The Fall Of Homepage Of Usher (or AGS Site Revival and other stories)

Started by WRK, Thu 19/03/2015 12:01:49

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WRK

Good Evening,

If you're reading this it means I'm already dea... sorry, wrong lettter.
Let me start by saying that I'm a person of rather peculiar condition
involving chaotic neural wiring so there is no easy way for me to
explain exactly how I ended here. Short story would be this:

Few days ago I was following AGS forum activity that was revolving
around subject of lacking forum activity or at least its smaller proportions
in comparision to Golden Years of AGS. And so being curious mind, I started
to think and wonder about that subject in my own free time. How to spark
a fire and motivation in people starting with AGS? How to inspire and show
them what's AGS is all about?
I guess I've made some kind of quantum leap, because I've focused on a homepage,
reasoning that everything starts from a homepage. After all "first impressions
are everything" (not entirely true, still there's some truth in that statement).
So I recalled my own first impressions of AGS site, the dread and horror
of early 00's design and the labyrinths of text that you have to solve in
search of information.
If it wasn't for my own now-or-never motivation I would probably surrender.

So I've made this.

Yes, it's just another website Yet, it's also completly different website.
Actually it's just a rough draft of an actual website with passages of unholy
Lorem Ipsum instead of text but I hope you'll get the idea.

I've tried to follow contemporary design standards, making things clearer
and more readable. I've tried to make this site inspiring,
focusing on main attributes of AGS and showing finished games
(I've always wondered about this, if most of the AGS games have really
stunning and beauttiful artwork, why making the photos so small?).

And here comes the Community part.
I'm not a html/php wizard at all. But maybe there is someone who actually know
this occult lore. Main header graphic is something I "borrowed" from internet
(for the purpose of illustrating my point), but I know that there are many
talented people who could do sometthing similiar, if not better. I guess we
could make some kind of forum contest for that, making main graphic on random
rotation showing off the best AGS artists or something.

Anyway, I've just heard steps on the staircase and grim banging at my door
so I think my time is up (so this probably was the right letter from the beginning).
Then let me just ask You... Is this a good idea? Do AGS need a new website?
Are there people willing to participate or I've just gone completly mad?

Retro Wolf

I've often thought the site could do with a refresh.
The mockup you've created is excellent, the only thing wrong with it is that I can't see any of my games featured! ;)

cat

Well, the site you are seeing now is the refreshed version. Just a few years back the site would look like this, and it took quite a long time to get the current version up and running.

KodiakBehr

First, the mock-up looks very pretty.  I'm a fan.  I'm also supportive of measures that support the social aspect of the community, though we're already so very good at that.

QuoteIs this a good idea?

It's not a bad idea.

QuoteDo AGS need a new website?

Probably not.  Membership continues to grow all the time and the community is pumping out a ton of games.  But that doesn't mean a new website isn't nice for it's own sake.

QuoteAre there people willing to participate or I've just gone completly mad?

I'd be happy to help with any writing.

Lasca

I'm sold! I haven't actually thought much about the site, and I think it looks alright, but your mockup is awesome! It looks modern and fun, but most of all inviting. It makes me want to make adventure games. Your new version makes me think the site would benefit from an update.

Snarky

I think the current version still looks pretty decent, but your proposal does seem more modern and sleek, definitely.

Two things I would adjust (if this were to go forward):
-I'm not sure about the banner. Dragon silhouettes? I don't know what it is or what it has to do with AGS
-I think the games database (which is now in the thousands, not just hundreds, of games) should be featured more prominently (more so than in the current design as well)

So, for example, what if the banner was an animated gallery of screens from AGS games (probably a curated selection of good-looking ones, since it's meant to look enticing), and clicking outside of the center region would bring you to it in the db?

But the thing is, making a landing page (mockup) is the easy part. Redesigning the whole rest of the website to match is the tough bit. But good luck to you! :-D

[delete}

I'd like to see a longer frontpage with more functionality. It should make new users really wanting to join the community.

WRK

Quote from: KodiakBehr on Thu 19/03/2015 15:26:13
I'm also supportive of measures that support the social aspect of the community, though we're already so very good at that.

That's the thing I would like to argue about. Well, maybe not to argue,
just talk/write about things I noticed.
I'm a new member of this community so I understand that I don't have
much of credibility (but this will be actually my point later on)
but please bear with me.

I think there are some problems with forum activity exposure, for example:
last MAGS contest produced really incredible games like
IAMJASON (downloaded 447 times),
Scenario 5B (downloaded 192 times),
and The Furthest Station (downloaded 65 times).
Yet the number of people voting for those games was... 8!

Now that is just weird.

I'm ashamed that I'm one of the people who played and enjoyed those games but didn't vote,
not that I didn't want to, I was actually looking foward to do so, but I've lost and forgot
the thread which was buried somewhere in the forum (and I'm browsing through forum
few times a day). The only reason I've got involved in beta testing AGS Award client
is because there were huge, red letters on top of forum posts. Another example would
be the fact that after spending two months here, by accident I found out that there
is awesome AGS podcast made by people from this community. I realise that many
old-timers here have no problem navigating through this forum, knowing how to find
that stuff or where to look for, but then again as a new member I must say that it's
rather difficult for me.

Sure, new website won't solve all of those things but maybe we can try
to figure out some other ways to do so. Kindly. :)

[delete}

It's a shame
That AGS has no future
But it's also not surprising
And everyone warned AGSers about it


                 (Mark Blake)

xil

Firstly, love the mock ups, looks a little bit like Enfold which is an awesome WordPress template, very easy to set up.

I think part of the reason AGS suffers in regards to MAGS votes and such is that this is primarily a developer community. If you set up AGS to be similar to GameJolt for example then you would probably get a much better response but let's face it, the AGS forum joining method is literally there to stop certain people joining (I've no issue with that, btw).

Trouble is, something like GameJolt is a huuuuuge undertaking, and I like AGS for what it is. But perhaps it needs to move more with the times e.g. browser based AGS games anyone? ;)
Calico Reverie - Independent Game Development, Pixel Art & Other Stuff
Games: Mi - Starlit Grave - IAMJASON - Aractaur - blind to siberia - Wrong Channel - Memoriae - Point Of No Return

Cassiebsg

Quote from: WRK on Thu 19/03/2015 17:05:43
I'm ashamed that I'm one of the people who played and enjoyed those games but didn't vote,
not that I didn't want to, I was actually looking foward to do so, but I've lost and forgot
the thread which was buried somewhere in the forum (and I'm browsing through forum
few times a day). The only reason I've got involved in beta testing AGS Award client
is because there were huge, red letters on top of forum posts. Another example would
be the fact that after spending two months here, by accident I found out that there
is awesome AGS podcast made by people from this community. I realise that many
old-timers here have no problem navigating through this forum, knowing how to find
that stuff or where to look for, but then again as a new member I must say that it's
rather difficult for me.

This little link on the top of the forum page (right under your nickname) should help you out with finding all/most topics that have something new. ;) "Show unread posts since last visit."
I use it on a daily basis, and it covers 90% of my forum needs (it's just missing flagging eventual editing on the last post, and if no one posts on a topic that I'm meant to return to at a later time, I may have a hard time finding the post/or forget about it).
And on the question of MAGS voting, I've noticed it tends to be rather low every month... I must admit I dwled all 3 but this month been rather hard and I've only had time to play one of them yet. :-[ So did not thought it would be fair to vote.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Myinah

I love your mock up and fully support a change to the current site. The design is very contemporary and slick and makes me want to spend time on the page. It is aesthetically pleasing, well done.

Additionally I was happy to see Woo the Witch in the character line up :)

Darth Mandarb

I think it's good to start this "website redesign" discussion!  Get the ball rolling!  It should be up and running by 2019!!

WRK

Ah, thank you all for comments. I'm glad you liked that.

@RetroWolf: as for featuring your game on a mockup I was thinking that
showcase on homepage could be on random rotation (after page refresh,
exactly like on actual website) so all of the games could get some exposure
so I'm sure you would get your chance. :)

@Myinah: I know I should ask before I used all of those characters,
still I'm happy you liked that. Even if they are just crudely ripped
from AGS Award Client with the help of magic-wand selection (so black
parts of some avatars are missing). I enjoyed them all so it was
shame not to use them here.

Now, I dont really expect that this mockup will be used.
Still, maybe it could be helpful in some way to community.

It's more of an experiment in user interface and usability
and working on existing sites helps me to notice what is working or not.
I guess I just like that kind of puzzles. Like: how many people
are using AGS homepage for recent news and forum posts?
How many differentt ratings do people actually need, if you got AGS Panel Rating,
and Player Rating do you really need Public Opinion (in percentages?)?
Or the fact that there are seven ways (eight, including search)
for finding a game from page interface and if that's a good thing or not?
What's the noise and where is content. That kind of stuff.

@Darth: "It should be up and running by 2019!!"
Yes, you probably right that redesigning takes some time. Personally I think
most of that time is coding, gfx is relatively easy. That mockup was done in 3 days
(even less, cause it was probably 2-3 hours every day) and once you got your
grid, fonts and logic figured out, every subpage comes quite easy.


Snarky

(Darth was the main designer and driving force behind the last redesign, WRK. It did drag on, because having a community as a client means dozens of opinions on everything you do...)

Calin Leafshade

I like your new design. As a professional web developer myself I'm happy to offer my services.
The main reason for my generosity is that I want to expose a dev API for the games db for Nimbus.

(2019 seems good for me, nothing on the calendar anyway)


LimpingFish

The current design has aged extremely well, in my opinion.

Having said that, I do like elements of this mock-up. And it's always nice to see interest being taken, even if the last major site redesign thread proved somewhat...stressful (the "replacement banner" discussion...(wrong)).

Quote from: cat on Thu 19/03/2015 14:57:44
Just a few years back the site would look like this...

Oh, the memories!

Steam: LimpingFish
PSN: LFishRoller
XB: TheActualLimpingFish
Spotify: LimpingFish

Andail

Yes, that homepage looks nice, no, I don't think our current one looks bad or out of date, and no, I don't think updating the website - again - would make AGS more attractive and popular.

Quote
But perhaps it needs to move more with the times e.g. browser based AGS games anyone? ;)
I don't think making our games browser based is the answer to anything. Browser based games are mostly for quick, social games; time-killing games that you want to quickly get into and out of. I don't think that suits a genre of games that require a lot of patience, and rely on immersion. It may sound counter-intuitive, but accessibility isn't always the answer - even having to pay for a game may make people more patient and inclined to keep playing than if they get it for free, to their own gratification.

xil

Quote from: Andail on Fri 20/03/2015 07:19:42
I don't think making our games browser based is the answer to anything.

If you had said that to me 2 years ago then I would have wholeheartedly agreed, however, with the introduction of things like the unity browser plugin there really is a growing number of fully fledged games that you can just load up right there and then and get stuck into. 2 more years and we might see a bigger shift...

Having said that it was very much a throw-away jokey comment and agree that certainly for paid games and the majority of adventure games it's not an issue downloading.

I think that saying the website redesign would do nothing for AGS is basically true, I tell clients this every day, but I also look at WRK's design differently. WRK's design is more of a redevelop rather than just some pretty front page upgrade. It goes much more down the Game Jolt route in regards to trying to attract the players as well as the makers. I don't think that's a bad idea at all.

I work in systems development and I've long thought about just booting up a Rails App to try and do a small "Game Jolt for AGS" or in fact adventure games in general. The only problem is that it would clash pretty horribly with the AGS games database if I did just go out and do something off my own back and I wouldn't want to do that.
Calico Reverie - Independent Game Development, Pixel Art & Other Stuff
Games: Mi - Starlit Grave - IAMJASON - Aractaur - blind to siberia - Wrong Channel - Memoriae - Point Of No Return

Retro Wolf

I get the feeling that getting AGS to export to html5 would be quite the challenge. As cool as that would be.

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