New AGS Website

[arj0n]

- The capitals "H" & "S" from "Help and Support" are not shown properly in the box, the top parts are running over the border.
(Using Mozilla FireFox 3.5.2)
- The thumbnails could be a bit bigger, as already mentioned by others.



Nice design!

[Leon]

The letters stand out because the font isn't the right one (or not similar to the other pages).

I've no problems with the thumbnails. Maybe make a pop up with bigger shot if you hover? I did similar on my site. Just hover the links. The transparency of the shots can vary so you could see the site through the images.

[Ubel]

[ Arj0n ]: The "Help and Support" text is just a placeholder.

I'm glad you've picked this up again! What bothers me here is that none of the pages (except the home page) are aligned properly with the righthand panes. Also I think the different portions of the Games-page need more distinct borders so it looks less like one big blob of text. Maybe the white boxes that Mazoliin mentioned, maybe something else. Otherwise I'm liking it! The layout works well!

Maybe make a pop up with bigger shot if you hover?

Seconded.

Ps. The "Lucky dip" feature is LONG OVERDUE!

[Peder 🚀]

Or use www.highslide.com to be able to open them full size in a popup. (I not that big of a fan of those "automatic popups".

(Even though I know youd sort it out without any problem, I woulden't mind help adding highslide if you decide to use it . I also got a "unlimited" license so you wont have to use the copyright text on it.).

On a side note, it would be cool to use highslide and be able to add more than 1 screenshot to the games page!
(Then you only show 1 at the game page, but when you press the image you get a popup with the gallery containing all the images.)

[edit]
Which is something I have planned to do anyway with www.agsarchives.com.

[Mazoliin]

On a side note, it would be cool to use highslide and be able to add more than 1 screenshot to the games page!
(Then you only show 1 at the game page, but when you press the image you get a popup with the gallery containing all the images.)

Now that would be sweet!

[Ishmael]

The games page just sort of ends suddenly, without warning. I don't know if there's anything to put there, but it's somehow odd to me now it just suddenly stops.

[Pumaman]

Ok, maybe I didn't make this clear.

Yes, I know that this layout as-is looks sloppy and rubbish.

I was hoping that by posting something that was technically working, somebody here with some graphic design skills would be kind enough to convert that into some sort of mock-up that looks half-decent.

The main titles like "Showcase" and "Pick of the Month" should ideally be image titles in the same font as the "Make Games" and "Play Games" ones on the main page.

The "Help and Support" title is a placeholder and should say something like "More Games" but in a font that matches the right hand pane title on the main page.

So what I'm asking is, is anybody with some design skills prepared to help out moving the Games pages from working prototype to slick final design?

[edmundito]

Hey, that's a good start tho!

Some critique and feedback:

- The header takes a lot of real state. It should be a little snuggier I would think, especially if all pages are going to have the same header. This is less design and more application side, but I'd like to see my login info in all pages. It kind of drives me crazy that the only way I can tell if I'm logged in or not to the site is if I check the forums.

- Oh my, too many fonts! I think professional designers would agree that picking and sticking to the right couple of fonts is much better. I see at least 4 fonts used on the site plus not to mention they're not even remotely closed to the ones used for the editor logo. I think AGS in general has needed a more unified design style

- I like that you guys are introducing at least orange in the equation. That really helps a lot! The color blue is a bit much. Yeah, yeah, I understand is the bluecup and all of that, but I think it's a rather abused website color. Not to mentions that those blues don't match the editors blues... I'd really like to see everything being nicely integrated if you're doing this right.

- I like that the boxes are going away. Keep taking out more boxes FTW! The current site feels very heavy with all the boxes inside boxes inside borders inside boxes.


On the question of identity I was wondering what is the relationship between the games and the editor? the games page seems to remain buried down as not the primary gateway for the site, but I bet it gets much more traffic from external non-community sources than the rest of the pages.

[ThreeOhFour]

Yes, I know that this layout as-is looks sloppy and rubbish.

Compared to the old layout? Heck no, it looks great. I love some of the cool ideas such as Lucky Dip .

Can't wait until you guys get this sorted and up as the new website 

[Pumaman]

- The header takes a lot of real state. It should be a little snuggier I would think, especially if all pages are going to have the same header. This is less design and more application side, but I'd like to see my login info in all pages. It kind of drives me crazy that the only way I can tell if I'm logged in or not to the site is if I check the forums.

Considering the sort of resolutions that people use these days, I don't think the header needs to be shrunk really. Also, putting the login info on the page means that the page becomes personalized to you and can't be cached, which slows down the server. Login info will be on pages that need to check it, for example the Game Detail page which I've just added has it.

- Oh my, too many fonts! I think professional designers would agree that picking and sticking to the right couple of fonts is much better. I see at least 4 fonts used on the site plus not to mention they're not even remotely closed to the ones used for the editor logo. I think AGS in general has needed a more unified design style

The main page has a few different fonts, but I think they work well together -- and besides, the main home page design is pretty much finalized now anyway, we can't keep twiddling with it forever

On the question of identity I was wondering what is the relationship between the games and the editor? the games page seems to remain buried down as not the primary gateway for the site, but I bet it gets much more traffic from external non-community sources than the rest of the pages.

On the contrary, I think the Games get more of a mention on the new home page than they do with the current one. Besides, we've already debated the home page to death and there's no point re-opening that debate now. The debate now should be about the Games page!!!

Compared to the old layout? Heck no, it looks great.

Just to be clear, I don't mean that the overall site layout looks rubbish -- it looks great! And the new main home page looks fantastic.

What I mean is that my thrown-together Games page is all a bit mis-aligned and not very pretty, which is why I want someone's help.

In the mean time, I've added a quick initial version of a Game Detail page here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/Newsite/Games.aspx/Detail/1182
Do you guys think this kind of layout works? Any other suggestions (not for new features on the page, they can come later -- I just mean the layout of the stuff that we already have).

[cosmicr]

I really dont like that help and support box. Its too big. make it at least half that size and then we're talking...

otherwise looking good!

[Ryan Timothy B]

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/Newsite/Games.aspx/Detail/1182
Do you guys think this kind of layout works?

I really like the color choices and the layout.  Looks very solid.  I'm loving that we'll be able to have multiple screenshots and that big Download image is excellent.

I don't know how hard this would be to implement, but it's just a thought right now.  How about some bar on the side that would be like: People who liked this game, also liked these:  etc etc.
I imagine it would have to work somehow by with the overall rating of other games from the people who have downloaded and given a good rating to the game being viewed.  It's an idea, but I don't know how well that would work.  So in some cases only a few games would show up, depending on how often that game gets downloaded and rated.
I've seen this somewhere before, I just can't remember where. Hmm.

Also a BIG 'how did you like this game, Rate it!' image jammed somewhere in the middle of the content.  The easier it is for someone to spot that they can rate games, the better (i'd even rate games more often )

Oh, and I've always found the content advisory images a little hard to understand.  I always have to roll my mouse over the images to see what the meanings are (although I don't care what the content is, I'm usually just curious what it's rated at).  Perhaps one of the artists here can revamp the look.  It's time for a new one.

Anyway, I really like it.

[RickJ]

Latest version is looking really nice.  Here are a couple of thoughts / ideas that may be of use.  This thread is rather long so I apologize if these thing have been brought up before, it's just what came to my mind when I reviewed the latest version.

Main Games Page 
Currently Pick of the month is in one column and show case is in another.  What if these were to span both columns.  For  "Pick of the Month" the text would appear in the left column and it's screen shot in the right column.  For "Showcase" there would  be one game in each column with both text and thumbnail.  A crappy example follows:

Pick of the Month

August 2009 Rockabilly Kid Chosen by SSH Rockabilly Kid won the "5 Years a MAGS host" special edition of MAGS back in May and so far opinion on this vignette has been pretty positive, garnering 3 cups from the review panel and in the high-seventies in user votes. It's a fun little Lucasarts-style game and worth a shot.

Showcase
New to AGS? Check out these great games to get you started! All sorts of games have been made
with AGS, but here is our pick of the best for you to try out:

Ben Jordan: Paranormal  Investigator Case 3 - The          Sorceress of Smailholm        The tiny Scottish village of          Smailholm has seen better days. Two local children have been murdered, ...

Ben Jordan: Paranormal  Investigator Case 6 - Scourge    of the Sea People                Following Alice's near-fatal        poisoning in Japan, the paranormal investigating trio decides a vacatio...

AGS Page
Seems like the page ought to start with some kind of graphic, possibly the room editor screen shot or perhaps a collage od editor elements?

[Ishmael]

I like the game detail page layout, as well as RickJ's suggestion on the Games page. And continuing that, could the AGS Awards section be tiled like the Showcase is here? The side box is OK in my opinion. The bottom of the page could use something. A big "Lucky Dip" button with a touch of air up and down of it?

[Peder 🚀]

I think the layout looks good!
Though instead of having the option to show other screenshots directly on the page, I would prefer having a box pop up when you press the image for then to be able to go through the whole "gallery".
I will make a mockup today to show you what I mean!

[cosmicr]

I think the layout looks good!
Though instead of having the option to show other screenshots directly on the page, I would prefer having a box pop up when you press the image for then to be able to go through the whole "gallery".
I will make a mockup today to show you what I mean!

no way, the first thing I want to see is a screenshot. its the main contributing factor to whether or not I'd download the game.  I dont want to have to click several times before I can see the screenshot. there's too many crap games out there to sift through already without adding extra work.

[Peder 🚀]

I think you missunderstood me a bit cosmicr.
You will soon see what I mean anyway when I finish the mockup!

[SSH]

Are we also talking about extra fields for the games DB? Here's what I'd like to see:

External reviews section
Links to hints/tips and CGA threads
List of AGS Award nominations as well as wins

Also, is there any possibility of on game upload that AGS actually stores a single low-quality low-res copy of the screenshot as a backup (one that onyl takes a few K) just since there are so many broken screenshots...

[Peder 🚀]

Here is what I meant:
http://www.agsarchives.com/ags/game.htm

[arj0n]

Peder, could the viewing of the screenshots be changed into this way:
when clicking on the screenshot: go to next screenshot instead of closing the viewing immediately.