Summer is upon us! And I'll be completely free for three whole weeks- minimum . Of course, that doesn't mean I won't be on after then, just means I have three weeks of complete dedication to devote towards something. If there are at least two other people interested in getting TSC back on its feet, I'd be willing to help. And we can dooo it. If a staff member(s) feels any of the material below is not suitable for public consumption, feel free to move it to the bin, or that Area 52 staff forum thingy.
Forum Skin:
Zezikins hasn't been answering on Skype for almost a week now, so lets try and make the most out of the time we have available. About a month from last week, I was subtly asked to start working on a concept for a new theme. Unfortunately, because of the subliminal nature of the message, I did not comprehend the urgency of the task at hand... and I had other IRL priorities. However... after seeing THIS I realized how dire the situation was (thanks Jmh!).
Anyhooliganz, here's the concept that's under construction. Will update the following list as we move further towards a complete design. I wanted someone else to share their opinions on the design- as a concept- so that we don't have to get started coding it before it is finalized.
Alpha2: https://i.servimg.com/u/f39/18/90/18/00/mockup11.jpg
Alpha3: https://i.servimg.com/u/f39/18/90/18/00/mockup13.jpg
NOTICE: The above are mock-up designs. Not screen shots of fully fledged and coded websites. As I have explained earlier, I don't want to start coding any of it before a general consensus on the overall design. However, a basic skeleton of the skin has been coded. All wording can be treated as placeholder text for now.
- Spoiler:
- I'm not even sure if we can code all of it... or if it will look exactly identical to the mock-up after coding. Regardless, we will try to get it to resemble what we come up with as closely as possible.
I envision a more permanent theme. Not something that changes every time a new game comes out... so that it doesn't get old fast. In short, we gotta get it right!
Questions I'd like answered:
1. Overall look and feel? What do you like about it? More importantly, what do you dislike about it? Don't feel bad for hating it. It can easily ( ) be scrapped and re-made. Just provided more feedback so that we can work with something.
2. How would you have preferred it to look like? What major/minor modifications would you make to perfect it? I would happily upload a PSD of the image... if I could... for anyone interested in helping further progression.
3. Anyone got any ideas for that black space at the bottom of the image?
4. You know what would be really cool? If we could have the skin completely designed by community members and copyrighted. Any artists/digital painters around here? I'm interested in images to replace the header background, and the four characters on the header (Amy, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles). If you are able to, and would like to contribute, please do let us know.
Alpha 3 is out!
Here are the changes:
-Incorporated 2 dimensional character renders as suggested by Zezima.
-Tried a skinnier, more cobalt look to the navigation bar, as suggested by Super Racer Z.
-Changed the images on the navigation bar to fit the 2 dimensional renders better. Went for the glassy theme used in the logo.
-Removed some of the shadows or otherwise made them less apparent to reduce the depth of some of the images. This was done to harmonize the theme with the 2 dimensional renders more.
-Increased the contrasty and sharpness of the background image used in the header. Again, this was done to better fit the more vibrant colors of the 2 dimensional renders.
What do you think? Highly appreciate any and all suggestions and feedback. Thanks for your help everyone.
- Spoiler:
Structure (Solved):
One of the things I needed set out before progressing any further with the skin, is the forum's structure. That is because the skin will have a fixed height on the main forum's page- assuming we're basing it on the design above.
Feel free to correct me, but I feel the current structure for categories and forums is a little messy. Ultimately I would prefer a much shorter list of forums, and the deletion/merging of several of the current ones. Here's the current set up. What I perceive the forum to be about is in parenthesis, followed by my personal opinion on its existence:
1. Central City (Announcements. Good.)
2. Scrap Brain (Suggestions. Good.)
3. Sky Sanctuary (General Sonic forum. Good.)
4. DreamNEWS (Sonic News. Good. Can be turned into an official blog as well)
5. Knothole (Sonic Characters. Don't feel there's enough to talk about just characters)
6. Special Stage (Sonic Multimedia. So Sonic stuff, that's not part of the official game series? Good.)
7. Green Hill (New member Introductions. Good)
8. Casinopolis (Forum posting games? Good)
9. Launch Base (General gaming. Good)
10. Game Land (Gaming news. TSC isn't a general gaming board. It's specifically to do with Sonic. So I feel this is out of place, and should be merged with Launch Base.)
11. Chrome Gadget (PC games. See 10. Game Land)
12. South Island (SEGA specific gaming. Don't feel there's much more to talk about SEGA, after we've exhausted everything to do with Sonic elsewhere.)
13. Station Square (General off-topics discussion? If so, good.)
14. Crazy Gadget (Another general off-topics discussion forum? What's the difference between it and Station Square.)
15. Carnival Night (Another Forum posting games? Difference between this and Casinopolis?)
16. Dust Hill (Fan fiction. Good.)
17. Lost World (Fan art. Good.)
18. Chao Garden (Role play. Good.)
What do you think about the current forum structure? Do you feel we need less categories/forums? Or to find replacements for currents ones?
No matter how neat, or pretty or original the forum is, if there's no activity, it's a dead forum.
What ideas do you have in order to increase activity on TSC?
Last edited by karkooshy on July 25th 2014, 10:19 am; edited 8 times in total