Revolutionary Games Website's Thread

WJacobC wrote:

Oliver, you may want to put Google Analytics on the website so we can track traffic. Here's the link.

Good idea.

Actually, I'll keep track of the analytics. If possible, just add this code to the site:

Spoiler:

Ok, ~scio, but I don't think you would want to give Oliver and I access to your Google account, and I'm sure we will want to see the analytics...

WJacobC wrote:

Ok, ~scio, but I don't think you would want to give Oliver and I access to your Google account, and I'm sure we will want to see the analytics...

I'll post them regularly.

~sciocont wrote:

Actually, I'll keep track of the analytics. If possible, just add this code to the site:

Spoiler:

I've already got an analytic tracking service on the website, and I'll show you a screenshot whenever I have time. I've been out almost all day today, so I haven't had enough time to update the site at all. I'm currently doing some school work, though I'll probably be finished in around an hour, when I'll finally update the site and post the analytics.

@WJacobC
Don't worry about not having time to do any work on the website. I myself seem to be a little swamped at the moment.

EDIT: Right, the website has been updated, although I haven't added the code you specified yet. I'll add that to the file now so I don't forget next time I update it. However, I did have a look at the analytics, and so far for May I have had 64 referrals from ModDB, 17 from IndieDB (which is basically a duplicate of ModDB), 8 from Youtube and 3 from Facebook, with several others from direct referral or search engines.
www.revolutionarygamesstudio.com

I like the overall look, but some suggestions, if I may:

• The top of the page looks really crammed with the big "Thrive", the two logos and especially the social media links. I would remove either the big "Thrive" or the Thrive logo, putting the survivor at the top left. The logo for Revolutionary Games goes right and the social media links... I dunno, I've never used those things. Maybe make them smaller and put them centered below the navigation area? Or the lower left?
  
• Why are there two facebook links?
  
• Centered text is fine for single lines, but a no-no for multi line paragraphs. This affects the main page and the news page.
  
• In the navigation area, only "Home" shows the text when it's selected. It's a little disorienting when you are on the news page, but "News" is nowhere to be found in the navigation. Just a blank shard.
  

Nimbal wrote:

I like the overall look, but some suggestions, if I may:

• The top of the page looks really crammed with the big "Thrive", the two logos and especially the social media links. I would remove either the big "Thrive" or the Thrive logo, putting the survivor at the top left. The logo for Revolutionary Games goes right and the social media links... I dunno, I've never used those things. Maybe make them smaller and put them centered below the navigation area? Or the lower left?
  
• Why are there two facebook links?
  
• Centered text is fine for single lines, but a no-no for multi line paragraphs. This affects the main page and the news page.
  
• In the navigation area, only "Home" shows the text when it's selected. It's a little disorienting when you are on the news page, but "News" is nowhere to be found in the navigation. Just a blank shard.
  

1. That is a bit of a problem. I'll change it next update.
2. I wondered whether I should remove the second Facebook link (the one in the header itself) before, although ~scio made the header image and will therefore have to change it to link to something else unless we want it to look odd, which it does with the Facebook link removed.
3. I'll make sure I change that, too.
4. Again, ~scio will have to change his header design in order to do this. The page title is displayed underneath the header for each page, but yes, it is a little disorientating not to see it in the header itself.

The Facebook link in the header image could link to a social media page that contains the links to Twitter, Facebook and so on. That would greatly reduce their visibility, though, and only users that purposefully seek them out will actually click them, kind of defeating their purpose.

Maybe some kind of "Get Involved" page? Or a page for planned features?

Or maybe a 'cool features' page, as you mentioned in another thread?

I've been experimenting with the header a little and have found that if I delete the green-shadowed title, leaving only the logo, the text is too small compared to everything else on the page. The logo is, however, an integral part of the game, so we should probably keep it in somewhere, maybe just not the header.

What would be a good link in place of the facebook icon?

Maybe ,,planned features''?
It wouldnt be to hard to do list of that, if you decide.

I would be willing to do that. Other suggestions?

~sciocont wrote:

I would be willing to do that. Other suggestions?

I vote for a list of planned features for Thrive as well. Providing they are explained well, they should generate a lot more interest for anyone who has arrived on the site and wants to know more.

I can translate the website to portuguese

I agree with a planed features page.

Concerning the post before me, what about translations? Its not a big site, so i'm sure that if you allowed for different languages, in a week you would have it translated to more than a dozen languages.

Most of it's already been translated into Italian courtesy of Doggit, and I've had a crack at translating some to French. Once we have ExpressionEngine up and running we'll implement all the translations. If anyone else wants to translate anything send me a message and I'll give you something to work on.

When is next update coming?
I have been working on planed features list a little bit.

I was going to do an update today, but if you're still working on a planned features page I'll wait until it's completed and add everything at once.

Heres some basic stuff what i have listed:

Spoiler:

Thats not all of course... but its hard listing features of various stages separatedly. Il work on 'em later.

If anybody did do features for stages already, please post it here. i will put them together.

Edit:

More stuff:

Spoiler:

Thats most of microbe stage features.

I've just slightly updated the website along with uploading the podcast to it (though I'm not sure how to access the podcast without being logged into the account): www.revolutionarygamesstudio.com

We've been talking recently about Email, and I've found I can make an Email address @revolutionarygamesstudio.com, but it can only be accessed via the Bluehost account. One way around this would be to forward all mail to another Email address, but this defeats the point of having a new Email address in the first place. Any mail sent to thrive@revolutionarygamesstudio.com (which I haven't yet made, so don't click it) would be redirected to another account on something like Gmail, but as far as I know it would not be possible to send anything back with the @revolutionarygamesstudio.com address without having the Bluehost login. The Bluehost account currently used for the website is actually part of another account made by another member of my family to host their website. This saves on costs, but would cripple the server should a huge influx arrive. It also means that everything that is currently done with the Thrive website is done under that account.

If we want to make an @revolutionarygamesstudio.com Email address we could set up another server entirely and transfer the domain name and files. This will cost quite a bit more, but since fans really want to donate something, the money won't be a problem. This would alleviate many of the current problems (like me being the only one who can change the website, the Email conundrum and possible influxes crippling an unrelated website), but I'm not sure whether we should go ahead with it. As Jacob mentioned in the podcast, he'll have ExpressionEngine ready in a month or two, so that might be a good time to get a new hosting account.

As you can see, this is quite a complicated problem. For now, I think it's best to stick to the current Thrive Email address unless someone can think of a way round all this.

Actually, you can send e-mail from a gmail account pretending to come from a different address, I use this, along with forwarding, to manage about 5 different e-mail accounts from one place. In gmail, go to settings->accounts->send mail as->add another email address. It'll send an e-mail to the thrive account, with a link you need to click on to confirm you own the account.

Thanks for that, Seregon.

I've created a Thrive Email: thrive@revolutionarygamesstudio.com

To view its Emails and send Emails without having to login via Bluehost, you can use the Gmail account which I've created: revolutionarygamesstudio@gmail.com

I'm just about to send a message to several major members with the password for the Gmail account - all mail sent to thrive@revolutionarygamesstudio.com will be copied and sent to revolutionarygamesstudio@gmail.com. Through the latter you can send Emails pretending to be the former.

Ok everyone, it's time to get back into this. With Oliver as Music Co-Lead, most of the website development will be handled by me (but Oliver will certainly be able to work on it if he likes). Therefore, I've begun to develop the new, unified, ExpressionEngine capable website. I wish to let it be up to you, the users, how the style is. We currently have Oliver's darker, more spacy theme, and mine, which looks more like the forum. I want to let the other members decide. Whichever theme we go with will still have the framework features of mine (the navbar at the top, etc.)

So, what do you all think?

Good to see work starting again.

I like the dark space theme.

So since it's been a LONG time since any updates have been made to the website, I went ahead and ensured the current version was up-to-date: http://revolutionarygamesstudio.com/

Changes include:

• A full update of the news list to include more recent posts on ModDB and the Devblog
  
• A large revamp of the Our Team page to keep it cleaner
  
• Removed links to the Music Bundle (which is in reality mostly fraudulent music) and the microbe prototype (for which the link no longer works anyway)
  
• Changed the copyright date to 2014
  
• Linked the YouTube videos to music created by our own composers, specifically that included in the Microbe Stage (for some reason, embedding the videos themselves wasn't working anymore, so I added links instead)

The domain renewal is also fast approaching, so I'd appreciate it if we could set up a specialised Thrive server which all major members can access (not just me) and transfer the domain. It could be used as a more reliable place to store future releases, considering the problems with downloads we had last time, as well as hosting the updated version of the website.