GMTech Magazine » Forum

Changes For The Better

GMTech — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:59:31 +0000

Work is going good, after a few months off relaxing, we are back together trying to put together another fantastic issue for you all to read. Last week we mentioned some of the changes that were made to the forum and now we are going to guide you through a couple of the changes that were made to the magazine. We have selected a few things that we feel that you think you would be interested in and we have opted to leave a few for next week or even the release.

First off, we’ve changed the way we do reviews now. We used to guarantee a review if someone posted their game in the Review/Preview forum but this is no longer the case. The reasons for this is that a large back log was starting to appear due to issue delays and also because we wanted to give the reviewers more freedom. Reviewers can now review any game they want (though we will continue to aim to offer a wide range of games featured), from any website, by anyone. Hopefully this will increase the diversity and, as people generally prefer to review fun games, the possibly of higher quality games for you to play. You can still submit your game into the forum and there’s the possibility that a reviewer will want to review it, as has happened to Adrenaline.

Another thing, due to overwhelming public demand (ie. Phil Gamble said he liked the concept in a previous issue) we’ll be having another competition round up featuring short reviews of some games entered for YYG Comp 04.

We also have some nice exclusives lined up for you, such as a straight talking interview, a review of a game that recently went commercial and a letter from someone really close to Game Maker, but we’ll keep them a secret so as not to spoil the surprise.

So, the big question – When will the issue be out? For now, I’ll just say in the next few weeks, bearing in mind that we have only picked up work again in the last couple of weeks. However, when we have all the articles we want for issue 15 and have begun to start polishing up for release we will update you right away.

We sadly say goodbye to one of our writers RedChu. With increasing schoolwork and decreasing free time he decided that he could no longer contribute regularly so has resign from being a writer. We wish him well in whatever he does in the future.

For anyone interested in joining as a Writer then that would be great as it is an area where we are currently lacking and it means that members of the team have to work extremely hard to get things in. The more team members we have in that area, the easier it will be for everyone. You can apply by visiting the forums, here.

New Year, New Theme – New GMTech

GMTech — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:03:07 +0000

2009 has already began and the improvements on GMTech are following suit. A GM magazine releasing more than six issues, that was probably a shock to many people, however fourteen – that was something special. But we aren’t done yet, after over two years of making this magazine we have began to understand the wants and needs of you our readers and as always we launch this year with changes to the magazine in order to successful survive another year of this hard business.

GMTech Forum

The new forum look is upon us, we regularly look around and try to update the look and feel of the forum by setting up new themes and by installing new modifications. Following on from the winter theme we had for the last month, we opted to go for a theme that looked a lot like Microsoft Office and after asking the opinions of many members it was 50/50 on those who loved it and those who hated it. Well we hope that after seeing and using it for a few days that you will begin to like it more and appreciate how well it goes with the GMTech website and look of the GMTech issues. If not, then I will happily look around for another theme that will work better and keep you coming back.

Along with the new look we have also installed several modifications to allow for an even better feel to the forum, many of which were trialled on the winter theme and a few of which have just be installed along with the new theme. In the post area you will see a drop down menu for the colour, font face and font size, this allows you to select from several options to increase the appearance of your messages. You can now also write in the ‘Reason for edit’ box, if you are making an edit to your post and can change the ‘Message Icon’ a lot easier thanks to the new way it is laid out. The Advanced Visual Verification system has been upgraded to one that works, the previous would have went unnoticed by many of you, however a few members of the team were having troubles actually making posts and sending Private Messages – now that isn’t good. URL Popup and Increase/Decrease Postbox Size were two modifications added to allow you to make links to other websites/blogs etc a lot easier and increase the size of the postbox saving you from having to scroll down. Finally the latest modification that has been added is titled ‘OnOffAvatar’, quite simply it puts a green box around the posters avatar if they are online, and if they are offline it will display a gray ring. This way you can clearly see who is online and who is offline, not really needed – but it does add some colour to an otherwise ‘blue’ theme

Those are the changes to the forum and there are more to come over the next few months. We plan to change the website theme, however we are still struggling to find one that will top the current one.

This also marks the first of the GMTech’s weekly updates, so that is all until next week (or less if something really good happens).

Can We Start Again?

GMTech — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:04:38 +0000

The GMTech Forum is not back to it’s former glory. The original plan was to get it launched at the same time as the website, however there was a further delay with getting some more recent backups of the forum. If you registered on the forum that was hosted on the previous server, then you may be able to use the same login details here. This is because backup is over one month old, it was made on September 1st (more recent backups were made, however they were corrupted and didn’t contain the forum). Sorry about the trouble caused by this.

Since some of the content on the forum is needed for Issue 14 and future issues, we may end up with heavily delayed issues. I know much of Issue 14 is together, however a few more pieces are needed and those were located on the forum. If your able to help get us back on track, the best thing to do is to apply to be a writer or reviewer. Check out the Submit section for more information on that.

As you know, we email users through our mailing list system as soon as a there is a new issue or some important updates. Due to the server move we still need to get this setup, but I can assure you that we will get that ready very soon. Then you may need to register again before your able to receive updates (due to us not getting backups). If you haven’t take the time to register, then keep a look out for my next post which will contain information on how to signup.

If you submitted a game for review and it was tagged as Issue 15, 16 or later, can you please submit it again.

Thanks for your patience.

RSS Feed

GMTech — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:38:06 +0000

Currently we have two RSS feeds that you can use. You have a choice of using the one that is for posts on the site, or the one that is for posts (announcements) on the forum.

I suggest that you all update your RSS feeds to http://gmtech.vlexo.net/feed/ or http://gamemakertech.info/feed/. Even though the same announcements will be posted on the forum and the website, the way the WordPress RSS feed is set up makes it more attractive to you. Also the website may contain some exclusive look at content, interviews with the team and other game creators. So it will be beneficial for you, to use the GMTech Website feed.

Forum Update

I am still in the process of retrieving the latest possible backups for the forum, mailing list and downloads section. However I hope that these pages will be online again in the next two weeks. The problem is that there is trouble contacting the main server provider, therefore they can’t pay the balance and thus the server won’t be turned on. Just keep checking the site, and you should be updated shortly.

Rating System Update

With YoYo Games announcing an update to their rating system, I can also reveal that we will also be changing our current system. We hope that the changes that we aim to make in a few issues time will lead to creators and gamers getting an even better understand of our thoughts towards their games. Also with some news that there are 23,000 completed games on the YYG site – lets hope they don’t all submit them to us at once as we are a little low on reviewers and writers. If you want to apply, make your way to the submit page and find out how. With the forum being offline you can use the contact form to send through your questions.

Post any comments you have

GMTech is Back

GMTech — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:36:46 +0000

That is right, GMTech is back online – better than ever. Following some more server troubles with our host that we were with for around eight months, we have returned to Vlexo.

New Website
Since I was unable to recover some parts of the old GMTech website, I have decide that it would be best to change things around. Not only have we returned to our old host, but we have also returned to WordPress (WP). Using WP will allow the website to be updated easier, and more often. You will also see several members of the GMTech team posting blogs here about games, you will get to see reviews, articles, and even some exclusives before there in the issue.

Members now have the option of posting any comments they have, something that was available on the old site – however wasn’t set up in the best way.

New Forum
Due to the fact that I was unable to recover some parts of the forum. I was able to recover some topics that were on the forum for a long time, by searching through several backups, but not all. So I apologise if your account has been deleted however if you were one of the luck people, then you should still be able to get access into your account.

Following the rebuild of the forum you would be glad to know that you will able to receive several privileges by registering on the forum, such as;

Chance to win several prizes in our prize draws
Exclusive look at content, before anyone else
Chance to submit your questions for exclusive interviews
Chance to play exclusive games

The forum is currently offline, until I fully sort everything out.

Issue Fourteen
As you probably guess this will be slightly delayed, following the forum being down for a few days. It was a real shame as this was on full production, but as there was no access to the forum it meant several bits of content from the team and other people were unable to get through fast enough. When it does get released, here is a taster or what will be in Issue 14;

Exclusive Insight Into: S*CORPS
Development: G3D 3D Effects Library
Development: Creating Humour in Games
Article: Making your game be seen on YYG
Article: The Development of Senseless War
Preview: Showdown Academy
Exclusive Interview: Sandy Duncan

Thank you for your patience. If you have any queries about specific articles or certain bits of content, then feel free to post. It is only by receiving your feedback that we can further improve.