AGS Website Redesign

[Rik_Vargard]

So right now @jmjm and @Eon_Star are the ones I know about.
Perhaps contacting them could be a start?

I can do that part if you want to, but then I'll also need to know what you need from them (Link? Etc?)

[Eon_Star]

Hi, I would be happy, if I could be of help. Here is the link to my tutorial videos:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdlsMVDmowzSkFXAwnV_dOXjrSqYsjU15

[RootBound]

@AGA My image without the white background looks just great, thanks!

And the url that gives a 404 on mobile is https://new-site.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/search/

@tampie85 Linking to my profile name is fine, thanks.

[Dungeonation]

My take on both "image not found" pictures!

[AGA]

My take on both "image not found" pictures!

I've implemented these now, and they look great, thanks!  https://new-site.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/play/search/&q=account-no-filter:checked;title-or-author:an+egypt+adventure;newest-releases:checked

[CTxCB]

As somebody who has done web design in the past, I will say that I think the space the "Create, Play, Join" buttons takes up (as in the background) takes up way too much of the space. I would go as far as saying that how I see it, its off-putting, because with a game engine's main website you need to show its strengths straight away, and I think that's something lost in the transition to a new design (you suddenly can't see what AGS can do for you as a developer until you scroll down).

I think a solution to that would be to anchor this...

...To the header, below what's already there. That way the buttons are always accessible without scrolling up, and the "Create Your Own Adventure Games" part will be visible when you load the page, the buttons would instead be like Wikipedia uses them for sections, moving the top of the section to below the header, with the rest above that point.

At first glance, the only other minor criticism I have, is that I feel the Auto-Progress bar in the "Create Your Own Adventure Games" area could be smoothed out a bit, it seems to go fast, and then slow down drastically near the end, whereas that would look more natural to be spread across the entire bar.

[Stupot]

The "Learn More" text in each of the orange buttons is slightly off-centre to the left.

I'm not a fan of the three "Learn More" buttons in general. I don't think you need them. Create, Play and Join might as well be the buttons themselves.

[AGA]

I think a mistake many of you make is thinking most of our users are actually developers.  The vast majority of visitors to the AGS site actually come to play games, far fewer ever go near making their own game, or visiting the forums.

This is why the site isn't so strongly focused towards the dev side, rather is meant to be a balance between dev, player and community (which is really a bit of both).  Creating your own adventure games shouldn't necessarily be the only thing one sees when they land on the site, to avoid scaring off people who're only interested in playing preexisting games.  This is why we made the decision to effectively offer three different routes when you first arrive on the home page (and in the nav bar).

[Snarky]

But testing the site just as a user who wants to have access on how to learn AGS, it's not that easy to find.
And I mean: Video tutorials. Because we're in 2024.

Perhaps there could be a front page with Create, Play, Join and LEARN

I don't disagree that video tutorials should be featured, but I'd argue that "Learn" definitely belongs as part of "Create," not its own section. It is only relevant to people who are interested in making games (which, as AGA points out, is only one segment of visitors), and for them it is so relevant that they shouldn't have to go to a different section.

[AGA]

Yeah, that was our thinking, Snarky.  We're thinking of rejigging the Create -> Get Started page to make differing routes maybe for those who want to just get stuck in, and those who would like to find help resources first.

[tampie85]

Bugs/feedback processed so far (and visible on the test site):

- Colour progress bar in image carousel changed from red to theme blue
- Made the login panel wider on desktop view
- Made the cookie banner wider on both desktop and mobile
- Removed extra space in top creators and contributors
- Added "Logo by Cat" in the footer.
- Added video tutorials by Eon Star to the Help & Support resources
- Replaced the AI logos with the ones provided in this thread.

[cat]

The logo wasn't made only by me, but together with several members of the AGS community. To avoid going into detail, the best might be

Logo by the AGS community

[tampie85]

Ah sorry, cat, I may misremember how the logo was created, thanks for clarifying.

To explain my thinking; it seemed to be a nice idea to credit the artists for their artwork, by adding a small line below the images. Which of course I couldn't do with the logo. After adding you to the footer, I realised that there are more examples (like Image Not Found) and I think it's too much to add all of that to the footer. So for now I will revert the addition to the footer and will have a think on how to credit everyone appropriately.

[cat]

You could make a dedicated "Page credits" page and just link it from the footer. Or just add the credits to the "about" page.

[tampie85]

Bugs/feedback processed:

- On the homepage, in the Play Games section, updated the button text from "Get Started" to "Explore More Games" for clarity.
- Removed the logo credit from the footer (it will go into a dedicated section on the About page).

- On light theme, on the homepage hero, changed the colour of the down arrow (it was invisible due to being the same colour as the button).

- On desktop, in the menu, added the "on hover" colour to the search icon
- On mobile, on the Play Get Started Page, removed the game description from Pick of the Month.
- On mobile, when the menu or the notification list is open and you click outside of them, they close automatically.
- On mobile, an issue with the search filters has been fixed.

[newwaveburritos]

I thought I could give back a little to AGS so I made a 404 although it can really be any number we want if we want a different one.  It was fun to make!

[lapsking]

I made 3 quick sketches for errors. If ideas get approved, I can do them in colors.


Bad request


Not authorized


Not found

[Rik_Vargard]

I don't know if this has been noted before so sorry if it has. 

I get this when clicking on the "Tutorials" link on PC:

[AGA]

I don't know if this has been noted before so sorry if it has. 

I get this when clicking on the "Tutorials" link on PC:

Thanks for the feedback, but this isn't really a bug; it's happening because the wiki isn't set up on the test server.  The wiki hasn't changed at all under the new design.  If you want to know what the link would actually go to, you can just replace "new-site" with "www" in the address.

[AGA]

I thought I could give back a little to AGS so I made a 404 although it can really be any number we want if we want a different one.  It was fun to make!

Looks great, thanks!

I made 3 quick sketches for errors. If ideas get approved, I can do them in colors.


Bad request


Not authorized


Not found

While we really do appreciate the effort, it's hard to see how these would fit in the given context?  Or would you be combining the characters with a computer or something to contextualise it more to the whole 'using a website' thing?  I think your sketches are perhaps a bit abstract currently...

Please note that newwaveburritos got there first with the 404 (not found) too!