Today we're unveiling some new features for the hub pages on BYOND. Hub pages have been getting more and more stuffed with information, so our goal has been to present this information in a much cleaner way. The new and improved hub page takes advantage of the fact that we can use JavaScript to build virtual "tabs" into the page. Using tabs means we can now use the whole width of the screen to show more information, which means things won't be so cramped for people with low-resolution displays.

New tabs

The first tab you'll see when visiting a hub entry is the Overview tab. This gives a little information about the game including its banner, short description, when it was created, etc., and you'll also find options for adding it to your favorites or watching it in your pager. Below this you'll see whether the game is live or not, and you'll get a short excerpt from the entry's full description.

The next tab will say Now Live or Waiting List, if the entry is a multiplayer game. This is where any live games will appear, and the waiting list of people who want to play. If you want to join the waiting list yourself, this is the tab you'll need.

In the Description tab, the full description of the game will be followed by an optional video and/or any screenshots. If you want to edit the screenshots for your hub entry, the link to do that is here.

Games that have bonus features for BYOND Members or have subscription features will have more information about both in the Subscriptions or Bonuses tab.

If the game has been reviewed, or you are a BYOND Member, you will see a Reviews tab. This tab will show reviews from any of the guilds where the game is included in their listings.

Finally, games will show a Related tab that shows which guilds list the them, and which other games people are likely to enjoy if they like this one. The old hub page used to list only six guilds and six other games, but the new page has room for more. This tab is the place for submitting a game to a guild.

Changes

One of the biggest changes you're likely to notice is that the format for the list of reviews on a hub entry has been changed. In order to encourage more guild-based reviewing, and sweep a lot of less useful reviews under the proverbial rug, now only the guilds that list a game will have their reviews show up there. You can still write reviews on your own blog or anywhere else you have the ability to submit a post, but to reach the biggest audience you should post in a guild.

Game authors also have some say now in how a guild lists their games. While the guild can still put any game they like in their favorites, the game author can choose to hide that guild on their hub entry page. The guild will not appear in the "Listed in Guilds" area, and its reviews will be tucked away out of sight. The list of guilds that can be shown or hidden appears on the hub entry editing page.

Coming Soon

One of the reasons for the update is that we will soon be unveiling some new features. It will soon be possible to keep track of scores for a hub entry, and create medals which can be awarded to players and seen on BYOND.

Medals are represented by 64×64-pixel icons. They represent achieving some kind of goal in a game, like beating ten levels in ten minutes, completing a quest, or winning a tournament.

Scores work a little differently. Since games come in all flavors, the scoring system is very open-ended. For each player you could record a score, a level, a character class, their win/loss record, or whatever you like. More than one piece of information can be recorded per player or character, so in a way it's like having a mini-database. When this feature is ready, you'll be able to set up your hub entry to list which data fields to put on display, and users will be able to sort through that to see who's at the top of the standings.