SideQuest’s Launches Phase One Of New Website
All the new features you can expect from SideQuest’s fresh new look and how you can tell us what you think!
It’s been a long time coming, but SideQuest’s new website is finally here!
We’re excited to unveil phase one of our new site’s launch. While you should still expect to see a couple of the older pages floating about, we’ve completely overhauled most of the site—and added a few new features that should help both our users and indie developers get more out of SideQuest.
What’s the inspiration?
SideQuest isn’t a huge faceless corporation, we’re a small team spread across the globe dedicated to building out this awesome community of VR fans. Our community of users and developers fuels SideQuest, so we wanted to create a new visual identity that’ll get everyone excited to jump into new VR adventures with us.
Most tech companies have a minimalist look, so we wanted to move away from that and stand out from the crowd a little. Our design team was given the guidelines of: “Neon”, “Futuristic” and “Cyberpunk”, and then set to work! First, the team ideated on the use of lighting, textures, and colorful character imagery to make the look pop. We also wanted to capture some 3D elements within the designs, what with us being a VR company and all.
But the primary focus was on the adventure—encouraging everyone visiting us to embark on their own sidequests in VR. So, we added some extra features to help everyone find those new adventures we want to take.
It’s all modular…
With this new site, we were keen to emphasise quality apps, games, and content even more. While our old site managed this OK, it was pretty rigid and didn’t allow for much flexibility when it came to testing new ideas, promoting the widest possible range of apps, and providing space for more content as we thought it up.
That’s now changed.
Almost every element in the new site is modular, meaning we can chop, change, and add new elements on the fly. In simple terms, everything is placed into boxes we can position and edit however we like, with images, text, and textures attached.
This means that we’ll be able to experiment with more unique site maps and a user journey that can be tailored to what you (our users) are most interested in. And, since we’re in the tech space and things are changing all the time, this modular build allows us to adapt, evolve, and constantly keep things funky fresh.
Kicking things off, we’re adding some cool little extras to make your SideQuest browsing better than ever…
Staff Picks and Curated Lists
We’ve had Staff Picks on SideQuest for some time now. Sitting right at the top of our homepage, these offer a mixture of some of VR’s biggest current hits, as well as a couple of more niche SideQuest SQuad favorites.
Staff Picks have always been great for giving our users a quick way to nab some of the most popular apps out there, but they could often feel a little soulless without a lot of interactivity.
During our initial testing phase (conducted with real users), it was unanimously agreed that people wanted to hear more from the actual team behind SideQuest and what we like to play. After all, the SQuad is made up of real people—real VR fans—and users want to hear what our top picks are since we come into contact with a LOT of VR games on a daily basis. And we’re a pretty chatty bunch, actually.
So, in addition to the classic Staff Picks and their quick and easy solutions, you’ll also find Curated Lists dotted about the new site filled with more personality—and even MORE games for you to play. These lists will always be compiled by real SideQuest staff members based on their top recommendations across various categories and themes—and will often feature games you might find harder to track down yourself.
(And of course you’ll want to look out for my Curated Lists… Because, naturally, I have impeccable taste and they’re excellent.)
But, there’s more…
In addition to these Staff Picks and Lists, we wanted to provide even more space to focus on recommended games, offering more variety for users and more opportunities for hard-working developers to have their apps featured prominently on SideQuest. Especially those games that might be flying under the radar as sleeper hits in the making…
Hidden Gems
We used to have a similar problem to other gaming stores and aggregators at SideQuest: the most popular apps consistently appeared across the site, dominating the key spots and limiting exposure for smaller games, developers, and studios.
While these popular top picks are definitely important, we’re all about supporting the underdogs at SideQuest, so we asked real users what they wanted to see more of. They told us that there are so many apps and games on offer at SideQuest that it has been difficult in the past to cut through the noise and find awesome new experiences that are a bit less mainstream.
So, we’re unearthing SideQuest’s Hidden Gems and putting them on display for the world to see!
You’ll find these Hidden Gems in a dedicated section of the new website, each with a little explanation of what the game is and why we love it. We’ll also be rotating these Gems every week, too, so be sure to check back in regularly for some shiny experiences you may not have discovered otherwise.
Trending Apps
Along with Hidden Gems, Trends is a brand new feature on SideQuest where you’ll be able to find apps and games grouped by topics that might be trending at the time (almost as if it’s in the name!).
In this section, you can expect seasonal offerings, thematic groupings, and more as we dive into more specific themed groupings than categories that’ll be changed up regularly to keep things fresh.
In the run-up to Halloween or Christmas, you should hope for Zombie apocalypses and wintery wonderland, for example. But throughout the year, there’ll be plenty of other trends to jump on, like superpowered surprises, and physics-based badassery, among other things.
Coming soon…
This is just the tip of the iceberg—we’re working on a whole lot more behind the scenes to follow this first rollout phase, including:
- A brand new account area with more power than ever
- More from our SideKicks with a dedicated SideKick zone featuring recommendations, reviews, and more
- A total overhaul of the ‘Get SideQuest’ process—helping make installation a whole lot easier
- More links to this very blog (which is clearly what you should hit up first)
We can’t tell you exactly when these will be going live just yet, but keep an eye on our social channels (links at the bottom of this article) for the latest. In the meantime, however, we’d love you to tell us what you think of the first phase…
Share your feedback with the team!
We love to hear what our users think—and that’s YOU!
So, dotted around the new site, you’ll find the option to ‘Give us feedback’ and share your thoughts on what works, what doesn’t, and anything else you might like to see from SideQuest in the future.
The best place to find this is from the main menu, located at the side of the screen if you’re on desktop (as demonstrated in the subtle image above).
Join the SideQuest Research Club
Leaving feedback is amazing, but if you want to be at the forefront of our development, see what we’re cooking up behind the scenes, and be one of the select people helping us shape the future of SideQuest, then you should join our Research Club!
Sign up to the mailing list (linked below) and we’ll shoot you an email whenever there’s a chance for you to get involved in a research activity. You could be asked for feedback on a new website element, to test a new feature, or even be invited to an in-person workshop!
Oh, and we’ll give you a free game for your trouble whenever you take part! Let us know your preferences and we’ll see what we can rustle up to thank you for your help.
[Join the SideQuest Research Club!]
About SideQuest
SideQuest represents the ultimate community in standalone VR. A place where developers and players around the globe can create, share, and get excited about the virtual reality apps they love.
Developers (like us) are free to experiment with mechanics and modes on their journey to official stores, while players can safely explore thousands of apps across the wonderful world of VR — the biggest collection all in one place, actually.
Because who needs limits, right?
[Download BANTER: our FREE Social VR game]
Let’s keep your SideQuest going…
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