Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Dear Fellow Toad-Gamers,

Hola, amigos. It's been awhile but we've been busy little beavers at TG Central. Just a couple of things I want to run by you and then it's back to the code mines.

One of the ways that we really think we really stand out from the crowd of other amphibian-themed game sites is with our community. And that's just as much your doing as it is ours. And with TG 3.0, we want to make sure that we can give you the tools to take our community to the next level. Here are the big concepts of what we're planning:

Gated Community - All the rage among the jet-set these days and we're taking that concept online. By charging for membership, we're going to keep the riff-raff out. No bots, spammers, scammers, jammers and any other -mmers will be allowed in. For those nefarious types bold enough to plunk down real green for admission, they'll get the boot as soon as the first time they step out of line. We're going to set up methods for you to help us keep watch, too. A neighborhood watch with virtual flashlights and matching jackets. Mebbe a golf cart, too.

A Home Away From Home - Each member will be able to set up his or her own home page, with colors, graphics, pithy sayings and images of those o' so adorable grandchildren. Who never call. Ingrates. You'll have control over the color and style and you'll be able to pick and choose from a number of cool widgets like slide shows, sounds, weather, clocks and your personal high scores.

Event Registration - For online (Bingo!) and offline (Toga Party) events, you'll be able to invite your chums and even cast about for some new ones. Set up that standing online poker table for Friday nights, invite your old bubs from the neighborhood and kick back for some fun, without having to inhale Chuck's rancid stogey. Or even wear pants.

Email - We're planning on integrating email into the new site in some fashion, how that's gonna work we're not quite sure yet. One thing for sure is that each member will receive his or her very own toadgames.com email address. You will be the envy of the condo board when your missives about trash collection and people not parking between the lines at the pool come from your exclusive toadgames.com email address.

Forum - As we've mentioned before, the forum will be pervasive throughout the site. You'll have running commentaries in each game and section on the site. Scrolling messages will announce new top scores and who's butt you'll have to kick in SnakeFish to regain the top spot.

This is just to get started. And like any project, the "oh, we could do that and we could do that" factor has gotten us a bit off schedule. Not to mention that we're all still full-time clock-punchers. But we'll get there and with your help, we'll make TG 3.0 the place to be. Pants optional. Keep those comments coming and until next time....


Peace,
Lin

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

All that Community stuff sounds great and is "nice to have" but given that you all have limited time to spend on coding, wouldn't it be better spent on the games themselves? Getting them tokenized and spiffed up a bit would be a higher priority.
For example:
Give all timed games a pause button (you can blank out the screen while paused so no advantage gained) - sometimes the phone rings or the kid cries or the dog needs out - when it's the best score you ever had!

More multi-player games would be great, eg Hearts, Scrabble, Canasta.

Different puzzle cuts for the jigsaw would be good - the current regulars could do a totally white puzzle in the same amount of time because they know where the pieces go.

Does "pervasive forum" mean Chat in games?

Making the games more memory efficient and self-erasing on exit would help a lot too.

You had a forum post a while ago for picking the best toad picture for the new TG - maybe you can use them all in different themed games.

I have played at other pay-sites and believe me charging does not "keep out the riff-raff" or bot users. Good Luck with coding for these things and while you're at it disallow duplicate names for the same person unless they want to pay for them. (wink)

How do you have multi-player offline games? Seems like an oxy-moron.

Thanks for putting in all the effort, it is appreciated.
If you need testers for the new stuff I'd be happy to help - just put up a forum sticky "Testers Wanted".

Anonymous said...

Sounds like good things coming. With the forum thing and games, will that mean we will be able to leave a message at a particular game? I remember another game site that when you posted a score, you got to enter your name - I used to use this (and others did too) to leave a message for the other many people (OK, the other 1 person) who used to play a puzzle called Tiles :-)

williejo said...

cheers to you all hard at work while i play
and about the jig saw puzzle
i could always stop playing it if
Anonymous would like to see how good( he or she) really is
ahahahahhahhnot a change that would be like wishing for snowballs in oh lets see heck

ahahahh

good luck u guys

Anonymous said...

Wow! It sounds like a lot of changes will be coming and I'm looking forward to all of it! It sounds like a "my space" of toadgames. Very nice!

I'm also very much for what the anonymous person said about having pause buttons for the games that I play. I did see that some game do and others don't and I usually play all the ones that DON'T. I don't have a prob with the kids or dog but I definitely have a problem with my husband bothering me during my game of Wrecked Angles, asking me when dinner will be ready! pff the nerve eh? ;)

I'm not quite understanding the forum stuff you talked about throughout toadgames...but that's probably because I'm blonde!

Good Luck with Everything!

signed: Needsapausebuttoncutie

williejo said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

THANKS FOR ALL THE HARD WORK YOU HAVE BEEN PUTTING INTO THIS MISSION..I AM REALLY LOOKING TO SOMETHING DIFFERENT..ANY IDEA YET WHEN THIS WILL ALL TAKE PLACE OR WHEN WE SHOULD START MAKING OUR ARRANGEMENTS FOR REMORTGAGING OUR HOMES TO SEND YOU OUR MEMBERSHIP FEES?

A PAUSE BUTTON IS A REALLY REALLY SUPER IDEA AND ONE YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY ENTERTAIN.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE OUT THE FORUM PAGE AND EVERY TIME I TRY TO GET IN, I HIT A DEAD END, SO I HAVE NOT BEEN PRIVY TO ALL THE GREAT THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN GOING ON...HOPE YOU MAKE THAT PROTION A LITTLE EASIER TO UNDERSTAND.

I LOVE THIS SITE AND AM READY TO ACCEPT ANY CHANGES YOU WILL COME UP WITH...NOW GET TO WORK.

LOVE Y'ALL