WebDev Blog #1 | Launch Is Imminent
Now that the Imperial Bounty System has been publicly available on the Steam Workshop for the past few days, I built my own page to advertise the recently created addon. As the writer of the product description, I created my post here with the angle of acknowledging my contribution as an additional notch on my portfolio. It also let me cultivate additional design skills such as the media gallery implementation. In this case, I had to generate my own variation of a gallery to achieve a similar showcase that users of the Steam Workshop are accustomed to. There are a decent amount of settings that’ll let you configure the gallery itself. I went for the minimalist and seamless implementation, a simpler option as I am not utilizing the exact Steam/Valve design philosophy that I admire.
I enjoyed actually writing the product description. I simply asked “Oneleg”, my friend and the primary creator of the addon if I could take a crack at the task. Once I got a list of the addon’s attributes and its main use case, I aimed to turn that into a short piece of writing that speaks directly to the two main demographics of the Garry’s Mod community we were not only designing for but one we also knew inside and out. These two demographics are the Server Administrators (a blanket term for the various high-ranking roles of a community’s hierarchy) and the Players.
I wanted to entice the Player with the techniques and language they would find within the store page of video games listed on the Steam platform. I wanted to take the list of technical details and create a narrative for both sides of the law within the context of an active bounty. It was fun creating short and economical sentences to convey the plethora of fun gameplay opportunities.
The final step was outlining the technical details of the addon itself. It needed to be understandable and explain the gameplay aspects alluded to within the micro-narratives above. The Server Administrator and the Player needed to know that the tech, the code itself, could provide the promised experiences. As of this writing, the Steam Workshop page analysis shows a healthy but small response to the launch. One more thing about the technical details was that Oneleg made sure to add the precise installation process and compatibility notice once those details were finalized after I wrote the description.
The task of creating the post took a chunk of my recent dev session. I added a few things during that session. I added the advert for my upcoming single, The Foundation Arc, which releases on December 17th, 2022. I chose to add that just above the Featured Music section. Once the single releases, I’ll update the advert to reflect its release and include the ability for the user to access the single. I made sure to update my discography infographic located below the Featured Music section to reflect the new single. The process I figured out to create a small advert for a piece of content was surprisingly easy. That allowed me to duplicate it and reconfigure it for the Prologue for Scorched Plains, my debut narrative.
A major design change I made during that dev session was to overhaul the style of my Call To Action (CTA) located at the bottom of the page. Since the development of this website began, it had a short, sweet, and effective “Stay In The Loop” phrase and a button labeled with the word “Subscribe”. I needed a CTA and a button label that highlighted the creative aspects of me and my website. Something a bit more outside of the box. After a short time of brainstorming and researching what other websites use, I created my new CTA: “Explore An Evolving, Interconnected Creative Web”. I feel that it serves my design philosophy of connections within and between my realms of creative works. I also topped this redesign off with a simple and enticing “Start” label on the button. A Start Button!
Patch Notes
Additions
Posted the Imperial Bounty System product description.
Designed and implemented the adverts for The Foundation Arc (placed above the Featured Music section) and the Prologue for Scorched Plains (placed above the recent posts feed). These utilize the same design template that allows easy configuration.
Added the main post graphics for each post to their social images. This allows the preview image when embedded on other platforms to display the custom graphics I designed. As someone who really enjoys embedded links, the ability to configure this was a major win in my book.
Changes
Redesigned the Writing Portfolio logo to include the Strelok 2033 logo.
Replaced all graphics that included the previous Writing Portfolio designs with the new version.
Changed the color style of the Footer Section. Originally it featured the default white and black design, but now it features black, red, and white—more in line with the website’s overall color scheme.
Overhauled the Call To Action and the accompanying button.
Final Commentary
As of this writing, the website launch is inching closer and closer. I am pleased to say I am excited! I now have one place, a platform of my own to mesh my creativity in design, music, and writing. With the launch coming soon, I figured it would be a good idea to write a pre-launch dev blog. It gave me a moment to reflect on my recent significant additions and changes. I also got to write legitimate patch notes, which I found especially exciting.
My main inspiration for writing what I dub as WebDev Blogs comes from dev blogs and patch notes made for major content updates for video games. This particular format of commentary, transparency and technical details comes from the dev blogs Facepunch Studios Ltd creates for Rust and the in-development s&box (the short and stylized take on the word “sandbox”). I have spent over six years reading these posts (the longer portion dedicated to Rust). I have always appreciated the honesty and commentary from Garry Newman and his talented teams working on these two games. Not only does Garry himself comment and reflect on developments he focused on, but team members that worked on a specific task or feature are allowed to contribute their own comments on the dev blog. Should I take on additional contributors, I’ll allow them the same opportunity. I also want to acknowledge my appreciation of the venerable Garry’s Mod and that team especially.
Now is the perfect opportunity to give this type of writing a shot.
Keep On Keeping On!
Glen T., Strelok 2033
