Game Ratings Now Live

You may have noticed the "Community" box appearing on all of the game pages, which gives two new features:

  1. Rate This Game – Any game on the site can now be given a rating of between one and five. You don't need to register to give ratings, and the system is nice and simple. If you've played a game and you want to let other people know how great (or bad) it is, please take a few moments to rate it.
  2. Tell a Friend – Want to tell a friend about the site? Now it's as easy as filling in a simple form!

There are also several new features to be added over the coming weeks, and several areas of the site will be improved to make them more attractive and more usable. Any feedback is always welcome. In case you're wondering where all of the regular blog updates have gone, the next two issues will be released on April 9th and April 23rd respectively.

The Carnival of Video Game Bloggers

The first ever edition of the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers took place on Monday at The Collected Writings of James Newton, and if you're interested in games I highly recommend you check it out. There are some truly excellent articles, and they cover a really wide range of topics so you're bound to find something that interests you.

If you blog about games, then you should consider writing something for the next edition of the carnival. Not only do you get extra readers, but you can find some stimulating articles to read and new blogs to subscribe to.

You can submit your articles at the carnival HQ page.

The Best of the Sodaware Blog

To coincide with the redesign of the main site and blog, it's time to look back at some of the better articles that have been published.

Software Development Articles

  • Five Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started Programming

    I've learnt a lot of things since I first started programming. Some of the lessons were quite humorous, so I wrote about five of the best.

  • Issue Tracking for Indie Developers

    You can guarantee that any piece of software you write will contain bugs, but using a decent issue tracking solution can help you to keep things organised and reduce the amount of time you spend on managing your list of errors.

  • How to Ensure Your Project Fails

    There's no avoiding it – creating quality software is difficult. Managing a project of any size can be difficult, but there are a few key things you can do ensure it never gets finished.

  • Games I Designed as a Kid

    Designing games is fun, and I designed my fair share when I was younger. Very few of the concepts ever made it past a few dodgy drawings, but it was just as fun to dream about the possibilities.

  • Games That Inspired Me

    Playing great games inspired me to become a software developer. This article examines some of the most important games I ever played.

Indie Developer Interviews

Personal Development Articles

When the Sodaware blog first started, it was a mix of game development and productivity articles. As time went on, the productivity articles became less relevant to the core topic so all of the personal development articles were moved to a new website, philnewton.net.

A few of the more popular ones remain on this site, and they are:

Issue 1 - Computer Love

Hello and welcome to the first "issue" of the Sodaware Blog! There's a lot of great stuff in this issue, so we'll jump right in.

Featured Article

Computer Love

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so it's only right that we should take a look at love in computer games. Is it possible to create a feeling of love between the player and a character on screen?

Read the full article.

Also Featured

Also featured in this issue:

  • GDL - Harvest Moon – The Game Design Lessons series takes a look at "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town". What can be learnt from a game set on a farm?
  • Creating Emotions with Music – Music plays a very important role in enhancing the experience on screen. A good piece of music that compliments a scene increases the impact it has on the player. This article explores the difference good music can make in your game.
  • The Best of the Sodaware Blog – A look at some of the finer articles from the history of the Sodaware Blog.
  • What's New? – A brief look at the recent changes at Sodaware.net, as well as some information on what's in store for the next 12 months.
  • Getting Started with Subversion – An introduction to Subversion, a concurrent versioning system. How to set it up, how to use it and what to use it for.
  • Using zip files with Blitz Basic – A tutorial on using ZIP files with BlitzPlus and Blitz3D. Show's you how to unpack files from a ZIP, create new ones and also how to compress a Blitz bank.

What's new?

It's been an absolute age since the last article was published, but with good reason. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to improve the quality of the site, both for players and developers. There are still lots of new features planned for the rest of the year, and you can subscribe to our free newsletter or our RSS feed to keep updated.

One thing that really stood out whilst choosing games to promote was the high quality of the indie games available. It's sometimes said that there are far too many clones, and that the general quality of indie games is low, but I've found that to be quite a narrow view. Yes, there are lots of poor games out there, but the same can be said of commercial games. The good news is that there are lots of fun and original indie games out there.

A slightly different blog

As well as tweaking the front page, the blog has been redesigned to make it more visually appealing and the content easier to find. It's a little bit different from most blogs, but that was part of the motivation for taking this approach.

The main reason for the design is that it suits the content better. There's a lot of variety in the categories, which range from games to project planning and updates about what's happening site-wise. Breaking the visual appearance into clearer sections to highlight this content will make it easier for people to find what they're interested in.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the design, so please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch.

What does 2007 hold?

Hopefully no more redesigns! This one was more of a major tweak than a full design, but the back-end was converted from Etomite to Wordpress which took some time. Things are stable now, but it's quite likely that many smaller tweaks will be made over time.

Current plans for 2007 include the release of several tools and libraries for Blitz developers, more games on the main site and more articles posted in the blog and developer areas.

This blog will also be hosting a future installment of the “Carnival of Game Bloggers”. It's only young, but it's well worth checking out. It also has a group on the Great Games Experiment, so join up and share your gaming thoughts!