Home Forums General Discussion 2 sites (Your views and crits please)

  • This topic has 18 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 19 years ago by Anonymous.
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    • #3917
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hi all I justed wanted your views on 2 sites:

      firstly:

      http://www.franticgames.com

      All the content is there, and I do aim to improve it once I get clearance to release actuall images from the game, and not those on the artificial studios site.

      Its a very simple, very clean and most importantly very fast site. What do you think?

      Secondly is the game site, I went more on a military side of things, and I am ashamed to say I gave in and used IFRAMES :eek:

      I saw it as the better of two evils. Any there is practically zero content here, just a layout and a look.

      http://www.1944game.com

      Thats both my sites, I usually go for cleam simple and fast. Let me know what you think.

    • #19051
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      pretty impressive. i like the screen shots, soft shadowing especially..

    • #19055
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Not my shots I should really put that there, but I guess if I am paying for the engine, I need something until I can use my own. I guess no complaints on the site, design or layout.

    • #19056
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Ohh your using the Reality engine.
      Ive been looking into it for a while now as my team are evaluating 3d engines for our Dare project. Could you maybe list a few pros and cons you have come across using this engine? Our game is mainly outdoor based with some indoor. Think Morrowind.. Although there will be no loading times from going outdoor to indoor, we want seamless transitions.

      Again, if you could just let me know how you rate the engine up against others you may have used ala torque etc, id greatly appreciate it :) Btw, your websites are very nice. There crisp and clear which is always a good thing.

      Paul

    • #19057
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Nice! I’ve always prefered the uncluttered and fast type of webpages so it definitly gets my thumbs up! :D

      And yes , what are your thoughts on the Reality engine. It would be interesting to see how it stacks up against the other 3 big ones at the moment…

    • #19061
      Anonymous
      Inactive
    • #19065
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Franticgames:
      Really like the look of the site Ronan. Its clean, easy in the eyes and simple to navigate. Its also quick. Have only had a quick look, but no crits from me.

      1944:
      As above, like the look of the site, and the military feel is nice. Like franticgames, I have no crits.

      I prefer the look of franticgames just because I love the simple style and colors. But from a purely navigational and speed standpoint, they are both great.

    • #19070
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Been stopping and starting on them for best part of 2 months. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I just needed to figure out how to do it. In the end, it only took about 4 hours to piece together the looks.

      Now the next problem, content :D

    • #19072
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Ah yes, content……kinda important with regards to websites! ;)

    • #19075
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I have most of it, the problem is Im never happy with it, so I will probably spend the next two months tweaking it, and playing about with it, getting images ready etc. God I hate web dev.

    • #19076
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I have most of it, the problem is Im never happy with it, so I will probably spend the next two months tweaking it, and playing about with it, getting images ready etc. God I hate web dev. [/quote:dd5d1a0015]

      if you hate web dev, get an intern for your company and get them to do you bitch work, that way you can focus on the game :)

    • #19086
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Yeah but Im one of these multi purpose grunt people who does a bit of everything. After some previous business mistakes I have opted to take 100% control of things I do. At least that way its all me, if things dont work out I know at least it was me and not someone else.

      That said I completely redesigned the AI structure at the weekend, and I must say I am happy with the design, recoding this bad boy should be much easier now.

      @Paul_Conway

      For dare I was thinking about what to use, I woudl say cipher would be your easiest way to impress. It has a very good workflow for artists is based in C so very easy for programmers. Its well commented and well documented. Also the community is large enough. Plus its a hell of alot cheaper than Reality. Given the time frame you would only really achieve the same results as well.

    • #19097
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      After some previous business mistakes I have opted to take 100% control of things I do.[/quote:afa45758fb]
      Sounds like you are going to be doing more things than you’ll be able to handle if thats the way your going to be working. A bit of delegation is a good thing.

    • #19098
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      cipher does look like a great bargain for $100.

    • #19099
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      in fairness though, someone cant really screw up a website given, frontpage\dreamweaver and all the art etc.. but i may be wrong.

    • #19100
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Well last time I delegated completely and focused on programming and I ended up with the software and applications but no business. This time I aim to have the software and the business so I take it upon myself. I will delegate what needs to be delegated. Those roles that are outside my skill set. Modelling, Texturing, Animation, Audio. If I need help I will get others to double up on roles, such as the researchers. My point is pretty simple, when you invest your own money into a project. You want a degree of control, if the project were to bomb, I would prefer to know that it was my fault. Weird I know, but there is nothing worse than that feeling “if only you did it yourself”.

      You would be very very shocked as to some of the concepts I have been given for both sites. Simple sites are really hard to pull off, as all you can rely on is content.

      As for cipher its a great bargain, I was a bit pissed about paying VAT especially online, since its origins are within europe. Bit annoying really.

    • #19102
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Sure, I agree, if its your business you want to make sure everything is going how you want it as its your money.
      I don’t know anything about your company as regards employees but surely if you want to have a sane life you are going to need to have employees that you can trust to do these things for you in the future. You can’t expect to go off and create, say an AI system and frequently have to go off and update your website. You’re going to need to stay focused on the task at hand and not worry about mundane tasks that are within your skill-set, and also within someone elses when you are the only person qualified to fulfill your primary task.
      It just sounds a little worrying to me that you seem to be doing everything on a large project. Sure you’ll have everything how you want it but you’ll be extending the project time….

    • #19117
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      True, but once the content for the site is all good, that will be it for me on the site. One or two of the researchers can take care of it from there. Initial level control is required so everything is done in a certain way until such a point that it becomes habit for the team. Last thing I want is a 14 year old writing content for the site :D

      As when I posted for managers that was all I got. So I make do until such a time as I am confident that its in a consistent state. Same goes for programming, only now am I getting more members, where finally the game is in such a state that it would be easy to see where its going.

      When you invest large amounts of your money not to mention time, the mundane tasks are the most important for you to get right. I dont know how many hours I spent telling artists to do things this way, and not that way, these are the documents to read so read them, etc etc. Its a structure that you need to set in place.

      I would recommend that anyone who is developing for DARE to setout a structure on day 1, and rigidly stick to it. First things to do are setup a clear development environment, Obviously it all needs to be freeware, but something like dotproject where tasks can be assigned. Spend the initial development time in setting up and creating tasks etc. Outlining plans. Then you can focus on the real job at hand. While the mundane stuff could be swept aside and left for later. it is best to get all of that out of the way before crunch time.

      Last night I finished the full development system for the team, and I must say it is very very cool indeed. I integrated, PHPBB2, DOTProject, MG2 Gallery all into the one area. and it works like a dream. We have over 5000 tasks set down. Doing all of that was the worst part, but its done, and it works. So now each and every member knows exactly the scale of the project, the timeframe and the effort required.

    • #19137
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      When we did Dare we were urged to really come up with a good schedule and to have to down as far as half-day tasks. However, there was one major problem with that…knowing the ability of your team on probably your first major project. I only knew the real ability of one of my team members and didn’t figure into the amount of time you spend talking to your mentors and doing meetings as a team lead. Add to that trips to EIEF and others and suddenly your time flows away real quickly. Add to that one incompetent team member. Think we basically got by, by working our asses off, working later and later as the weeks went on. After about 4 weeks, going home before 8 didn’t really happen, by week six, i don’t think I saw much daylight other than when going to get food. Still, it work out for the best in the end :D

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