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Defendi:
So I'm talking with a web developer about revamping the final redoubt site. I think I should look into doing it right. What game company websites do you really admire?
Mungo:
Hi,
No website I admire, but I think good websites are:
- www.kelestia.com
- www.ironcrown.com
I don't like:
- www.wizards.com (I don't find anything)
- www.sjgames.com (totally old design)
- www.columbiagames.com (totally old design)
- www.malhavocpress.com (confusing)
About your current website: one of my browsers (IE 6)has problems displaying it and the colors make it nearly unreadable to me in any of my browsers, so a remake would be nice.
BR Juergen
ictus:
personally I'd shy away from something like the ICE or Kelestia sites, as they look a little on the full side.
You have a relatively simple product line, so a clear clean simple yet striking site would be best.
I'm off out now, but I'll try to get back with a few links....
here's one of mine for the time being:
http://sunandmoontours.com/
Nejira:
I agree with Ictus, keep it simple is the key to a good website design IMO. I think the core design of your current site is good (side navigation frame, main frame, and header frame). I would have the navigation frame to be constant, and and let the data load in the main frame. That way you got an easy way to navigate your site as the navigation tools are always availible. Try to keep the data in the mainframe down to one page as a very long frontpage with a lot of scrolling is annoying.
Cant really list a game company site that I think is good from a design pov. But Ictus site is a relative good example of what I mean (except the too long frontpage).
Rasyr-Mjolnir:
Yes, the ICE and Kelestia sites are a bit on the full side, but that only because there is a lot of data/information trying to be conveyed on both sites (I know that for a fact on the ICE site).
However, I think that Mungo isn't talking about the amount of information, I think that he is talking more about the presentation and style aspects. Both sites are pretty well organized, and are laid out in a clean manner, where it is relatively easy to find things (based on the amount of data on each site).
The biggest difference between the ICE and the Kelestia sites is that the Kelestia site is using a portal application of some sort to create a unified look/feel, where the main ICE website (not the forums) does it through CSS, HTML, and use of simple PHP.
Some recommendations:
* If your site has database capabilities, then make use of them by incorporating one or more DB driven applications, like a News App for making posts on the front page without having to edit the webpages each time (most apps have a web interface). This also helps to reduce the amount of front page scrolling -- having long scrolling pages is always a web design no-no.
* If you can, make use of PHP. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. For example, the main use of PHP on ICE's main website is to work with CSS to create the overall layout. The actual content is provided through URL arguments and a simple script which reads it and decides what page to include.
* Definitely use CSS (style sheets) they make getting the overall look and feel of the website to be uniform much easier. Note: sometimes, especially where forum software is involved (i.e. where it has its own sets of style sheets) it is difficult to get them to match unless you are using only that software and/or something that is made to be specifically compatible with it -- for example, Andrew's site uses SMF and TinyPortal to create a unified theme across his site).
* A good site menu is always important as well. Here is a site where you can find a number of variation on a good menu -- http://www.milonic.com/ -- They are what we use on the main website as well.
* Readability is also something that should be considered. This includes font sizes as well as color schemes. Odd color choices can really turn folks off to the site.
--- End quote ---
The site that Andrew points to shows an okay example of using a portal application (Joomla in this case) with a customized template. It is nice, simple, and clean, but there is also very little actual data/information trying to be conveyed. On the bad side, the site uses grey text on a black background, which (at least for me) makes it difficult to read. With a dark background, the text needs to be bright and easily readable.
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