Hello everyone, and welcome to the new and improved TouchArcade. Thanks to the backing of our Patreon backers we’ve had the resources to slowly work on completely rebuilding the site and forums from the ground up to bring us up to speed with all sorts of modern web technologies. Along with being under SSL, the whole site and forums are now responsive, meaning everything is intelligently build to lay itself out in an ideal manner regardless of what screen size you’re viewing the site on. You can play with this by resizing your browser window if you’re reading this on your desktop, or just load up the site on whatever mobile device you typically use to see how it automagically changes.
Up on the top of the site we’ve got a new feature block which we hope will help when it comes to driving traffic and generating interest to some of our long-form content which typically doesn’t perform as well as quick news stories, and under that is the familiar hot games and new games listings which were so popular on our old site. Keep scrolling and you’ll find stories like this one, along with all the other normal things we post on a daily basis.
Along with the front page redesign, we’ve also migrated away from our ancient version of vBulletin to a shiny new install of Xenforo, which much like the front page is totally responsive and works great across all screen sizes. We’ve spent the weekend migrating data to the new site, so everything should be there and all existing logins should seamlessly work. On the surface level, using Xenforo is very similar to VBulletin, so there shouldn’t be much of a learning curve to hop back in to our forum community.
Unfortunately, with this switchover, the TouchArcade app is officially dead. Barely anyone is using it anymore, and it just didn’t make a ton of sense to spend loads of time guaranteeing compatibility across the old and new site when we have no path forward in getting the app approved by Apple. If you’ve missed the millions of times we explained this, the app violated App Store policies and we were never able to update it without a drastic rework that would remove nearly all of its useful features.
Instead, we’ve devoted all of our resources to refining the web site and forums into the closest thing we can get to an app-like experience in the browser.
Our future roadmap for continued improvements to the site includes exploring the possibility of a notifier app to get push notifications from us. Given our tumultuous relationship with the Apple approval process, we’re likely going to do everything we can on our end to get the site as feature complete as possible before exploring that path, as it’s a more reliable way to spend our resources. Thankfully, there’s loads of free services out there that you can do this with right now, they just require a tiny bit more time setting up. Here’s a guide we published last year on easily using IFTTT for TouchArcade notifications.
This has been a pretty massive project, particularly when it comes to migrating a decade of content and user information. We’ve done a bunch of our own testing, along with a small group of beta testers to make sure everything on the site is operating properly… but it’s inevitable we don’t run into some bumps along the way with this migration to the new site. If you see anything that looks weird or doesn’t seem to be working right, there’s a bunch of ways you can reach us, just keep in mind this is a very 1.0 project right now and we are actively working on basically everything.:
- -For small things, feel free to leave a comment on this story or tweet at us @toucharcade
- -If you want to get more in detail, post in this thread on our forums.
- -If you’re not registered for our forums or want to send along some screenshots, send us an email at [email protected].
- -Additionally, if you’re having problems with user-specific stuff like not being able to log in or similar problems that require one-on-one support, please also email [email protected].
When submitting feedback and bug reports, the more information you can provide, the better. Be sure to include what browser you’re using, what operating system you’re on, what sort of browser plugins you might be using, and anything else that seems relevant. All of these things are super useful when it comes to squashing bugs that inevitably come out of a site re-launch.
Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day today, and once again we would like to thank our amazing Patreon backers that have made this whole redesign possible. Continued development of TouchArcade would not be possible without your support. If you’re not backing us on Patreon, that’s cool, but please thank the people that do for helping us stick around!
Hey guys, here's some things I noticed about the new site. I'm sure you're still working out some bugs but here's some things I found:
- The Carousel on the home page seems to be broken. (arrows on the right side)
- Pictures are badly formatted on posts. (too large and cropped off)
- The "View All" at the bottom seems poorly thought out. You click "View All" and go to another page, but it's populated with the exact same posts. So you have to click again to see anything new. Super basic user experience stuff.
- I find it really odd that when you hover on a post at the top, it highlights- but when you click it does nothing. You have to click on the text to go to the link. If it changes states when you hover it should act like a button... but doesn't.
- The Hamburger button on the top left does nothing.
- When you click "New Games" it brings you to the forums. That seems like a wrong link. "Hot Games" does the same thing.
- The buttons in the footer just don't work... any of them.
- The Featured games (right now Rogue Hearts) is overlapping with a bunch of other games.
Brendan,
I'm not seeing some of these things. Can you email me at [email protected] and send screenshots of any obvious visual issues.
thanks
arn
actually, some of these sounds like the Javascript isn't working for you. Are you blocking any scripts. If not, let me also know your browser etc... I the email
Hey, sorry I should have specified. I'm on Safari browser. I don't have anything actively blocking javascript... but it does seem to work better when I load it up in Chrome. So it might be a compatibility thing. I'll send a couple shots by email
- The Carousel on the home page seems to be broken. (arrows on the right side)
Works for me, but sometimes throws up a big orange background when clicking the arrows. No thumbnails are loading. It's odd that you have duplicate controls with text links (prev/next) on the left and the arrows on the right however.
- Pictures are badly formatted on posts. (too large and cropped off)
This looks fine for me.
- The "View All" at the bottom seems poorly thought out. You click "View All" and go to another page, but it's populated with the exact same posts. So you have to click again to see anything new. Super basic user experience stuff.
I saw two more posts than the front page and then pagination. Seems alright to me.
- I find it really odd that when you hover on a post at the top, it highlights- but when you click it does nothing. You have to click on the text to go to the link. If it changes states when you hover it should act like a button... but doesn't.
This works as expected for me.
- The Hamburger button on the top left does nothing.
That is correct. Clicking it does nothing.
- When you click "New Games" it brings you to the forums. That seems like a wrong link. "Hot Games" does the same thing.
The new games filter for the carousel? Works like a filter for me.
- The buttons in the footer just don't work... any of them.
Confirmed.
- The Featured games (right now Rogue Hearts) is overlapping with a bunch of other games.
Not seeing this.
On this post clicking the hamburger icon hides the menu. Lol.
EDIT: Now does so on the front page as well.
Yay! I was getting kinda anxious thinking of how this would look after the change and it looks [and works] pretty good!
Now I'm gonna hop in to the forums!
Good job.
Congratulations! :-)
Oh thank god TA is back, this has been one long dreary weekend without you all!
Hi, looking pretty good, but can’t find watch list anywhere plus I was following a thread for a new pixel football game. Now says I’m not following any threads!
Watclists is a big one!,
Watch lists are coming back. We just couldn’t get them ready today. Don’t worry. All data is preserved
Awesome, great week guys!
Whew! That’s a relief. Was always my favorite part of the touch arcade app. I would “watch” every single new game that came out and then I could monitor the watched games list for price drops. Totally replaced appshopper for me back then. Bought soooo many games I never even got around to playing because of it. Lol
I'd ignored that IFTTT article a while back because none of the examples were for watch-list price drops, which (along with releases) is basically the only notifications I care about. _Most_ of my Watch List is also in AppShopper, but not all of it (especially newer games).
In short, keep up the good work! I hope to see watch lists again soon, and I hope they can support email (or RSS) so I can keep getting notifications from them.
yay, came here to ask this. glad it's still coming and data is preserved <3
Yes, the watch list is the only reason I haven't upgraded to IOS11 so the fact it will be back and preserved here is great news!
Keep it up you guys!
The new site looks great!
Wow, my post appears to have gone. Well in brief, where are watch lists? That was a big one for me! Also search in forums does not seem to work. If I search for soccer for instance, the best I can get is users with soccer in the title. Yes I’m searching in the main search bar (not the users one) and does not matter of I select title only or not. Tried many combos and can’t find anything.
I just checked what Jim says and it's the same for me, both on Mozilla Firefox 60.0.1 (Win10) and Safari on my iPhone8 (iOS11.3.1)
See here for watch list comment: https://toucharcade.com/201...
hehe looks good so far...
Hey there! Congrats for the new home of TouchArcade! Is the RSS feed the same, toucharcade.com/feed? I don’t get the latest article about the migration via RSS...
After losing the TA app to 64-bit doom, I found it easy to switch my usage over to the website just by putting the Safari link up as a screen icon along with my other apps. I’d recommend the same to any who have been using the TA app up until now.
I just keep the TA Site in a tab on Safari on the phone. No need for an icon at least for me.
Congrats for the new home of TouchArcade!
Is the RSS address the same, TouchArcade.com/feed? I don’t get the latest article
Congrats. Let’s crush the bugs!
The new design looks awesome! One problem I found so far, the links in the footer aren't working: https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Working on a fix for this!
Slick!
The new site is beautiful! Thanks for all your hard work. I'll be sure to mention anything if any problems arise. I'll be enjoying the new layout.
Edit: posting on threads on mobile doesn't seem to work. I tried everything and only quoting works but it just autoposts a quote with no text box. I tried tapping everywhere looking for a text box and found nothing. The big reply button on the bottom of the page just sends me to an error page.
And even this comment section is glitching out. This is the second time I've wrote and edited this comment. It just wipes everything.
Fantastic!
Suggestion: on the front page carousel/slider that shows new and hot games, place the Left-Right arrow keys UNDER the game icons. On mobile, that lets you click them with your thumb without obscuring the games. Right now they are above and you can’t scroll and see what you’re doing at the same time.
Where were you all weekend? I was dying! Seriously, the new website looks amazing. Much e@sier to use and love how everything flows. The best site for reading about iOS games just got better!
Feels super fast on mobile!
I love it! Awesome job guys!
This looks awesome!
CONGRATS! Looks great on mobile
Damn. I was just telling someone on the forum that the redesign was on hold due to lack of funds - about a day before it went down.
Eli - is there any chance you could switch the icon associated with the site back to the one shown on this story, with the white background. That looks way way better on my home screen than the old app icon.
Nice !!!
Congrats on the site. Only nitpick so far is that left nav (ick). If there's room across the top, just make the links persistent where the search currently is (the search is too big anyway). Then on smaller devices, fold up the nav into the hamburger menu.
Site looks fantastic.
Well done and congrats!
Congrats guys! New site is awesome!
Is there still a way to follow games so I can be alerted to price drops?
Great!
Congrats on on the new TA, and thanks to everyone who has contributed to making it possible. :)
I just tried to post a gif in the forum but it’s not working. It shows up properly before I submit the post, but after it just shows an ‘X’.
Great work! Congrats! :)
Looks great! To bad you guys are so stuck on Patreon. Jack Conte is never getting another dime from me.
I really like the new design so far!
This looks great. Thanks for all your hard work TA
Big improvement and as long as I've been frequenting the site, it's never been better. I know the woes of maintaining forums and I think what you guys chose is great-- thanks and keep up the great work!
Well that sucks.
So does anything on the site work? First of all, this is what you consider modern and responsive? It looks like the awful Wii web browser, but somehow even less intuitive. Im using Safari on an iPad Mini, and a good third of my screen is white space. Using the search box just reloads the same page. Page breaks are inserted between headlines and the articles. Half of the links are dead.
I've been an avid supporter of TA ever since I bought my first iPad in 2011. I'm disgusted that you wasted all the money I've contributed on this mess.
RIP TouchArcade
The only thing that lacks and sucks is your respectful behavior.
Says the person person who responds to honest critism with an ad hominem.