JCustom Mod details page

We likez to muztomize yuor stufz

I’ll be writting more info about it soon especially filling up a proper documentation for other developers and will be updating it’s contents as progress goes by too. I also opened comments so feedbacks are very welcome.

Now the main question left are, is it for sale? for how much? My answer to that will arrive in a few moments, for now I have put up a poll so please vote of what you think. I’ll put up the price depending on poll results and especially people’s interest. Vote on the poll here.

We hear what you say

The website is owned by a friend and young flash game developer, Eric Smith. Running the website HiddenNinjaGames.com reflects that it is not just a ninja but is hidden and playing games or something of the like.

Basically the website is powered by Arcadem Pro but is now supported by the newly developed JCustom Mod that I made. Obviously it no longer looks like another generic arcadem template, now this site probably is the most unique design and probably has the most functionality (both according to me ) from other sites running the same script/cms engine.

The New HiddenNinjaGames.com brought to you by your friendly neighborhood developer

By running the mod system, the back end is easily managed and updated by the administrator even with out any knowledge of the scripting language (php). The user front end is also fantastically dynamic taking advantage of the newest technologies of Web 2.0. For developers, the mod system is also in efficient coding manner where as extending and plugging into already available features is like a feast of mixing drinks.

Take a peak into Hidden Ninja Games we know you’ll like it.

Added Admin Menu

I have a friend who has a website (a game arcade site, and it’s powered by Arcadem Pro) who asked me to redesign his site. It is really tough to redesign something good especially great from their architecture (specifically coding structure, no offense meant), no wonder I can easily know which site uses the same arcade script just by looking at the generic layout design. Of course I wouldn’t want to dramatically edit all specific files on the site just to apply a single Mod, so I decided to make a subsystem for mods of my own (well I called it a “system” as I like it better than “subsystem”).

JCustom Mod System

It’s basically a bunch of files and folders that you add to your site. And by just opening a single page, you’ll be presented a user friendly way of installing it. After installation, a new menu will be available on the admin panel, yeah it’s that simple! It’s a mod that doesn’t ask you to modify your files manually.

The system is actually just complex container with quite a few built in improved features, all the power feature you would need will be from the plugins. Oh yeah, I’m developing the plugins myself and it’s all a natural for me to be excited about it. I really am learning a heck of cool stuffs with php and other web stuffs while developing all these. Plugins are installed without sweat, just upload and install from the admin panel.

Plugins

1. Ajax Favorite – add games into favorites without leaving/refreshing the page (ajax power)
2. Ajax Login - log in and out without having to refresh the page
3. Game Meta – store more information for your games
4. Game Publish Scheduler – by schedule publish your games automatically
5. Game Ratings – rate games, ajax way, in a whole new level
6. High Scores – integrates mochi bridge beautifully ajax style; also backward compatible
7. More Comment – not just have a single comment, have indefinite sub comment systems ajax style too
8. User Meta - store more information for your users

Screen shots

This system is in consideration of being for sale in public or for commission only same with the plugins separately or bundled or whatever.

Look at all the colors… yeah, I know it’s the same scheme. But I’ve added more functionality and relative contents.

jaycsantos.com v1

JaycSantos.com v2

• sidebars are much wider
• home page is quite different
• game list page is more awesome
• game pages are more content oriented now with media (images and vids), download, highscore and playable sub pages.
• And the site is now more blog feature oriented with related posts, archives, tags, etc – all displayed respectively.

By the way, the long promised update on the portfolio page is finally done. I was able to put some things in there for now and it even has my pic!

With regards to game production, I’m glad to share that I’m continuing, or I should restarting, the development of Neolithic. The whole engine was done before and is quite playable but I’m rewriting the engine again, this time in AS3 so it can have more power which results with more fun. I’m keeping the assets and slightly upgrade them too.

Enjoy the newly designed site!

v2 logo

I’ve had my current theme for more than half a year, and I’m currently working on the next version during leisure time. “But the current one is good, simple and plain” – Yes it is, but it lacks things that I didn’t knew yet when I first made this. Actually v1 is my first full WP template. So basically, the current theme (v1) doesn’t support wordpress widgets. Oh yes, widgets, also known as the “sidebar accessories” which are plugins that can be integrated into the sidebar.

So taking feature and content design into consideration, I decided to redesign my theme and catch up. And now presenting a sneak peak into the version changes. (also click on image below to enlarge)

v2 design

• I’ve redesigned the logo to be brighter and sharper.
• Kept the color scheme (I still like my colors) and some box styles yet made the design livelier.
• Sided with more personalized design than corporate look but still as sleek as it is.
• Widget support! And it’s not for sidebars only.
• More content/game/portfolio exposure.
• Maximized content width yet still support 1024×768 user screens.
• Removed the news section (from v1).

As of this post’s time, sliced it up into html/css then the next step is converting into a wordpress theme. Watch out, I’ll be uploading v2 in a week or three.

I'm on twitter!

Everyone else is doing it, so why not me! It’s about time, Jayc Santos is on Tweeter!

For those who don’t know, Twitter is a free micro-blogging service that lets you send short and quick updates to your user page on Twitter via SMS, instant messaging and tons of third party apps.

To follow me; you need to sign-up (its free and very easy), open my twitter page and you’ll see a “follow” button, now hit it! That’s it, when you follow me, you’ll get up-to-date contents, news, game updates and all other stuffs from my site. I also share awesomely cool tweets from tweet friends, other related and/or non-related stuffs and I also post other small posts that wasn’t able to make it into the site.

How Organized Are You?

I have started out to write some development related contents that are mostly specific to flash game development itself. It will not be top notch information like other super mega advanced genius blogs out there but I’ll only have simple and practical information based on my own experience. I wish to target the intermediate level programmers developers like I call myself, covering code snippets to tips/techniques on how I do my art and maybe some non-related too. I aim to not exactly have tutorials on how to make games but more of how a specific feature on a game can be made. And as I publish my snippets of codes I will have to assume that the developer taking out the info is not basically a newbie in the programming field hence there will be assumptions like the certain code has be or was made to be called from a class; in other words my code snippets that will be shared are not basically copy-paste materials unless stated or the whole library/package is shared under rare cases.

It can also be noticed that I started posts with AS2, which is because I have been quite good and most knowledgeable with AS2 compared to my knowledge in AS3 but that wouldn’t make me leave out the awesomeness of AS3. As time goes, the code articles will slowly be more of AS3 than AS2 is but that again would depend would fast I will get the hang of AS3 from here on and have the guts to share what I know barely.