Speeding Along
Since my last post, I've crammed a bunch of development into the site and things are moving along at a very nice pace. If I were to give an estimate, I'd say that I'm right on the cusp of having an alpha version of the site ready for some preliminary examination on the whole. No promises, but perhaps in a month or so I'll be soliciting for beta testers.
Of course, I like everything about the new site, but now that things are actually functioning a bit, my favorite new features have to be the revised browsing and search functionality and support for map packs and multiple authors.
The new browse/search system is fast, efficient and flexible. It just simply "feels" cool to use. And after having added/edited thousands of maps on the existing site, I can't tell you how excited I am at the fact that multiple authors and map packs are now going to be natively supported by the site. No more manually listing the multiple authors or maps in the pack in the description as a "duct tape" fix!
There's still a bit more work to be done yet (the overhauled map submission process being the biggie), but Mapraider 2.0 is quickly becoming a working-replacement for the live site — even in its current, unfinished and unpolished state.
I'm planning on eventually putting together a checklist of to-do items and publishing it here on the blog so you can see exactly how things are progressing. I'll be excited when that happens, as I'm sure you will be.