Good luck, I gave well-meant advice, but you obviously know better
I’m in the United States. Louisiana, to be more specific. Really shouldn’t make THAT much of a difference, but data collection may tell you otherwise. OH! And my provider is Comcast xFinity.
On other news, more thoughts from a developer’s point of view: Stats data would be nice on our game pages such as views, downloads, and a Google Analytics integration option for the game page for our own tracking through the google analytics page and app. (I use this for tracking my page. It’s handy because I can see the effect that different advertising and mentions have by viewing the traffic history.)
I’ve been ripping my hair out, but I’m close to figuring out the new upload system, which should be much faster. I’ve just got a couple of other bits to figure out, such as uploading multiple files at a time, then I’ll start applying it to the website.
Developer stats are certainly in the pipework too!
Google analytics tracking shouldn’t be too difficult while I’m at it 
Finally, new upload system is in place. My website is now uploading your game folder in little chunks like it should, instead of dumping the entire file.
I really really hope you will find it faster!
Just a note though, at the time of writing this post, the progress bar will seem slightly less responsive.
Previously, the progress bar was updated for every byte being uploaded. At this very moment, its updated after every 5MB chunk of data is uploaded. So it is a bit more staggered. I will work on that anyway.
Support added for setting primary image
This is a very cool idea, Cypher2012!
If I may offer feedback, and insight for everyone else:
I think it would go a long way if the game icons were smaller, and when you moused over one, it would bring up what I currently see on the main page for “Labyrinth Larry”. I like the idea, will probably send my game in when it’s finished, help you drum up visitors. 
As for those wondering about steam:
I’ll have you know, steam is hard to get on to if you’re unknown/your game isn’t 1000% amazing. I learned that the hard way. Put months of effort into a game, haven’t broken greenlight yet after two months.
Hey IcemanX, thank you for your support and recommendations! Much appreciated!
I have now re-worked the home page.
It’s a lot smarter now. Overlay titles and popup descriptions.
I look forward to seeing your game up!
I’ve been getting in to the nitty gritty bits and I’m now ironing things out.
- Drop-down navigation
- Pop-up/same page log-in panel
- Loading screen for dashboard and improved loading icons.
Home page layout improved.
- Smaller images with title overlay.
- overlay with basic information.
I’d like to know what you think of the new navigation. Do you prefer the traditional type with links spanning the top of the page?
I’ve also started on collapsible layouts for mobile users. This is still a WIP though.
You’re not going to make many friends with that attitude.
FWIW I think the UI could do with smartening up, it does look very dated. But that’s just a minor thing. The questions I would be asking are about legal and financial side of things. Are you in a position to pay the bills if the site takes off and your back end provider charges go through the roof? What’s your refund policy? How do you deal with chargebacks? How is customer and payment data protected? Have you had an independent security audit? What’s your business model, I can’t see any information on what you plan to charge? What is your company set up, what’s your financial situation?
If you’re dealing with financial transactions and you’re rolling your own PHP you are going to have a lot of people who are MUCH better than you trying to get into your system.
Making a website is one thing, but it’s the business side of it that matters.
Yep, I have some research to do for business side of things, you’re right.
“…charges go through the roof?”
All third party services used, deploy a flexible payment system and so makes it a lot easier to cost in. I’m keeping my eye out for any decent alternative, but what I’ve got at the moment is pretty good.
“What’s your refund policy? How do you deal with chargebacks?”
This still needs planning
“How is customer and payment data protected?”
Among layers of security for passwords etc, SSL will be deployed as well. Life here is being made a little easier in that I’m using Paypal SDK. So no financial data is managed by the site at all. It’s all handled by Paypal itself.
"you plan to charge? "
I have a rough idea, but I need to finalise the costing before I can put out a solid number.
“If you’re dealing with financial transactions and you’re rolling your own PHP you are going to have a lot of people who are MUCH better than you trying to get into your system.”
See previous comment about Paypal. To be air though, this isn’t really specific to PHP.
So to summarize about your main points on security and business.
-Security is an on-going process and layers are being added. The main elements to protect at the moment are user passwords, game data and any financial data that the site may handle.
-User passwords are encrypted and as mentioned above, I'll be deploying SSL encryption across the site.
-Game data is currently stored using Amazon S3, which has a lot of security measures in place. The good thing with S3 too, is that you can block data to everything except very specific circumstances that you dictate.
-As mentioned above, the site currently has zero access to any financial details as they are all handled by Paypal. With Paypal SDK, you *can* handle user card details etc, but *that* is when you open a can of worms if you don't know what you're doing. I'd rather have users go through Paypal (or whatever payment provider I end up sticking with) and know it's a heck of a lot more secure.
-Business side of things, you’re right, there is a lot of stuff to cover and research still
So I’ve been having a think about the website.
While developing the website, I’ve been developing a public API so that other web developers can create websites powered by my site.
I’ve been working on API’s for the framework. “Low level” REST API and a easy to use “high level” Javascript API.
I’m thinking of switching my primary focus to creating a public framework/API. Allowing web developers to create websites and apps driven by it. With one main central game database.
**What does this mean for you as a game developer? **
It means your game will not just be hosted on one single site. It will be hosted and shown across the entire network of sites using the framework
If a reward system is created for web developers that sell your game hosted on their site, this means every site owner is going to want to push your game to be successful.
Using the framework, tools and extensions can be developed. Statistics, news feeds etc.
At the moment, it’s just a bit of a side thought, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.
I’ve rebuilt the front end entirely from scratch. It’s much more modernised and fluid.
The game edit page in particular has taken a massive overhaul. It now has nice expand/collapse sections, so you can focus on what is your’re working on at that time. See picture below
Now that I’ve got that out the way, I’ll be spending some time on the API. I’ve already started developing a web developers section of the page.
