2011 was a great year for us, during which our friends at Desura finished their closed beta, became the first Linux friendly client and launched IndieRoyale. And we continued to grow ModDB and IndieDB. ModDB had it's biggest day ever reaching 220,000 visitors (thanks to the release of The Stanley Parable which got amazing coverage on Reddit and everywhere else). IndieDB also had its biggest day ever of 70,000 last week (thanks to the release of Noxious). Desura is consistently hitting 6,000+ users online simultaneously and slowly helping sell indie games (especially via alphafunding) and IndieRoyale despite only been 4 months old has already sold 172,000 bundles of games.
Don't lose downloads ala MegaUpload
So what now in 2012? Well first and foremost we are working on beefing up our download system, because the closure of MegaUpload and many other download sites has been disastrous for mods. With many old (and new titles) which were only hosted there being lost - possibly forever. So mod and game developers... please upload your releases to your profiles here or on GameFront and other dependable sites!! To encourage the spread of files, we have even made an all new dynamic download button (seen below), which can be found on all download pages so you can share your files with the world.
Direct Desura Downloads
At the moment we are also working on rolling out direct downloads via Desura, so when you purchase a game you have the option to download it via the app (like Steam), or download and install it directly without the need to run the Desura client. It is still only 50% complete - with some games having direct downloads while others don't.
Social stuff
Social integration is also going to occur a lot more, as we plan on allowing Twitter / Facebook users to post comments and register here with as little friction as possible. Also planned is the ability to add twitter feeds to your profile. We recently completed a bit of work to the image gallery system, whereby when you hover your mouse over an image you are given options to share / embed etc, as seen below.
HD videos
HD videos also remains a priority, and we will soon start encoding them while we attempt to figure out the bandwidth dilemma!
Mobile games
Do you want to browse in-development mobile games online? Would you browse a ModDB / IndieDB like site only dedicated to mobile phone and tablet games? Are you developing a mobile game and want a place to showcase it? We are considering spinning off a site focusing on mobile content - if the interest is there of course, as most people tend to find mobile content through the app stores.
More payment options
At the moment Desura and IndieRoyale only support Visa, Mastercard and Paypal. For many this means they cannot buy from us, and while it is incredibly difficult to setup new payment gateways - it is a problem we are currently working on.
Your suggestions
Finally... and most importantly of all, what would you like to see us do in 2012? Our goal is to make it easy to discover and promote games and mods you've made to as many people as possible. So anything which helps us help you - we are interested in doing.
Cant wait to see the mods that will come out.
Hopefully I will finally see Lost Alpha come out.
Or Black Mesa...
(Aren't you supposed to be in the test chamber 6 years ago? :D)
Maybe Gordon stuck in the elevator... or had other problems:
(like on this video)
I'd trade all of this for notification of comments and quicker news authorization.
also better reply nesting.
Both of these are on the todo list, so they will be coming in 2012
Cool stuff INtense!
Woohoo! :D
Do NOT use FileFront. Not unless your Mod or files are fairly popular. FileFront removes files that are in active for a certain number of days. So use at your own risk! I use MediaFire for downloads and it appears to have a more lenient policy towards file removal aka(almost never if you consistently check in on your account at least I think).
I've also had not too many freindly issues with FileFront and I lost my password when they updated the site and they failed to inform me about it. So FileFront does not have good vibes with me at all.
Dropbox for life.
Amen to that.
Amen indeed!
Dropbox saved all of my game dev files after a HDD failure. Dropbox ftw.
I'd be interested to see a wishlist feature for Desura to help me keep track of stuff I would like to purchase in the future (or better placement if wishlists already exists).
Fantastic. Love the dynamic download button!
I like the idea of a moblieDB, but could we keep it like a sub section of IndieDB?
There would be new functionality especially for Mobile games.
I understand why this might be completely impractical, but I've always kind of wished that Mod DB host all it's own files without the need to go through FileFront to download something. Taking steps out of the equation just makes it more likely that people will download something in the first place.
We do host our own files. Everything uploaded to our sites stays here and will always be available.
main challenge is having enough bandwidth to serve the files. We would need around 3000mbit+ which is difficult to get without significant cost
2012 is looking sharp, and I am excited to see what we all roll out full steam ahead. Lets bring out the best in each other guys.
The use of torrents for files i think would be good , you wont need bandwith ,the seed/peer system is pretty good :).
Wow, these are great news!!! I especially like the mobile games idea!!!
Good to see some great changes/upgrades are ahead. I was pleasantly surprised to see the upgraded gallery navigation.
I'm not entirely sure if a mobile only site would be worth the effort. Simply making a mobile version of ModDB/IndieDB would probably be enough.
And possibly a Desura app for Iphone/Android that also supports mobile games.
Personally, I'd like to be able to customize my profile a bit more, like the bio part of my profile, can't you make it like the description field game/group profiles have? I suspect it's not high on your list though to make smaller upgrades right now but I would be glad if you kept it in mind.
2012, here we come!
It's great ModDB, all these years later, is still pushing forward. One thing that might be handy is 'updates' for comments that have been posted to your mod profile / news etc.
PAY WHAT YOU WANT! It's a good system.
i think you should add an android/iphone app so you can view updates and everything else on the website is that what you ment by mobile?
I would really like a upgrade on how the buttons expand. When buttons move because you are expanding another one by hovering it is really annoying and sometimes hard to click right. Simple change to make the buttons text expand below it would be MUCH appreciated! ^^
Also, the placement of posts on the front page depends on the date they where created, cant it instead depend on the day they where accepted? If i have bad luck right now I will end up on page 2 or 3 right from the start. Or another time when we where creating a post privately, and let it go though a feedback loop in our team before making it public, it ended up on page 5... This might be hard to fix, but if you have any ideas about how to fix it, pleas reply to this post! ^^
I don't know if it is already possible, but if it is, i have no clue to how it works. But it would be nice to see more then top 10 of the games, features, and similar. Would be nice to have a top 100 or something : )
Everything else works fantastic in my opinion. And HD video will be really nice!
Oh, and also one more thing!
I love to be able to track the stats of my own and others pages! But would be even more nice to get even more data! ^^
I am totally amazed by how wonderfully the stat tracking of youtube videos is. It might get hard, but if you get some time left over, looking around little and find ways to add/analyze even more data would be really helpful to identify how the information is spread and who it reaches :)
Like adding a map to see roughly where from people come from, and maybe adding gender/age information about the users visiting, if that information is available(Facebook, indieDB profile?).
Nothing of that is absolutely necessary, but it can be useful!
Yeah, additionally being able to see a list of perhaps top members would be interesting see what they have done to get there, mods, their games etc. Should be optional though, so people don't have to be listed in the top list.
The countries would be useful, all data can be compiled from the users profile for the stats.
Top mods, say could work like most content, watchers, or just total comments, watchers and reviews perhaps, all that combined to sort by most popular, and also top rated mods based purely on review scores. Maybe the front page already works like that for the popular mods? If so, be nice to see it expanded into a top 50-100.
It'd give more modders perhaps drive to get on those lists, if not quite MOTY. Competition fuels creativity.
Excuse me but, and correct me if I'm wrong, it seems like you're suggesting turning this site into a social networking site. I have no interest in knowing more about the age or location of a member. I just don't see how this is useful...
Age and country should not be visible on individual users, but tracking information about user viewing your content is what I am after. And I don't need to know what country they are from, just what country their IP belongs to, or similar.
Its much easier if you just view the stats on a normal youtube video.
Youtu.be
As an example, check the statistics on this video. We can clearly see what age group and where in the world we have the most viewers for the moment. (also how the video where found and where the viewers came from)
I have no need of ever knowing that kind of information about another developer as an individual.
The worst part of yourubes system is that it does not declare how many of the views that it did not get gender or age information from.
Any progress is good progress.
to bad the never gave megaupload users a warning or something, i mean it was a back up website...
Add the "Ideal" payment method to desura for users from the Netherlands you would be enabeling an entire country to buy games from desura. ;)
I believe that ModDB needs two major things for me.
1) content policing for owners of games. While I may be the exception, all other profilers literally cannot allow user-made content as it is automatically approved by ModDB, while they have no say in if it goes on, unless they watch the download page, or turn off downloads. I think a second stage of approval is needed, especially for instantaneous things, like images and videos, to allow more user input on the pages, while giving the developers the ability to deny obvious bad content.
2) a micro-download system. Many users are scared off at making mods or downloads, as they have to fill in so much. and the download system is a little overbearing, as large groups of downloads have to be viewed in a list. I think grouping, like with ModDB's award nominees list, as well as requiring only a file and description for micro downloads, would be ideal.
But, these are just my thoughts. there are a lot of tinier things, like custom CSS for more than just game profiles, and consider adding background music on request that can be turned off by the user, but that's hardly a priority. Those are just tiny things I still wish could be added XD
I would like it if there was a viable way for you to make Money Orders acceptable for indie royale. Because I dont trust paypal after a friend lost quite a sum of money to a hacker and I lack a credit card.
I doubt you can do this though :|
Mobile browsing. Apps?
To Scott and the rest of the team: You guys rock! Wish you all the best for 2012!
You all are doing a fantastic job with Moddb. It's just the best side for modding projects. Applause, applause to the developers.
I agree. Totally epic site!
one word epic
+1 for mobile game browsing
2011 was a really good year for indies and mods like Project zomboid, No more room in hell...
A "grand crue" as we say with the wine !
I hope 2012 will be even better !
Add the ability to somehow buy through Amazon, and I will be purchasing -a lot- more indie games.
One thing I'd like to to see, is media hiding or saving but not publishing. So you could write an article, upload a video and screenshots and have it prepared and then publish it and unhide any images or videos etc once authorised.
And categorising media perhaps or re-organising it. Something like being able to sort level design into one folder, models into another. The images could perhaps display ones you set, and you hit a reveal more button to show the categories below in rows. Not important of course, but just a handy feature for having nice organised profiles.
I know you have a lot of work already, so this is not a 'do it nao', just a few thoughts. That comment reply notification is already proven its extreme usefulness for me :)
I like to see support for
WebMoney - Wmtransfer.com
NETELLER - Neteller.com
So hope that there will be new things to the Company of heroes zombie mod and Third age total war.
Them two is the best mod I know of moddb.com :P
When FULL HD Videos starting?
I'd like to see a brand new spanking version of Moddb.