Choose the AGS Website of the future!

[strazer]

Wow, the side-nav is actually pretty nice. My vote for side-nav.

[Ben]

Those look really good. My vote goes to the top navbar. Though the side navigation bar could be more efficient, if you take advantage of the space and put all sub-links on there at the same time..

[Esseb]

Though the side navigation bar could be more efficient, if you take advantage of the space and put all sub-links on there at the same time..

I agree.

The banner could perhaps be a little taller.

[Darth Mandarb]

I didn't make the banner taller ... but here's the 'open' side nav option:

AGS Website

~ d

[Felipe]

Darth: The site is looking great!

Just a few ideas I had about it's 'distribution'...

As many have already mentioned, there are some sections that are hard to reach from the Main Page (I, for example, don't know how to get to the Plugins, IRC, World Map & other parts from the Main Page); so, I made this 'sketch' of a possible 'menu distribution' (hope you understand it):

- Main Page
*About
*Contact
*Features
*Download
*Game of the month
*News
*Polls
*Statistics

-News Page
*Recent News
*News Archive

- Community Page
*Forums
*IRC
*AGSers World Map

- Games Page (here, the games could be listed in the current categories)
*Award Winners
*Lenght
-> Short games
-> Medium games
-> Full lenght games
*Special categories
-> MAGS games
-> Non-advenures
-> Joke games
-> Demos
*List all by
-> Name
-> Date

- Resourses Page
*Docs (Knowledge Base, FAQ, To-do list, tutorials)
*Fonts (the page with the fonts)
*Misc (GUIs, Templates, Sprites, Music Pack, RoomMaker source code, Instagame, etc)
*Plugins (Plugins page, plugins tutorial, etc)

- Links Page
(no need to sub categories)

Well, this is just a small sketch - I'm sure that there might be things here that are not right at all.

Anyway, the site looks really nice as it is now (the latest version you showed), just... you removed the 'Current version' text below "Adventure Game Studio" (I'm not saying it has to be there, but it should be somewhere in the page)

That's it.

-Felipe-

[RickJ]

Darth, I'm glad you liked my ideas.  

Only I would suggest making the main links (on the top bar nav) go to the first page in the sub-nav elements.

The discussion is past this already but this is what I had in mind.  Guess I didn't explain that aspect very well.  

I like your latest prototype.  I think there could be more games in the right column.  In addition to pick of the month/favorites there could also be some that are randomly selected each time there is a page change.   So that coulmn might look something like this:

• Pick of the Month
  
• Most Popular
  
• Other random selections
  
• Statistics
  
  Just out of curiosity, will the final implementation be done with cold fusion or are you just using it to  make the prototypes, templates, etc.   I ask because much of the current site and the forum is PHP and some flavor of SQL database and I wonder what if any technical problems may be ahead?  
  
  Anyway great work...  
  
  

[Darth Mandarb]

RickJ - Unless the server the site is hosted on allows for ColdFusion it'll have to converted to PHP.  I wouldn't mind doing all the programming if I can do it in ColdFusion (it's the only one I know).

Although, none of the elements on the page (templates) is specific to ColdFusion, I'm just so used to saving as .cfm that I do it without thinking about it!

Felipe - I removed the current version from the header graphic so it would be easier to update as new releases are made (and we all know how fast CJ works!)  I put it in the statistics section.  It's kind of down at the bottom and hidden ... but it is there  Thanks for the kind words!

Using Felipe's suggestions about the nav and Rick's suggestions about the games ...
AGS Website v1.5
I also condensed the tables on the side so they're not so seperated.  I think I like it more ... but what do you guys think?

~ d

[Felipe]

That submit buttom isn't workin... j/k

The site looks better each time, just a note about the menus:
In the Main Page links part, there's no need to link to Game of the month, news, polls and statistics... I put it there just to point that those things should be in the Main Page, but there's no need to link to them (since they are all in that page )

The rest seems ok, though (at least for me).

About the condensed tables:
They look good in the right but the "AGS Statistics" seems to be like a subpart of 'links'... or is it just me?

As I said, the page is looking better each time, congratulations!


-Felipe-

[auhsor]

It is looking really awesome. Each version is improving on the last. Congrats for winning btw and to all other who entered, you did well.

What felipe said about the  statistics being a subpart of links. Yeah i agree, when i look at the left bar there seems to be alot of darker blue, and on the right, the headings have a white background. To me it seems weird/unbalanced. Like if your just looking one side, it looks awesome but with them together its a bit unsymmetrical.

[Darth Mandarb]

About the 'blue heavy' left side.
I think it's a good idea to make the navigation seem 'set apart' from the content stuff.  It'll be noticable that way.  But if nobody likes the way it looks it's easy to change!

Updated v5

* seperated the statistics from the navigation
* heightened the top bar (games montage - which needed to be trimmed)
* added in 'current version' to the top bar
* added in 'edges' around top bar.

Too much?

~ d

[strazer]

I also condensed the tables on the side so they're not so seperated. I think I like it more ... but what do you guys think?

I liked it better before. It's easier to tell the sections apart at a glance.

Ok, now that we have come to the point of discussing the overall structure, here are my suggestions:

Home
- About
- Features
- News
- License (AGS & all components)
Download
- AGS (incl. older versions!)
- Plug-Ins
- Extras (Fonts, Graphics, GUIs & other stuff. User-submittable links?)
Community
- Forums
- Members List
- Member Websites
- World Map
- Chat (=IRC, incl. quotefile, stats)
Games (More categories & Login)
- All games
- Award Winners
- In Production
- Hints & tips (Walkthroughs, forum-link etc.)
Help
- Tutorials
- FAQ
- Knowledge base (Integrate in tech archives?)
- Bug reports (Link to forums; What about the Bug tracker?)
- Documentation (Manual, Changes.txt, Future.txt, Techinfo.txt, Plugin API)
- Contact (CJ & Moderators, with pointer to forums)
Links

[RickJ]

I'm with Strazer on the new menu fully expanded.  I think the solid bars on't look right either.  I wonder what it would look like if you indented the actuive sub-menu and got rid of the blue menu bars.  The menu on this website is an example of what I mean.  

http://deltascripts.com/
copy link location and the paste it into url if you have trouble loading

Perhaps there could be an expand/collapse or sitemap button that would expand all the sub-menus at the user's request but would only expand the active menu item otherwise.  

[Darth Mandarb]

The way that menu 'expands' was how I intended it with Version 2 note: CSS has changed, so that'll look off ...

I have made 2 new versions:
Version 6 - expanding/collapsing depending on page you're on.
Version 7 - fully expanded at all times.

I removed the extra bars in the header table ... It was clunky looking I think.  Also, I started fiddling with the link structure on version 7, but then I realized we're just going back and forth on that ... so let's wait for Mr. Jones to say which way he wants it!  And that'll be final.

I like the link structure of version 6,7, and the way Strazer suggested.

Mista Jones?  What way do you want it?

~ d

[strazer]

Fully expanded all the way!
And I liked the bars on the menu.
Anyway:

1.) Get rid of

News
- Recent News
- News Archive

IMO the link under "Home" is enough.

2.) Change "Fonts" to "Extras" or similar, so it can host other stuff too.

3.) What is "Awards"?

Man, it looks soo awesome. Can't wait to see it in action! Good job, d.

[RickJ]

Great job Darth!!!   I prefer expanding only one sub-menu at a time because this is a more scalable approach, IMHO.  However, since the menu expansion will ultimately be done programatically (via php or other) then I see no reason why this couldn't be an option.    

Also, I wonder if it would make sense to have  "Download" as  a main menu item?  

• Download[/b]
  
• AGS 2.6
  
• Demo
  
• Fonts
  
• Other Resources
  
  Oh well, I guess deciding what goes in the menu will be another one of those discussions .  I think you pretty much nailed the page layout and navigational concept though.  
  
  

[AndersM]

1:st one looks best.

[Scummbuddy]

I dunno, I do believe we should include a little page about our publicity. Its not a way to show that "We're the best!", no, just to show the acclaim we've gotten, to maybe sway someones choice when just trying us out. They could read those reviews, and in some cases, tutorials, and get a better understanding about us.  We have been talked about in the press, and I think we should acknowledge it.  I don't think theres a reason to be too humble about it. I don't feel ill towards bripro because he has a screencap of him on techtv, i actually like him more. I would love to be on techtv, and adventure games were shown their glory on that episode.

[Pumaman]

Yeah, we can argue about the exact details of the links pane later on - but I have to say, overall template 7 gets my vote.

Nice work all round, Darth

[LGM]

So when do we see the change?!?!?!?!

[Felipe]

I removed the extra bars in the header table ... It was clunky looking I think.  

I liked it better with those bars... they really look 'good' there, and it was a nice way of putting the current version thingy... just my opinion, though

Betwen 6 and 7?
hmm.... I like the fully expanded thing of 7 - It gets my vote...

1.) Get rid of

News
- Recent News
- News Archive

IMO the link under "Home" is enough.

Yep.
Either this or remove the 'News' under "Home".

And about the publicity page... I agree with Scummbuddy, they serve as a nice Resource too!
(I had put it in the menu system I'd made above but then removed it since you said that about having a thread in the General Forum) But I still think it would be better here; afterall, it's something mainly for 'newcomers', and most of them won't find the way 'till that Thread easily...


-Felipe-