GameSquat Features 101 - Saved Searches

We've just released a new feature that lets folks save searches, so seems like a good excuse to explain how it works.

Say you frequently search games developed by yours truly, scoot down to the bottom of the 'Games' page, click 'Show Advanced Search Options' and select GameSquat from the 'developed by' dropdown as normal.


(GameSquat's saved searches feature )

Once the 'Games', page has reloaded and is showing games developed by GameSquat, the new search bar will be displaying the option to 'Save This GameSquat Search', click that link. A save dialogue will then appear giving you the chance to name your search click 'Save Search', wait a sec or two an your done.


(GameSquat's search save dialogue)

Close the save dialogue and you'll see your new search listed below the new search bar. Whenever you're logged in and you visit the 'Games' page the new search will be listed just below the search bar, just click to carry out the search.

There's an extra option too, click the email icon to the left of any saved search's title and we'll drop you a email whenever new games appear in your search. Enabling and disabling this option is as simple as clicking the icon, by default this option is disabled.


(Search showing email and delete icon)

Click the red cross icon to the left of any search's title and the search will be deleted.

Finally if you select a search and click the search's name in the search bar, the save dialogue will appear giving you the option to rename your search.

That's it, have a play, more ramblings and new features next month, keep it squat.

Testing

How much testing is enough testing. The purpose of this months update of Gamesquat was to test the site until our eyes bled, squashing any bugs we found in the process. The bofhs got to work server side whilst yours truly and GameSquat's designer spent what seemed like forever viewing Squat with a list of different browsers, including IE6 which according to our logs is still very much in use, sigh.

There's now 3 major versions of Internet Explorer for us to support, all with different levels of compliance to web standards, ranging from the very poor IE6 to the vastly improved but far from prefect IE8. Write a valid web page and it will render perfectly in Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. Load the same page with any flavor of IE and the pain begins, the mind can tend to fantasize about a trip to Microsoft HQ with a shotgun.

With that in mind, we'd be fools to say the latest update was 100% perfect but we're rather proud of the site's consistency in the vast majority of browsers. In the case of IE6 we gracefully downgrade quite a few features that we've decided would be too time consuming and error prone to include.

The change you'll notice straight away is our new footer, which after a great deal of convincing and a few days use I'm warming too, there's a ton of other subtle GUI changes in there too and loads of server side upgrades that I don't pretend to understand but mean Squatters have a faster more responsive site to play with, especially at peak usage times.


(GameSquat's new footer)

On to the next project, there's a ton of new site features that are 'nearly' ready to go and a new version of our iPhone app doing the rounds in the office. It's going to be a busy summer,

Keep it Squat.

Side Navigation Is Dead! Long Live The Drop Down!

Tons of graphical tweaks in the new build of GameSquat. The change you'll notice the most is the absence of the side nav bar formally found to the left of all GameSquats pages.

We got a few friends together and asked them what they liked about the site and what they'd ditch. Feeling was that although the side nav held worthwhile information it took up too much space. Once closed it was forgotten and never used again.

We allowed our designer to sulk for a while, then set about improving. We went round and around - the idea of the side nav was to offer quick access to GameSquat's charts and new releases on every page of the site, how could this be done otherwise. The answer we came up with was our new drop downs:


(GameSquat featuring new drop downs)

Check them out and let us know what you think.

Speed improvements, bug fixes and subtle graphical tweaks make up the rest of the changes in the new build. Many more cool changes coming soon, stay tuned and keep it squat.

iPhone App

We've had an iPhone app kicking about in the office since late last year, nothing more than an lo-fi muck about to amuse staff, never meant to leave the confines of GameSquat HQ.

But come the start of this month we'd run out of Ad Hoc distributions, meaning we had to say no to those that wanted our app. That sucked but without going public and posting to Apple's iTunes Store we couldn't do anything else.

A dilemma - without a Flash plugin for Mobile Safari we can't give users the option to play the games our app displays, a real disappointment which ever way you slice it, the primary reason why we never intended to make our little app public.

Release to iTunes our not? After a lot of pondering we decided to go for it regardless and set about stripping down what we had and turning it into something we could release into the wild.


(GameSquat's iPhone App)

Our first attempt was uploaded last week, the last minute inclusion of the refresh functionality, (shake your phone with the app loaded), meant that version 1.0 wasn't quite as stable as we'd of liked but the lovely folks at Apple passed it despite the flaws.

By the time all that happened the greatly improved 1.0.1 was ready - far more stable and noticably quicker. So we held off announcing the app on CameSquat.com until the latest rev was approved and ready for download.

So there it is the brief history of our simple little app. We've got a planned feature set that'll mean, in the not too distant future GameSquat's users will have a useful tool for their iPhone.

Find our app on iTunes here. Keep it Squat.

GameSquat Features 101 - Comments

Our new comments system is now live. Post new comments or reply to existing rants, as well as rate existing comments you agree with or those you don't.


(GameSquat's comment system)

Each game's page shows a preview of the most recent comments made in relation to that title. Clicking 'View All Comments' in the tool bar will display all the comments and allow you to sort the resulting list by 'Oldest' or 'Newest' comments. By default replies to posts are hidden but by simply clicking 'Expand All' on the tool bar you can see any replies and vice versa.


(Comments toolbar)

To post a comment you'll need to create a GameSquat account and login. Once you've done so you'll see a new dialogue at the bottom of the page that allows you to quickly and easily post your views. To reply to any existing reply just click the 'Reply' button associated with the parent comment and the same dialogue as above will appear ready for you to post a reply.


(Posting a comment)

You can 'Agree' or 'Disagree' with any comment you choose. Your rating will be added to that of other users to create an overall rating for the comment. Any rating you have previously made is stored and hi-lighted for you to later view.

If a comment gets enough negative ratings it will be grayed out "Trashed". A trashed comment can still be viewed and revived with positive ratings, the idea is not to remove any comment unless it's reported as inappropriate, just to obscure it from view.


(Viewing a trashed comment)

Much, much more functionality will be added over the coming weeks but that's Version1 finished and out the door, we hope you enjoy.

Comments

Big update planed for the start of Jan09. The update is primarily to introduce our new comments system, but behind the scenes big changes have been made. Changes designed to make it easier for us to push on and add the many new advanced features planned for GameSquat in the coming year.

For the time being check out the screen shot below showing the comments system in action, it's all finished and tested, we're just waiting on the other improvements to the site to be completed and tested before we let it lose. Until then...


(GameSquat's Comment Functionality)

HoHoHo

We've been so busy lately, the Blog's been left a bit cold. A quick update is in order to say a big thank you to all GameSquat's users in 2008 and best wishes for 2009!

We working real hard on some big updates due early in the new year and other cool new stuff planned throughout 2009. Keep it Squat and have a good holiday!