Joe Murray
patreon
Game Presentation Drafts (See next post for poll)
🕑 Added 2024-09-10 20:42:49 +0000 UTCMore info with less clicking, that's the takeaway of a lot of the feedback I've gotten about the remake since launch. So it's no surprise that Game Presentation won the first Patron Poll. I promised to give you all a chance to be part of this redesign so here we go!
Icons For Everything
The first step to achieve that is bringing back icons for fields like region and ownership. Instead of reusing the old ones, I've remade them with some substantial tweaks.
They're almost all the same size and shape now, for a cleaner, less jumbled look when several are displayed at once. Most icons within a category also share the same colors to help them feel of a kind.
Ideally, a good icon should clearly convey its meaning without a label. In practice, that can be virtually impossible to do, especially for options without already established symbolic representations in other applications. Still, it's something to aim for.
Here's the first draft below, in actual and 2x size. Try and see how many you can name without labels. On the actual site, they'll have tooltips, but unfortunately that's not an option for phone users. Let me know what you like and what needs work. Suggestions are welcome!
Answers at the bottom of the post.
Game Presentation
To use those icons, we need a new game layout to put them in. So let's look at some options! Obviously any of these could be tweaked in a hundred different ways. The priority and format icons, for instance, could easily use either the old, bigger icons or the new smaller ones on any of these layouts. For now, try to focus on the overall effect of each option and we'll hash out details later.
Also, please forgive the crudity of these models. I didn't have time to build it to scale text correctly.
#1 - Note Addon
This layout takes a cue from the old site and slots the icons in under the title, which I like a lot. But the note text still needs to go somewhere. Adding it below would give the text plenty of room to use as many lines as needed. If there's no note, the bottom bit would vanish entirely for a cleaner look.
Very functional, but the note block looks very "bolted on". The added height from notes, especially long ones, would significantly increase the amount of scrolling needed to browse. Perhaps a toggle could be added to show/hide all notes?
#2 - Icon Block
This layout is much like the current site, but all the icons are together on the right where the large priority icon would usually be. Alternatively, the icon block could go on the left between the status icon and the text.
This layout keeps a consist height for each game, which I like, but I'm not in love with the overall look.
#3 - The 3rd Line
This one is very similar to #1 but the entire game's height is increased to make room for the note inside. The note is abbreviated after one line, like the current site.
The added height is interesting. Sub-platform text (not shown here, but it would be under the platform logo) would have room to be a bit larger for instance. On the other hand, things could look a bit empty if no note or icons are present. Should the game height shrink to match or do we leave the extra space and just center the title vertically? Lots of potential here, but perhaps some issues as well.
#4 - Old Is New
Finally, this layout takes more heavily from the old site, even removing the platform icon in favor of the old abbr text.
It's clean and clear and it's nice to have a fully displayed note. The added height is potentially a lot though and shares many of the same downsides as #1.
See something you like? Should I go back to the drawing board? Got an idea of your own? Let me know below. And if you're a patron, don't forget to vote in the accompanying post!
Icon Answers
Regions:
North Amercia, PAL, Japan, China, Brazil, South Korea, Asia, Region Free
Ownership:
Household, Formerly Owed, Played It, Subscription, Wishlist, Other
Priorities:
Now Playing, Ongoing, Pause, High, Low, Shelved, Ongoing
Format:
Digital, Phsyical (Cartridge, Disc, Card, Floppy, Tape)
Achievements:
<10%, 10-25%, 25-50%, 50-75%, 75-90%, 90-99%, 100%
The Paper & Quill icon indicates a game has been reviewed.
Comments
Joe Murray
Ha! Though in fairness to Sacred Stones, I wrote that note before playing Shadow Dragon. *shudder*
Rebecca
Lol I have the same opinion of and experience with Sacred Stones
Connor
I like the icons, but I can't help but think that the star rating — which to me is the most important one — gets kind of lost in the mix with the other icons. Maybe you could add a bit of a gap between the stars and the rest of the icons, to visually break it up. Or — as a bolder idea — maybe even put it on the top row, after the game name.
