What's new at JIG?
A quick update to highlight a few things we have been working on to improve your experience here at JIG (just in case you're a new visitor or one that doesn't poke around the site very much)...
CGDC #6! Yes, we are hard at work to bring you the next iteration of our popular series of Casual Gameplay Design Competitions. If you haven't already participated by helping us choose a theme for it, then please choose your favorite from the 12 finalists. Deadline is Sunday, August 9th. We have some exciting ideas up our sleeves for this competition, which will make it our most 'creative' competition yet! ;) So please help us spread the word about it!
JIG on Facebook! If you have a Facebook account (and who doesn't these days?!) then please become a fan on Facebook and help us to spread the word about all the awesome games reviewed and recommended here. If you're already a fan, you can help us by participating on our Facebook page. Please leave a comment or indicate you like something when we post it there. We will be featuring reviews and special offers there that you can't get anywhere else.
Tags! (located in the site navigation menu): We have been working hard to improve the tag pages, which are listings of all the games on the site that have been assigned a given tag. The URL format for our tag listings is as follows:
jayisgames.com/tag/tag-name
Replace tag-name with any valid tag used on JIG.
You may enter the URL for your desired tag-name directly in the address bar of your browser, or just click on any of the tags in a game review header to be taken to the listing of all games assigned that tag. From there you can sort the listing reverse chronologically (default, newest first), or by rating. Sorting by rating now allows you to see at a glance a listing of the best rated Eyezmaze games, for example. The URL format for tag listings by rating is as follows:
jayisgames.com/tag/tag-name/rating
Replace tag-name with any valid tag used on JIG.
There is a page for every tag used on the site, now almost 2,000 of them(!) For a listing of all the tags in use, listed alphabetically, click on "Tags" in the navigation menu just below the site banner. We have also included a submenu off the Tags menu that provides shortcuts to some of the main game genres we cover at JIG. (Adventure, Room Escape, Puzzle, etc.)
Use the tag listings to help find games you may have never seen before, since we have been around highlighting the best games on the Web for over 5 years now! There are lots of great games in our archives.
Walkthroughs! (located in the site navigation menu): We also added a new Walkthroughs section to the navigation menu, which highlights some of our most popular game walkthroughs. Click on "Walkthroughs" to be taken to a listing of all the walkthroughs we have currently on the site. From there you can view the listing reverse chronologically (default, newest first), or alphabetically. Since our walkthroughs now have their own section, we have removed the listing of all the site walkthroughs from the left sidebar (for signed-in members only).
Hot Games! (located in submenu of "All Games" in the site navigation menu): You can now view a listing of the 100 most popular games on JIG. Popularity is based on the amount of attention a game is receiving, not based on rating, and the listing is updated every hour. It's a great way to check out where the JIG community is spending its time right now!
Best Games! (located in submenu of "All Games" in the site navigation menu): We have expanded this very popular page to include the top 500 higest rated games on JIG. This list contains so many excellent games, you are sure to find something worthy of your time that you have never played before. If you're looking for something special, or you don't like the latest game up for review, do check it out.
We have much more coming in the weeks and months ahead, so keep coming back and checking us out. And if you appreciate us for all that we do here at JIG, please consider adding a link to us on your website if you don't already have one, and please tell your family and friends about us. Thank you for your support! We couldn't do what we do without you.
And if you just like to kill time during your coffee break, we love having you around! Keep up the good work!! :D
Ooh, this is great! I never really noticed the "All Games" submenu, so this will keep me busy for a while. (:
Oh, wonderful! The site seems to load much faster without all those walkthroughs cluttering the screen! Thanks for that change!
Thanks for noticing the faster page loading! :D
Actually, I had already noticed some of these things, like the Walkthrough sidebar vanishing, but I had no idea that the tag system was so simple to use. I always thought it involved some complex URL maze (like most things in the internet). Nice to know I can just type the tag there.
Will MochiAds be a requirement in the games? I wanted to enter but I don't like using MochiAds or any other ads.
[Edit: We are not releasing any details about the competition at this time. Soon all will be revealed, though, so keep checking back. :) -Jay]
So all the walkthrough links was what was slowing down the page loading? Interesting, that would've never occured to me.
Anyway, awesome new features. I especially like the addition of and simplicity of the new rating sorting, it's awesome that it can simply be done by adding /rating to the url, although I suspect most people would use the radio buttons. But very nice and simple way to implement it.
I'm curious though, what constitutes attention with regards to Hot Games? Is it how many comments a game has had within the last hour, or how many unique page visits?
Thank you, ThemePark. :)
The Hot Games list is based simply on page views within the last 24 hour period.
Glad you keep the site improving and as awesome as ever
Thx for the inf, Jay.
JIG was the coolest site in the trade before, it is definitely the best site now, and how great it's just gonna be in the future? :)
bio
Actually I do not have facebook, eh maybe one day. I just barely signed up for myspace which is lacking.
Tags-
Did you add more tags to some games to make them easier to find?
I am quite happy that you changed the walkthroughs for those signed in; it makes the pages load much faster and probably takes a load off of your server.
I will be checking out hot games and best games.
Also I added the JIG game to my myspace. Just one more page that people can get linked to your awesome site. Though once in a while there are less walkthroughs than I prefer, maybe half never get a full walkthrough. I can usually google and find one, but not always.
I concur with the fact the reviews load a lot faster. Cheers!
I asked about the tab thing some months ago, and then saw that you had worked on it. Thank you all bunches! It's really great to watch this site grow.
I can't choose between multiple endings and achievements :X They are my favorites!
This question was asked by someone on Twitter, and I thought it was a great question, so I'm including it here:
"Is there a way to search for the highest rated *non-download* games on your site? I'm a bigger fan of browser based games. Can I do this?"
Answer: Try http://jayisgames.com/tag/flash/rating that will show you a listing of all the highest rated flash games on the site.
Other browser based tags include:
http://jayisgames.com/tag/shockwave/rating
http://jayisgames.com/tag/unity/rating
http://jayisgames.com/tag/javascript/rating
http://jayisgames.com/tag/java/rating
I'll work on creating a "browser" tag that includes all of the above. :)
AHH! i cant wait much longer for the theme to be annouced. =D im finally going to enter this year.
Okay, been on holiday for a while, but I just wanted to say a big thank you for finally getting rid of those walkthrough links!
All that's needed now is the reinstatement of the 'previous' and 'next' links and I will be very happy :o)
Okay it's driving me insane. I wondered what rating-o games were. You said they were orange rated games and to click on the orange rating symbol in the review header to get a definition. Do you mean a symbol that is the color orange itself? Or merely the words "O-rating"? Because whenever I click on the words, it just pulls up all the games that are thus rated. I can't find where the definitions are.
[Edit: Here's a link to the explanations: http://jayisgames.com/about/game-ratings -Jay]
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