dec 18, 2005 at 03:18 GMT)

@ those of you complaining at me:

I didn't say I didn't like it, in fact I love the new design.

Quote:

---

Much better. Variable width pages always pissed me off. This is quite nice.

---

Then, even when mentioning my OPINION I still said it was nice:

Quote:

---

The more I look at it, the more I feel that this update was less about streamlining, and more about trying to be like everyone else... Don't get me wrong, it looks nice, but what happened to the individuality of GG?

---

See?

Why is it that when someone gives their opinion and you(people in general) don't agree, the statement is always taken to be "I hate your product" or "I hate your site", when nothing remotely like that was said.

Greg Cushing   (Dec 18, 2005 at 04:05 GMT)

@Bob Jones, Thanks for the compliment. I always like a person who acts like a tool when i have done nothing to them. Your blind faith makes yet another reason on the list of things i dont like about this website. However since the domain is up in 3 days you might just get your wish. Its sad that i voice my own thoughts on the new changes and im responded to like the typical slashdot troll this is suppose to be an open community.

@Jeff i didnt realize that you had wanted examples, but my examples of what i dont like are just pretty much a common gripe. To echo what other people said. I dont like the fixed with tabs, navigations, the changes in the blog system seems to bring the reading productivity down. I understand there is a bit of getting use to in a new interface but I just honestly get annoyed looking at the website. Im not sure i can explain it past there however it just seems less useful. Ive gone from reading resources non stop to only checking in to respond to some forum posts. Now to each person thats obviously different so i dont expect me to fit other people or you to change because of one person. But a lot of people feel the exact same way. So were not using the take our ball and go home mentality and im not being high and mighty about the site.

I realize i havnt said constructive things about the site(i guess that labels me troll somehow), but there are good parts that i do like about the site. The forum system is useful as well as tdn (Especially when its done) and i do enjoy looking at blogs, the artist pages and a lot of the things garagegames offers. If its one thing i had to recommend is something like google does on their news section for personalize. Say i could have my own configuration of how things went together and i could change how the appeared on the page. That would be a useful addon because then i could make it exactly how i would want my information inside of the site. Navigation and general changes are just part of updates to the site, but i think the best idea to stick to is having the most information in a page in an orderly form that conveys the most information. Usuability has some part to it but i shouldnt be turned off from trying to get information from any website.

If anyone at GG was offended it wasnt my intention, its just a concerened user :-)

Mathieu   (Dec 18, 2005 at 10:44 GMT)

@Jeff
Do you have plan for a website destinated to gamers? Because GG.com is now really oriented to developers.

William Todd Scott   (Dec 18, 2005 at 16:56 GMT)

Overall I like the new setup.

If incremental changes are still being made, could a list of all the resources and emails I have subscribed to be shown on one of the "My Account" pages? That features existed in the old setup, so if I've just missed it can someone point me in the right direction.

I often use that feature to bookmark resources or topics I need to deal with at a later time...

Thanks
Todd

Eric Forhan   (Dec 18, 2005 at 16:58 GMT)

The space below "What's New" is gone, but I still can't see the "More blogs >>" or "More unread posts >>".
Maybe because my Windows font setting is at 125%?
Looks fine in IE, though.

Also, I don't see the "We will build your MMORPG for you" link.

Benjamin Bradley   (Dec 18, 2005 at 17:16 GMT)

Eric... the "We will build your MMORPG for you" link is located right next to the huge red button that says "MAKE GAME"... Just push the button and the game will be finished

Jesse Hall   (Dec 18, 2005 at 21:06 GMT)

lol... Ben

Ron Yacketta   (Dec 18, 2005 at 21:56 GMT)

I am seeing an empty white box for items within the code tags using FireFox 1.7.12

-Ron

Eric Forhan   (Dec 18, 2005 at 23:05 GMT)

hehe Ben. ;)

Now the empty space below "What's New" is back. Weird stuff.

Ian Roach   (Dec 19, 2005 at 00:44 GMT)

I cant seem to find a new topic button for forum posting (using firefox)

Or am i missing something ? :)

Jason "TGB BOY" Cahill   (Dec 19, 2005 at 01:31 GMT)

I must be the only person seeing a bug in the forums pages, because I haven't seen anyone else mentioning it. The width of the forum pages are now fixed width and in many cases, the text is getting clipped on the right hand side of the page. Here's a perfect example: this thread

At first it loads and lays out correctly, and then very quickly after loading, the layout changes and a bunch of the text gets cropped off the right-hand side. In some cases, I've now had to copy and paste the forum text into notepad to read the posts.

Rubes   (Dec 19, 2005 at 03:36 GMT)

@Jason: I get the same problem on the Mac using Safari, although Firefox seems to display things properly.

James Laker (BurNinG)   (Dec 19, 2005 at 06:20 GMT)

I like... Navigation much easier and better grouped...
I'm glad you have the Watched Threads section... Somehow it just feels right.

I just feels a bit slower than usual... maybe it's because its that last crappy
slow week before holiday?

Jason Swearingen   (Dec 19, 2005 at 06:46 GMT)   Resource Rating: 3

fyi, i repro the problem jason cahill mentioned on IE (on winxp)

Blake Lowry   (Dec 19, 2005 at 06:52 GMT)

@Ian: Looks like for me the New Topic button displays sometimes and somtimes not.. Firefox

Greg Ellwood   (Dec 19, 2005 at 09:43 GMT)

It's nice to see you are continually trying to improve the site and I think this latest update is probably the best so far.

I personally don't like the new tabbed navigation as it requires more effort to find the information I want to see - too much of it is hidden behind tabs.

In a future update I'd like to see a focus on personalisation where I can personalise most of the pages of the site to my liking. As a minimum a single configurable page where I can choose the parts of the site I'm most interested in and have them display how I like would be good.

I'm a web developer in my day job and personalisation is becoming one of the most requested and essential feature for a website. With technologies such as AJAX this is also becoming much easier to implement and almost anything is now possible.

A good example of the direction I'd like to see websites take is: www.backbase.com - check out their AJAX demos, especially the portal, RSS reader and online shop.

-Greg.

Philip Mansfield   (Dec 19, 2005 at 11:36 GMT)

...And should Associate .plans appear in both the Associate *and* Community sections? Kind of defeats the point of having seperate tabs.

Chip Lambert   (Dec 19, 2005 at 14:41 GMT)

I love the new layout. It's a nice layout. True you have to click a little more but hey we'll all get use to it. :) The only trouble I have, (using IE 6) is in some of the resources, parts of it get cut off on the right margin. (example: http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=9339)

But great job Rick and everyone else that worked on it!

Adib Murad   (Dec 19, 2005 at 14:56 GMT)

Rick, i have a problem. I used to access GG site at work. Since 2002, whenever I was behind a firewall, I got to the GG site thru its IP address, avoiding the blocked word "game" on the URL.

The IP look the same: 64.112.225.134, but now the server refuses my connection.

Is there a way to let us reach GG thru its IP again? Is it a security issue?

Thanks

Shook   (Dec 20, 2005 at 02:14 GMT)

I'm using Firefox 1.5. All the content for most pages is scrunched together. So I have the text from the bottom of the page overlapping the text from the top of the page. This makes a good portion of each page pretty much illegible.

Like others mentioned, I will miss being able to check news, blogs & forum threads from a single bookmarked page.

Frank Carney   (Dec 20, 2005 at 04:49 GMT)

Screen to skinny on my browser (Mozilla). The side bars are just wasted space now. No way to view content larger than the width of the fixed screen width. This makes many forums unusable. This will make going back to old forums to get information a pain in the rear. Please scrap the fixed width.

Aaron Danks   (Dec 20, 2005 at 08:41 GMT)

Excellent work.. looks great now.

Good to see the tdn is working as it should now as well.... now we jus need more content :D

(I'd add content myself... but im still a n00b hehe)

Brian   (Dec 20, 2005 at 20:04 GMT)

The extraneous whitespace on the What's New page leaves a lot to be desired in Firefox/Mozilla. It's also a bit tedious to click several tabs to see information that previously was displayed on the main page. I'd really love to see some sort of customization that would allow me to create my own page and display the information that I want to see. Something like my.yahoo.com.

bml

Denis Linardic   (Dec 29, 2005 at 23:32 GMT)

I have small request. Can you put back that "Teach me how" link where I could just copy and paste commands for posting images, links...for example "["url"]"...I can't remember all of them and that was really helpfull.

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