Some of you may have noticed yesterday that a slight change was made to the game pages. Now, when you add a game, you are given the choice to enter a release year, or check that a game has not yet been released. If the game has not been released yet, you will see on the game page an anticipation meter instead of the standard rating. This is due in part to the Starcraft 2 page, and the discussion over rating games that you can’t even play yet. We thought it was a good idea to make this rating more applicable, and bam! Anticipation Meter.

The rating is as easy as ever, only with a new set of descriptions for each rating level: 1) Not interested; 2) Not Impressed; 3) Indifferent; 4) Pretty Excited; 5) Totally Psyched. Use these ratings to let every know how excited, or not excited you are about upcoming games. On a last note, don’t forget to change the game to released once it is published so that the ratings can really begin.

Those of you who keep a serious watch on the site may have noticed a few more new features, a little less obvious than those shiny new gallery modules and gamelist widgets. I am talking, of course, about the new media kit and logo kit now available. They can be found at the very bottom of nearly all the pages on GGE, and are there for your use.

The media kit is a brief explanation of the sites purpose, what you can do on the site and why GGE is helpful to gamers, developers and publishers alike. The logo kit is simply a collection of all our banners and buttons of various sizes. Use these however you like, wherever you want, simply copy and paste the html. Here are a few samples:

We hope these additions will help new users understand what GGE is about and all that it can be used for but also let some of our more dedicated users share the love and compliment those badges and gamelist widgets with a nice banner or button.

So there’s been a lot of action going on lately around GGE.  Let’s get started with all the goodies.

First the Navbar has been redesigned and added a Gamelist section header.  Now it’s easier to get those gamelists set up — and there’s more features with the Gamelists coming soon, very cool stuff.  Keep your eyes peeled.  

Speaking of Gamelists, you may have noticed the featured gamelist on the front page.  It changes daily, so if you want to be on the coveted front page all you have to do is create a good gamelist with comments and we’ll sniff you out and get you your moment.  

One of the newest cool features that has been integrated into the site recently is the News Feed in your account page.  Now you can see what’s happening with your friends, the games that you’ve bookmarked, groups, and multiple other areas of the site all in one easy to find location.  You can even subscribe to the news feed as it churns out an RSS feed.  Get updates from anywhere!

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Finally, one little update that should make everyone’s lives a bit easier.  The help tab has made it’s way back to the navbar!  In the form of a question mark you can have most of your answers about GGE solved very quickly.  And don’t worry, we’re working on making the help docs even more comprehensive with tips and tricks to get your games out there and how to navigate the site in general.  Oh yeah, the home tab is now a house!  Yup, that’s about all I got for now.  Have a good weekend everyone.

We are gonna mix it up today and give you a little personal interest story. GarageGames has recently brought in a new intern, Matt Ostgard, who is going to be working on various art projects. Matt’s road to GarageGames was such a good story that we felt many of you GGE users would like to read about it. It all started when Matt was awarded the prize for one of GGE’s contests, specifically the GDC ticket raffle. Matt had already planned on going to GDC, had the plane ticket already in fact, so winning tickets came as a pleasant surprise. Like most people trying to get into the gaming biz, Matt made the wise decision of taking his portfolio along with him.

While at GDC, Matt decided to stop by the GarageGames booth. Matt had known about GarageGames for a while, being a big fan of Tribes, and a member of GGE during its closed beta. Our very own Tim Aste was rather impressed with the work, and Matt was eventually offered an internship. After weighing his options, and meeting all of the crew here, he decided this was the place to be and is excited to be here. Head to his GGE page to see his portfolio, it’s awesome.

The Great Games Experiment is a great place to come and play, but it is also a very useful tool. Developers can use this site to promote their games, find contacts, and interact with the very gamers that are most interested in their games. So, we would like to highlight one of the many features that can help you get your game out there: Any game page can also be used as a subdomain. Your subdomain is simply “gametitle.greatgamesexperiment.com.” You can use this to link people to the game page quickly and easily, and it looks a bit more professional than the normal www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/gametitle. For instance, you could use this domain on a business card or on any printed materials that you send out with your game.

The GGE game pages offer you a home for your game. There are so many different ways you can configure the page that nearly all the information and media that you would like people to see, can be seen. We are currently working on a help document to give a little more information on how GGE can be used as development/promotional tool, and a good one at that. Many sites host games with no face behind them, we have some of those too, but are dedicated to providing a space for those who wish to get their name and games out there to do so.

An example so you don’t forget, the url: http://monkeyisland2.greatgamesexperiment.com will bring you directly to the Monkey Island 2 game page. Quick and easy.

Powered by ScribeFire.

For all of you who have been creating excellent gamelists we want to show some love. You may have noticed that the Featured Gamelist on the frontpage is now made up of user-created gamelists. For now we are simply scouring the site to find some of the best lists, not necessarily based on what games they are composed of, but how well the list is introduced and whether or not there are interesting captions explaining each choice. The featured gamelist will change regularly, hopefully presenting you all with many interesting takes on the gamelist feature.

Many gamelists unfortunately do not have captions. This is a simple step in gamelist central and really makes a difference for the people who check your list out. So, keep making great gamelists and you may just be featured on the frontpage.

For a refresher on how to create and share gamelists, read Sean Sullivan’s April 5th blog post.

Have you noticed the new sidebar styling for the game pages? This recent change adds a little more style to an already stylish GGE, as well as increased functionality. We have moved the “I Developed this Game” and “Become a Contributer” buttons to the top of the sidebar right next to the “Add Bookmark,” “I’ve played this Game,” and “Write a Review” tabs so it is now easier than ever to see your relationship to a game when you view its page.

You may also notice the new frontpage feature. Now, once you have logged in to GGE, the orange login box on the front page will show your inbox, allowing you to view your new messages easily.

Hopefully these new features will enhance your GGE experience. Enjoy!

For my money, one of the best features on GGE is the game review. Like many avid gamers I find a helpful and in depth review of a game very important, if not necessary. A bunch of excellent reviews will get me interested in a game, while several poor reviews will have an adverse effect. Even on the negative side, though, I am more likely to try a game out if it has any well thought out reviews than if it has none, or several reviews with little or no information. If a game is highly rated, but carries no intelligent reasoning behind its rating, I don’t know what to do. I, like many others, appreciate the time and effort put into game reviews. Reviews create a dialog within the community, let people voice there opinions, and help others try games they may not otherwise have been interested in.

With that said, I would like to start featuring reviews that are especially informative. I will feature one here at random and from then on feature reviews that you find especially helpful/insightful/interesting, etc. Feel free to send us reviews that either you have written or come across whilst exploring the site. I hope this will spur people to start reviewing all games they play. Remember, we are talking opinion here but there is a line between constructive criticism and simply bashing someone’s work. So keep in mind negative reviews are necessary at times, but can always be done tastefully and thoughtfully (Don’t think for a minute I won’t feature a well thought out negative review). Send your submissions to jamesw@garagegames.com with the subject line “review submission.”

I’d also like to take a moment and highlight the thumbsup/down feature of reviews. This allows you to support a review’s quality, or downgrade its effectiveness as a review. Use these tools. They help others to find the truly awe-inspiring reflections of a games worth. So, here is a featured review that I think is worth checking out:

and his review of

Ahhh, it’s good to have another Friday roll around and even better to have a blog. It’s been a busy busy week for the makers of GGE. Lots of new additions with more to come soon. So let’s dive into what’s been going on around the site.

Firstly, we’ve got the new sharing of badges for games and users. It’s now easier than ever to grab those game and user badges and post them on your own blogs, forums, and other websites.
Full story here.

You may now notice that when you click “Play Now” for any given game, that you are taken to a view that looks different than before.

You can now rate the game right while you’re playing it! Also included are quick links to the game related pages.

The new Recommendation Engine also provides you with games that others have enjoyed. Read the full announcement here.

Gamelists are here with a vengeance. It’s now easier to create the lists and share them. Head to Gamelist Central to get started. Once you’ve got your list made you can view other people’s lists that contain the same game. In addition modules have been added to the bottom of game profiles so you can easily find similar games and gamers that also like that game.

Finally, there has been a complete face lift in the look of the different sections on the site. Check out the games section to see what I’m talking about. Fancy!

Finally, just wanted to drive a little traffic over to a blog that we’ve found written by Weefz about the Great Games Experiment. Check it out!

And that about wraps it up. Enjoy your weekend.

You may have noticed the new Gamelist Central that Sean mentioned a couple of weeks ago, if not you can read more here and visit GameList Central. There have been even more additions to the Gamelists. When hanging out in Gamelist Central and creating your Gamelists you’ll notice a small eye icon next to your created Gamelist.

After clicking that little guy you’ll be brought to the Gamelist view.

You’ll also find a new module at the bottom of the game pages. This module shows Gamelists that feature that particular game in the list. If a game isn’t in any Gamelists yet, you’ll be notified and given the option to add the game to your Gamelist. Here’s what to expect at the bottom of a game page that belongs to a Gamelist.

So what does this all mean? Gamelists are another way to find games that may be similar to those that you enjoy playing. They may also bring you to someone’s page that enjoys playing similar games that you enjoy playing. That’s what GGE is all about anyway, finding new games and connecting with people that have similar interests in gaming. We’re trying to make this process as easy and enjoyable as possible.