GarageGames.com Site Update, May 20th
by Jacob Fike · 05/20/2009 (2:33 pm) · 57 comments
New Features
- Front Page: The front page has been redesigned to present more information, but in a better way than before. You will now see a preview of the most recent employee blogs, links to some awesome games made with Torque, and a twitter news feed designed to inform you of new products, updates to existing products and other interesting news.
- What's New Page: The community what's new page has also be redesigned for the same reasons as the front page, to show you more information and in a better way. Now you will have a complete snapshot of the most recent information on GG.com at a glance. The what's new page now shows recent employee blogs, spotlighted blogs (presented similarly to the old dev snapshots), recent forum threads, resources, and product news from twitter.
- Blogs Page: We've added a sidebar to the blogs page that gives you several different options for viewing blog content. The default is still all blogs sorted by date, but we've now added ways to view all employee blogs, all spotlighted blogs, and the most recently active blogs. Based on feedback and suggestions, new options will be added to this sidebar.
- Best of Torque: The best of Torque page is back and better than ever! Enjoy eye-popping screenshots, watch videos, and read developer interviews for all the best games made with Torque.
Other Changes
- Searching individual locations in advanced search should be working again.
- Some new RSS feeds have been added to the RSS Feeds page to correspond with the new blog viewing options.
- You may have noticed the new banner at the top of the community page and the best of Torque pages. Hopefully you will find this new banner less annoying and more useful. The plan is to change the developer store and the my account pages to have a similar banner, complete with relevant actions for the 'What can I do here?' button.
About the author
As the CTO of Avalon Labs LLC, I am responsible for the technology behind Fellowstream, our team-based to-do list.
#22
I do like that 'sort by date' feature as well.
I would like it if the results, when clicked on, opened in a new tab but that is just a personal preference.
05/20/2009 (5:42 pm)
Yes the advanced search seems fixed for combos now. Thanks again!I do like that 'sort by date' feature as well.
I would like it if the results, when clicked on, opened in a new tab but that is just a personal preference.
#23
Awesome work!
05/20/2009 (6:02 pm)
Is there a way to view all new posts on one screen? The new blog feed is brilliant, but I'd love it even more if it there was a way to have the resources in there too. That would be the best thing to add to the sidebar, in my opinion.Awesome work!
#24
I'd like RSS feeds of single forums, like TorqueX 2D and TorqueX 3D because those are the products I own and am not that interested in the other forum news.
05/20/2009 (6:35 pm)
Great Job! I'd like RSS feeds of single forums, like TorqueX 2D and TorqueX 3D because those are the products I own and am not that interested in the other forum news.
#26
05/20/2009 (7:10 pm)
@Tom, we have more planned for resources than a simple addition to a sidebar. 8^)
#27
Best developer ever.
05/20/2009 (7:12 pm)
Quote:@Tom, we have more planned for resources than a simple addition to a sidebar. 8^)
Best developer ever.
#28
05/20/2009 (7:19 pm)
Like the update, but i will complain about the underline links. It makes headlines and forum post titles harder to read.
#29
John K.
www.envygames.com
05/20/2009 (7:55 pm)
The changes look great! You guys are doing an amazing job with the Website. If you get bored, my website could use some attention ;) I have beer.John K.
www.envygames.com
#30
Though, to me this seems like a mistake.
Under "Best of Torque", you select "Torque 3D" and you have all the 3D games.
Now, in itself thats not a mistake as such, but you have a engine called Torque 3D aswell, wich kind of confusing :)
Love the changes other then that :P
05/20/2009 (8:46 pm)
Awesome :)Though, to me this seems like a mistake.
Under "Best of Torque", you select "Torque 3D" and you have all the 3D games.
Now, in itself thats not a mistake as such, but you have a engine called Torque 3D aswell, wich kind of confusing :)
Love the changes other then that :P
#31
05/20/2009 (9:39 pm)
My favorite update yet! Keep up the good work. 
#32
05/20/2009 (9:51 pm)
Nice update, now even colorblind people can see the links too. 
#33
05/20/2009 (10:43 pm)
its nice, but the front page can use some touch ups. 
#34
05/20/2009 (11:50 pm)
I love the new update! I know the link underlines might be harder to read, but also offer a bonus aid for the visually challenged, and that's a usability bonus after all. Awesome work! 
#35
05/21/2009 (4:30 am)
Nice job with the new styles! Everything works fine in Google Chrome for me. ;)
#36
05/21/2009 (4:38 am)
I just realized that some image urls don't work anymore without the protocol (ie. www.xenocell.com/pic.jpg used to work, now it needs http:// upfront). There are a few broken images around. This is still my favorite update so far. :) 
#37
When I get to the home page on my mac .
Running 10.4.11.
Were the Main Image Cycles the Buttons on the right side show up as Squiggles
and not as words.
On my P.C looks fine.
05/21/2009 (6:25 am)
Great Job on the update,When I get to the home page on my mac .
Running 10.4.11.
Were the Main Image Cycles the Buttons on the right side show up as Squiggles
and not as words.
On my P.C looks fine.
#38
05/21/2009 (6:30 am)
Awesome
#39
A jobs section on the main page would still be nice, and functional, in my opinion.
05/21/2009 (6:39 am)
Great job.. way more user friendly like it was.A jobs section on the main page would still be nice, and functional, in my opinion.
#40
05/21/2009 (7:09 am)
OMG, thank you. The initial redesign was very lacking and seemed to be held together with glue and band-aids. This is getting much better. Still buggy here and there and missing some of the old original features, but overall working/looking much better. Keep the updates coming.
Perishingflames