Zelda Dungeon:Layout 15.0
Release Date | November 22nd, 2007 | |
| Credits | ||
|---|---|---|
Designer | Caleb Simpson | |
Webhost | Telefragged | |
Layout 15 was launched on November 22nd, 2007 and was the first layout that was created by webmaster of Zelda Dungeon, Caleb. It was themed after the Temple of Droplets from The Minish Cap. The initial goal was to design a layout that made it feel like one was actually within a dungeon. The top banner of the website had a puzzle within it. An Ice Block with a Small Key could be seen on the right side of the banner, and an area of fire could be seen on the left side. Much like many puzzles within the Temple of Droplets, the solution involved Link pushing blocks of ice to get the small key to the fire. The original idea was to make the banner interactive and playable, with periodic new puzzles being added, but this never did come to fruition.
The layout added a few buttons along the right navigation signifying the current site projects that the staff was working on. One of which, was Phantom Hourglass, where the staff was still finalizing some of the content and walkthrough pages. Walkthrough chapters were released on a near weekly basis since the release of the game and on January 2nd, the walkthrough had been completed. In the coming weeks, just about all the subsequent side pages for Phantom Hourglass were also completed. The walkthrough for Phantom Hourglass earned Zelda Dungeon nice rankings in various search engines, which surged visitors during the winter months. In the days just following Christmas of 2007, Zelda Dungeon recorded over 4,000 unique visitors, a new record at the time.
On January 23rd of 2008, the Zelda Dungeon Forums received a big upgrade as the site switched over to the vbulletin forum software. This switch over saw a large initial push in registered members and total posts. Over the coming months, significant changes were made to the hierarchy of the forums with the introduction of several new forum rankings. New shoutbox software was installed on the forums, and with that, several new usergroups were established.
On March 1st of 2008, Zelda Dungeon was the recipient of the Golden Mirror Shield award, given out by the Exploding Deku Nut. The Golden Item Awards were a Zelda community award, where sites were nominated and awards were given out to sites that were unique, aspiring, had a lively forum, had a great layout, and an award for the lifetime achievement. Zelda Dungeon was awarded the lifetime achievement award and it followed with an acceptance post by Mases at Zelda Dungeon in the days following.
Traffic Levels
- With the release of Phantom Hourglass and the complete walkthrough that was added at the website, traffic soared to new heights, Traffic levels climbed significantly during the early months of this layout with improved content published at the website regularly. Traffic numbers soared after the release of Phantom Hourglass.