Choose the AGS Website of the future!

[Darth Mandarb]

Here are some of the suggestions implemented:

(banner is blurry ... I just resized it.  Actual one will look better.)

CJ - I can whip up a template no problem.  However, why don't we hammer out what we want first.

Questions:
* Do we want drop downs?
* Do we want to restructure the nav system?
* any other changes?

My suggestions:
* Doing a 'Game of the Month' feature on top of the Games table
* Changing the width of screenshots so they're not so wide
* Equalizing the widths of the two side tables (news and games)

It'll save a lot of time and energy if we figure out what we all want first.  That way I'm not (or you're not) making change after change to the template.

~ d

PS
Thanks to all who voted and to all who entered the contest!  It was fun.

[strazer]

Most excellent. I love it.

Do we want drop downs?

I don't think they're necessary, but they don't hurt either.

Do we want to restructure the nav system?

I vote for changing "forum" to "community" like Klaus did, so that that page can house such links like the world map or the AGS member websites.

Doing a 'Game of the Month' feature on top of the Games table

Good idea. That way people see that the community is active.

[Esseb]

Do you intend for the middle section to have percentage height and width? If not I vote for that at any rate.

You could possible put the links down the left side where the news bar is now and have them like:

About
News
Games
- New Games
- Old Games
- Games starring overweight pandas
Download
- AGS
- Fonts

Etc. That is if people decide to ditch the drop down menu.

The middle section of the site could have the news instead. The stuff that's there now really ought to be placed in a separate about section.

[Privateer Puddin']

Do we need two bluecups? :| it just looks a bit bleh imo, how about one, and perhaps not rotated

[Pumaman]

Personally, I'm not a fan of drop-down menus. They make everything take 2 clicks to navigate from one page to another, which can get annoying.

Esseb's suggestion is a possibility, or alternatively there could be a second row of links underneath the existing one, which would contain the section-specific pages.

I also agree about taking the Forums link inside a new Community category, it makes sense that way.

As for Game of the Month; that's more of a problem because the site is currently static html, which would require me to go in and update it every time a new month came round. It's a possibility for the future though.

It'll save a lot of time and energy if we figure out what we all want first. That way I'm not (or you're not) making change after change to the template.

Aye, makes sense. I wasn't sure if you were fiddling in HTML and then posting a screenshot - in which case it would've been cool to see how it adapted to different window sizes and so forth. But yes, that can wait.

[Ben]

I like drop-down menus, for reasons I stated above.. I think they'd work well, as long as there's also an alternative for people who have trouble with them. If we have a link to each page on the side column, of course, then we wouldn't need drop-downs.. But then wouldn't we have to take out the news column to make room?

I support making the middle column a percentage width.. Also the top logo, with the games banner aligned left, and the AGS logo aligned right. That would also make it easier to have changing banners..

Speaking of banners, I just made one that should fit the newest design:

Will this work?

[Darth Mandarb]

Added Ben's banner.

Changed 'forum' to 'community'.

Changed 'about' to 'home'.

Removed 'DOCs' from the nav (as it'll be in the downloads section)

Added a second row of links in the main box as an alternative to drop downs.
(I just used static links just to show the point)
- could also put another box above the news box with the 'sub' links in there.

Removed one of the blue cups.

[Minimi]

something else maybe, just an idea though... there could be a cycle of AGS games in the database, of the 3 front page games, like at the MAGS site. So everytime you visit, you see some other random games.

just a thought... looks cool the site btw!

[Squinky]

Congratulations Darth!

I just wanna say that Klaus'es rocked and he himself rocks for all the hard work he did with the website for mags and the voting and all that cool crap. You don't seem to post a lot here klause, but you've got my vote for being a cool bastard....

And hell yeah ben for putting my pic in the banner, may your children be fertile....

[Darth Mandarb]

I posted up a template:

The new AGS website

I didn't use drop-downs, rather a sub-navigation element in the main section.

This is a template file (I just added some content to flesh it out).

What do we want to change?

* dots to a blue color instead of green
* mouseOver colors of links
* Game of the Month idea?
* fixed width as opposed to the % style now.  (the two side boxes stay the same sizes)

Any other comments/suggestions/insults?

~ d

[strazer]

dots to a blue color instead of green

I like the green.

Maybe emphasize the submenu a bit more? Bold or add another horizontal line below it?

[strazer]

Also the top logo, with the games banner aligned left, and the AGS logo aligned right.

That's basically a good idea. However, I've noticed it looks more awkward the higher your screen resolution is due to the blank space in the middle.
I suggest to use the montages as tiled table cell backgrounds and make the logo an alpha-blended png.
Take a look here to see what I mean.
You will notice the cell and thus the montage is 1 pixel bigger than the logo, so that has to be fixed if possible.

[Felipe]

Congratulations Darth for the great work! (And to everybody who entered this 'competition', all entries were really good! )

Anyway, about the site:
I really liked, just... the font used for "adventure game studio" in the top banner seems a bit 'odd' to me... what about using the font from the current banner?

It's just a thought, though, I don't know if it'd fit either.

-Felipe-

[RickJ]

Congratulations Darth, and Kudos to all entries.  


Darth, I looked at your template but couldn't find the sub-menu.   Speaking of navigation, what would you think of putting the sub-menu down the left column.   Maybe make the news just a headline and date.

Here are some other things (in addition to above) that could possibly be put in that lefthand column:

• SubMenu - Selectng an item from the main menu  wouold change the sub-menu.  Selecting from the sub-menu would only change the center column and possibly make some random game selections in the right column  as discussed elsewhere in this thread.
  
  
• News - Only needs to be date and headline of last two or three news items.   These are only quick links to the most recent events on the news page which is accessable from the main menu.  
  
  
• Ags Statistics - This could be somthing like the number of completed and in progress games, number of forum members, number of downloads AGS and games, etc).
  
  
• Login - Standard login box for games page.
  
  
• Poll - Set something up so CJ can easily create a poll.  That way it would be easy for him to solicit feedback from us about different AGS issues.   Also maybe have an archive of previus polls and their results.
  
  Maybe some other folks have some ideas about this as well.  I don't think everything has to be on every page.   For example, on the games page there could be a login box instead of the poll.  On other pages there could be other content in  that column.  
  
  What do you think?
  
  

[Darth Mandarb]

RickJ - I think those are fantastic ideas!  I too thought of putting the navigation (sub) down the sides!  Only I would suggest making the main links (on the top bar nav) go to the first page in the sub-nav elements.  Some people might miss it if just the side changes when you click  a link from the top bar ... right?

Here is an updated version with your ideas:
AGS Website

NOTE: The side links don't work ... it's 4:30 and I'm exausted! I'll clean it up later!

~ d

[Esseb]

Why must the about info be on the front page while the news is forced into that tiny unreadable box? How about putting the about info in its own section and freeing the entire left section for links?

[Pumaman]

Thanks for prototyping all these changes, Darth

Personally I'm not sure about having the sub-links in the left hand pane. It looks confusing the way some links are across the top and some are on the left - as a visitor to the site I wouldn't be sure which bit was the main sections and which bit were sub-links. I think we should either have them all at the top, or all down the left.

[Ben]

I think Chris is right.. It is a bit unintuitive to have the main links in one place, and the dub-links somewhere else entirely.  It might just be better to have a second row of links at the top-- or go the more traditional route and just organize every link in the side column..

Strazer: I agree with you on the banner graphics. It does look odd with that big blue gap in the middle. Not sure I agree with your solution, though-- the tiled collage looks quite repetitive, and I'm viewing it at 1024x768.. Maybe a less obvious pattern would look better.. Or having the banner itself fade into a pattern (like clouds, or the grid Darth had before)..

[strazer]

the tiled collage looks quite repetitive, and I'm viewing it at 1024x768.

I agree, it was just to show what I mean.
The final collages would be a lot wider of course. In fact, if you were to incorporate random collages, each one could be just a different "viewport" of a single ultra-wide image.

[Darth Mandarb]

I did quick mockups for both ONLY side and ONLY top driven navigation types:
- AGS Website (side-nav)
- AGS Website (top-nav)

~ d