Cheerful Ghost Blog

Lets Play: New Site Design

I think the new site re design is going well and decided to create the video showcasing a bit about it. The new design isn't a totally new shift, its a evolution and I think is an improvement over the original.

Sound off the in comments with your thoughts. I plan on starting the work to integrate the new design into the site soon so get your feedback in!

The video quality isn't stellar, for a higher res screenshot of the new design clicky click:
http://i.imgur.com/SdUBC.jpg

Travis Admin wrote on 11/08/2012 at 04:26am

Nice Half-Life 3 easter egg. ;)

Travis Admin wrote on 11/08/2012 at 04:31am

Or I guess I should be thanking myself, since I apparently posted it!

I really dig the new site design. It's going to make expanding and adding new features much easier in the future. I like the side-by-side, but I can see why some may find it distracting. If it's easy to do a toggle, that might be an option.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/08/2012 at 06:27am

I love the new look! I really like incorporating more pulldown menus, so there's less button clutter on the screen. The side-by-side threw me for a minute, but I think I'll like that a lot when I get used to it. Plus it'll be twice as much content to interest a new user!

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/08/2012 at 12:28pm

Yay I am in the video haha. So I wanted to make a few small comments. Love the new look. I personally really enjoy the side by side. However there's a small thing that I feel like can be done now because of the newly designed titles. As an ocd person I would love to be able to auto center them. I so want to see the title in the dead center of the post. Also in the new site design it'd be really cool if in the settings menu you could mess around with different colors. I love the colors right now but maybe I might want to mess around with them at some point. Colors of the backgrounds and font and such I mean. It wouldn't change for anyone else just like personal color settings.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/08/2012 at 05:55pm

@jacob I will look into centering the titles. That shouldn't be hard to do.

I will add a UI customization or theme option to my list. Not sure when I will get to it, but its a great idea!

Travis Admin wrote on 11/08/2012 at 06:25pm

If I may add a dissenting opinion, I'm not sure centered titles would look right considering the layout. With the avatar where it is, dead center wouldn't look centered because there would be less space from the avatar to the left edge of the title, and centering it in the space after that wouldn't look centered to the article text.

I do love the idea of user-configurable color/theme choices though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/08/2012 at 06:50pm

@panickedthumb Good point. I prefer it the way it is but I will experiment with it either way.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/08/2012 at 10:45pm

hmm. That is a good point panicked. Hadn't really thought about that. I guess that probably would still bother me since it wouldn't line up with the text. That's a bummer. It's not a major thing I just get really ocd about titles in particular.

BR Supporter wrote on 11/09/2012 at 12:03am

I like the sleek new design. It makes the site look new and like it has a bit of depth to it. I'm back and forth on the side by side posts though. I feel like in some situations it would be nice, and in others it wouldn't. Haven't made my mind up whether I like it better or not.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 12:56am

Thanks BR! I am too, I am leaning to not side by side right this minute though. Easy enough to bring back though.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 02:28am

If not side-by-side, would you have it auto expand (to a certain point) so there isn't a ton of wasted space?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:18am

Yes, it would expand to fill the entire space.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:35am

Longer titles would be nice. "Assassin's Creed III PC now available for pre-order on Steam" was too long to fit.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:40am

Yep longer titles would be good.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/09/2012 at 08:03am

Hm. About longer titles john. You think you'd be able to have like a sub context spot for the titles? On panicked's example "Assassin's Creed III PC" would be the title. With the sub-text being "now available for pre-order on Steam". There'd be a lot of instances I could see that coming in handy.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 02:20pm

That's a good thought too. For another example...

John Carmack buys Zynga!
What does this mean for the future of Farmville?

Travis Admin wrote on 11/10/2012 at 04:59pm

I'm working on something for tomorrow or Monday that would benefit from the ability to add images or embeds inline, rather than just the one at the top. The potential for overuse is quite high, but it would be convenient.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/10/2012 at 05:31pm

Hmmm. I want to seriously talk more about this. Lets take it up after the site redesign.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 06:23am

If you're looking for some possible inspiration for a 404 page: http://i.imgur.com/fcHae.jpg

;)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 06:28am

Heh. Hmmmm. Yeah, we could do something similar.... Hmmm.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 06:58am

Thank you Mario! But the requested page is in another server.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 07:00am

Or,
"This page is an illusion and is a trap devised by our servers. Go ahead dauntlessly! Make rapid progress!"

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/ghosts.htm

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 07:01am

IMDB has something similar. It gives you random relevant movie quotes.

http://www.imdb.com/qweljhqerjqher

Just keep hitting F5

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 04:05pm

I like the Mario idea. That's really clever!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 08:25pm

Adding it to my list of things to do :D

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State of The Ghost: 3.0

In keeping with the spirit of the very infrequent "State of the Ghost" posts I add yet another to the mix. Going forward I plan on doing about 4 a year talking about the nuts and bolts of what's going on and what we have brewing on the site.

Overall I am really happy with how far Cheerful Ghost has come since I launched the site this year in January. Ill paint a larger picture at the year end with how far we have come, but needless to say I am really proud of Cheerful Ghost as it sits today. Since the site is still so young if you have any suggestions or recommendations forward I would love to hear them.

Last month I added a lot of stuff to Cheerful Ghost to clear out... Read All In keeping with the spirit of the very infrequent "State of the Ghost" posts I add yet another to the mix. Going forward I plan on doing about 4 a year talking about the nuts and bolts of what's going on and what we have brewing on the site.

Overall I am really happy with how far Cheerful Ghost has come since I launched the site this year in January. Ill paint a larger picture at the year end with how far we have come, but needless to say I am really proud of Cheerful Ghost as it sits today. Since the site is still so young if you have any suggestions or recommendations forward I would love to hear them.

Last month I added a lot of stuff to Cheerful Ghost to clear out some long needed features to make it easy to start up some new awesome stuff we will launch very soon. Before I get into the upcoming features currently in the works, lets discuss what I rolled out last month:

Posts now have titles. Its funny because people have been asking for this since the site first launched. I thought it was nothing important so I kept dismissing it as something we needed. Over time I realized that being the ONLY person that felt we didn't need post titles was a bad idea, so I gave you what you wanted. I sort of did it thinking no one would use it but... since its launch its has been used in 100% of all new posts proving without a doubt I can be wrong about what features we actually need :D After using the post titles myself, I can say they are an awesome addition and I am glad people kept pushing on that one. I think this proves that if enough people want something and are vocal about it, it will be added. Post titles now work with our Atom Feed, Emails & Google Searches and when you share a post to Facebook and Google+ the title is incorporated in the content.

If you come to the site on a popular Holiday you will get a trophy. So far I have added Trophies for All Hallows Eve, Turkey Day & Leprechaun Day. As more holidays approach, I will add more. If you have a holiday you think should be memorialised in trophy form, let me know. Yes, I will add a trophy for Star Wars Day. :D

If people haven't come to the site in a few weeks we send out a email letting them know the most popular conversations that happened since they were away. I send this out every two weeks as to not be annoying. We now randomize between 5 or 6 different subjects for the email. I don't want to give the impression the content of the email is always the same because the subject line was. Now the subject will be different enough to hopefully let the user know the content of the email is new and interesting.

We were having a problem with certain people posting content a few users and myself didn't think was awesome. I implemented a system to "bury" a post. Basically it means that a buried post won't be visible to anyone on the main or corresponding game page. The post will be visible to the originating user and on the users personal area. 99% of posts are fine, occasionally some are not and this is just a way to ensure stuff on the main page is awesome for everyone.

Tungsten, Panickedthumb & WhiteboySlim are site moderators. Basically this allows them the ability to bury posts and add and edit games in the Cheerful Ghost database. Wherein its not new they are moderators, they can now bury posts along with me.

I experimented with adding video embed support for Twitch.tv. Basically I can't get a good method to ALWAYS display the video feed to browsers on your phone, tablet and desktop. What I ended up doing is displaying a Twitch graphic pointing the user to the twitch content on the site. I don't love this solution, but I like it more than displaying a broken box to people on iPhones and Androids. Eventually Twitch will provide an embed that will work on all clients and when they do I will be the first to incorporate it.

I had to migrate the database of the provider we host the site with. The free database plan we were on was no longer valid because of all the data the site stores. I guess tracking 26k games all the posts and comments take up more space than they felt should be under the free plan. :D
I also fixed a few bugs and made some improvements to the overall site look and feel as well as a bunch of other stuff I don't remember off hand.

I cleared this list off because I wanted to put us feature wise in a good place for something I have wanted to do since the site launched in January.

Cheerful Ghost is getting a visual upgrade. First off I want to let you know that the site will not lose any functionality you love. I am merely taking the design we currently have and making it better. Since I am the lone developer you have been stuck with the best visual design that I could muster. For not being a designer I am pretty happy with how it turned out but I want the site to be "moar awesomerz" in its visuals.

Yesterday I started the process of working with the new design made with the amazing Twitter Bootstrap Framework(http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) and after showing it to a friend I am really happy with the direction. What I am doing is recreating the main page in HTML and making sure it works well on phones, tablets and desktops. When I complete the initial design and mockup I will post a "Lets Play: Cheerful Ghost Design Edition" to show you what I have cooked up.

After the design is tweaked and I feel it is awesome enough, ill spend a week or whatever cutting up the site to operate with the new design. After the bugs are all ironed out ill push it out for everyone to enjoy.

The reason I want to give the site a visual lift is because I want the visuals of Cheerful Ghost to be as awesome as the community and the content we create together. For many months I have considered what to do about this and think I am on a pretty good path, but I look forward to your input here when I post the visual "Lets Play" video showcasing the new goods.

Thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts about the above, please let me know.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/04/2012 at 11:47pm

Awesome job getting all of those things into the website. I look forward to the visual overhaul. If what your using has a way to add in anything semi-fancy you should ask me or my brother. I did graphic design on cards and a lot of other things for along while. I believe he is taking courses in school to do some things as well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:11am

When I get the Lets Play video up showing off the new design I'd love to get your thoughts for sure!

Travis Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:44am

You should do a beta.cheerfulghost.com for a couple of weeks before launching the new design, just to have a ton of eyes on it with suggestions.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/05/2012 at 04:00am

A beta is a good idea I might do that depending on how much work it is to do it.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/05/2012 at 05:07pm

Great work so far, Jon.

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Happy Halloween!

Wanted to wish everyone a safe Halloween, especially everyone with an increased Hurricane quotient this holiday! I have collected a bunch O links of various Halloween bits from sites around like Reddit. I am lumping them together in one post because I find 1000 of these posts to be a bit on the annoying side. All together now.

Video game inspired Pumpkin Carvings:

Borderlands 2: http://i.imgur.com/R6CG2.jpg
Mario Bob-omb: http://i.imgur.com/dg1CZ.jpg
Pichatchu: http://imgur.com/isI0E
Borderlands Gun: http://imgur.com/8WVu5
Cl4pTr4p: http://imgur.com/a/Cny12
Limbo: http://imgur.com/d9GXS
Wario: http://i.imgur.com/hQjtd.jpg
Mario Himself: http://i.imgur.com/lxOEO.jpg
Mario Goomba:... Read All

A few weeks ago I was able to volunteer at the Portland

A few weeks ago I was able to volunteer at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo and during my time I met the awesome guys that run the podcast "Watch Out for Fireballs!" Watch out for Fireballs! is a cool retro themed podcast that covers topics close to our hearts like Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Bionic Commando, Secret of Mana, Earthbound and the recent episode on Super Mario World.

The most recent episode is interesting in that it features a plethora of stories and opinions on the fantastic Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo. They set up a TV and SNES playing Super Mario World and recorded people's thoughts on the game. I point this all out, not only because it is... Read All

When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I Had to Volunteer!

When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I had to be part of it. To hang out with other like minded geeks and talk about some of the coolest things ever made? I had to do it.

Originally I wanted to volunteer up a storm and hang out the entire weekend, but things being what they are starting a new job, I couldn't commit to the full schedule. I had a few hours today(Saturday) and I was able to help out. When I arrived at 8.30 AM people were already lining up and I was excited to see so many people in attendance. I wasn't sure what to expect as it was my first year and I was happy to see so many happy geeks in lines.

My first job was to hold a sign directing people... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/30/2012 at 04:06am

Dude these pictures are awesome. I'm sure it cost an arm and a leg, but I really want that game collection. Especially the NES, SNES, and N64 games. :D

That pixel art was really cool and the level prints were kind of amazing! I seriously want an Earthbound and Chrono Trigger print!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:00am

The collection did cost a few gold coins :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:02am

In fact, one vendor claimed to accept Rupees and I considered making a joke about currency from India and the I realized that wouldn't have been funny at all.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/30/2012 at 07:02am

That gameboy station is kind of awesome too. Think the wife will let me put one in the living room? The kids will love it!

BR Supporter wrote on 09/30/2012 at 02:21pm

That collection is HUGE, I wish I could own that many games of any system, not to mention having a collection that large of retro games. I would love to just go through and look at all the games. I would especially love to get my hands on the N64 games. That is one of the first systems I ever played and I loved all the games on it; they were so well thought out. I still have my N64 console and play it from time to time.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 03:09pm

I see no problems with putting that in a living room. Always lights up... Nice conversation starter!

hardeyez wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:15pm

I'm really surprised that the devkits are available. Especially the PS2 one. As a developer/publisher you never actually bought the hardware, you just rented it for $25,000 (the price varied a bit and dropped over the life time of the hardware, and there were eventually 2 models -- the normal model and the Performance Analyzer model which was awesome at showing you an incredible amount of detail about how your code ran on the hardware). I saw studios close up shop and Sony asking for the hardware back... They never wanted anyone not covered by contracts to touch the hardware. I guess some slipped through the cracks.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/30/2012 at 06:16pm

Yeah, I didn't know the hardware was so restricted to use. Figured cause you paid so much you'd get to keep it. Apparently not :D

Travis Admin wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:35am

Dude.

DUDE.

I need to fly out there like this minute.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:38am

I didn't get a huge look at all the pictures. I made sure to check out that retro collection though. I know there's probably thousands of great games in there if i look hard enough but what stood out was harvest moon 64! Best in the series and my first one. I was just trying to play some harvest moon recently so it caught my eye. I still own the game cartridge as well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:40am

Awesome. Still trying to figure out with retro game to tear into next. My money is on Earthbound. :D

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 07:52am

Completely old post BUT I just wanted to note. I've been playing through tons of retro games as well. Earthbound is also on my radar. As are the other MOTHER games.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:23am

Anyone try the fan translated Earthbound?

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/08/2012 at 06:44pm

I've tried out the fan translated Mother 3 (Earthbound 2). I sunk maybe about 5 or 6 hours into it so I didn't get terribly far into the story, but it was fun. I stopped playing mainly because I got sidetracked with other stuff, but someday I'll go back and finish it.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:11pm

Yep those are the ones I meant. Can't wait to try them. I love translated old games.

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Dear PAX, Yep. Thats me up there lounging in a Riot Games

Dear PAX,

Yep. That's me up there lounging in a Riot Games bean bag chair watching a few League of Legends tournaments. PAX, you are big. You have attracted every kind of geek imaginable. You are the first video game convention ive attended and you are intense.

We met up with a few friends of @chowda and that was fun to meet some new people. They had attended PAX a few times previously and gave us a few tips. One such tip was that you would stand in many lines. I am not sure I have had feet as sore as this and ive back-packed around Italy. I just might be getting too old or something..... :D

http://i.imgur.com/b6U7I.jpg (the morning line up)

One of the highlights of the... Read All

Leaving for PAX Prime in Seattle Tomorrow!

Leaving for PAX Prime in Seattle tomorrow. Reading over the presentations and noting which ones I want to attend:

"Story Time with Ted Price"
"Chiptunes"
"The Double Fine Adventure Adventure"
"Assassin's Creed III PAX Prime Panel"
"Epic Games Presents: Fortnight Reveal"
"Behind the music of blockbuster video games"
"After notch the new minecraft team"
"Which Interactive Lie Did I Tell: A conversation on game writing with Chet & Erik of Valve Software"

I plan on hitting up others but these were the ones that stood out to me.

According to Bethesda Doom 3 BFG Edition will be playable as well as Departed. Gearbox will be showing Borderlands 2 as well so I will have much to write... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/30/2012 at 12:21am

Looking forward to hearing your reporting!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/30/2012 at 01:06am

I am too :D

Travis Admin wrote on 08/30/2012 at 02:43am

Request: You must play Departed and report back! :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/30/2012 at 02:50am

I will do that. Pictures will be included. If I remember to take them.

:)

Tungsten wrote on 08/30/2012 at 11:21pm

Hey, if you see a game called "Ironclad tactics“ would you mind checking it out? It's made by my favorite Indy dev.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/31/2012 at 03:45am

I will. Noted to check out.

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Spright Art in Our First Terraria Server

Tungsten recently mined out the ground under the new user house in our Cheerful Ghost Terraria game. WhiteboySlim, panickedthumb and I are marveling at its awesomeness.

Check it out for yourself, in the caverns under the newb house. Thanks Tungsten, its rad.

For more information on how you can play Terraria with us:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/421

Happy Retro Tuesday!

Join The Cheerful Ghost Terraria Game Starting this

Join The Cheerful Ghost Terraria Game Starting this Thursday!

To celebrate this retro Tuesday, WhiteboySlim and I had an idea. Lets run a Cheerful Ghost Terraria server for two weeks and kick it all off this Thursday @ 8pm PST. If you are a Terraria newb or long time player, feel free to join us. Ill be in game explaining the ropes to new people as I build my house and start a mine. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

The Main Details:

When: Cheerful Ghost Terraria starting this July 26th @ 8PM PST

Where: The game will be accessible @ terraria.cheerfulghost.com port 7777.

How long? This server will last two weeks. This is to see how it went... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 07/25/2012 at 05:32am

As you can probably guess since it was partly my idea, I will be there Thursday night. :) If we get a couple people on I say we try spawning a boss and see if we can take it down.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/25/2012 at 05:36am

Do bosses mess with your houses? If not, I am in!

Travis Admin wrote on 07/25/2012 at 04:01pm

I am so in, but as I til Jon last night, I am east coast so getting there on opening night will be a stretch.

I had no idea there were bosses in this game. It seems pretty deep for such a small game.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 07/25/2012 at 04:28pm

Bosses don't destroy structures as far as I know. Plus I'm pretty sure we can control where they spawn so we can spawn it somewhere away from the starting zone. So far the only boss I fought was the Eye of Cthulhu.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/25/2012 at 05:51pm

From all I read last night you can control the spawn of bosses unless you burrow to the wall of flesh. That guy is just underground somewhere.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 07/25/2012 at 08:17pm

The wall of flesh has a spawn condition too. You have to throw a guide voodoo doll in lava to make it spawn. The only boss I have spawned by accident is also the only boss I've fought, lol. The Eye of Cthulhu spawns when you reach a certain amount of health, but once you defeat him he won't spawn again until you use an item to spawn him.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/26/2012 at 12:29am

Good to know.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/26/2012 at 03:41am

Guys. This game is awesome.

I played with Jon for about an hour last night, that was my first time really playing it, and so far I'm up to about 3 hours total and I am *so* hooked.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/26/2012 at 04:01am

Yep, it really is. Blew me away how kick ass it is.

Will be fun starting the server tomorrow for the next few weeks!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/26/2012 at 09:56pm

This looks fun... I might see if my computer can handle it in a week or so.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/26/2012 at 10:07pm

It doesn't require much to run.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 07/26/2012 at 10:31pm

My computer is pretty old (approaching 5 years if it hasn't already hit that mark) and it runs it just fine. It's not a very resource intensive game.

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Cheerful Ghost Blog

Lets Play: New Site Design

State of The Ghost: 3.0

Happy Halloween!

A few weeks ago I was able to volunteer at the Portland

When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I Had to Volunteer!

Dear PAX, Yep. Thats me up there lounging in a Riot Games

Leaving for PAX Prime in Seattle Tomorrow!

Spright Art in Our First Terraria Server

Join The Cheerful Ghost Terraria Game Starting this

To everyone in the United States, Happy 4th of July!