jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2755 Posts

It looks like Nintendo will be partnering with McDonalds to bring us Mario Kart 8 happy meal toys. Now I haven't set foot in a McDonalds in years but this might be thing that gets me to head back.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/06/mario_kart_8_toys_boosting_into_mcdonalds_happy_meals

Redbull has an interesting article on the history of the video game cheat code. Some of this information is well known and some isn't but it's still neat to see it laid out well.

http://www.redbull.com/en/games/stories/1331660993180/the-history-of-the-cheat-code


http://i.imgur.com/hDklG.png
This post is pretty technical and if you are not interested in learning more about the specifics of web applications, pass it by.

Making a website like Cheerful Ghost isn't too hard but it does takes time. When I first launched it I was proud of it and over the last few years I have improved it. Two ways the site lacked at launch was in terms of SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and social site sharing. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is basically the art of engineering your website in such a way that it is more attractive to search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. The more search results you show up in the more people come to your site and the better your site does. At first I simply thought that I all I needed to do was focus on writing great original content and that alone would incentivize Google to give us a great search ranking. Whereas it's awesome to focus on great original content like we do, it's not quite the silver bullet I thought it would be.

So I started the long process of a ton of little improvements that have improved our SEO.

Unique Post Titles Make Google Happy

Cheerful Ghost requires everyone to select a game from their list when they post to the site. When the site first launched we didn't allow people the ability to add titles to posts so all games contained a heading like "Travis's Post on Terraria" or "Adym's Post on Skyrim." Because of this requirement each post about Skyrim or Terraria effectively had the same title. So if Travis wrote about Terraria 25 times each of his posts were titled in the exact same way. Originally I thought this was a good idea because I didn't think anyone would care about customizing their post heading. Come to find out this was not right from a user perspective as people really wanted to personalize the post by providing a title, but this also sucked for Google too. Google thought a lot of our content was spammy because it contained the same title and as such our SEO score was pretty bad.

After enough people asked to create custom post titles I decided to change this. Initially I was skeptical as I thought people were simply asking for something they wouldn't really use. Apparently I was wrong because they added them to each post. Not only that but Google started scoring us better and as such, we got more hits per month.

This is So Meta

When Google crawls Cheerful Ghost it checks the HTML and embedded in that HTML are two meta properties that Google uses for search results. One is the title tag, which in Cheerful Ghost's case is populated with the post title and the META Description which is populated with the post body. These show up in Google as the page title and description, but don't take my word for it. In Google Chrome you can check this out by clicking "View / Developer / View Source" on the following page:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2021/interview-w-alex-preston-creator-of-hyper-light-drifter

Search engines love titles and descriptions that naturally flow from the content of the page as do people searching for content as they can use them to find the content they want.

Human Readable URL's Are Magic

Another SEO trick I have heard about for quite some time and got around to implementing recently are user readable URL's. It's easier to show it off so i'll paste one below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/2106/terraria-the-animated-series-episode-1

Basically, we put the post title in the URL. Not only does this allow the user to know what they can expect by looking at the URL before they click, Google also seems to love it too. When I created Cheerful Ghost I wanted our URL's to be meaningful by design to allow the user to know something about the content. By visually parsing that URL you know that Travis wrote it, it's post 2106 and now, what the post is about.

But we don't just do it for posts, we do it for events too.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/events/58/steam-summer-sale

And games.

http://cheerfulghost.com/game/24017/monsters-ate-my-birthday-cake

So not only can a user visually understand what is going on, but Google loves it too.

After adding relevant text for the content at the end of the URL and updating the Cheerful Ghost sitemap to reflect this we have seen a very significant jump in the pages Google now holds in it's search index for Cheerful Ghost but also a jump in search listings and clicks. It's hard to say how significant right now, but the numbers keep going up so in a few months i'll know with greater detail.

Incremental Improvements Over Time

There is no silver bullet to making a website that does well online. I think it's a bunch of things starting with a simple design, awesome content, a great community and a solid set of technology. If I hear about a new thing that I add to the site that makes things better, I do a bit of research on it and if it makes sense I incorporate it into what we do. After that I use analytics to determine how effective it was. If it works, I keep doing it and if it doesn't I rip it out.

As I learn more about what works i'll let you know.


In this thrilling episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about the 2014 Steam Summer Sale, E3 and PC gaming. We start everything fresh talking a bit about what we are drinking and what we've been playing.


http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/r/story/70/00/028578/ubuntu1404-620x465.png
If you were like me then when you heard Valve was delaying Steam Machines to 2015 you were bummed. We might not be able to buy our shiny new hardware yet BUT that doesn't mean you can't play around with the next best thing. Valve's Steam Machines will run on top of SteamOS, a modified version of Linux. Valve has made SteamOS publicly available BUT it's not the easiest thing to install yet. In the meantime you can get your feet wet with Linux using the next best thing, Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that has been around for a few years and as it currently sits, i'd argue it's the easiest way to run a Linux Desktop. It also has the added benefit of being one of the easiest ways to install Steam on Linux as Valve directly supports it.

So if you want to try Steam on Ubuntu to get a feel Linux and what SteamOS might look like, head over to the Ubuntu site and download an install DVD image.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

I recommend installing Ubuntu on a computer that you don't mind wiping. You can run a dual boot setup, but unless you want to possibly screw up your machine, I wouldn't recommend it. If you have the extra hardware use that. The install process is pretty painless and all told I find installing Ubuntu much simpler than Windows.

After installing Ubuntu you will need to install the proper video card driver. Ubuntu has a nice wiki outlining the steps you need to take.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto

After your video card drivers are setup all you need to do is install Steam. Under Ubuntu it's a very similar process to Windows, go to the Steam website click download and install the file from the Steam website. After you do that, the Steam icon will appear in the doc and click to run it. After the updates, you authenticate into Steam and pick your game to install and play.

If you don't have a spare machine lying around you can also choose to install Ubuntu inside a virtual machine. A virtual machine is a program that lets you run a "guest Operating System" inside your current one. So you could run Ubuntu inside your Windows Desktop using a Virtual Machine. If you are interested in going this route there are a few things to consider. First off you will need space on your hard drive for the guest OS. So if you wanted to use 20 gigs for Ubuntu, you would need 20 gigs of spare space on your hard drive. Also, Virtualization isn't as fast as running a native Operating System so performance suffers some. Also, the guest OS must share the resources of the parent computer so games don't run very well. Some 2D and 3D games can work OK, but you will __NOT__ be pulling 60 FPS on Call of Duty.

If you are interested in Virtualization, I recommend downloading Virtual Box.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

I have recently updated my Ubuntu install to the latest version 14.04 and to date, it is the most polished Linux Desktop i've ever used. It handles everything I can throw at it from listening to music, watching videos and now playing a ton of games through Steam. Linux really does just about everything anyone could need except running Windows only applications like Photoshop and certain Video Editing applications(That said you can use Wine to get a ton of Windows applications to work). That said, I don't do a ton of that stuff, so for me, it's totally fine.

When I look at PC gaming and it's future and see how Microsoft is changing what Windows is, I am not impressed. Valve putting it's weight behind Linux as a viable gaming platform is a great thing and sooner or later it will be viable for many to switch to using Linux exclusively. It's already a great option for some and if you are interested in checking it out, I seriously recommend you do because it's a good time to try it out.


"Should gamers care about net neutrality? If you're someone who uses the internet on a regular basis (and I'm betting you are), you should make yourself aware of the current Net Neutrality debate. The FCC is considering new rules in which internet providers could charge companies (like Steam, Sony or Microsoft) for a "fast lane", the costs of which could be passed on to the consumer (YOU). With so many gamers downloading, playing, streaming online, what could this "fast lane" environment do to gaming as we know it?"

In the latest Game/Show Jamin makes a really good point about net neutrality and gaming. One of my biggest "gaming fears" is a bandwidth cap in a world where games like Wolfenstein: The New Order are 40 gigs to download on Steam. I don't mind downloading stuff all day, but I would mind if Comcast started charging me more if I went over a bandwith cap.

What do you think, does gaming need net neutrality or should "the free market" decide our fate?


Hold on to your butts, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is coming to mobile on June 26th and Steam July 1st. It will run you $3.99 on iOS and Android and $14.99 on Steam for all your PC HD needs.

I took a test drive of the Monsters Kickstarter backer beta a few months ago so if you are interested in that clicky, click.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1938/monsters-ate-my-birthday-cake-early-preview-is-fantastic

And we also did a few interviews with them over the last year that you might fill your cake hole for the next few weeks.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/919/interview-w-sleep-ninja-games-justin-baldwin
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1887/monsters-ate-my-birthday-cake-min-terview-w-justin-baldwin


Seems hack free and also contains a strange set of actions to achieve. I wish we have the source for these old games so I could find out what game state triggers this bug.

That said, 2014 and the game community is still discovering more about Super Mario Brothers.



Even though SteamOS and the Steam Controller is being pushed to 2015 it seems some companies are still moving forward to design products built around the Steam ecosystem. Intro the Steamboy, a new project meant to bring all the amazing awesomery of your Steam catalog to a handheld device.

They've released a trailer and it's fairly impressive. That said, after I watched it I was a bit skeptical. Valve has pushed back it's Steam Machines till 2015 and now we hear about a Steam based handheld? Not to say I don't want one, but i'll hold off on my excitement until I hear a few more details.

http://www.steamboymachine.com/


If you follow Cheerful Ghost news, it's no surprise that I am looking forward to buying a Steam Machine. Alienware just dropped the details of it's Alienware Alpha that is shipping this holiday season.

"The Alienware Alpha console will ship with Windows 8.1 which, through a custom software interface exclusive to Alienware, can be easily navigated with the included Xbox 360 controller — no mouse or keyboard required. The Alpha console is also SteamOS and Steam Controller READY, and designed to easily integrate with the highly anticipated launch of each.

The Alienware Alpha console will start at $549, and will begin shipping in time for the 2014 Holiday Season.
"

Well, yeah, it makes sense that Alienware has decided to continue on with it's console efforts even though Valve has put off the official launch of SteamOS and it's Steam Controller till 2015. In the meantime, it seems Alienware is moving full speed ahead on it's console and has decided to replace SteamOS with Windows 8.1 and a XBox 360 controller.

You might think Alienware might be ditching SteamOS or the Steam controller and according to them, that is absolutely not the case and according to a recent Forbes interview with Alienware they said...

“Steam Machines aren’t dead, they are absolutely pursuing SteamOS and the controller 100%,” my Alienware rep explained. “They refuse to release something that is not ready, and we commend them for that. But we want similar things: For the PC gamer to choose what the hell they want and play how they want to play.”

Alienware has also talked a bit about the internals of the Alpha in that it will consist of user replaceable components and a custom build nvidia GPU. I imagine the reason for a custom GPU is to make it fit in the small case and for this reason it doesn't seem replaceable. That said, the Alpha will also ship with an Intel CPU, 4GB DDR3 memory & 500GB hard drive.

All told I was pretty bummed when I heard Valve was pushing back it's Steam Machine efforts a year but it seems Alienware is still moving forward and I think that's a good idea. Alienware has said the hardware will ship SteamOS and Steam Controller ready so if you want to go ahead and get it, you can use it as a proper Steam Machine later. The launch price for the Alienware Alpha will be $549.

http://www.alienware.com/landings/alpha/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/06/11/alienwares-alpha-is-a-gaming-pc-with-the-dna-of-a-console-and-its-the-real-deal/