Welcome to the new GarageGames.com!
by Jacob Fike · 01/13/2009 (6:28 pm) · 200 comments
Notice anything different around here? The GarageGames web team presents to you the first new look of GarageGames.com. Of course, there are a lot more changes around here than just getting a face-lift.
The web team was allowed out of jail to take this picture. Smiling bright and sunny are Derek and Jason on the left, in the shadows with hands in pockets are me and Ken on the right.
It's pretty established over here in Eugene that the GG.com website team is a quiet and reserved bunch, as opposed to the more extroverted Torque devs who are always eager to talk about new tech. However, it's probably good for you to get a quick overview of who made the site possible. I'm Jacob Fike (probably obvious given the blog header), and I've been working with GarageGames for two years now. I got my start by creating Overlord Management System system. I then went on to help create the Great Games Experiment and worked on the backend of InstantAction for a while before devoting myself full time to this site. Working beside me is an even more quiet guy, Jason Hetu, who did most of the design work for the site and likes bran muffins (ask him about that later). Also heavily involved in the content and design of the new site were Derek Bronson (for better marketing of our 3rd party products), Eric Fritz (for marketing and usability), Davey Jackson and Michael Blenden (for the needs of educators who visit the site), and Ken Holst and Jeff Hojnacke (for testing).
And HUGE THANKS to the Operations team. First lead by Jay Arrera, and then Jeff Cassar, we wouldn't have been able to post the site up so quickly. Eli Janssen (who doesn't have a profile page since he's too busy making this all work) in particular put in a ridiculous amount of overtime to get this live. We salute you and your beard, Eli.
For anyone who has been here any length of time, you know the old site was beginning to show its age. Although it was still functional, it looked and acted like a site that had been built in the early 1990s. A myriad of web devs had added some cool things to the site over time like community web blogging, snapshots, etc., but maintaining the site was becoming something of a task from a backend perspective since it had ballooned so much. It was due for a much needed overhaul to take advantage of new technologies that made coding and maintenance much easier over the course of the last few years. And, of course, from a usability perspective, there were just too many pages (many of them hard to find if you didn't know the site well), so it was also time to make it easier for new users to navigate through our site.
(And just between you and me, we were kind of sick of the yellow. While it gave the site some personality bonus points, it also made it really hard to design nice art assets for the site. So we chose an easier-on-the-eyes color that would make your blog screenshots pop out of the page.)
Here are 11 links in one drop down and according to Google Analytics, they were rarely clicked on. Sad Panda.
Most of it is pretty self-explanatory. For example, we've simplified the navigation bar so that the entire site is linked through the pages on the top bar. The product pages have been condensed so everything you need to know is contained on one page. And a lot of functionality is staying the same for now, such as Markup Lite for blogs and forum posts. But there are few things that you should know as you familiarize yourself with the site:
Search has been revamped for the entire site. We knew a lot of you would be pleased with this one. The main search box will do a search on all sections of the site. However, each section has its own search box that will search only that type of content (blogs, for instance). The simple search box is smart enough to recognize most standard search queries like phrase matching (put multiple words in quotes to find that exact phase), specific field matches (i.e. author:Bob), and negative term matches (i.e. -dave would show results that do not contain the term dave). Pretty much anything you use on Google, you can use here. The Advanced Search even has the ability to search based on dates, and allows you to limit your searches all the way down to specific forums.
We have a support tab that contains links to all documentation, a form to submit bugs, and how to get paid support. For now, documentation links to the work Michael Perry started with the old site, but will slowly get revamped as he improves the doc system this year. The submit bugs form is similar to our old one, but much easier to find, so we get quicker feedback on our products. And finally, we will be processing requests for paid support, although that is likely geared toward the professional end of our users.
The What's New Page has been simplified to the most clicked on links. The old What's New Page had way too much content, and after some Google Analytic research, we decided to boil it down to the basics. We put GG blogs and other blogs we flag as "featured" right at the top. (Our old "Snapshots" feature has been replaced with these "Featured" blogs.) All other recent blogs also have screen real estate on the bottom of the page. We also have separate tabs for blogs, resources, and forums so you can keep track of those. We'll keep a close eye on how this new navigation is used and make improvements throughout the year.
All information on a single product is now contained within...the product's page. Remember the old days where you had to click on several pages to find information about a product? Even feature lists were on separate pages? Yeah, that sucked. And yeah, we fixed that, by having all information about a product put in tabs on one easily-found page. And now all products are under the "Products" drop-down. Hooray, consistency!
Logins are based on e-mail addresses, not handles. We decided to use e-mail addresses for our unique login because, well, they're unique by design, and people tend to remember them better than handles, which can change over time. Your e-mail address on the new site was the private e-mail you listed when you first registered on GG.com. However, for those of you that can't remember what that was, you'll notice on the login page that we have a place where you can still login under your old handle. Just know that we will eventually rely solely on e-mail addresses for all logins in a future build.
You no longer have pictures and other files uploaded to your profile. Due to the way we set up our initial backend, we decided not to support user uploaded files. Since profile pictures were the only real functionality must people took advantage off, we thought this was okay for initial launch.
Please do not use origin-www or the direct IP address to get to the new site. For the past year, we've been dealing with a rare, but frustrating issue through our CDN (Akamai) where users would get a screen that said "Service Unavailable" when trying to connect. To bypass Akamai and go around this error, some users have been entering the IP address for GG directly, or using origin-www.garage..... as an alternative. We're confident that the "Service Unavailable" issue will be disappearing entirely when the new site is up. It's being hosted in a different location, so connection issues to Akamai should be resolved. However, for each user that bypasses Akamai and connects to our hosted hardware directly, it plugs an available socket. If too many of these are plugged, Akamai can't process requests and neither can the hosted site. Please use www.garagegames.com exclusively from the time the new site is up and discontinue using origin-www or the direct IP. This should save us a lot of hassle and make the site operate faster for everyone who uses it.
Yeah, this is a massive post. I'm sure I've missed a couple things...my mind's kind of mush right now after all the work it's taken to get this far. Do know that we are nowhere near feature completeness of what we want the site to be able to do. More features will be rolled on a steady basis as we collect feedback and monitor site usage.
Welcome again to the new site, and post away with any issues you encounter or things you'd like to see. I'll address them as best as I can in follow-up site releases over the following weeks.
Who are you again?
The web team was allowed out of jail to take this picture. Smiling bright and sunny are Derek and Jason on the left, in the shadows with hands in pockets are me and Ken on the right.It's pretty established over here in Eugene that the GG.com website team is a quiet and reserved bunch, as opposed to the more extroverted Torque devs who are always eager to talk about new tech. However, it's probably good for you to get a quick overview of who made the site possible. I'm Jacob Fike (probably obvious given the blog header), and I've been working with GarageGames for two years now. I got my start by creating Overlord Management System system. I then went on to help create the Great Games Experiment and worked on the backend of InstantAction for a while before devoting myself full time to this site. Working beside me is an even more quiet guy, Jason Hetu, who did most of the design work for the site and likes bran muffins (ask him about that later). Also heavily involved in the content and design of the new site were Derek Bronson (for better marketing of our 3rd party products), Eric Fritz (for marketing and usability), Davey Jackson and Michael Blenden (for the needs of educators who visit the site), and Ken Holst and Jeff Hojnacke (for testing).
And HUGE THANKS to the Operations team. First lead by Jay Arrera, and then Jeff Cassar, we wouldn't have been able to post the site up so quickly. Eli Janssen (who doesn't have a profile page since he's too busy making this all work) in particular put in a ridiculous amount of overtime to get this live. We salute you and your beard, Eli.
Hey, I liked the yellow banners. Why bother with the change?
For anyone who has been here any length of time, you know the old site was beginning to show its age. Although it was still functional, it looked and acted like a site that had been built in the early 1990s. A myriad of web devs had added some cool things to the site over time like community web blogging, snapshots, etc., but maintaining the site was becoming something of a task from a backend perspective since it had ballooned so much. It was due for a much needed overhaul to take advantage of new technologies that made coding and maintenance much easier over the course of the last few years. And, of course, from a usability perspective, there were just too many pages (many of them hard to find if you didn't know the site well), so it was also time to make it easier for new users to navigate through our site.
(And just between you and me, we were kind of sick of the yellow. While it gave the site some personality bonus points, it also made it really hard to design nice art assets for the site. So we chose an easier-on-the-eyes color that would make your blog screenshots pop out of the page.)
Here are 11 links in one drop down and according to Google Analytics, they were rarely clicked on. Sad Panda.What should I know about the new site?
Most of it is pretty self-explanatory. For example, we've simplified the navigation bar so that the entire site is linked through the pages on the top bar. The product pages have been condensed so everything you need to know is contained on one page. And a lot of functionality is staying the same for now, such as Markup Lite for blogs and forum posts. But there are few things that you should know as you familiarize yourself with the site:
Search has been revamped for the entire site. We knew a lot of you would be pleased with this one. The main search box will do a search on all sections of the site. However, each section has its own search box that will search only that type of content (blogs, for instance). The simple search box is smart enough to recognize most standard search queries like phrase matching (put multiple words in quotes to find that exact phase), specific field matches (i.e. author:Bob), and negative term matches (i.e. -dave would show results that do not contain the term dave). Pretty much anything you use on Google, you can use here. The Advanced Search even has the ability to search based on dates, and allows you to limit your searches all the way down to specific forums.
We have a support tab that contains links to all documentation, a form to submit bugs, and how to get paid support. For now, documentation links to the work Michael Perry started with the old site, but will slowly get revamped as he improves the doc system this year. The submit bugs form is similar to our old one, but much easier to find, so we get quicker feedback on our products. And finally, we will be processing requests for paid support, although that is likely geared toward the professional end of our users.
The What's New Page has been simplified to the most clicked on links. The old What's New Page had way too much content, and after some Google Analytic research, we decided to boil it down to the basics. We put GG blogs and other blogs we flag as "featured" right at the top. (Our old "Snapshots" feature has been replaced with these "Featured" blogs.) All other recent blogs also have screen real estate on the bottom of the page. We also have separate tabs for blogs, resources, and forums so you can keep track of those. We'll keep a close eye on how this new navigation is used and make improvements throughout the year.
All information on a single product is now contained within...the product's page. Remember the old days where you had to click on several pages to find information about a product? Even feature lists were on separate pages? Yeah, that sucked. And yeah, we fixed that, by having all information about a product put in tabs on one easily-found page. And now all products are under the "Products" drop-down. Hooray, consistency!
Logins are based on e-mail addresses, not handles. We decided to use e-mail addresses for our unique login because, well, they're unique by design, and people tend to remember them better than handles, which can change over time. Your e-mail address on the new site was the private e-mail you listed when you first registered on GG.com. However, for those of you that can't remember what that was, you'll notice on the login page that we have a place where you can still login under your old handle. Just know that we will eventually rely solely on e-mail addresses for all logins in a future build.
You no longer have pictures and other files uploaded to your profile. Due to the way we set up our initial backend, we decided not to support user uploaded files. Since profile pictures were the only real functionality must people took advantage off, we thought this was okay for initial launch.
Please do not use origin-www or the direct IP address to get to the new site. For the past year, we've been dealing with a rare, but frustrating issue through our CDN (Akamai) where users would get a screen that said "Service Unavailable" when trying to connect. To bypass Akamai and go around this error, some users have been entering the IP address for GG directly, or using origin-www.garage..... as an alternative. We're confident that the "Service Unavailable" issue will be disappearing entirely when the new site is up. It's being hosted in a different location, so connection issues to Akamai should be resolved. However, for each user that bypasses Akamai and connects to our hosted hardware directly, it plugs an available socket. If too many of these are plugged, Akamai can't process requests and neither can the hosted site. Please use www.garagegames.com exclusively from the time the new site is up and discontinue using origin-www or the direct IP. This should save us a lot of hassle and make the site operate faster for everyone who uses it.
For someone who hasn't blogged since 2006, you sure talk a lot.
Yeah, this is a massive post. I'm sure I've missed a couple things...my mind's kind of mush right now after all the work it's taken to get this far. Do know that we are nowhere near feature completeness of what we want the site to be able to do. More features will be rolled on a steady basis as we collect feedback and monitor site usage.
Welcome again to the new site, and post away with any issues you encounter or things you'd like to see. I'll address them as best as I can in follow-up site releases over the following weeks.
About the author
As the CTO of Avalon Labs LLC, I am responsible for the technology behind Fellowstream, our team-based to-do list.
#162
Only thing that I don't like is the scroll bars inside of page scrolls bars. Hard to see and not really needed, just make the whole page scrolling.
And, if that is all I have to complain about then you know you did good:)
01/14/2009 (5:40 pm)
Site looks good...Only thing that I don't like is the scroll bars inside of page scrolls bars. Hard to see and not really needed, just make the whole page scrolling.
And, if that is all I have to complain about then you know you did good:)
#163
Just letting you know, we are recording all the things like this that hamper usability and will try to get them all resolved.
01/14/2009 (6:09 pm)
"And any time you post a reply it takes you all the way back to the begging page of the thread so you have to click 10-15 times to get to the end again. :("Just letting you know, we are recording all the things like this that hamper usability and will try to get them all resolved.
#164
Thanks for taking the time to respond to so many concerns here. I'm sure we have managed to generate a pretty intense day for the GG staff, and I'm sorry about any extra headaches folks have. Please do understand though that the concern stems from caring about what everyone here has built - and a desire to see that improve, and not lose the core of what we have had. And by that I mean the strong community feeling here, not any specific features.
Although speaking of headaches, after reading the last three pages of replies here to catch up, my eyes are burning. Can we look perhaps at toning down the whitespace just a little bit? We artists need to not go blind while reading favorite community sites, you know. ;)
01/14/2009 (6:58 pm)
@Deborah,Thanks for taking the time to respond to so many concerns here. I'm sure we have managed to generate a pretty intense day for the GG staff, and I'm sorry about any extra headaches folks have. Please do understand though that the concern stems from caring about what everyone here has built - and a desire to see that improve, and not lose the core of what we have had. And by that I mean the strong community feeling here, not any specific features.
Although speaking of headaches, after reading the last three pages of replies here to catch up, my eyes are burning. Can we look perhaps at toning down the whitespace just a little bit? We artists need to not go blind while reading favorite community sites, you know. ;)
#165
I never noticed the color change -- I'm colorblind (extremely rare form of it actually) -- only the shading of things in general had changed for me, and the layout of course. But I finally figured it out! That whatever these colors are (or shades of color), they're not appealing (to me) and that's why I was initially turned off by the new direction. The same thing happened a few months ago on the Last.fm site -- it underwent a drastic overhaul and color scheme change that caused a reduction in it's community and looking at the two side by side I see an awful similarity (same website template maybe?). But then that's just me.
What about a future update/feature for site color themes that would let us pick from a selection of contrasting color schemes so that some of us could cope better? Shouldn't be too difficult to do and you could still always leave the current color theme (whatever it is) as the default.
01/14/2009 (7:25 pm)
Here's one for you: I know that overall scheme and art direction, colors, layout...all of that is subjective from one person to another. I personally mentioned that the site seemed sterile and bland to me -- structurally I'm sure it will grow on me -- but something has been nagging me all day as I would come and go, and I finally realized what it was. I keep seeing mention of the old yellow color and the new blue and white, or is it purple? I even just saw a comment about eyestrain and headache caused by all of the white. I never noticed the color change -- I'm colorblind (extremely rare form of it actually) -- only the shading of things in general had changed for me, and the layout of course. But I finally figured it out! That whatever these colors are (or shades of color), they're not appealing (to me) and that's why I was initially turned off by the new direction. The same thing happened a few months ago on the Last.fm site -- it underwent a drastic overhaul and color scheme change that caused a reduction in it's community and looking at the two side by side I see an awful similarity (same website template maybe?). But then that's just me.
What about a future update/feature for site color themes that would let us pick from a selection of contrasting color schemes so that some of us could cope better? Shouldn't be too difficult to do and you could still always leave the current color theme (whatever it is) as the default.
#166
I don't like the new direction GG seems to be heading in. GG used to be about games, development, and profit, and in that order. Now you guys seem more concerned about business than ever before.
In a way, much like the old site, GG is gone for good. Consider changing the name of your company.
01/14/2009 (7:28 pm)
I think the site looks better, but the usability has definitely gone down.I don't like the new direction GG seems to be heading in. GG used to be about games, development, and profit, and in that order. Now you guys seem more concerned about business than ever before.
In a way, much like the old site, GG is gone for good. Consider changing the name of your company.
#167
I do agree with the rest of the mob about functionality being gone. I do miss all that, but the big thing for me right now, and if this has been addressed I apologize, but how long will be the TDN be down or is it even coming back?
01/14/2009 (7:41 pm)
I like the new design, going to take some getting use to, but that's fine :)I do agree with the rest of the mob about functionality being gone. I do miss all that, but the big thing for me right now, and if this has been addressed I apologize, but how long will be the TDN be down or is it even coming back?
#168
Next time throw it at us in chunks and a redesign will happen much more smoothly.
01/14/2009 (8:22 pm)
I know this whole thread has become a seriously hard hit on the morale of the web-team, and it certainly isn't all bad. I am sure it came with good intentions. If there are improvements on the way, make sure it restores the previous functionality. You can still preserve past functionality and keep it simple. Next time throw it at us in chunks and a redesign will happen much more smoothly.
#169
@Kevin McLaughlin: The reason I have no problems responding to so many people is that I know the vast majority of you have concerns coming from a genuine care for this community. For the most part, I can't reply to just outright negativity. And my team has been good at not letting it bother them. Flame threads don't do anyone any good. Specific requests and constructive criticism, though, we can vet as a team. My job is to cull through this and let the web team know the biggest things we need to work on. Their job is to "get it done" (i.e. the hard part).
Thanks for caring. And keep it comin' d(^_^)b
01/14/2009 (9:13 pm)
Quote:Thanks for taking the time to respond to so many concerns here. I'm sure we have managed to generate a pretty intense day for the GG staff, and I'm sorry about any extra headaches folks have. Please do understand though that the concern stems from caring about what everyone here has built - and a desire to see that improve, and not lose the core of what we have had. And by that I mean the strong community feeling here, not any specific features.
@Kevin McLaughlin: The reason I have no problems responding to so many people is that I know the vast majority of you have concerns coming from a genuine care for this community. For the most part, I can't reply to just outright negativity. And my team has been good at not letting it bother them. Flame threads don't do anyone any good. Specific requests and constructive criticism, though, we can vet as a team. My job is to cull through this and let the web team know the biggest things we need to work on. Their job is to "get it done" (i.e. the hard part).
Thanks for caring. And keep it comin' d(^_^)b
#170
01/14/2009 (10:28 pm)
Nice new website, is the TDN down too though? Will you guys restore access to it soon?
#171
01/14/2009 (11:32 pm)
TDN is one of our top priorities... stay tuned.
#172
I find it very amusing and also sad, that there was no consideration for the community which is the main factor of this site and the marketing and sales was kept as the focus for development of the new design. Thats what I consider happened. Putting a community in dark is pretty bad. Especially when the whole bunch of members are very professional lot.The members are not googlish lot but well managed individuals who are navigating the web even before the google was formed. They are sophisticated people using complex programs like TGE, 3dmax and VC etc..
It has also probably damaged the schedule of many game developers like me, who were referring the resources continuously. Then you will keep updating upon the feedback and more changes will occur. To circumnavigate the link and visual metaphor is definitely add up to every members development process, may it be educational or gamedevelopment. Now it will happen frequently that a certain section is down for updating etc.. and both GG & community is the looser.
Also I cannot recall if anyone was complaining, No fixing unless its broken.
01/14/2009 (11:38 pm)
I hope that old web links are kept intact for resources, or the 404 error for any external link is gonna cause a lot of drop in traffic. I find it very amusing and also sad, that there was no consideration for the community which is the main factor of this site and the marketing and sales was kept as the focus for development of the new design. Thats what I consider happened. Putting a community in dark is pretty bad. Especially when the whole bunch of members are very professional lot.The members are not googlish lot but well managed individuals who are navigating the web even before the google was formed. They are sophisticated people using complex programs like TGE, 3dmax and VC etc..
It has also probably damaged the schedule of many game developers like me, who were referring the resources continuously. Then you will keep updating upon the feedback and more changes will occur. To circumnavigate the link and visual metaphor is definitely add up to every members development process, may it be educational or gamedevelopment. Now it will happen frequently that a certain section is down for updating etc.. and both GG & community is the looser.
Also I cannot recall if anyone was complaining, No fixing unless its broken.
#173
Just a quick question ... will the RSS feeds be coming back soon. :)
Good luck and keep at it ... all new things take time to adjust to and settle down. :)
01/15/2009 (3:36 am)
Once again ... good luck to the team with the upcoming changes that I am sure you guys are going to make to add the missing features to the site. The site in general looks very good and you guys did an awesome job ... don't let the comments get you down ... I am sure most are aimed at being constructive. :)Just a quick question ... will the RSS feeds be coming back soon. :)
Good luck and keep at it ... all new things take time to adjust to and settle down. :)
#175
(also, various sorting methods would be good... randomized on date isn't so helpful for me as a TGEA owner... TGE stuff from 2001 isn't likely going to help me.)
Take your time, and do things right :) This place is worth it.
01/15/2009 (5:59 am)
One request: On the search page, can you condense the 'advanced search' options. It is highly annoying to have to scroll down a full page before I see search results. Or, better, hide the advanced search options entirely unless a link is pressed?(also, various sorting methods would be good... randomized on date isn't so helpful for me as a TGEA owner... TGE stuff from 2001 isn't likely going to help me.)
Take your time, and do things right :) This place is worth it.
#176
01/15/2009 (6:10 am)
I don't know if it's been mentioned or not already, so ignore me if it has. It would be nice if when one does a search on the site that we could sort the results by date. It'd be more useful at times to see things more recent as opposed to (the probable default) the most relevant.
#177
Perhaps if that can't be done, possibly give an option to sort the posts by most recent instead of first posted?
01/15/2009 (6:12 am)
ROFL... a perfect example of why one should see all the comments on one page... I didn't see Martin's post above. :)Perhaps if that can't be done, possibly give an option to sort the posts by most recent instead of first posted?
#178
The games store is actually listed when you go into the Developer Store (I think it should have a category listed by itself rather than be there). One last note about postings here... after one makes a post, it should highlight the post you made (IE: go to page 9, rather than back on the first page).
01/15/2009 (6:16 am)
@Matt Huston:The games store is actually listed when you go into the Developer Store (I think it should have a category listed by itself rather than be there). One last note about postings here... after one makes a post, it should highlight the post you made (IE: go to page 9, rather than back on the first page).
#179
01/15/2009 (12:50 pm)
For those of you interested in additional thoughts/ responses from me I recently made a post in Jeff's Blog about similar usability complaints I had with NXE.
#180
Don't tell me that's too difficult to add, that should be a matter of minutes to fix. Thanks.
Oh, and what's up with the resource downloads? Is there any problem adding the download links back in?
I'm pretty sure it would calm down a lot of people if those absolute "show stoppers" would be fixed immediately ...
01/15/2009 (2:08 pm)
Could we please at least have the "GG Employee" and "Associate" tags and member images back immediately? I am a member since early 2002, but I don't recognize like 80% of the employees anymore I guess, so it's REALLY annoying not to even know WHO posts WHAT here...Don't tell me that's too difficult to add, that should be a matter of minutes to fix. Thanks.
Oh, and what's up with the resource downloads? Is there any problem adding the download links back in?
I'm pretty sure it would calm down a lot of people if those absolute "show stoppers" would be fixed immediately ...
Torque Owner Tony Peguero