See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

It’s been quite a while since a substantial update so I want to talk about what’s been happening lately.

Account System Restored

As some of you may remember an account system was first technically working several months ago. Following a complete re-write of StoryDevs’ code base it’s now been restored. As before, you have an option to perform remote log-outs in case you’ve lost a device or accidentally stayed logged in at a public place:

There’s also been a bit of a redesign of the account layout. As you can see in the first picture your avatar is now under “basics” rather than in the left column and the account menu has it’s own search field. You’ll be able to type keywords there to find and access parts of your account (such as settings) quickly rather than having to roam through menus. Additionally, there’s now mock-ups for the inbox and settings:

The little [ + ] or [ – ] next “Messages (2)” indicates that it has a sub-menu… which I haven’t implemented yet. Once completed it’ll have options beneath it for “Inbox”, “Sent”, and maybe “Drafts”.

Your account settings will be grouped as logically as possible. As you can see in the above image there’s a “Global” category which contains settings that apply to both of your account’s… personas? Whaaaaaat?

Built-In Alt Accounts

On a whim I decided I’m just gonna design the site with alt-accounts as a feature, rather than making it a user workaround. People make alt accounts for all types of sites from social media to special interest forums. Let’s just embrace that need and try to make life easier for them.

First things first, you only need one email address and password to do this. From your account you’ll be able to choose a second handle and display name pair which can have its own associated talent profiles, assets, inbox, settings, etc. It’s not a different account because you’re still using the same log-in and can set global settings for both accounts, so I call them “personas” for now. The name isn’t really important and I may change it later.

It’s important to note that unlike a site such as Tumblr, there’s no “primary” persona. You could create a new one then delete your old one.

What are the advantages? Well here’s a few:

• No need to log out and back in as your alt. Switching will be a keyboard shortcut or button away.
  
  
• No need for a second email address.
  
  
• Creating a new persona is easy: you just need to enter a new handle and display name.
  
  
• Your account can detect that you have a second persona and be configured to warn/challenge you when posting so that you don’t accidentally post as the wrong one.

Modes Are More Robust

The “mode” the site is in just refers to what’s inside the columns. There’s a talent mode, an asset mode, and an account mode so far. When you switch modes it loads different stuff into the columns. That system is okay but I’ve extended it so that each mode knows more about what state it’s in.

For example, in the gif above the user is viewing their account settings. When they collapse all the columns they’ll see a label appear above the columns reading “Account > Settings” and each column itself has labels appropriate to what it contains. It’s possible to give the user this extra info because the mode knows what state it’s in.

The state of each mode also allows it to know which columns you’re likely to want to look at, as well as which columns it’s preferable to collapse if the window gets too narrow. If you’ve just performed a search in the talent database you presumably would like to see the results. If you decide to leave the talent database and view your account the talent mode’s state is remembered — when you return it’ll know what columns to expand and collapse, as well as what you were originally looking at.

States also have their own urls which allows you to link people to a mode in a particular state. This is handy if you want to link someone to a search you performed, or you’re trying to help someone by showing them where to go in their own account to do a particular thing.

Column Bug Fixed

There was a timing-related bug for column expanding and collapsing that could lead to things looking like this:

In a nutshell it was caused by the UI elements being initialised before the column had fully expanded. It was a rare bug but unacceptable given how screwed up it made things when it happened. The timing issue was caused by the columns using CSS transitions and having to guess when the transition ended by reading the stylesheet transition-duration value and then initialising the UI in a timeout set to execute after that duration had passed.

Since Internet Explorer can’t animate the columns with CSS I already had custom animation code lying around. Now all browsers use it and because it’s all in JavaScript I have full knowledge of the state of the animation every frame and can ensure initialisation happens when it’s supposed to.

Phew, so that’s it for now.

StoryDevs is a place for developers of visual novels and story-focused games to find each other and collaborate. The site is under development but handle reservations are open: www.storydevs.com/reserve

Website: www.storydevs.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/storydevs
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Email: support@storydevs.com