365 Days of gamerDNA

It has been a year since I started the wild journey that is gamerDNA.com. Sometimes it is hard to fathom that it has only been a year... but what an exciting year it has been. The product itself has come a long way... more so than you can see... I made a list of the main things and sent it out to the team... but I wanted to republish it for my friends and family... some of you will know what I am talking about, others will simply say... "nice list of computer stuff."... I feel like many of you say that all the time anyhow... :)

So where has gamerDNA come from over the last 365 days?

Well there was our first day in the office... no projector... no coffee... barely any chairs... such humble and exciting beginnings... we were all so innocent... we could not concieve of the volume of effort that would be cranked out over the next 12 months.

1. Convert the GuildCafe brand into the gamerDNA brand. A full site redesign in two months with a complete relaunch.
2. In the process of that, convert the site (most of it) from PHP to Ruby-on-Rails
3. Build out a product architecture that would serve as the back bone of our underlying systems that still provide us the flexibility to iterate to this day.
4. Implement the Xbox 360 data capture
5. Implement Steam data capture (pc game data)
6. Implement Xfire data capture (pc game data)
7. Build out an automatic experiences system (with auto-narratives) - a conversation catalyst. Since retired, but hey... it was fun. :)
8. Revamp the World of Warcraft Character/Item/Guild capture to pull more accurate data with better consistency.
9. Construct a new registration process (that can be cobranded for partners)
10. Install a streamlined guild hosting sign up process.
11. Construct a gamer quiz system, write content for four genre based quizzes and install a gamer behavior trait system (how people play) underneath it.
12. Implement an OpenID authentication system in our product with co-brand capabilities and a white-label version that can be deployed to partners.
13. Import information and content of over 50,000+ games in our catalog.
14. Construct a moderated folksonomy-based game traiting system that powers a rich and extensible discovery algorithm.
15. In combination with the launch of game traiting, produce a new homepage.
    
16. Build a social media syndication system for Twitter, Tumblr, and FriendFeed.
17. Perform a full performance and caching pass on all systems and sub systems to enable faster system scale.
18. Added Warhammer Online Character/Guild capture and dynamic signature images.
19. Installed rich monitoring systems for performance of our rails architecture.
20. Begun delivering user-facing and documented Helix APIs based on REST XML.
21. Built a WoW Achievement capture system that powers dynamic signature images.
22. Deployed a full clustered architecture to allow 100% uptime upgrades and a middle tier cache model.
23. Built out a new, scalable development environment for better productivity.
24. Participated in the Child's Play Charity Drive by providing a system for communities to get involved with custom signature badges.
25. Created widget versions of all quizzes with skin/sponsor capabilities.
26. Produced a music genre quiz and matching signatures.
    
27. Created custom member profile signatures/gamerDNA cards.
28. Eliminated the DNA panel and created a new (and better, more flexible) home for all profile/gamerDNA entry.
29. Deployed new Game and Member Directories to provide more flexible options for navigating content.
30. Implemented a game activity system normalizing all game play into a single feed with multiple events and tracking/displaying those events on a game play calendar.
31. Replaced our watchlist technology with a more consistent activity feed technology.
32. Imported all iPhone games into our catalog.
33. Established casual game partnerships to import web based games into our catalog.
34. Built out a new game page with a gameCURRENT system for delivering filtered content about games.
35. Added Buy.Rent.Play actions with multiple vendors (Buy.com, Amazon, Amazon Marketplace, Addicting games, Bigpoint, Kongregate, Gamefly)
    
36. Began integrating external vendor content (pics, reviews, video).

...and the awesome continues.

I work with a fantastic team at an exciting and fun company. The work is hard, rewarding, and in the end... it is just video games! Who doesn't like video games?!?

Cheers to the next 365 days... hell the next 90 will be more exciting than the last 365, just wait and see

Comments

[mom]

WOW! That is some list!!!! When did you sleep???? Congrats to the team.
Mom

[jax]

WOW, only a year? Seems a lot longer than that. And I can so appreciate that for each of your 36 items there are countless, thank less tasks. Great year, good job!