This one has been requested from the start. Now anyone who’s signed in has the ability to add new games to ArcadeFly! These still will have to be confirmed by an administrator, but after that they’ll be public on the site. If you’ve ever been adding an arcade and come across game not listed, this one is for you. You’ll be able to create the game, and add it to the arcade right away. The game won’t show up publicly in the games list for that arcade until the game itself is approved, but it will show up in the “edit games” page for an arcade to whoever edits it (so hopefully there shouldn’t be any stepping on each others toes). Also when logged in users are managing games at an arcade, all games that are in the system will be available — pending or approved. So if someone else has recently added a game, and it has not yet been approved it will show up in there.
If there’s any questions or problems with how this system works, feel free to comment here or send in your questions through the GetSatisfaction page for ArcadeFly.
Tags are just about the easiest thing possible to implement, especially in Ruby on Rails. With great plugins out there like acts_as_taggable_on_steroids, getting tags setup is a breeze. We’ve actually been accepting tags since day on arcades, but you couldn’t view a listing of all arcades tagged with a specific tag. Now all tags should be links that show a listing of arcades — making one more way to find the arcade you’re looking for, or discover a new one. For instance, if you’re looking for all arcades that are at theme parks or arcades in movie theaters it’s only a click away!
Slowly inching towards the end of phase 1 now. Over the weekend I managed to wrap up just about all the remaining login/user interactions in ways I thought were intuitive. For this project I am doing most of this myself, with the help of the RESTful Authentication rails plugin. I did run into one awkward case I should probably check on a little more though. If a user has signed up but not activated their account, and they complete the “forgotten password” form, I need to rework it. I don’t like the way RESTful authentication does this part actually. You cannot reset your password unless you have already activated your account. I’d say whenever someone changes their password also set their activation code to null, making them activated. This is sort of a side effect of changing password, but it makes sense. If soeone can change their password they should meet the conditions for activation as well.
So what does that mean…? Phase 1 will be pretty barebones unfortunately. It will be an internal release to whoever is interested in testing things out. At this point it will not be possible to add/edit games or arcades, but the functionality of registering, finding arcades close to you or games close to you is in there, as is mapping. Once I get to a good stopping point in phase 2 in the next week or so I’ll probably put it up. If you’re interested in trying out the beta, give me a heads up and I’ll send you the info.
Phase 2 will be a maintenance release. Forms will be spiced up, a little more sharpening of the main focus of the site — that kind of thing. No new functionality will be included for this one, other than the ability to add arcades. Working out a way to edit arcades/games is going to be a little tricky. I don’t want to open it up completely as if it was a wiki, but it shouldn’t be difficult for someone that wants to contribute to do so. Once it’s possible to do the main point of the site, and do it extremely well, I’ll start implementing the “nice-to-haves” like arcade ratings, popular arcades/games and that kind of thing.
ArcadeFly is a project I’ve wanted to do for a while. It’s one of those ideas that you just assume there’d be a comparable service for somewhere, but it’s just never been filled — and in the time meantime I’ve witnessed a drop in Arcades all around. It’s a shame to see so many great hangouts disappear, but hopefully those that do survive will adapt to service more people — the way the Wii has. It seems like Gameworks, Dave and Busters as well as mall arcades (of course) are doing well, but still I wish for more variety. So ArcadeFly is out there to help people with the same interest in finding new places. If you’re here you probably already know the basics of the (somewhat simplistic) site.
As for this blog, it’s mostly going to be a journal for the development progress to begin with. ArcadeFly is being developed by one guy (me), while learning Ruby On Rails, which it’s built on. I don’t see myself going into full blown tutorials on what I’m using, but more for design decisions, what plugins I’m using and where the site is at now. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line.
