The PlayHaven Blog

Archive for September, 2009

PlayHaven Editor 2.0 (and much more!)

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

We have finally released the long-awaited version 2.0 of our editor with many major enhancements as well as numerous other fixes and features to the site. I’d like to briefly in this post go into a little detail about a couple of the new features.

PlayHaven Editor 2.0

New Features include an enhanced table block based off suggestions from our guide writers, enhanced notice blocks, and other revisions to existing blocks. One important thing to note is this version was completely re-written from the ground up to be portable enough to apply it to other types of documents than guides/FAQs. This includes the new Reviews feature, and many more down the line. We’d love feedback on this new editor – post in our forums letting us know how we can make it better!

Reviews

Guides are extremely useful – but that’s only after you have bought the game. What about if you want to know whether or not it’s a good game to buy? We have applied the new editor to allowing everyone now to publish reviews based off their favorite games. Scores will be submitted and averaged on a scale of 5 and later down the line, you guys will also have the option to quick review the games initially and write the full review later.

Forums and Discussion

Our forums has received a significant upgrade as well. While before it was a barebones system, it is now evolving to include many features you might expect in a typical forum. This includes sticky posts, locked posts, moderation, edits, and others. We will be continually adding more features down the line to make it the best gaming forum out there.

I’d like to mention that in order to consolidate all the discussion going around in the site into one place, we have migrated all comments in guides into the forums. We feel that this will not only give you guide more exposure, but more feedback as well from your readers. When someone leaves a comment on your guide, our friendly PlayHaven Bot will create a new topic for you about your guide – you may then at any time ‘claim’ this topic as your own by clicking a link in the thread.

Games and Profile

We have enhanced your individual dashboard pages to more easily manage your guides, reviews, etc. Also, we have semi-revamped the game and platform pages to provide a much better UI experience. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please let me know.

The Future

There are MANY more things to come in the coming weeks. We encourage ya’ll to try out as many of the features as possible and help us though feedback and bug reports. If there’s anything you would like to see, we’d love to hear it as well!

Today is Scribblenauts Day!

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

In celebration of Scribblenauts’ launch today, the entire PlayHaven team is wearing the rooster hat (except Ray, because he is not a team player).

Kurtiss, Stephen, and Erik wearing the rooster hat :)

Kurtiss, Stephen, and Erik wearing the rooster hat :)

PlayHaven’s development will also be on a temporary halt for the next week as the entire team is addicted to the new game.

Ok, fine… just kidding.  But at least no updates will be out tonight :P

Expect many Scribblenauts guides from us!  And of course, if you want to talk anything Scribblenauts, talk to us on the forum!

Happy Labor Day!

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

In the spirit of Labor Day, I’d like to give you guys a sneak peek of what it is like to work at the PlayHaven’s office  :)   The attached photo is eyao’s work space!

eyao's office space.  Gotta have some gaming posters and action figu

eyao's office space. Gotta have some gaming posters and action figures at a gaming startup!

There many exciting new features coming out in the next week or so (including Guide Editor 2.0!), and we are working hard to get them ready for you.  I hope you guys are enjoying the rest of your long weekend, and stay tuned!