HeavenGames Tech Blog

There are MASSIVE plans to change everything at HG. This includes ditching the forum, downloads, content management, news, ladder, polling, etc. software and rewriting everything so they all tie together and be able to be managed from a single place while maintaining ease of use and simplicity. Visitors will see new things as all the services finally talk to each other – so that you’re not going to ten different places looking for different things about this one user (like ladder rankings, files uploaded, forum posts made, etc. etc. etc.) In addition to the whole slew of forum features ranging from private messages to thread subscriptions, we are also paying attention to the little things going on in our sites and seeing how people are going about trying to get those things done. In doing so we’ll be able to write better software to help them do these things faster, more efficient, and may I dare say, in a fun way now that AJAX is upon us.

However, HG also costs around $900/month (if I remember correctly) to run. I can’t speak for our financial well-being as of this moment, as someone else is in charge of that (that someone else will also tell you that he doesn’t know the technical well being of HG as of this very moment because I*’m in charge of that – we each have our roles), but, if I recall correctly, our monthly ad revenues from just banners and skyscrapers sometimes doesn’t cover the full $900. So we need extra revenue to make sure the bills get paid, make sure our cash reserves are replenished, and make sure we allow for the monthly fluctuations in ad sales.

On top of that, it was decided that HeavenGames couldn’t grow and be able to support all the sites and still be able to upgrade and update all our software (forum software being a prime example of this, as well as the fact that we’re still using *Newspro 3.8 for our news engine) without people working for us full time. But all of us are volunteers and can’t put in full time for HeavenGames, so a plan was devised to get additional funding so we can bring you all the new services, as well as working on those plans we really want to to get to.

Thus, our first hire was Scott (TGE), back in March of 2005. He’s Heavengame’s Marketing Director. Along with that title he’s also taken on the responsibilies of maintaining relations with our Developers, Publishers, Staff, and Visitors; He’s also in charge of bringing more previews/reviews to HeavenGames Main (as evidenced by the constant flow of games… in fact he needs good preview/reviewers… if you’re interested, contact him with some of your work, preferably a preview/review of a game), and he’s also in charge of getting us better prizes (as mentioned before) for our contests, which has been a major sore point in HG’s existence. His primary job is to get HG some additional funding. We like what we’re seeing so far, so he’s doing a great job.

[ Sidenote: It was noted by some that you can’t surely be a HG staff member and not post on the forums – he does. However, OD isn’t really a gaming forum – it’s on HGMain, and HGMain has its own gaming discussions forum, so while TGE’s new to some of you guys, I can assure you he’s a old familiar face on other sites. (TGE: “What do you mean, I’m OLD?!” Zen: “It’s figurative speech.” TGE: “Oh. Carry on then!”) ]

The funding is needed so we can have a small team of people working full time on HG so that we meet the growing needs of our staff. Currently Pecunia and I are in charge of getting all our sites up to date with HTML standards and a consistent design (better looking… people on AOE3H, RTWH, etc. will be pleased, I hope), as well as coding some of the software that’ll be part of the massive project. I’m currently freelancing as a webdesigner/photographer when I’m not working for HeavenGames, but once the opportunity and money is there I’ll be able to go Full Time. My plan is to get at least two more full-time programmers on board, as well as a part-time graphics designer and illustrator to achieve what we want to do. (but hey, on that graphics designer/illustrator part, if you want experience and want to volunteer… email me!)

Business is business, and HG wouldn’t have survived this long on the the internet without having a business side to it – one that functions well and has foresight to keep us aloat. That foresight back in 2000 saved us from when the dot-com bubble burst. With that said, I have to say Spineman, our fearless leader (‘CEO’) and financials manager (‘CFO’), has managed HG’s financials extremely well.

Lastly, I know this has been a point of issue with some staffers in that HG often holds its plans close to its heart, leaving staff to speculate a lot as to what exactly is going on. We haven’t really diverged any plans as we’ve been busy formulating a plan to correct existing problems and still be able to grow at a gradual, healthy place. We’re working on addressing that issue (including spreading the fact that I won’t eat your first born, to paraphrase Soccy, when you talk to me), as well as working on bringing back some of that community feeling that was so attractive to me and other staffers when we first joined as users some 7 years ago. Look for some more communiques from us in the future.

- Forum matters mentioned in this thread – The way OD has been allowed to exist is always a point of tension with the rest of HG’s sites, and we’re currently exploring ways to reconcile that difference. As for most of the forum matters in the log – they are internal problems, and we have been working to address those – you will be hearing about them soon.

I hope this addresses some of your concerns. I’m not as intimidating as I appear to be, and you’re always free to send me questions over email about HeavenGames, or ask me in the #heavengames IRC chatroom. Also, we’re currently soliciting feature suggestions and enhancements for just about anything, so if there’s anything you’d like to see added to HeavenGames, or things that will make your surfing and participation easier on HeavenGames, we would like to hear about it.

-Zen