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And to think this thread was just an innocent question about web polls...

Those suggestions are great, KingTom0001. They would really set the mood.

Dutch, nyhilist and Tiki, I agree with you. Those are all things to fix. The perspective of the shadows wasn't too bad until I went overboard. As for the moon... well, it's quite a low res moon after all.

And thanks Rolf for your encouragement.

Thanks SSH and Radiant. I take it, making a webpoll is "difficult". I guess I'll have to do a bit of work on my own and learn some php. Oh well.

Cheers.

Hi all,

Here's a question for the web design gurus.

Say I want to have a vote-based ranking system for a website. Nothing fancy.

For instance, say I have a list of ten games. I want my visitors to give a numerical mark (1 to 5) for each game in terms of plot, puzzles and music, and then I want the website to calculate the average of these values (much like the AGS games page does). Then I want an automated game ranking from the highest to lowest average. And also the possibility to retain IPs, so that people cannot vote twice.

I figure I would probably need to use PHP, but is that hard to do? How would you guys go about it? Maybe there are ready-made scripts? (I mean, there are heaps of websites out there that have this sort of stuff...)

I have some general programming experience, but my website design knowledge is restricted to placing text and pictures in dreamweaver. So I need advice for dummies.

Thanks in advance.

That's a very intresting tip loominous, thanks. And Neil, yes. I guess I'm after that sort of look. Simple but effective.

I've made some changes:



I'm happier with the colors, but the rock and the shadows look somewhat clumsy now. I should probably play around with them a bit more. Though in any case I think I've spent long enough on this one.

Loominous, your edit is excellent. You got the ground colors right, which is something I was struggling with.

Somebody else mentioned the sharp outlines, and I think you're both correct. Now this bg is too Disney-like in some ways. 

[MashPotato]

Wow, loads of responses here!

MashPotato and Yurina you're definitely right. The only problem I see is that I haven't left that much room for dead stuff. Maybe I'll have to rework the bg a bit.

Zooty I think your edit really adds something. In fact, I was working along that line. My colors were a bit too bright at the beginning, and the version I've shown here is a dimmer one. I like the broken fence and the broken sign.

Kinoko Cheers, that's much better.Ã, 

fred Good point, the shapes are too nice and slender. I'll see what it can do about it. Oh, and I'll try to put your friend somewhere in the game!

dkh I agree 100%. The mood cannot be set by graphics alone. I personally believe silence with a few well-placed sounds is the way to go. Of course, the graphics need to contribute, but the important thing is the overall environment.

FarlÃ,  The bats are a bit too much... I actually tried something yesterday with your NY bg (posters, grafitti, and American-looking cars), but I feel these didn't look good against your style. So I'm sorry too...

Ace_Gamer That'd be great, but I feel it may also be a pain to animate. I like it, but it's against my philosophy. I'm into cheap, quick and easy.Ã,  Ã, 

biothlebop (I had to cut and paste your nick) - I dislike the idea of trees with faces, but I think you've hit the nail on the head with that comment about letting the onlooker's brain figure things out.Ã,  I'll look into that.

I'll see if I can post anything better incorporating your suggestions today. If I feel I can't make the changes look good, I'll just go with this. After all it's pretty much functional already.

Cheers all. You rock.

Hi all,

I've been toying with this bg for a bit. I would like it to look scarier.

I realise that my style may be a tiny bit too cartoony, but anyway...





Suggestions to make it generally better are more than welcome.

Especially paintovers.

I dig.

One thing: shouldn't the horizon be a horizontal flat line? Waves are not perceivable at that scale.

Scummbuddy!

I'd forgotten how good your webpage is.

Rock on.

This one is good too.

http://junk.dk/puzzle/

 

Is the flag back to front or am I missing something?

The rest looks good to me.

Here's my paintover. I'm not a super artist like other people in the CL, but this may help.

I've tried to comply with your style to the best of my ability.



Some things that come to mind:

1. A clay peninsula does not strike me as the sort of thing you would find in a volcanic setting. I think black fractured volcanic material (lots of cracks and sharp edges) may be more fitting.

2. I've made the peninsula a bit narrower because I think that improves perspective a little bit. I've also tried to reduce the amount of chunks of rock to draw by adding mountains. The volcano is there so that people get the idea the red stuff is actually lava.

3. I felt the lava ocean should fade into the distance, so the chunks of rock need to get smaller (which is less of a pain to draw too).

4. To me, your initial choice of colors is better. Lava is red. Some yellow may help, but I think this bg already conveys the message.

So Nacho... who's taking that last penalty for Barcelona? Because we all know Casillas is going to save it...

Sorry, I got a bit carried away...

Progz latest edit is excellent as usual, but it strikes me as a rugby player kicking for the posts. Ghormak's perhaps looks more soccer-like.

Now, since I've missed quite a few penalties, I kinda know what I'm talking about here.Ã, 

In most of those edits, as in the original, the player seems to toe-punt the ball. You have very little control over your shot when you do that. Not many people toe-punt penalties (toe-punt = chutar de puntera).

Whenever you kick, you need to lean over the ball a bit (that is, if you go for a power shot and you want to keep it reasonably low, as you would in a penalty). If your upper body lags behind you'll nearly always send the ball over the bar (unless you go for a really soft tap with the inside of your foot).

Another thing I see is that the guy is kicking the crap out of the ball in every edit. I don't know how consistent that will be with the power meter your have in your screenshot. Perhaps you should also consider at least one more animation, just in case the kick is only a little tap (and you could make a third one for a Panenka-type shot: that'd be unreal!Ã,  8)).

Finally, I'm not sure about the perpective. For a penalty kick I prefer to see it from behind the kicker. Otherwise it's hard to see where the ball actually goes. But that's just a matter of preference.

In any case the idea is very original. I love it.

I say your bg is perfectly functional for a game, since I gather that's what you're really after.

Of course, there will always be things you can improve. People have posted some very insightful crits here that you may want to take on board (that's the whole point of the CL).

But I personally think it's better to settle for a style that you can keep consistent with a reasonable amount of effort, even if the details are not perfect. And I think you already have that.

That's my philosophy. Other people prefer their art to be as good as it can be. That's great, really, but I certainlyÃ,  know I couldn't live up to that approach if I tried. Spending way too long one background makes me lose heart, particularly if I have a long game in mind... I guess it comes down to knowing what your limitations are, really.

Take these comments or leave them, but I think you certainly have the skill to move on and make a good-looking game.

Congrats.

Nay buloght, you're allright.

And you make good stuff.

That looks very good!

One question: why would you want to 'pixel' the main char?

I'm just not too sure how good that'd look in those 3D bg's.

Wow! You've got lots of reviews there!

I didn't know your blog, but I'm quite impressed. I'll sure follow it from now on.

The pic was good at the beginning, but has improved a lot.

Some small things, freel free to ignore them:
- The right archway is paper thin. Since castles are made of big stones, it should be quite a bit thicker.
- You should probbly shade a tiny bit under the wooden beams in order to add depth.
- The candles are massive! They're bigger than the windows.
- Your doors/archways tend to end up right at the intersection between walls. Wall openings are usually a bit further away from corners, particularly in old buildings.
- The colors are a little too bright. I prefer the orange rimmed carpet to the bright yellow one. In fact, the 'muted' edit is the best IMO, but I guess it doesn't quite fit with your character's black outlines.

All in all the bg is great, but I think you can improve it further with very little work.

Good luck!