Content Management System

We now have a dev section, powered by a content management system (CMS) and I would like to take a few moments to explain what that means:

With CMS, someone with no knowledge of HTML can make web-pages that display content from a database.
Using CMS, content can be easily added, replaced,or referenced from existing HTML sites.

Here is a real world example:

An estate agency keeps a database of properties. As new properties become available, the agent uses a web browser to visit the CMS site and upload photographs and information about the property. No knowledge of HTML is required, everything is done using a familiar interface that resembles a word processor.
This way, the agent can quickly add or update information without the need to know anything technical.
Using a CMS is also advantageous to the host, as the client site can maintain itself, lowering admin fees.

Pricing for individual hosting packages is still being finalised. However, it is likely to be around £2.99/month.

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. CMS is capable of so much more. If you would like to gain more understanding, further reading of the following topics is encouraged:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system

http://www.contentmanager.eu.com/history.htm

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Game Mapping & Modding

Alright, yeah. I play a lot of games. What you may not know is that I play games mostly to figure out how the various engine work, and find ways in which to tweak them and stretch them beyond their original purpose.

For example, although there’s nothing on the relevant sections of the website (yet!), I actually have five or six mapping projects going on for most of the idtech games (prey, Doom3 and Quake4) and I recently purchased the excellent Neverwinter Nights from Bioware (the original, not the sequel. Old-school!) so am attempting to learn all about the Aurora engine.
I have so much design work for other people at the moment, that I can only work on the MothDesigns site in my free time.

Over the next few weeks, expect some content to appear on the game design page. Even if it is just map downloads, there will be source included as well, along with some tutorials.

Once again, please bear with me with regard to the broken links and missing pages. They *do* exist on the server, but it’s a mess in there at the moment. Watch this space….

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HTML5 and Internet Explorer 9

So you may have been reading about HTML5. If you don’t know what it is or how it affects you as a developer, but it’s basically HTML, CSS, DHTML XHTML and pretty much every ML you can think of, rolled into one and dubbed ‘HTML5′ – it’s goinf to bring a lot of ease to cross-browser and cross-platform development of web-apps in the near future.

Internet Explorer 9 is just around the corner, and whilst I have been using Google Chrome for ages now, it’s interesting to read about Microsoft’s development of Direct2D, which will use the GPU to render vector graphics in the browser for the first time, making things like Google Maps scroll smoothly.

Further Reading:

HTTP://BLOGS.MSDN.COM/IE/ARCHIVE/2009/11/18/AN-EARLY-LOOK-AT-IE9-FOR-DEVELOPERS.ASPX