Games Section Updates

[Marked 197]

Hi guys

 

I have updated the cover image system in the Games Section and removed several features. 

 

Cover images

Previously you could upload any size cover image and have it either stretch, tile or remain it's original size within the cover container. I have decided to make cover images more uniform and standard, partly for your own good and simplicity of that part of the games page. By removing flexibility, developers will be forced to create a cover image and these will invariably stretch the full width, and be about 1155px by 210px. 

 

I said earlier that I would remove text titles, but this was going to be too disruptive to many games pages, so I have decided to leave this feature in.

 

Border radius design option

The border radius option has also be removed because it doesn't fit in with GDU's recent design update.

 

Cover image optimization

This really should have been made when I first coded the games section. When you upload a cover image, 2 images will be generated: A high quality 1155px by 210px jpg and a lower quality image that is identical but cropped in half. Previously, we were loading the full and original cover page images; including huge PNG files. These files were loaded in the listings and homepage/forum index in the slider and obviously slowing everything right down. The new optimized images almost look identical but now that they're optimized for the web, the games section listing is about 1/7th the size it used to be (3mb in cover images alone!).

 

New categories

We have new categories listed in the nav bar and global drop menu, and they now include full games (we've actually got quite a few), updated games, as well as the others. Don't forget you can filter by download count, view count, etc.

 

 

There's probably a lot more, but I can't remember :oops:

 

Original Topic:

 

 

Hi guys

 

I am making this topic before I make the changes to give you guys some time to protest, if you want to.

 

I am about to remove some games section customization options. I mentioned a while back that I was going to take a different direction with the games section. The original idea was to create a system that was capable of replicating a whole website for you guys with a many customization options and flexibility. As always, this became too big and complex to maintain given the amount of time I am able to spend developing. The new direction is slightly more social, and the goal is to increase use of the games section pages and become a sort of marketing tool for them.

 

Right now you can do a bunch of customizations with the covers. What I'd like to do is go in a bit of the direction of what facebook currently does with cover images; you have to upload a certain size image (not tiling) which will generally be fixed. Anything design-related stuff you want done with the covers has to be done on the image, not by our system. This includes removing the text-titles, so now you guys will have to put a bit more effort into your covers and ensure you've got the logo already in there, etc.

 

This will effect a minority of games pages who are using tiling and text titles. So I'm giving you guys good warning :) I'm thinking of sending emails out to all games section developers when I do something that affects their pages, but I'm not sure if you guys want me to spam you? (I sort of want to spam you..).

 

EDIT: Also, the main reason I'm doing all this is because I gotta go and optimize everyone's uploads so we're not loading massive png's on the index anymore in the slider, lol. I imagine visitors on dial up will give up after 30 seconds of loading. They'll be optimized on the fly on upload as soon as I get around to implementing this.

 

 

[FranklinX 37]

This doesn't affect me too much. I don't have a good a cover at the moment. Please post the cover's dimensions so we can know in advance on how to change or make them. 

[black mage 28]

Thank you for the warning Mark. I'll find a good lawyer on this matter. JK. :oops:

 

I already got the gist of what's gonna happen, but I still unsure whether it'll affect my pages. I'll wait for the implementation then do some necessary adjustment. :)

[ShinkuAura 15]

There's people who still uses dial-up? Shouldn't people have SDSL as a minimum?

[Marked 197]

Changes gone live, as well as a bunch of updates/bug fixes/improvements. :)

[FleshRenderStudios 3]

it didn't fix my issue with uploading the public gallery image, It says it uploaded the image but it won't display the 200x200 .jpeg :(

[Marked 197]

I think I saw your status message in passing but I don't really take notice unless it's in a topic. For these types of issues you should post in the games section support forum.

 

You problem is actually a sloppy error on my part. I keep changing and chopping things, and not updating the rest of the system when I make changes. Previously, I was making people upload logos to be displayed in the public listing. Obviously that has now changed and we're just displaying cover images. This logo upload field used to be in the cover image settings page, but I moved it out to the publish page, but now... I am going to move it back to the cover page settings so you guys can have logos on the cover images. Is that what you were trying to acheive? This upload won't affect your public listing... you can already go find and see what it looks like. I will try and get this done today and move it back to the cover settings page and fix any upload issues.

[FleshRenderStudios 3]

sorry what I meant was when I uploaded the picture I was expecting it to display like the other game's do in the game section with an image behind the text that appears when you scroll over the game, Mine just display a black background and nothing more, The picture I'm using is mostly black but the full logo should be displayed not just a section of the image we uploaded otherwise I think you should specify we need to use a smaller picture file maybe if that is the issue I'm not sure. Here is a link to the picture I was trying to use for my game:-

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vyh3sabyc73ornp/Mine_Forge_200x200_JPEG_Version.jpg?dl=0

 

EDIT: Right click on the RMVXA logo then click view origional to see how big the black background actually is as dropbox display's the picture on a black background when you click the link

Edited January 11, 2015 by FleshRenderStudios

[Marked 197]

when I uploaded the picture I was expecting it to display like the other game's do in the game section with an image behind the text that appears when you scroll over the game, Mine just display a black background and nothing more

That is because you don't have a cover image. Go to Layout & Design -> Cover Image to upload. In the public games listing, only the cover images are used, which you'll notice if you click into a few. Currently, if a game page is display a logo and a cover image in their cover, only the cover image will be displayed in the public listing. The logo isn't included.

 

I hope that answers your question. I haven't properly sorted out this stuff with logos yet. In fact, I think what is happening is that there's an option to show and hide the logo on the cover, and by default this is set to hide. However, this option is hidden and so it's impossible to display the logo on the cover. The upload field at the moment is redundant.

 

This will all make sense if you know the difference between the cover image and the logo upload.

 

 

 otherwise I think you should specify we need to use a smaller picture file maybe if that is the issue I'm not sure.

There should be sufficient error feedback if something goes wrong. Otherwise I'll need to work on that, but you gotta tell me what the error is first and how it shows up so I can replicate it. If the filesize it too large, it does say that in a popup.

[FleshRenderStudios 3]

Well to stop me double posting I deleted the original comment here lol so meh!

 

Anyway as I was going to say is I have finally uploaded a "cover image" now but it look's weird on the page where you can select from the currently available games, I say this because you only see about 30% of the actual "cover image" and it just looks strange to me, Would it not be simpler to add a seperate image option purely for that box itself?

 

Here is what I mean:

 

Currently:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0o5jqcqolsxfsw/Screenshot%202015-01-11%2007.32.38.png?dl=0

 

The full Image:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2wr49xj9nuwyec/Screenshot%202015-01-11%2007.33.23.png?dl=0

 

I'm not trying to mock your work Mark becauseyou have done a fantastic job I love the game's section and the website on a whole but just a couple of things that give me a minor bug bear :p

Edited January 11, 2015 by FleshRenderStudios

[Marked 197]

I see what you mean.

 

 

Would it not be simpler to add a seperate image option purely for that box itself?

 

Simpler? Not really. I agree it looks funny, but the solution is for you to change your cover image so the text is aligned left. The system is a bit inflexible like that, but it's the best one-size-fits-all approach. The other 2 games with covers on that page look good. I could add a separate image upload just for the public listing. I try to develop things in an as-needed way for efficiency. In the past I've developed tons of features I think are really cool but in reality they don't get used too much or whatever and that time I could have spent developing something more useful is wasted. So hang tight, I'll put this on my list. I'm working on some games section updates as we speak :)