GameHippo Strikes Back!
Approximately six months ago, the big orange hippo went belly up, marking the end of an era. Just when people finally got over the loss of their beloved hippo and moved on with crayon in one hand and goo in the other, the great freeware deity casted Life1 on the great hippo, and so the great orange hippo was back, bigger, stronger, and (hopefully) better than ever.
Basically, if you don't know what GameHippo is, here's a description of the site from many-a-post ago:
Many should have come across GameHippo at one point or another. Nearly a decade old, GameHippo (http://gamehippo.com/) is a freeware PC game download site with a huge index of games of all kinds, no shareware, no demos, just free games. At its prime, GameHippo was THE site to go to for updates on the latest freeware games, and GameHippo was the site that got many people into independent/free games (myself included).
Of course, good things never last, and GH officially died last August.
Fortunately, someone who goes by the name Striker decided to bring back the site, and apparently did so in three day's time. The new site can be found at www.thegamehippo.com.
As many of you are aware, GameHippo.com was one of the better freeware gaming sites out there. Until it closed down in 2007, I frequented the page to find out about the latest freeware games. This is my attempt to revive the site and make it better than before.
If you've made a game or know of one, use the Submit Game form located here: http://www.TheGameHippo.com/suggest/
I built 90% of this site in 3 days, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to post them or PM me. If it's a good idea, it will most likely be implemented.
Feel free to tell your friends about us (we won't mind, honest!).
The site went operational on January 19th, and although somethings look a bit different (for example that drunk Hippo at the top of the page), for the most part the site still feels like the old GameHippo we all know and love...minus the huge database of freeware games the original site accumulated throughout the ages. Meaning other than the looks, it's basically a brand new site...will it survive in this new age of freeware/flash/indie games, will it be able to compete with new start-ups like TIGdb? Only time will tell, but for now, GOOD LUCK GAMEHIPPO!
Comments
Thank you for your support!
One of the things I'm trying to incorporate into the site that the original GameHippo lacked is Admin-to-User communication. The old site didn't have any personality when it came to reviews, updates, and news and contacting them was almost completely out of the question. I wasn't a huge forum user on the old site, but I feel that you shouldn't have to be a dedicated forum member in order to make an impact on the site. In fact, the rating scale, the user rating system, and the image previews were all suggestions from ordinary users and they each only took a few hours of tinkering to implement. If it took me only 3 days to build the backbone of the site then it shouldn't take that long to implement YOUR next idea.
As mentioned, Flash and Shockwave games are on the rise. I'm going to run a poll on my forums to find out what the users think about a unique section dedicated to those types of games and if people feel it is worthwhile.
If our site grows, SoupHat, my only dedicated reviewer at the moment, and I plan to branch out to incorporate features like Game Commentaries (which are hugely popular these days) and even our own games (he and I are both fluent in Actionscript and C#).
We are in desperate need of dedicated reviewers. If you feel you can review at least 2 games a week, then feel free to post on the forum or use the Contact page on our site.
As always, feel free to send us suggestions.
Thank you for your support!
- Striker
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