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Site Update! 11/27/10; Improved site design!
Topic Started: Nov 27 2010, 02:52 PM (1,924 Views)
Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
Hello everyone! It's been a few months since you guys have gotten an update, so I decided to check in and let you know that progress is going strong and there are a few exciting things I'll be showing you soon! The official website, http://pssmrpg.shades-of-blue-productions.com/ has gotten a bit of a facelift. You may need to refresh to see the changes.

I wanted to make the site fit any resolution as well as just tighten up the design and make it a little more interesting. I've given it a kind of comic book feel which I think looks pretty cool, and hopefully makes the text better to read. I spent a LOT of time trying out different fonts but I think I'm finally happy with it. I am always one to perfect my work, so if you think that something looks off or could look better, let me know!

I would also like to point out the announcement of two original "in-between" story arcs, the Parallel Moons story arc, and the Children of Eden story arc. The first will take place between the Dark Kingdom and Black Moon story arcs, and the second will take place between the Black Moon and Infinity story arcs. The game will feature four in-between story arcs which will be significantly shorter mini story arcs between the main story lines. More details will come on these later; I just wanted to pick your brains a bit. ;)
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Celestial
Meatball Head
Actually, the new site desgin makes the text HARDER to read. I have to squint my eyes a little bit in order to be able to read the text, thou I could perfectly read it before.

Also, the new site desgin doesn't properly fit my computer screen anymore like the other desgin did; so now I have to constantly adjust the screen everytime I want to read something.


I actually like the old desgin better :(
Edited by Celestial, Nov 29 2010, 11:27 PM.
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flamesoul32
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Persona of Will
I like the new design overall more then the old design. However, as much as I think the new text is cool and adds a bit of character to the site, I do have to say it is a bit harder to read. I don't have nearly the great difficulties celestial describes but it does take more effort then the basic but easy to read original font. At this point I'm not sure if I like the new font or not...maybe it will grow on me. It is cool looking after all and having something besides essay font is nice once in a while. I just hope there is no essay length posts on the site because I think my eyes would hurt after reading it.
Sailor_Moon_Cry

The "in-between" story arcs sound very interesting. Are they side stories unrelated to the main story arcs or stories meant to expand on the existing main plots?

...Wait, your announcing two but saying there will be four? That little fact is probably what interests me most of all. UsagiSneaky

@Celestial, what screen size are you using? The website displays fine for me and my screen size is slightly odd compared to the norm. It could also be a problem with your web browser but I doubt this.
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Kitten
Moon Flunkie
I have issues reading the text as well (white text on a very light gray background = hard to read for me), and still having the same issue with details on pictures and sprites due to the transparency/background color. Otherwise, it looks great, and I'm very glad to see and hear about progress on the site/game :).
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Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
This is what the design is supposed to look like: (and how it appears for me)

Posted Image

It should be displaying properly as long as you are using a resolution of 1024x768 or higher. It's the exact same size as it was before, the only difference is the background is centered instead of coming from the left. I just tested it in Internet Explorer and the black shadow does not appear under the text as it should, apparently that's a problem with Explorer. I'll see if there's a way around it.

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Rumn-Snuffles
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Anthropomorphic Personification
I agree that it is harder to read but managable for small amounts of text - any large amounts will just be hard to read...
But I really like the fade-out effects and the centering... And approve of the colours used except for the text being hard to read. VenusPose
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Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
I may try to change the faded white part to black again. I tried while I was making the layout but couldn't get it to look good. Because I don't want the text to be hard to read at all. ^^;
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Rumn-Snuffles
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Anthropomorphic Personification
Yeah, it's a shame because the faded back looks really good... Would it be too weird reversed? Like, white shadow, black text? Alternatively it could just be a darker fade, like 1/2 the luminosity. That would keep the effect, tho more subtle, and make the text more legible... VenusPose
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Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
I'm trying out a few different things today. I've gotten rid of the image and text transparency which makes both easier to see; now I'm working on adding the text shadows in Internet Explorer so they match how the text shadow looks in the other browsers. Getting rid of the text transparency (which I didn't even realize the text was transparent XD) has made the text brighter and easier to see. So perfection is on the horizon! :P
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Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
I uploaded the changes to the site so hopefully you can all view it better now. I chose a bolder font (for some reason the font looks different on other computers than it does mine, really weird, which is why I didn't realize before) so I chose a font that looks close to what I had in mind. I also as said before got rid of the transparency on the font and images, so everything should look clearer. I also made the greyish background a little darker so the white stands out more.

Does anyone who uses a browser besides Internet Explorer know how to create a stroke/shadow similar to what I have now, in Internet Explorer? I found a few tutorials online but nothing quite like what works with all other browsers.
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Rumn-Snuffles
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Anthropomorphic Personification
Okay, my mum does internets stuff so I've picked up a little, but I'm no pro, and I can't actually program.

There could possibly be no way... That's the main problem with browsers, different effects work in different browsers... so you have to compromise. Firefox is pretty widely used, so if it looks okay in that it'll cover most people...

And fonts are iffy. If a computer doesn't have a font you're using, it generally uses another one of the same class - if you don't specify a class in the code, then it'll use the browser's default font. So it's likely that your font isn't one automatically installed on a computer, or else it would have shown. For this reason it's kind of necessary to use common fonts, even though uncommon ones are so much cooler... Unless your text is actually part of a picture. But I'm stating the obvious JupiterBlush

But it seems bright enough to read now, though the strong contrast (light background, black outline, white text) is a liiittle bit of a strain on the eyes... As I suggested, perhaps making the light part of the bg slightly dimmer? I dunno though, if this isn't a problem for anyone then keep as is.

But it's looking really good! VenusPose
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Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
Well what's odd about the font, is the same font IS showing up on other computers, it just doesn't look as bold on other computers as it does on mine. But it's the same---I've taken a typography class so you can trust me on this. XD Not sure why it's showing up differently, I don't think resolution would have anything to do with it. The only thing I can think of is maybe it's the same font on both computers, it's just the Mac version is bolder than the Windows version, or something. I will have to test it out on other computers.

I can try and fade the background a little more (since now the font is not transparent it should show up better.)

I read that the text shadowing I used should be compatible in Internet Explorer 9. The shadows don't show up on IE on my laptop, but I may not have the latest version. To those of you using IE, are you using the latest version? Do the text shadows show up?
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Kitten
Moon Flunkie
The website is now much easier for me to read :).
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Chains Of Fate
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President of Crystal Tokyo
Great! If anyone else has any suggestions at all, please just let me know. VenusPose
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Rumn-Snuffles
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Anthropomorphic Personification
Yeah, I thought you knew your stuff VenusPose I was just checking...
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