GameSquat's Blog

Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2012!

2011-12-23T18:37:00.004Z

The re-skinned version of GameSquat's finished! We're holding of pressing the button until early Jan 2012 as there's a ton of changes in there and we don't fancy bug fixing over the holidays.

(GameSquat's New Skin Coming Jan 2012)

Really hope you like the new look and feel, we've spent a lot of time tweaking to get the UI just right. It's hoped the result is a nicer looking site thats just a tad easier to use and kinder on the eye.

Enough said, presents to wrap and mince pies to munch. Have a good Christmas and see you on the other side!

Merry HoHo!

P.S. if you haven't already, check out our new game - The Adventures Of Captain No Beard below.

(The Adventures Of Captain No Beard)

Tribalfootball Games

2011-11-24T12:24:00.010Z

We've been a quiet of late, we have a big project on, the launch of tribalfootballgames.com.

(tribalfootballgames.com)

Tribalfootball Games is now live. A site made and maintained by GameSquat for one of the web's biggest football sites, tribalfootball.com. We're real excited to see how Tribal's users like our games.

The site's still in Beta but it's already looking great. In the months to come we'll be building on the foundations we've laid down.

For the moment GameSquat and Tribalfootballgames share the same content but in 2012 we'll start to differentiate the games offered by either site.

The launch of the new site has impacted plans for 2011, but we're working so hard to get the Re-Skined version of GameSquat out before Christmas. The first Beta was just posted in the office and it's looking really, really cool, far more contemporary looking than our existing site.

In the absence of a finished build, I'll posting lots of screen shots before the end of the year.

The rest of our new toys have been pushed back, lots of half finished projects waiting to be completed. With Tribalfootball Games released, we'll now pickup where we left off, it's going to make for an exciting and busy 2012.

Keep it Squat!

Still Working

2011-10-18T15:13:00.000+01:00

The poor blogs been neglected of late. We're busy, busy building two big new sites and finishing off a cool re-skin of GameSquat too.

Tons of news for you towards the end of the year, until then we're keeping our heads down.

Keep it Squat.

Back To School

2011-08-30T14:32:00.001+01:00

Our little office is slowly getting back to normal after the summers holidays, some of us have been hard at work throughout ;)

August was spent fixing bugs and gremlins that have shown up since the release of GameSquat 3.0. We think we got things pretty rock solid now.

On the whole it was the rarest of things; a trouble free release. Such a big update so many things could of gone wrong. Thankfully we'd planned ahead, practiced the rollout, tested the tools and new site to death - everything worked as intended and we all got home before midnight.

The boffins are already busy in the dungeon building a new backend for the next version of GameSquat due late this year, early 2012.

Until then we've put off releasing our new widgets. The feature list keeps growing, plan is to release a single web app that will work for all platforms.

We've some new Facebook toys on the drawing board, you should get your hands on them late 2011. Until then it's just all about the games baby! Look out for some cool new titles from yours truly coming real soon. Hopefully I'll have more news for you next time.

(The Adventures Of Captain No Beard - Coming Soon)

Until then, keep it Squat.

GameSquat 3.0

2011-07-21T14:29:00.000+01:00

Finally. We've released the major update of GameSquat.com we've been eating and breathing for the last couple of months.

It may look the same, but this is a complete re-write, taking GameSquat to the next level.

Since the sites launch we've bolted on bits and pieces of web2 functionality onto our framework. It worked well, the idea being incremental updates would eventually lead to the entire site being converted.

Not long after the Christmas break the plan was changed. An email went round outlining that the site was to be rewritten. Page refreshed were out, every last bit of functionality was to be offered in-page. An ambitious goal for a small team like ours.

A lengthy design phase was followed by a lot of hard graft with plenty of ups, downs and missed deadlines. Rewriting the comments system was a particularly gruelling experience for all. As time lingered and progress faltered the white flag was nearly raised. Late nights in the office with plenty of pizza helped get the job done.

So what does this mean for our lovely users? Back in spring when the first betas were made available, core functionality was missing but most preferred using the flakey beta than the version of GameSquat live at that time. The old version felt unresponsive and slow in comparison. The change was good, it didn't take long for anyone involved to appreciate that web2.0 was worth the pain of development.

Using the site is now more like using a desktop app, I guess that's the point. We've polished the new release as much as possible but it's by no means prefect, there's going to bugs we've missed and plenty more features yet to come, (expect a re-skin sometime real soon).

(When you see a cog click! GamSquat's new features metaphor)

Support for IE6 and IE7 has been dropped, hacks for antique browsers means lengthy and unnecessary diversions, (according to our traffic stats IE6 and 7 are used by less than 2% of our audience, a figure that's thankfully falling each month). Who the hell wants to write fudges for old versions of IE all day, folks could be adding cool new features instead!

We've been working flat out to the last min. With the launch party planned, (a couple of drinks at the local), and other projects suffering from the prolonged development cycle, it was time to finish up and release what we have.

We really, really hope you'll find something in the new build you'll like. We'll be updating and improving the help pages on this blog real soon to include details about all the new functionality.

Until then keep It Squat!

Not Long Now...

2011-05-30T14:31:00.000+01:00

We're going to miss the end of May release date for the new version of GameSquat. Debugging day and night and have just started the final phase of browser compatibility testing.

The final beta's pretty solid, we don't expect any major problems, however Microsoft's older browsers are bound to create a few annoyances, expect a launch the end of June beginning of July.

Until then we'll keep our heads down, stay tuned for more news soon!

(New GameSquat Ready For Launch... Almost!)

Keep it Squat!

Coming In May

2011-04-28T11:28:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note whilst I've sneaked away from bug fixing.

The new version of GameSquat is still not done but we're pushing real hard. It's time for our new baby to leave the comfort of our development servers and make it the wild!

Overall the look and feel is largely unchanged but major functional elements and UI clues have been made more consistent cleaner and clearer, making the site even easier to use.

There's a ton of new and easily accessible functionality available too. The whole effort is a massive evolution of an already cool website.

We're all real proud and super excited about the launch, we really hope your like it too!

More news soon.

(New Comments Finally Finished)

Keep it Squat!

No News Is Good News

2011-03-31T20:41:00.000+01:00

Another month passes!

Sorry to all GameSquat's users for the downtime on the 30th of March, (4am - 15pm BST). A simultaneous hardware failure within two important servers, (primary web server and proxy), meant that we were up the creak without a paddle.

Worst case GameSquat was down until two new servers arrived from DELL, an existing insurance claim meaning any spare kit was in use. Those in the know predicted up to a week of dead air.

Thanks to the fantastic guys and girls at our hosting centre and GameSquat HQ we dodged the bullet. Late in the day we got some great news. Last chance repairs had been a success and we were live again.

Two big outages in 6 months, we're in discussions about moving our setup to the 'cloud' to avoid the same thing happening again. I don't pretend to understand exactly what that means but it sounds cool.

Emergency asside, we've been cracking on with the new build of GameSquat, living eating and breathing the damn thing. Writing the AJAX version of the comments system took much, much longer than we would of liked, in part due to adding new features, but after a few late nights progress is just about back on schedule.

Currently in the middle of finishing off - if that makes any sense. Chipping away at a long list of bugs, some minor and some requiring several cups of coffee and a brain storm - but the end is in sight friends!

A few last minute UI changes need to be finalised, so I'm not going out on a limb and promising an exact launch date, I value my job, but a release can't come soon enough, we've a shiny new toy and we're desperate too show it off!

In the meantime here's a look at the current build.

(GameSquat AJAX Preview II)

Keep If Squat.

Rango!

2011-02-28T10:37:00.000Z

Blog

The new AJAX version of GameSquat is coming along nicely, behind schedule but we're getting there. We've been dogfooding in the office since early Jan, things are looking real promising, we're excited to get everything finished and out in the wild. Plan is to launch some time in April / May.

Such a big update, really is a totally new site, so much cool new stuff in there.

Biggest news of Feb was reaching our 3,000th facebook fan. Amazing. Our new Facebook toys have been put on the back burner just for a while, all hands are needed for new rev of GameSquat, but we'll be polishing off our brand new apps for spring time.

Other news in February was the launch of our new game, the official viral game for Paramount's new movie - Rango. Hit the top 5 in our chart 2 days after release, check it out below.

(Rango Game)

Keep it Squat!

Plans For 2011

2011-01-30T11:26:00.000Z

2010 was a cool year for GameSquat, loads of new features, games and users. Planning on just as many new creations for 2011.

To start the year we've got a brand new version of GameSquat.com to release. We've dramatically extended the AJAX methods used in the current version of the site, cutting out the majority of page refreshes. Check out the video below for a small preview of things to come.

(GameSquat AJAX Preview)

There's a beta in testing now, I've pretty much been using it all January, its lovely. Expect a release before the end of spring and a subtle reskin of the site soon after.

There's a brand new facebook app comig to our facebook page real soon. We've all been blown away by the popularity of our facebook page and plan to spend a lot of time in 2011 keeping it current. Hopefully i'll be blogging about the new app next month.

Towards the summer we hope to have our new backend ready, devs top job for 2011. The new tech will let us build some really cool new features, more on that later in the year.

New versions of our widgets and gadgets are well overdue. More important stuff got in the way in 2010, but top of the todo list is to release new versions at some point this year.

Of course there will be new games every week, some of them created by ourselves. We've got a few surprises up our sleves too.

Keep it Squat!

Christmas Post

2010-12-20T10:12:00.000Z

Busy end to the year. 3 big projects all fast approaching beta, hopefully there'll be loads to tell you about in 2011.

Until then get in the festive mood with our games for the Holidays.

If you haven't already check out Super Santa, the sequel to the Happy Santa game we launched lasts year.

(GameSquat's Super Santa)

See you on the other side!

October Outage

2010-11-08T12:09:00.000Z

Glad to see the back of October. On the 14th we had the biggest server outage in GameSquat's brief history. An air-conditioning unit pretty much exploded above our rack, a once in a life time event, the result was half our hardware going up in smoke.

The outage happened late at night, well after my bedtime. First I knew about it was arriving to work the following morning to a bleary eyed office, most had been working since the early hours trying to cobble together enough spare parts to get GameSquat back up in running. They were successful, getting us live again in a little under 12 Hours.

It took the next week or two for us to completely get back on our feet and get things stable again.

Those of us who have a limited vocabulary of shell commands, ('cd', and 'ls'), and little knowledge of how to configure a server, did manage to get some work done amongst all the madness.

GameSquat now displays a 'controls bar'. It's located on a game's page, (below the game within the 'instructions tab), and gives users a quick reference to the main keys / control methods used by a game.

(GameSquat's Controls Bar)

Every spare mo I have over the coming month will be used to add the bar to our existing games, watch out for it!

Hopefully November will be a quiet month! More news soon.

New Games For Autumn

2010-09-10T10:41:00.000+01:00

Got a couple of new games produced by GameSquat to show you.

The Hole 3D Game is a title we put together to advertise the cinema release of The Hole in 3D. Cool graphics and gameplay with spooky overtones.

(The Hole 3D Game)

Hole In One: Strip Teese is a game we produced in association with NUTS Magazine to promote the release of Hole In One - American Pie Plays Golf. As you'd expect its a bit racy but nothing to raunchy!

(Hole In One: Strip Teese)

Enough chat, check em out.

More soon, Keep it squat!

Summer Manoeuvres

2010-07-29T13:22:00.000+01:00

A lot to talk about this month, to start with there's our new homepage. if you haven't had a chance to play with it already try hovering your mouse over any of the games featured. The screen shot under your mouse will smoothly enlarge and after a short time the game's description will appear too. More games are now displayed by the homepage, making it the one stop shop for finding a new game to play.

(Updated Homepage)

We've made a ton of subtle changes to our download page over the last couple of months, with more trickling out over the next couple of weeks. Hi-lights include the ability to 'Like' or 'retweet' a game, an improved rating system and the new recommendations bar located at the top right of the screen. Hover your mouse over one of the thumbnails and view the recommended game's description, including its rating - mirroring the functionality of the homepage.

(Recommendations Bar)

We've added a new page Games For Webmasters, featured within are all the games we make available for anyone and everyone to use on their website or blog, there's some cracking games in there and we'll be adding more all the time for you to offer your users.

(Webmasters Page)

As well as the Games For Webmasters page our new tips bar will alert you to any game that's available for inclusion on your site.

(Tips Bar)

July saw the release of our new game for ChildLine, Moodi Marbles. It's doing real well in our charts, we're really pleased with it. Have a play, leave a comment, post a message on Facebook or retweet it - let us know what you think and we'll try and incorporate your suggestions in any sequel.

(Moodi Marbles)

Last on the list is an update to our iPhone app which includes a few usability improvements and iOS4 compatibility, more updates are promised very soon.

(iPhone App)

Keep it squat!

Mays posting in June...

2010-06-03T14:47:00.000+01:00

You know what its like, you do something in a rush on Friday, turn your computer off and head home for the weekend.

So the boss asks this morning, "Where's May's blog posting?". Did it on Friday, I speedily replied, hmmm he said, "Then why can't I see it?".

Oppps!

So i'm a muppet, who knows where it went, I did do it though, honest I did, just in too much of a hurry.

We'd hoped to have a cool update to our home page live by now but things are taking awhile to finish up.

Check out the screen shot for a quick preview of things coming later this month, can't really see it below but the homepage is coming alive with lots of animation.

(Updated Homepage)

We finally released version 2 of our iPhone app. Folks seem to be less than pleased that it doesn't let you play our games. Fair comment, nothing we can do about it though. We think it makes a cool companion app to the site regardless and will keep updating. Version 2.1 coming this month.

(Updated iPhone App)

Also uploaded the forth game in our Harajuku series, 'Harajuku G' mid may and it seems to be doing well in our chart :)

(GameSquat's Harajuku G)

April Showers

2010-04-30T16:11:00.000+01:00

This month we've tinkered with the display of a game's rating. Ratings are now much, much more visible throughout the site and will gain similar focus throughout all our apps.

(New Game Rating)

To check out the biggest change, browse to our home page and hover over a game's screen shot. You'll see a new popup displaying a games description and rating. You'll either love or hate this new feature. If you find it annoying hit the 'ESC' key and it will vanish until the next time you load GameSquat.

(Home Page Popups)

More tinkering next month in the mean time keep it squat.

Updates

2010-03-12T12:54:00.000Z

Been busy posting new bits and pieces to the site over the last few weeks. There's a lot of new stuff going on under the hood, hopefully squeezing a bit more speed from our servers. Enhanced compression server side too, meaning the sites assets should reach users even quicker. We've spent time working on standards compliance too, hopefully meaning a more accessible site.

Our age rating system has made a come back. We've totally reworked it to give users a feel for the level of violence or other nastiness a game contains before playing. Just a guide to help any concerned parents out there - we don't host games we think step over the line so never intend to physically stop any of our users playing any one of our games.

(New Age Rating)

There's also some nice new eye candy lurking within the latest version of GameSquat in the form of animation effects, all adds to the site me thinks.

Loads to come over the coming weeks of spring tons and tons of new games, improvements to our facebook app, new widgets and a shiny new iPhone app.

Keep it squat.

GameSquat Facebook Application

2010-02-18T13:13:00.000Z

Big clean up of GameSquat's help pages was in order this month.

Hopefully all the help pages are now current, screen shots updated where necessary. New pages are on the way to help with navigating our catalogue, playing our games and accessing GameSquat's RSS feeds and widgets, view existing pages here.

The big release from the devs this month was our facebook app. Originally knocked together in a lunch hour for our fan page, the powers that be liked what they saw and got our designer to add a bit of polish. Check out GameSquat's facebook application here.

Things are pretty basic at the moment, but there's some exciting possibilities. We're playing about with a few things in the office and hope to add the bits that are well received in the not too distant future.

(GameSquat's Facebook App)

All available hands are now being used to get the second version of our iPhone app out the door. Its been knocking around the office, in its near complete form, since early autumn 2009!

There's also the promised and well overdue Apple and YAHOO widget refreshes to get done before the spring, not to mention giving some attention to our Vista gadget and finishing up a half done Google gadget.

Devs are gona need overtime! Keep it squat.

Happy Santa

2009-12-21T17:55:00.000Z

Happy Christmas from GameSquat!

We put together a Christmas game, Happy Santa, to celebrate the festivities. A big thanks to those that have already played it and partner sites that have hosted!

Have a go at helping santa deliver his presents here - Happy Santa on GameSquat.com.

(GameSquat's Happy Santa)

Have a great Christmas and keep it Squat. CU in 2010!

Site Update

2009-11-25T15:23:00.000Z

A big update to GameSquat.com went live last week.

The homepage got a big makeover. We've gone from vertical scrolling to the fashionable horizontal style. Due to popular demand the number of games shown on the home page has been vastly increased and the size of the screen shots used to advertise our games enlarged!

There's a cool new button layout too, which hopefully makes GameSquat's features easier to find and use.

(GameSquat's New Homepage Features)

Everywhere the aim has been to simplify GameSquat's layout as much as possible. Check the new catalogue and game pages to see where the biggest changes lurk, same functionality just a lot more visible, common elements grouped far more logically and features made even easier to use.

(GameSquat's New Button Layout)

One big change is the improvement of the 'instructions' tab bar located under each game, this now contains all the functionality of the toolbar previously located at the top of a game's page. The tab bar still contains instructions and links to similar titles but now also provides tools that enable you to share and tag a game.

(GameSquat's Improved Tab Bar)

Check out the new rating system located at the top of each game's page, it makes it simpler and more fun to rate our games.

The new '+' button located on the top left of a game's page, next to the 'info' button, allows you to simply add or remove a game from your list of GameSquat favorites, viewable at anytime by clicking the 'Favourites' tab always present at the top of a GameSquat page.

(GameSquat's New Tab Bar)

Hope you like the changes, more soon, keep it Squat!

Trick Or Treat

2009-10-28T18:55:00.000Z

We've just released the latest game crafted by yours truly. GameSquat's Trick Or Treat hit the site early this week and is rising quickly up the chart.

Check out Trick Or Treat on GameSquat.com!

(GameSquat's Trick Or Treat)

New Term

2009-09-11T12:20:00.000+01:00

The office is full again, folks back from their summer holidays, time to get back to work and pick up from where we left things in August.

We've been uploading tons of new games over the summer, now it's time to get busy finishing off new site features and releasing updated versions of our widgets.

But today is Friday and the suns out, a rare thing for England in the autumn! So forgive us if we down tools and sneak off early. Means letting the release of a new version of GameSquat slip until next week but we thought you'd cut us some slack.

We'll keep you posted over the coming months in the mean time check out some sneak peeks below.

(New 'Info' Drop Down Coming Mid Sep 2009)

(New 'Instructions' Tab Bar Coming Mid Sep 2009)

(Version 2 Of GameSquats iPhone App Due Late 2009)

Keep it Squat!

Summer Holidays

2009-07-28T10:35:00.001+01:00

The site gets a lick of paint this month whist we wait for bigger changes to be baked over the summer.

Tons and tons of style changes make it even easier for squat users to find games and use features. You can also paint GameSquat with two new colors. We've added green and orange to the existing blue and pink. Check out the color picker to the right of the GameSquat logo at the top of every page.

(GameSquat's Color Picker)

A note to folks using Internet Explorer 6. The version of GameSquat displayed by IE6 downgrades some of the features of the site, solely due to the technical difficulty involved in getting these feature to work with Microsoft's old browser.

We're real sorry, appreciate not everyone can upgrade to a modern browser so we'll do all we can to keep our core features usable with IE6 for the foreseeable future.

Whatever browser you're using, keep it squat!

GameSquat Features 101 - Saved Searches

2009-06-16T11:05:00.000+01:00

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 for 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

2009-05-08T14:25:00.000+01:00

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 for revenge.

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!

2009-04-08T12:48:00.001+01:00

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

2009-03-20T11:10:00.000Z

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 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 GameSquat.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

2009-02-19T12:45:00.001Z

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

2009-01-09T14:31:00.000Z

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

2008-12-23T11:01:00.000Z

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!

YAHOO!

2008-12-02T11:38:00.000Z

Following our Apple Widget and Vista Gadget, we've just released our 3rd Widget, this time for the YAHOO! platform.

(GameSquat's YAHOO! widget)

The new widget is a faithful replica of our popular Apple Widget but is compatible with any Mac or PC running the YAHOO! widget engine.

Get a copy and have a play. Keep checking GameSquat's widgets page for future updates and new tools - there's plenty more to come!

Feedback

2008-12-01T15:48:00.000Z

Last week we took a break from coding and testing the new features of GameSquat we've been working so hard on during November and had a little downtime.

Downtime in this case meant spotting common threads in the feedback we get from you guys regarding the site and seeing what we could do to improve things - here's the fruits of our labour.

The site uses a few dialogues of this type to describe various GUI elements, when shown it seems folks thought they weren't clear enough so we've designed a new format that all future dialogues of this type will follow. Feeling is that the new look makes things work better.

(New Helper Dialogues)

'Clicking a screen shot on the home page should take me straight to a game' - The new site wide 'screen shot zoom' feature has been well recived but seems some users were clicking a screen shot on the home page expecting to be taken straight to the game, instead they were of course presented with our screen shot carousel.

Our options for a fix were limited to removing the new screen shot zoom feature that we worked so hard on... yikes!

Like most of these things the answer was simple - provide a user with a link to play the game within the screen shot carousel itself, job done. We also added the game's developer an rating within the carousel too making the info it provides even more useful.

(New Screen Shot Carousel)

'How long do I have to stare at your loading window before I can play a game' - Seems the window advertising our sponsor that's displayed just before a game is loaded has frustrated some of our users.

Busted - its an area of the site that we have paid little attention to, its inner workings are dark and mysterious and known only to a few.

We got to work fixing things by giving the area a fresh lick of paint. Loading is now conveyed with a progress bar, delivered in the time honored tradition. A new title bar cleans things up and completes the new look. Personally I think it's a nice improvement to the site.

(New Loading Window)

Thanks for all your feedback. Keep it squat.

GameSquat Features 101 - Rating

2008-11-10T11:28:00.000Z

Rating a GameSquat game is important, not only does it let other users know if they should bother spending their lunch hour playing a Game, it also helps with our 'Games Index', allowing us to build a precise list of our most popular games, meaning you guys can instantly see what's worth playing and what's worth ignoring!

(GameSquat Game Rating)

To rate a game first login to GameSquat. Then roll your mouse over the 'Average Rating' area show above. The display will change. Move your mouse across the stars and click to select your appropriate rating.

(Rating A GameSquat Game)

That's it. Whenever you return the game rollover the 'Average Rating' area to recall the rating you gave any game.

HomePage Zoom

2008-11-03T11:26:00.000Z

Last week someone asked "Why don't you allow a user to magnify a screen shot on the home page".. Seems like an obvious omission to me, so we got to work putting things right.

(Magnify A Homepage Screenshot)

As of today you can magnify any screen shot on the homepage as well as those used when displaying a list of games.

(Magnify A Homepage Thumbnail)

GameSquat Features 101 - Indexes

2008-10-29T10:57:00.000Z

Regular punters will of noticed that the expandable index that used to live on GameSquats homepage is no more... In its place is a link to our new 'indexes', page. This new page contains the old Games Index albeit with a few tweaks, as well as a brand new tag index.

(The New GameSquat Tag Indexes)

For those new to GameSquat's ways a quick explanation of the link cloud used by our indexes page is in order. Behind the scenes a complicated formula that takes into account a game's rating and download frequency is used to work out a games popularity. The more popular, the bigger the text used to display the games title, hopefully this means the cream will rise to the top. If you disagree with the prominence of a game have your voice by rating the game yourself.

Our new tag index lists all the tags GameSquat users have added to our games. Just click any of the tags listed to view all the games that fall into that category, the more tags you guys add the more useful this page will get. The weight of the text used to display a tag is solely down to the frequency of the tag, the bigger the tag the more games in that category.

Like other new elements of GameSquat the indexes page has been given the AJAX treatment, meaning that the indexes displayed are bang up-to-date streamed and updated live from GameSquats servers, take a look.

New Homepage Hits The Streets

2008-10-21T12:13:00.000+01:00

We're a small team at GameSquat, we all care massively about the site we sweat blood to develop, so we tend to get overly excited about big site updates, but we think this ones worth a bit of fuss.

Those more observant GameSquat users will of noticed that the new homepage went live yesterday, a few last minute bugs meant a late night and updates this morning to zap the last remaining gremlins.

The biggest change is obviously the GameSquat Viewer - the element at the bottom of the page that displays the latest releases and charts for all of GameSquat's genres. Last night I left the GameSquat homePage in my browser and this morning it was happily displaying our new chart and a new release too, cool stuff.

(GameSquat Viewer Displaying New Releases)

Then there's the carousel at the top of the page. Changes mean it can now be switched to display the overall chart or latest releases using information streamed live from the GameSquat servers, updated within your browser without the need to refresh anything.

(Improved GameSquat Carousel)

Rather that clutter up the homepage, we've moved the games index to it's own location, a tag index will soon join it to form GameSquat's new indices page, keep an eye out for that hopefully coming over the next few weeks.

We've improved accessibility and shaved well over 30k off the weight of the homepage, making things load a little faster. Finally there's new links to our widgets so those without can easily download our free warez.

Next on the todo list is our comments functionality, code that will allow you folks to rant and rave about our games, it's looking real good and coming soon! In the meantime check out the new and improved home page.

Coming to a browser near you soon!

2008-10-16T14:13:00.000+01:00

These last few weeks we've been madly busy completely re-working our homepage. Key to the redesign is the 'GameSquat Viewer', a cool little web application that lets you view the GameSquat charts and latest releases in one place.

Its updated real time - meaning games are updated in-front of your eyes without the need to refresh anything.

(New GameSquat Viewer)

We hope to release the fruits of our labour into the wild next week, check it out then and let us know what you think.

GameSquat Features 101 - Favorites

2008-10-16T14:02:00.000+01:00

Got a couple of favorite GameSquat games, you could use your browser to bookmark them but bookmarks soon get messy! Signup to GameSquat, (it's quick and no private data is required), and create yourself a list of favorite games.

These games will then always just be a click away, always available just underneath the main menu.

(Viewing GameSquat Favorites)

Adding a game to your favorites couldn't be simpler, just browse to a game and click the '+' icon shown below. Vice versa to remove a favorite just navigate to the game and click the '-' icon.

(Adding A GameSquat Favorite)

Mac users can view and edit favorites via the OSX Widget as can users of our Yahoo Widget, (Available late Nov 2008). Our Vista Gadget will also contain this functionality real soon.

For those without one of our widgets there's a dedicated page that lets you edit all your favorites in one place, check it out here.

GameSquat Features 101 - Age Recommendation

2008-09-29T16:25:00.001+01:00

We don't ever intend to restrict access to any of our games. If your old enough to be browsing the big bad web on your own, you're old enough to play all our games - none of which will ever depict excessive nudity, violence or any other content of an obscene nature.

That said we figured it would be nice for the parents out there to have some sort of guide as to which of our games are safe for the young ones and those that are best left to the older folks. Enter the '?' drop down shown below.

(New '?' Dropdown)

This new drop down shows a summary of information relating to that game being viewed. Contained within is the recommend minim age for the game - this is just a guide provided by GameSquat's editors.

We've also deployed a warning banner at the top of all 16+ rated games, to give a warning to all that the game is not recommended for young players.

(Age Warning Banner)

Should mum or dad want to filter our games check out the new 'Advanced Search' options at the bottom of a listing, selecting the relevant age group will mean only those games suitable will be shown. Let us know what you think of this feature.

(Advanced Search Options With Age Rating Filter)

GameSquat Features 101 - Filters

2008-09-16T10:37:00.000+01:00

GameSquat offers loads of ways to search for a game, tags, keywords, genre, etc, things can get a little confusing at times!

Whist testing the site one day we thought how cool it would be to clarify all the filters effecting a search, better still give users a means to remove any particular filter.

You can see what we came up with below, give it a try, first type a keyword into the GameSquat search bar, then open the 'Advanced Search Options', located below the list of games and select a genre, age range or developer.

The filters you've used to create your search will then be displayed at the top of the list of relevant games, to clear any of the filters e.g. 'Keywords', just click the filters title.

(Using GameSquat's Filters)

We think its a pretty cool feature, any filter effecting the list of games your seeing as a result of searching GameSquat will now automatically be displayed - see how many you can use at once.

GameSquat Features 101 - Tagging

2008-09-10T14:06:00.000+01:00

Simply put a tag is a keyword applied to a GameSquat game.

So what's the point? Well if there's another game thats been tagged with the same keyword then clicking on that tag will display both those games, it's a means of grouping games with a common theme.

Any of GameSquat's games can be tagged with as many keywords as you like.

(GameSquat's Tagging Dialogue)

Tagging a game is simple, just browse to a game, click 'Tag' on the tab bar located underneath the game and you'll see a list of the tags already used to describe the game.

The number of times a certain tag has been applied to a game effects the size of the link e.g. big text = keyword used loads of times, small text = keyword used only a few times.

Log in and add a tag or two yourself it's surprisingly addictive, or just click on a tag to view the existing games that have been grouped with the same keyword.

Click to view all the games tagged with 'GameSquat'.

GameSquat Features 101 - Search Suggestion

2008-08-29T17:15:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the first of a long line of planned postings describing the current and future functionality of GameSquat, have a peek, if you start using a feature we describe that you weren't aware of before, all this typing will be well worth it!

We've recently added a search suggestion feature to GameSquat, type a sequence of characters into our search bar and you'll see a list of games with titles matching the characters you've typed. Click any of the titles to go directly to that game, a great way to find a game whose name you can't quite remember, or in my case discover cool games that you never knew existed on GameSquat.

(GameSquat's Search Suggestion)

There's keyboard shortcuts a plenty, use up and down arrow keys to select any search suggestion offered. Left and right arrow keys can be used to de-select any suggestion and finally hitting your escape key will close the search suggestion box.

If you prefer you can ignore any search suggestions and fall back on our existing keyword search - just enter your keywords into the search bar and hit return to be presented with a list of games matching your search. Or turn of the suggestions altogether by clicking on the cross to the right of the 'Search Suggestions' label - the suggestions will disappear until your next GameSquat session.

Give it a try!

Vista Gadget

2008-07-28T11:18:00.000+01:00

Regular GameSquat users will know all about our Widget section, it's where we post fun free tools that we hope help make GameSquat more accessible.

We've already posted a Mac OSX Widget and our Bookmarklet and its now time to let our latest addition out into the wild, our Vista Gadget - for use with Windows Sidebar.

We've got a lot planned for this app, the first version sits nicely in your Sidebar and displays our chart or latest releases for you to click and play, folks with Vista can get it here.

Twittering

2008-07-16T12:35:00.000+01:00

Facebook or twitter? Personally I twitter so the latest addition to GameSquat makes me very happy indeed. You can now follow GameSquat on twitter, RSS is dead long live twitter ;)

We'll be posting info on our latest updates to twitter as soon as they hit the site, there be the odd bit of site news in there too. In true twitter style we promise to keep it all short and sweet, tweet, tweet... Sorry. Follow us here.

Help Wanted!

2008-07-15T11:15:00.000+01:00

Including every good online game on GameSquat is not an easy task. We get loads of folks uploading games, which is extremely cool, but not everybody has the necessary assets, time or inclination to upload.

So we asking our users to help us help them by adding our Bookmarklet to their browsers tool bar. From then on you're just a click away from adding any online game to GameSquat.

Picture the scenario... one day your browsing some random web site and stumble upon a get game, hmmm you think, i'd love to see that on my favorite gaming web site ...that'd be GameSquat, right?... so you click our Bookmarklet on you toolbar, our site loads you confirm your submission and that's it. We'll review the game and post it for you!

Get the Bookmarklet here and check out the Video showing you how to add it to your browser, it works on any platform.

Hello World

2008-07-02T14:44:00.000+01:00

GameSquat blog? Plan is to alert the world to the wonderfulness of a online games web site called GameSquat - www.gamesquat.com.

We'll do our best to post all the latest GameSquat goodies on this page and the odd bit of site news for all to waste a moment or two browsing.