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As a conclusion: that wouldn't change anything for the community members. Yet, it would be a big improvement for newcomers. I think the forums are too "hidden" withing the site. That would actually be an enhancement.
Oh, and I'm not grabbing WRK's enhancements just because he suggested them. It's just that they are exactly what I had on mind for the website for the last several years.

While I think the forums are easy enough to reach from the main website, they could be quicker to get to and I agree with what Monsieur OUXX said. I never visit the main site unless I need to download the client again. I have the 'view recent posts on the forum' link bookmarked and I reach the games from links in the relevant thread.

A complete overhaul is probably not necessary but it wouldn't put me off as I spend most of my time in the forums anyway. As it stands some thought into the usability of the current homepage could only help the newcomer and may be beneficial for developers:

• Home and AGS serve very similar purposes at the moment - I think features should be more prominent
• It's not clear you have to go to AGS to find the help section or features
• The Resources links go off site and - visually at least - appear to be outdated
• For developers, adding a game seems to be very low priority given where the link is
• I really like the news link which pulls in from the blog (why not a link to the Blog proper?) and think more could be done to highlight these community activities like the competitions and the podcast (while still keeping them in the forums)
  

I really like the mockup as it looks very clean and enticing like a lot of other development tool landing pages i've been on. Yes, it's a style i've seen before and i'd say there are lots of other examples we could also use as inspiration, but it's very easy on the eyes. Only thing i'd say with this style is to prioritise what is above the fold as items will inevitably disappear below the scroll bars and/or beyond the viewing area of mobile devices.

EDIT: Not saying it's the best example, or even better than what we have depending on your preferences, but this is the homepage of another dev tool i've dabbled with. I like that the key elements prospective developers would be interested in - Features, Tools, Help, Download - are immediately accessible and there's good use of whitespace.

Good god I'd kill for a Wadjet Eye Dresden game

This, oh hell yes, this!

Great podcast as always guys - keep the humour in the workplace

Wow, this is looking fantastic! The backgrounds are gorgeous and the animation is very smooth. I can see this being a real pleasure just to move around in. Keep up the great work

There were some issues still to resolve but it's looking wonderful I'm constantly amazed at the creativity and ingenuity of folks around here and the AGS Awards just seem to go from strength to strength. Good job Snarky!

Glad to see this coming to fruition, i've been following the devblog updates and caught one of devshow streams (are these archived online anywhere?) Here   which have been a pleasure to see. Super happy it will be on Mac too

Preordered!

[do some sponsored walking]

1) I rather enjoy walking so looking to do some sponsored walking to raise funds for a charity close to my heart. I've found a London to Brighton one though that might be a bit ambitious. If anyone knows of any other UK-based treks I'm all ears.

2) Do more volunteering. Just finished a volunteering project on New Year's Eve with a Charity that works with people with learning difficulties, and looking to get involved in more activities with the same organisation. Currently on night watch duty in a homeless shelter as I write this so getting the year off to a good start.

3) Make a game. Preferably a MAGS since I have so many abandonned attempts lying around.

4) Attend AdventureX this year since it transpired that I couldn't make it last time despite my promises

Happy New Year everyone

Enjoy everyone, i'll be making my way down on sunday

Thanks guys

They should get their toshes up to AdventureX, see you already commented about that. Good job

Yep, done! Complete with in-your-face html code because i'm so clever #fail

Hey everyone,

Some students from my old university are crowd-funding for an artist for a new project: a point and click adventure game made with Stencyl.

From the Crowdfunder page:

Star Catcher is a point and click exploration game with a fairy-tale feel set in a beautiful, Victorian-style fantasy world.

You have spent your entire life so far growing up at the People's Planetarium in Capital City. The world you know is filled with technological wonders all made possible with the potent energy of starlight which powers these modern machines.

You have a very special and important job of Star Catcher. Like all of the other children who live with you in the Planetarium, you were raised and provided for by the Planetarium's officials and in exchange for this happy and comfortable childhood you work for the city as a Star Catcher. Most Star Catchers are young children like you, chosen specifically for this job because starlight is naturally attracted to the happiness and innocence of childhood. However, you dream of seeing more than just the inside of the Planetarium and hope to explore the city and know it's secrets, and the stars whisper stories to you of faraway places and distant adventures.

I don't know these students personally but I like the idea enough to want to bring it to more people's attention

They are trying to raise £2,000 by 22nd December to fund another artist. There is already some beautiful concept art and a short video on the Crowdfunded website. On top of that, it's one of the projects in the Queen of Code campaign to promote female game developers, and that can only be a good thing.

They are aiming for a release next year and the game will be free, playable on the web. If it sounds of interest, please do take a look.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/star-catcher-a-point-and-click-game/

I'm liking the mention of Mary King's Close, it's one of the better Edinburgh ghost tours to go on.

We went to Hastings recently and the St Clement's Caves there; It's a set of tunnels carved into the rock face but with little arches for lanterns, columns and even a little chapel. It was used by smugglers to hide their haul in. They would bring stuff in by boat and have runners ('tubmen') run it up from the beach to the caves before the customs men could catch them. I think the tunnels may also have seen use during the World Wars if I remember correctly, and at one time they even had dances down there..

Nice idea faerieevenstar, and good start with the graphics:)

The Fifth Elephant?...I mean...The Fifth Element?

That even.. I will crawl back in my hole now..

At last something I recognise anddd.. nope, it's gone.. I can't remember what it is..

I want to say Flintstones but it's not (that one looks more like a wild boar)

Doh.. just my luck not checking the page before. It's Blade Runner as Baron said

After writing two furious replies (that I didn't send), I finally replied with a sensible breakdown of the work I believe I have done to date

That's the best piece of advice I could give to anyone who uses email at work. There's always a great temptation to respond quickly to any email - especially the ones that ruffle your feathers - but you won't do yourself any favours. Definitely go for a walk to clear your head first.

Dear AGSers, please indulge me with your stories of horrible bosses. Or nice bosses.

I've been very lucky with the bosses i've had: they were either very hands off - trusting me to get the job done - or very approachable. Of course there have been one or two that I didn't gel with, and i've seen my share of bullying from those in authority, but thankfully not directly (although that can be just as frustrating). Thankfully i'm in a happier place now and relatively unscathed.

My most recent boss is amazing, to put it mildly. For starters he's a very interesting and knowledgeable guy and we have a lot of the same interests, which always helps, but he's also not afraid to get his hands dirty and will always make time for people. It never feels like he's up in a lofty tower in some rigid hierarchy. He also thinks very logically and will regularly work through problems with the team, brainstorming and throwing ideas around. I'm one of the lucky ones.

This will be because your security settings will be set to either Mac App Store or Mac App Store and Identified Developers.

Go into Preferences > Security & Privacy > General tab and there will be an option to 'run anyway' the app you just tried to run.

Edit: Oh and there is 1 emerald coin hidden in each set of levels. If you decide you want to search for them.

Ah, think I found one by accident when I fell to the bottom of a watery ditch. I wondered what that was all about, lol

I think you're in the right place, yes

It looks great, I like the chunky pixel graphics and the little Lion Pig looks SO sweet!!

I've only played the first few levels up to 2.2 but liking it so far. There's a lot of variety from what I can see in your videos so looking forward to playing more.

For some reason no sound plays for me.. It may be my phone throwing its toys out the pram though as it works on my iPad so will keep trying. I'll try to get the device logs but if no-one else reports anything don't worry about it. I did try fiddling with the sound levels in the options menu to no avail. I would say that those sliders are really hard to touch on iPhone though.

That aside, the only minor suggestions I do have are to make the climbing onto wall animation a little faster, and have the level select focus on the page you got to. As I didn't remember that the last locked box was the bonus level, I played through the last 1.* level again when I restarted the game. It was only after a couple of times of that that I twigged that I needed to press the right arrow to move to the next page. If that makes sense?

Overall though, very impressed. I like story in my games but there's something to be said for these old school games that just get down to business from the off. It's a solid little platformer and looks great on iPhone. Also it's a lion pig. What's not to like?

Great, idea. I have some time this weekend too so will try to look at some of these.

FYI the link for the first game on the unrated list - 'Adventure Game' Demo - is down, however this looks like the same game as the third one on the list - Adventure Game Demo - which is up on AGSArchives. The link to the second game - A.L.I - is also down. Looks like these have been migrated to AGSArchives so never mind!

Done Monkey's Survey Monkey Survey..thing

Interestingly I can tell right away that i've almost completely moved to digital downloads rather than retail copies purely for convenience.

Count me in for this one - I still have fond memories of the first and only AdventureX I managed to attend back in 2011 Watching videos of the last two i'm super excited for this one. There's a hashtag and everything

It looks like AdventureX is going from strength to strength, well done Mark. Give me a shout if I can do anything to help since i'm London based.