Speaking of the Majestic Map Engine, My memory's kinda fuzzy on it. Was there any production ready version out at any point?

Well, there is a _very_ early version in the Google drive right now. But it's missing elevation and the dynamic terrain features I added, which were the main features!

I have definitely lost all of my old copies in the intervening years. I think the SimCity demo I made has the newest surviving version, although it was separated out into MJ-13.js, MJ-13b.js, and MJ-14.js. MJ-14 has the elevation features, although why I had separated out some of the original features into MJ-13 and MJ-13b is kind of fuzzy to me at this point. Probably some kind of performance-related modification for the SimCity demo. That version is still missing a few of the features from the Gryphon Chapter version, but some of those (including the simple pathfinding features) are well and truly gone at this point.

It was production ready, although it never had any sort of editor. A part of its appeal was that any image editor could act as a map editor, making it actually easier to use on Mac and Linux than the normal Sphere maps

Sidenote, looking back through that code is a trip down memory lane!

Wow, lots of discussion today!

So here's what I would like to see:
1. This is definitely not a v1 feature, but someday a way to host downloads (google drive or otherwise (user submits their own d/l link?)) I know there's a link to the repo, but individualized game pages would be nice (like RMN, but Sphere-centric).
2. In relation to #1 above, we can have a more dedicated games showcase page, it can be simple at first, with just images and/or videos. Something like this: https://www.yoyogames.com/showcase
3. A news section and not just forum posts... so that there's more life on the front page, especially near the top. Not necessarily the forum activity, but maybe more like a blog? For example, announcing an official release of the editor or engine, or announcements on game jams and other community events.

I know we are a small community, but a bit more impression of being larger than we are (which given Sphere's history is not a bad thing) can help get new people interested. Look at the GameMaker website, it really has taken off since I first used it in 2004.

These are cool, but like you said, definitely not v1 features. I personally just want to keep it fairly simple at first and turn the front page into something that attracts new members and gives them some direction first, as well as actually put Sphere on the map (like it deserves and should be).

One thing I think the site definitely needs on the front page, preferably close to the top, is a section showing what the newest version of minisphere and Sphere Studio is, with a link that leads to the changelog and downloads.  That way people can quickly check the homepage to see if they need to update, without having to hunt through the site.

Oh, that's a very good one! We'll have to see how we can do it implementation-wise though. (Maybe a wiki page or the code looking at a webpage/Github/the forum thread title?)

Latest engine will always be available here:
https://github.com/fatcerberus/minisphere/releases

Studio:
https://github.com/Radnen/spherestudio/releases

Not sure how difficult it would be to scrape data from that though.  Alternatively I think GitHub has an API for this kind of thing, I don't know anything about it though.

Latest engine will always be available here:
https://github.com/fatcerberus/minisphere/releases

Studio:
https://github.com/Radnen/spherestudio/releases

Not sure how difficult it would be to scrape data from that though.  Alternatively I think GitHub has an API for this kind of thing, I don't know anything about it though.

If GitHub has an API that would be groovy. Would have to make sure to double-check the releases are tagged properly, though.

I think there is an RSS feed for every project you could hook into.

For convenience I added to the htaccess a redirect to the GDrive from http://www.spheredev.org/dl

This page is now in actual active development. I'm just making a static page out of it since that's easy to do and we don't truly need much more than that. But at least it will properly advertise the engine itself, its advantages, showcase what has been/can be made with it, and of course a bunch of useful links.

I'm also planning to add a little downloads section and focus it on mainly minisphere, since that is the most functional implementation out there right now.

A preview of the design and layout so far:
http://vincent.tengudev.com/temp/spherical/

Any input is definitely welcomed.

I'll give it a good look when I get home, but I like what I'm seeing so far.  It's even mobile friendly!

Note: minisphere will be rebranded to miniSphere (capital S) in the next release.

I take extra care to make things mobile friendly these days.

Will change the branding accordingly! Oh, and obviously the demo slider's content is all just placeholder stuff.

Since miniSphere is pretty much made out as the official download (and rightfully so, in my opinion ), it would probably be a good idea to include a breakdown summary of major features in the most recent big release, e.g. the current release is v4.4, something like this:

What's new in miniSphere 4.4?

• ECMAScript 2015 support (arrow functions, etc.)


• More powerful and extensible Cell compiler


• SphereFS sandboxing improvements


• EATY PIGS!

I considered that, but in the end, I want to keep the amount of information shown on the front page short and focused. The moment you click on the link, you get all the details anyway. WOULD be a good idea to at least fetch and display the latest version number though.

As for actual advantages and features, I was thinking of incorporating that into the "what is Sphere?" bit.