There are actually two huge pieces of news this week.
HBDev
Basically, I wanted to take pride in the fact we aren't just a forum staff, but also a team of active web developers, striving to create the best software for your experience here. I have therefore set up an open Private Subforum, called #hbdev, where any website development work will be discussed. You can feel free to chime in with help, opinions, feedback, suggestions, or just general praise. That's what the forum is there for. Think of it as a brainstorming forum.
Along these lines, we have just launched a beta of something we've been working on for a long time:
Resources - Graphics Gallery
This is part of what's become known as "the mainsite" though to be honest I don't want it thought of as such. It is as much a part of the forums as the forums are a part of it, turning HBGames.org into a much more powerful engine to be a part of than just your typical RM forum.
The resource gallery will eventually also house scripts (coming soon). For now, you can host and find graphical resources on there. We need your feedback and suggestions, of course, on how to improve this service.
Five Year Anniversary Contest
Back to general news, and the Five Year Anniversary Contest has drawn to an end. I won't spoil the surprise, the winners are in the thread, which can be found here. The contest was to celebrate five years of us as a community, spanning back to May 2004 when Lord Gradient created the website and forums RMXP.NET. Since then we have always been the prominent member of the RM community. As a thank you, and celebration, some of the staff created this contest - which has huge cash prizes by the way - and well, the results are finally in.
eZine
I probably mentioned this last week, but be sure to check out the ezine (viewforum.php?f=202). The old issues from RMXP.NET and RMXP.org have been saved, by Zeriab, DerVVulfmann, and Tana; (thanks guys!) and it's all been arranged in a "directory" of sorts at the top of it's forum.
New Blood
Not many this week, but then it is a week after newyears. A warm welcome to:
Kidfox70
Anne Noise
Gunga1
New Forum Theme
Aqua In Red has been remade with new images. Basically the old one sucked, sorry about that, I put it down to bad colours on my monitor.
Game Making
Nikki has posted some more Morrowind mods: viewtopic.php?f=78&t=68609
"There will be blood", by OrbitDuke, has a concept thread out: viewtopic.php?f=78&t=68609
Rob the Sea Dog is an... interesting looking completed pirate game: viewtopic.php?f=77&t=69221
Finally, Act II of Sailerius's Vacant Sky has been released (viewtopic.php?f=77&t=26105), I know a lot of people have been waiting for this!
Programmins
OneLostSoul is working on something called Express Game Maker. Might want to check it out. viewtopic.php?f=179&t=69274
I launched a Proboards contest but it doesn't look like anybody is interested. viewtopic.php?f=94&t=69198
MUSIC
Admittedly I don't pay as much attention to music as I could do, but there have been some cool threads in there this week, such as the .ORG online jam session (viewtopic.php?f=93&t=69203).
Rumbler made some music (viewtopic.php?f=93&t=69259), and er oh, the weekly music workshop thread is cool too! (viewtopic.php?f=93&t=57994)
A darkie wants you to ask him things. I dunno why, maybe he's trying to pass his citizenship test? viewtopic.php?f=175&t=69261
Forum Games is cool. viewforum.php?f=203
Symposium has an interesting thread about whether or not we should save the polar bears. viewtopic.php?f=24&t=69192
What's SSSB o.O viewtopic.php?f=17&t=69286
Tatsunoko vs Capcom (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=68885) (what is this btw)