For you the user, a large part of your experience on GreatGamesExperiment.com consists of building and customizing a profile page that best fits and describes you, your game, or your group. After all, half the fun of a social networking site is defining how you would like yourself to be presented to the audience at hand. We all know how boring straight up black text on a white background can be, so I want to present the toolbox that we have made available (and are currently expanding) to you, the user.

While developing GreatGamesExperiment.com, one thing the team has needed to focus on is security for you — the user. With the design and continual enhancement of profile creation tools, we are continually shooting to provide you with an equal balance of a comprehensive toolbox and safe experience for site users. Safety and security concerns arise when the community is allowed to insert their own code to embed items that are hosted off-site on a third party server. Through this juxtaposition of freedom and safety for users in our world [wide web] of user created content, we need to constantly be sensitive to the wants of the community, as well as the protection of individuals visiting and taking part in the experiment.

This is where GGE Code and The Widget Whitelist come in.

Read more about GGE Code and The Widget Whitelist

Marek Bronstring has recently posted an interview on his blog with GarageGames co-founder Jeff Tunnell. This interview covers the current status of the Great Games Experiment as well as future goals of the site/community. Excellent read!

Read Jeff Tunnell on the Great Games Experiment here

The Big Three

$250 newegg.com Gift Certificate
Goes to Andrew Jobin “Echo”.

Nintendo Wii
Goes to dark54555.

XNA Creator’s Club Membership with Torque X Pro
Goes to Jiperly.

Other Categories

Most Popular (Gamer)
Goes to Jiujitsu.
Prize: $50 iTunes Gift Card

Most Popular (Developer)
Goes to AudioGames.
Prize: $50 Art Video from the Gnomon Workshop

Best Profile (Gamer/Developer)
Goes to Kevin James.
Prize: $50 ThinkGeek Gift Card

Highest Rated Game (Developer)
Goes to Data for the game Cortex Command.
Prize: Any Game on GGE (Winner’s Choice)

Most Flash Games Submitted
Goes to Exaggeration17A.
Prize: 2G USB Flash Drive

Best Game Review
Goes to Gfreaky for his review of Hitman: Blood Money.
Prize: Content Pack or 2 games from the GarageGames Game Store

Most Kudos Received (Gamer)
Goes to smila.
Prize: Personalized GGE Avatar from world renowned GarageGames artist

Most Kudos Received (Developer)
Goes to Garry Newman.
Prize: Func.net Customized Aluminum Mousepad

Best Game Page By a Developer
Goes to Krazy Kaution for the game Hellgate London: 16bit.
Prize: Featured Game/Developer on GGE and a Developer Snapshot on GarageGames

Game Developer’s Conference Ticket Raffle
Goes to Rick Mills.
Prize: Two GDC passes grant you and a friend to the GDC Expo

Don’t forget to sign up for the Best Game Page from a developer, Free passes to GDC, and submit your game reviews from your account page or the contest page.

Starting Monday February 19th we’ll be adding a new contest category based on Gamer Badges.

Basically, we’re interested in what people are using their gamer badges for. As mentioned in Sean’s earlier blog, people are doing some pretty cool stuff. Have you found a clever way to use the badges? Posted them on your personal blog site? Whatever it may be, we want to see them. We’ll be awarding the prizes to the most unique and original things we see.

If you missed Sean’s blog post “Awesome Great Games Badge Integration”. Check it out now!

Oh yeah, contests are supposed to have prizes. We’re going to be giving away a free game from the GarageGames gamestore every day for the entire duration of the contest until release. How do you compete? Send me a message letting me know what you have done with the badge and where you have posted it. Visit my profile page and let me know!

In the past week we’ve started getting featured editors to run different sections of GGE. Jay Barnson and one my of favorite game submitters Bjorn are among the first elite few who will run sections of the site.

Bjorn who is known around the site for putting up some of the coolest free games will **surprise surprise** be heading up the free games section. You can check out his featured game at the newly remodeled free games feature. The first game that he’s put up is GraviTron, since he recommends it I suggest everyone check it out because it’s gotta be good. Oh, and I’ve mentioned this before but he’s got a section in his profile titled, “My periodically changing game recommendation!”, which is updated hmmm, periodically, with awesome stuff I might add. Go look at it.

Next up we’ve got Jay Barnson. He’ll be heading up the RPG front. Jay Barnson is the self proclaimed (or maybe this nickname was given to him, I really don’t know) “Rampant Coyote”, dashing secret agent by day (so he says), but by evening pursues his dream of being an indie game developer. He’s worked on several hit mainstream games, such as Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Jet Moto, and some games that he’d rather forget about. Jay is the founder of Rampant Games.

As GGE gets bigger and bigger we’ll be getting in touch with people that are extremely active on the site. So keep it up and maybe we’ll hit you up with moderator abilities (you know you want them).

Bye duders,
Dr. Wiley

Even in it’s betanian infancy, GGE has the ability to help devs and games “blow up.”

One of the most satisfying aspects of trying to get the site off the ground has been finding great, little known games and devs and simply giving them some love on the “Featured” sections at the top of each tab on GGE’s main navigation bar. Sometimes we just happen to play a cool game that we (mired in our own subjectivity) think more people should know about. Or, as is the case lately, someone wins a contest and gets some free pub.

Either way, someone or some game is getting much deserved recognition that they wouldn’t otherwise get, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside — kind of like beer, minus the hangover.

Featured games and developers have been among the most viewed on a consistent basis since we began running the features. The future possibilities are tantalizing. As our community grows, heretofore unknown games have a chance of truly getting blown up by their exposure on GGE, generating sales and even publishing deals based greatly on the popularity of the game. If the band Ok, Go! can blow up because of a youtube video, why can’t a great game on GGE do the same?

But as fun as it is to choose which games get that extra boost of exposure (I prefer to pick the awesome ones), that’s not what GGE is about. We won’t always be choosing these games; it should be up to the community. Once we amass a solid user base, responsibility for the feature sections will be passed onto the users in one way or another.

In the mean time, keep checking out those featured sections. They’re going to be full of contest winners for the next couple weeks, so if you think these winners aren’t up to snuff, then prove you can do better. For an unfair advantage, remember my helpful tip: I like games that are awesome.

Cheers,
Dylan

Believe it or not, it’s that time again! Yes, another round of the Great Games Contest has come and gone (There’s a third round going on now - you should probably check it out if you haven’t already. The prizes are getting larger and larger). That means that I was able to put down my fonts and gradients and pick up the pen and tablet, and start making some custom avatars! Once again, office sentiment says that it’s nice to share, so here are the winners and their brand-new avatars:

Most Kudos recieved by a Gamer: scottige

This pint and pool loving retro gamer requested a visual update on his old avatar, which looked (to my uneducated eye) like some sort of marshmallow peep in medieval armor. I think it may have actually been something else, though. Regardless, this tiny (and adorable) warrior was a blast to draw.

Most Kudos Recieved by a Developer: oddbob

This request was a bit unusual in that oddbob gave me two suggestions, and let me make the final decision. My choices were Jet Set Willy, or the beastie on the cover of the Tempest 2000 box. In the end, I decided to draw the demon-alien-badguy from Tempest 2000. Although the temptation to do the man in the pink space tuxedo was very tempting, I just haven’t gotten to draw a good alien for awhile. I also decided to throw in the player ship as well - it’s nicely out-of-place with the surroundings, just as it was on the original Jaguar box.

Although there are still three more rounds to the Great Games Contest, there’s only one avatar prize left - check back in two weeks to see the next winner’s circle, and the last custom avatar (Grab the most kudos from now ’till the 19th, and the avatar could be yours, gamers!).

The Big Three

XNA Creator’s Club Membership
Goes to Caffeine Kid.

4G iPod Nano
Goes to Jim.

Torque Technology (winner’s choice)
Goes to Endurion.

Other Categories

Most Popular (Gamer)
Goes to Tasha Darke.
Prize: Game Developer Magazine (1 year subscription)

Most Popular (Developer)
Goes to STompy.
Prize: Func.net Customized Mouse Pad

Best Profile (Gamer/Developer)
Goes to CuriousJord.
Prize: GarageGames Content Pack or 2 games from the GarageGames Game Store (winner’s choice)

Highest Rated Game (Developer)
Goes to Krazy Kaution for the game Hellgate London: 16bit.
Prize: Any Game on GGE (Winner’s Choice)

Most Flash Games Submitted
Goes to EgoAnt.
Prize: 2G USB Flash Drive

Best Game Review
Goes to Christopher Bonner for his review of Empire Earth.
Prize: $50 ThinkGeek.com Gift Certificate

Most Kudos Received (Gamer)
Goes to scottige.
Prize: Personalized GGE Avatar from world renowned GarageGames artist

Most Kudos Received (Developer)
Goes to oddbob.
Prize: Personalized GGE Avatar from world renowned GarageGames artist

Best Game Page By a Developer
Goes to Kjell Iversen and Phillip Daigle for their game Space Trader.
Prize: Featured Game/Developer on GGE and a Developer Snapshot on GarageGames

Game Developer’s Conference Ticket Raffle
Goes to MostlyToad.
Prize: Two GDC passes grant you and a friend to the GDC Expo

Don’t forget to sign up for the Best Game Page from a developer, Free passes to GDC, and submit your game reviews from your account page or the contest page.

Some of you may recall that a few of the Great Games Contest prizes were custom-made avatars by the artist responsible for the appearance of the Great Games Experiment. Well, that artist is me, and the first batch of avatars have been done. It’s always fun to get away from web graphics and get some actual drawing and coloring done. The other folks around the office suggested that it might be nice to share the images with you all, so here goes!

Most Kudos recieved by a gamer: OnyxAbyss
OnyxAbyss requested a ‘cartoonized’ version of a Templar from the upcoming game ‘Hellgate: London’. I’m always a fan of sci-fi knights in techno armor, and dove right in. It took me awhile to get a pose I was happy with, but I do like the results.

Most Kudos recieved by a developer: Marek Bronstring
Marek asked for a hybrid of Otto von Bismarck (from the Civilization series, and also real history) and Coach Oleander (from Psychonauts). This one was also a blast to do, and took a couple of tries to really get it. The picklehaube (pointy helmet) was an absolute necessity.

The next round of the Great Games Contest has just wrapped up, and there’ll be a new pair of avatars done for those winners soon! Check back for the next set of lucky winners!

A winner from our original Great Games Contest, Gryphon, got in touch with me today through the GreatGamesExperiment.com contact form with some questions about the new Great Games Badges. We have migrated these Great Games badges to an image format in order to remedy compatibility issues with sites on which you may choose to display them. Sites such as MySpace, popular forums, etc do not allow the use of iframes on their sites so obviously linked images are a great way around this.

I wanted to show off something really cool that Gryphon has done with the forums on his site, Allied Tribal Forces. He has integrated the badges into his user profiles so that they can provide their GreatGamesExperiment.com user names and automatically have his system display their Great Games Badge!

Very awesome work on his part!

I challenge everybody to show me other cool ways they are using their badges on either their site or elsewhere! If you have done something cool with your Great Games badge, send me a message through my profile on GreatGamesExperiment.com and let me know what’s up! If it’s innovative enough you may even see me blog about it in days to come =)

Kudos to Gryphon!