New AGS Website

[Andail]

I'm not sure red is the way to go, it has a lot of negative connotation to it. It's as if the blue cups are about how good the game is, and the red ones how...evil the game is. Or something. So maybe green?

[Dualnames]

I'm not sure red is the way to go, it has a lot of negative connotation to it. It's as if the blue cups are about how good the game is, and the red ones how...evil the game is. Or something. So maybe green?

Well, red seems more of a logical choice. Red is considered opposite of blue. For some reason. I think I find the design perfect. At least in terms of ideas. And the red cup rating will solve this whole thing with the rating panel.

[Domino]

Go with a Blue Star rating system. Most sites that I see reviews use a star rating system.



My stars look cruddy, but you get the idea. 

[ddq]

I prefer the cups, and I think red works fine. You could try a lighter shade of blue or maybe teal, but cups are awesome.

[IndieBoy]

Is it still going to be mentioned how many votes were made? I mean a player rating of 85% out of 5 people is a lot different from a player rating of 81% out of 700 people's votes. What about making the player rating out of rogers?
Like this very quick mock-up:

[Ryan Timothy B]

I personally don't see red as being opposite, evil or bad.

I like the player rating being cups because it keeps a visual relation between the panel rating and player rating.  The roger idea isn't bad.  It would work better if it were the same size pixels as the cups, and a light blue around the character to match.  But I definitely like the cups better.

Edit:

This replaces your temp graphics for the AGS tab.  I couldn't think of what to put in here.  I used a magnifying lens, but I fear that people will think it suits "Search" better.  Let me know.

I like it, but yeah maybe some sort of stylised question mark might work better at showing that it's help and not search.

So other than the magnifying lens graphic being changed, you don't know of or need any other graphics?  I may as well attack them all at once if you have other graphics you need.

[Darth Mandarb]

Why not make the player ratings the same as the panel (both the blue cups)?

I really don't think people would be confused.  They're on separate lines next to the text explaining what they are.

[Atelier]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to suggest. Also giving a few pixels space between each cup would make it look much tidier too.

[GarageGothic]

Am I alone to think that the bluecup/content rating icons could do with a facelift? I recognize the nostalgia of it, but the bright EGA style colors really clash with the softer nuances of the rest of the site. Also, how many of those who play but don't themselves develop AGS games are actually familiar with Roger and the original bluecup graphic (of course the bluecup is now a symbol of AGS, but do we need it to be represented by that hard-to-make-out, pixelated, little thing)?

I personally think a hi-res bluecup icon (stylized, not photo-realistic) and some clearer and more pleasant to look at content rating symbols would bring the games pages a lot closer to the visual finish of the new front page.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Ya, I've suggested that a while back, probably on the older deleted website thread.  I think little blue cartoony things matching this style might look good, perhaps.

[LimpingFish]

Why not make the player ratings the same as the panel (both the blue cups)?

I'd rather they weren't, to be honest. Distinct visual styles would help indicate that we're dealing with two separate opinions. But then, I do have less fate in the confusability threshold of the masses.

I can get behind the star suggestion, though I'd prefer them to be gold.

I personally think a hi-res bluecup icon (stylized, not photo-realistic) and some clearer and more pleasant to look at content rating symbols would bring the games pages a lot closer to the visual finish of the new front page.

I agree.

[Domino]

I can get behind the star suggestion, though I'd prefer them to be gold.

[m0ds]

Wow, why not the red cups? Makes perfect sense, keeps in with the whole bluecup/redcup joke! If anything I think the panel should be red and the player rating blue, but both should definitely be cups!

[Disco]

I like the idea of keeping cups for ratings, and making them a little different to distinguish panel ratings from the common people ratings

I'm not sure red is the way to go, it has a lot of negative connotation to it. It's as if the blue cups are about how good the game is, and the red ones how...evil the game is. Or something. So maybe green?

I would say orange is the way to go here. First, it is the proper contrast to blue, even more striking against blue than red, and it does not have the hostile reputation that red has. Additionally, it complements the link colour in the mockups, so it would be sexier and less messy looking than it they were red.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I would say orange is the way to go here. First, it is the proper contrast to blue, even more striking against blue than red, and it does not have the hostile reputation that red has. Additionally, it complements the link colour in the mockups, so it would be sexier and less messy looking than it they were red.

This is orange:


And the red:


I think I still like the red better, but I understand what you mean by keeping the same colors as the website.

edit:  Actually I've been looking at it now since they're both together to compare, and the orange is starting to look more appealing.  It's up to you guys, and CJ.

[NsMn]

I like the orange better, but not the current tone. That looks more like sand-brown.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I made sure to use the same orange color as the links (except for the outline which is darker because lighter makes it look ghostly on that light blue background).

Edit:
Perhaps I was going a little too light with the first attempts, decided to try again to compare it to the blue cup:

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Couple of quick contributions:

A blue cup based on the one I made for the RoN template:



And a coin featuring Roger's face:



The cup should integrate fine but depending on the final background color the coin might need different shading along the outer edges.

Anyway, use them or don't!  Also, animated versions (steamy cup, shiny coin) are possible.

[Gilbert]

The coin is nice, but I think it's too small for people to find roger's face in it (in fact I thought it was the taiji symbol when I first looked at it).
The cup, well... it sure cannot beat the original. The way CJ drew it as sprite # is really why we form a cult around it.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I think you need to come back from 2000, Gilbert.  You had this same argument about updating Roger and as time goes on these graphics really aren't going to satisfy or make sense to anyone but a few people on the site.  

Also, if we're going to update the website, it makes little sense to keep legacy artwork when the new content looks so polished.

I do agree that the coin is perhaps too small to read, but I wasn't sure exactly what size to make these things.  The coin could be double-sized and cleaned up to be more recognizable, surely.

Edit: Done.  I left roger blocky to keep him recognizable.