Blog for Sean Sullivan at GarageGames.com

GGE Holiday Cheer = New Features!

Sean Sullivan — 2006-12-20T23:04:45+00:00

Tomorrow marks the one month anniversary of our announcement of the Great Games Experiment to the GarageGames community. I would like to take a moment to thank everybody for their participation so far. We truly get excited in the web dev corner, here in The Garage, when we see the level of activity and excitement that is occurring daily at www.greatgamesexperiment.com. I would also like to thank all of you who have submitted bug reports and suggestions via the contact form available on GGE. These reports help us identify areas that need attention quickly and are important to our success!

A lot has happened in the last month on GGE. We have seen a large number of user accounts, games, and groups created! With the announcement of the GGE contest, we have seen a number of users step it up with high quality game submissions. These are great to see! Keep 'em coming!

Many new features have been rolled out since the GarageGames community announcement-- personal messages, increased image quotas, user contributions, etc.-- with many more on the way!

There has been a high influx of playable games brought to the site. Eric Hartman has been pushing for all games that have a playable flash file embedded or download link ready to be marked as 'playable'. The tag 'play now' is being used in the same spirit! Search for these tags when looking for games if you need something to keep you occupied during your next coffee break or beyond.

Game List Module

We have just released a very powerful new module type on GGE for you to include in your profile-- the Game List Module.

This module has been designed to help you quickly create a list of games for any purpose. "My Favorite Games", "Games I Play With My Girlfriend", "Games My Mother Said Would Rot My Brain!" You decide. The module is very easy to add and use in your profile. Simply go into edit mode on your profile and choose "Add a Module" from the menu on the right. From there you simply choose the "Game List Module" and click ADD! Now you can fix this puppy up whatever way you wish. Edit the title and throw in a short description (add GGE code here if you want). Then start adding games! It's that easy. You can add up to 15 titles. If you add less than 15, no biggy, we'll only show the ones you put in your module. You can even add captions to these games to describe why that particular game made it into your list!

Once you have your games added to your module, choose the display format. There are two choices here (for the time being)-- Vertical and Horizontal. The Vertical View will display the games in a list, with the captions displaying to the right of the game information (as quotes). The Horizontal View will show a ranked list of games (captions are not displayed in this view) for a quick and compact way of displaying this module.

Google Gadgets

Also, new to the site is the inclusion of Google Gadgets! If you are not familiar with Google Gadgets (a directory of gadgets is available at: www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open), they are a collection of various "gadgets" with various purposes that Google publishes for easy inclusion on your website. These gadgets range from search tools to calendars to mashups to games. You can even create your own Google Gadgets! We have added a tag to the GGE Code that allows you to put a Google Gadget in an Uber Module.

To add a Google Gadget to your profile, select the "Add to your webpage" button for the module you would like to add. On the next page, adjust the settings for your module according to the manner in which you would like it display, then select the "Get the Code" button at the bottom of the page.

Once you click the "Get the Code" button, a text box will appear with a line of code starting with the words: "<script src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=". Select the portion of the code after "url=" leading up to the following quotation ("). Copy this code. This is the code you need to insert into your Google Gadget tag on your profile.

example: [ggadget=http://www.schulz.dk/pacman.xml]
example: [ggadget=http://www.schulz.dk/pacman.xml, left]

Google Gadgets can be aligned to the left, right, or center. The alignment is optional, the default alignment is left.

New Dashboard

The new My Account page now serves as more of a dashboard, complete with your message inbox, information on sharing your GGE page, my images tools and a recent activity log! This is now a great starting point for your GGE experience!

Improved Game Creation!

To help community members with their game submissions, Jacob has been working on a new and improved game creation process. In this he has added better form validation to the Create a Game form, in which we help you discover if the game you are adding has already been submitted (to cut down on duplicate entries). Also, we help you build your game profile right off the bat, collecting vital information to fill out some of your modules right when you submit! You can use the "wizard" mode, in which you enter features, system requirements, download links and we take care of the rest. If you are familiar with the GGE game submission process, we still offer the basic and advanced routes in which you can handle it all yourself!

More Beta Invites!

Many of you have been using up your invites to help bring your friends to the GGE community. I have gone ahead and given everybody a holiday gift of two more invites each! =) Once you are out of invites, send your friends to the main page of the site where they can enter their email to sign up for the beta. We are regularly processing these account requests.

Approaching 1,000 Games!!! That's a lot of games, but there's so many more out there that need to be brought into the limelight! Create a game today!

We have many more features on the way. If you have sent in a suggestion, I assure you we have received it and are currently working on assessing priority to those suggestions along with upcoming features.

Remember, the GGE Contest is now running until January 1st, 2007 @ 11:59 PM!

GGE Quick Links:

Main Page
Contest Information
Games Landing Page
Bug Report/Suggestion/Contact Form
Quick Survey

New Features on Great Games Experiment!

Sean Sullivan — 2006-12-06T18:22:52+00:00

It's been exciting to see the response and activity of users on the Great Games Experiment. The GGE team has been working hard to put together new features and overall working to make the site a better experience!

Larger Image Quotas

We have doubled the size of everybody's quota! Now, each user, game, group on GGE has an image quota of 2 mb. To clarify what this means, each user, game and group has its own image pool to which you can upload any amount of images (as long as you remain under your quota). These images can be used to deck out your profile with your avatar, screenshots, etc. To learn more about how images work on GGE, visit My Images help section

Private Messaging

There is now a private messaging system in place on the site, through which you can easily contact other GGE users. To send somebody a private message, simply view their profile and click the 'Send Message' button! To find out if you have new messages, visit "My Account" or to view all of your messages, visit "My Messages"

Game Listing Contributors

Since this site is focused on community, we wanted to make game listings a community effort. It is now possible for many people to act as contributors on any game listing. The owner of the game has the ability to invite users to become contributors on their game listing. Also, users having the ability to request to become a contributor when viewing a game listing.

More Beta Invites!

Each user has received two more beta invites! Use them wisely =) If you have more friends than invites, be sure to send them to the main page of the site where they can request entrance into the beta.

Much more is coming down the line in the near future so stay tuned and enjoy the Great Games Experiment!

Also, keep the suggestions/bug reports coming. We appreciate all feedback concerning the site.
The GGE feedback/bug report form is available here

Don't forget to fill out our quick survey! The survey is available here and will take 5 minutes of your time at most!

Thanks!

Introducing the Great Games Experiment

Sean Sullivan — 2006-11-21T23:30:40+00:00

Introducing the Great Games Experiment!

It is my pleasure to introduce a project to the entire GarageGames community that we have been wrenching on internally for quite some time now. The Great Games Experiment [GGE] is our full fledged effort to provide a community platform on which gamers, developers, and publishers can unite through the games they create and/or enjoy playing. The site is specifically geared toward purposes that are truly important to gamers and game developers alike:

Promote. Our goal with GGE is to serve as the central promotional platform on the Internet for video games - a place where gamers and game-makers connect. By creating a centralized location for a large audience with a specific focus, we have provided endless opportunities for developers and gamers looking to promote themselves and their games. GGE's members have access to wide-open profile creation tools which allow you to present yourself, your games, and your cause in a creative format, all while keeping an element of officialism from one person or game to the next.

Network. Gamers. Developers. Publishers. Together, the members of GGE form a focused network around video games. Through features such as established friendships, visualized developer credits, and formation of groups, the platform of GreatGamesExperiment.com serves as a meeting place. Whether it be a developer finding a team with similar game interests or a gamer looking to find competitors playing the same game, GGE serves as a location on the Internet for gamers and game developers to network.

Discover. The Great Games Experiment gives each visitor to the site a truly unbiased way of discovering new games and related content. Through site features such as ratings, recommendations, and popularity, the best of the best rise to the top in true dynamic fashion. Through tags, friendships, and comments, the network becomes an amazing place to inventory what's hot, what your friends are playing, and what those same friends have to say about the latest games.

Download. Yes, you can in fact use GGE as a place to find new games and game demos to download. These downloads are made available by developers submitting their titles to the site. Another way I like to think of the word download in relation to the Great Games Experiment is that in the idea that each time you point your web browser to a new page, a new game, or a new user on GGE, you are downloading, before your eyes, a brand new node on the network. A new vantage point of surveying the organism that is GGE and the way in which all the content on the site relates to the very item you are at that moment viewing.

Play. This is what we're all here for. Make Great Games! Play Great Games!

The Great Games Experiment has entered Beta.

What does this mean? Well, as I'm sure is apparent to everybody reading this, the success of a site of this magnitude largely depends on the attitude and active participation of the community itself. That is why we have decided to introduce GGE to the entire GarageGames community before its impending official launch. The site is in full working order, with all features of social networking intact and ready to rock. We are working here daily in the Garage to refine any issues that may arise.

Having a large user base participating in the beta will help all of us to ensure that this investment we have made will indeed result in what we view as crucial to the direction the video game industry is headed. Jeff Tunnell's vision of GGE and the scope and expansiveness of the project will be revealed soon enough, but to iterate a point that has been an ongoing theme of GarageGames and the Great Games Experiment as a project: it is necessary for us to take control at this (the communication and distribution) juncture and push the locomotive full steam ahead. That's why we, as an established community, know that we can make this happen. We are all here together for a similar cause, and this platform, GGE, from the people at GarageGames, is something that I as a gamer have longed for since I realized the full potential of the Internet as a communication and networking medium.

Getting Started.

If you have logged into the GarageGames site in the year 2006, you have been reserved a spot on the Great Games Experiment. To get started on the site, simply head over to http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/account/create/ and use your email you have registered on GarageGames.com. Once you have chosen your unique display name, user type, and password, you will be sent an email for verification. Now the fun begins!

If you have not been active on GarageGames.com in 2006, simply enter your email in the "Request a Beta Invite" form found on the homepage.

What Next?

Now that you have an account, take advantage of the number of features throughout the site and get creative!

Deck out your Profile! Because this is a social networking site at heart, the way you present yourself on the site can have a large bearing of taking yourself to the top of the user list.

View the Best! By choosing the Games, Groups, Gamers, Developers, or Publishers tabs, you can see the best of the best in each of those categories. There are three ways we determine the best on the site. Highest rated, which is a computed average comprising of all user ratings for that item. Popularity, which is a measure of how popular an item is based on metrics such as number of friends, people playing that game, etc. Most viewed, a self-explanatory way of showing those items receiving the most eyeballs.

Submit Your Game as a Developer! If you have a game that you have created (or are in the process of creating), add it to the site! Complete the form with the required information for the game and get started on decking your game out with screenshots, YouTube/Google videos, etc. Tag your game appropriately for increased exposure from related games.

Add games as fans! Just because you haven't yet created a game doesn't mean you can't be the authority on one. You can add your favorite game as a fan on the site! To do so, simply indicate that you are submitting the game as a fan. Take heed though, if the developer or publisher of Mega Man comes along and decides they are more of a Mega Man authority than you, we'll have to let them have the driver's seat for that title.

Make Friends! By adding members of the site to your friends, you help build the network of GGE. Once people are in your friends list, you can easily access their profile to keep track of the latest games they're recommending, or even the smack they may be talking about that guy who still can't beat level 5 of Marble Blast Gold.

Create groups! Join groups! If you have a common interest with other members of the community, create a group on GGE to represent those similarities. This group can serve as a central meeting point for your interest group, or your group of long-lost friends who used to Rock the Casbah in Quake 2. Discussion modules shine in these groups to help you keep in touch easily!

Rate games!

Mark games as played! If you've played it, show it! When people view your profile they'll be able to get an idea of the types of games you like to play.

Show off with Great Games Badges! Every account has an associated Great Games Badge. This badge can be placed on your blog, website, forums, etc to show off your high rating and profile!

Use Beta Invites! Every user account has been loaded of with a couple of beta invites. Head over to the "My Account" section of the site and you should see a form field to toss in a friend's email to get them invited.

Join the GreatGamesExperiment.com today!

GarageGames or Bust!

Sean Sullivan — 2006-05-26T06:25:21+00:00

Now that my second week as a regular in the GG office is coming to an end, I feel it is about time that I introduce myself and get rid of that nasty none underneath the Recent Blog Posts heading!

GarageGames or Bust was the official motto that we tagged onto my 2500 mile trip out here to Eugene. With nothing but myself and whatever I could cram into my Saturn Ion, I left my former home of Michigan behind to join the cause here at GG. I am beyond thrilled to have been afforded the opportunity to join this amazing, dynamic team here.

For everybody who is wondering who exactly I am, I guess this would be a good time to introduce myself. My name is Sean Sullivan and I have a strong infatuation for all things gaming and Internet. I have spent countless hours in my life studying and implementing web development and design (among other creative initiatives). Fate led me in the direction of GarageGames and as one thing led to another I finally found this awesome creative environment that I had been searching for my entire life. This is a life long dream realized--working in the gaming industry with people who are truly making an impact.

The projects ahead are amazing and what I have seen of this community is truly inspirational! It is so great to be a part of this!