Joe Murray
patreon
Patron's Choice #1 Results & Bonus Poll: Pixels
🕑 Added 2024-07-29 22:31:32 +0000 UTC
Patron's Choice #1 Results
It was a knock-down drag-out fight with Badges, but the winner of the first Patron's Choice Poll is:
Game Presentation and Filtering
This option will add a row of icons to games that will surface things like star ratings, region, and reviews. It'll also let you filter your library by them. Definitely one we'll have some brainstorming/feedback sessions on when/if it wins.
I've got a few ideas in mind for tweaking the game layout. I'll mock those up in the future and get your feedback on which direction to head.
But before that I have a site anniversary marathon to prep for and and a polish update to do.
I don't like how locked down the Patron Poll had to be. Ideally, I'd like everyone to be able to read the entire post but only let patrons vote. I can't find any info on how voting works on public posts but presumably free members can vote on them. Let's try it out and see!
Bonus Poll: Pixel Vibe Check
I've heard from a lot of people who miss the bits of pixel art from the old site. I'm a big fan of pixel art myself. So why is there so little in the remake?
Low res pixel graphics mixed in with an otherwise high-res format can be tricky to do well.
I was rushing to get the remake launched and I find tweaking the style of a design to both look good and work on a range of screen sizes to be one of the most time-consuming processes. (Doubly so when having to account for user-defined colors.)
Pixel art is a style unique to gaming, so the temptation to use it for a video game website is very strong. But there's definitely a risk of clashing styles. The platform icons, for example, require far too much detail to be done as pixel art. Would having low-res pixel icons near them look bad? Quite possibly.
So we if want to inject some pixels into the site, it could take some work. Maybe even a total rethink of the platform icons. Or maybe we could just get away with a few bits of pixel goodness here and there without changing much else.
A game presentation revamp is the right time to think about this stuff. But before I bother, I want to check what you all are thinking. Maybe there's a silent majority happy to rid of those pesky pixels or who dread the thought of a clashy pixel remaster?
How do you feel about pixel art in a website's UI and presentation? (i.e. icons next to link/buttons/headers, game information displays like region/ownership/format/ratings/etc, badges, emotes, etc.)
Comments
Joe Murray
Hmm, interesting idea. I'll think about it!
Nick Westwood
Hi, I have a suggestion which would make the site a lot easier to use, not sure if this can be included under presentation and filtering, but it would be amazing if, when clicking +New Game, it would bring up the new game window with the system (or Wishlist) already set. e.g User clicks on NES, clicks +New Game, and the System is already set to NES. Or user clicks Wishlist, then +New Game, Ownership is already pre populated by Wishlist. Or, even better, a (+) icon next to each console under your Wishlist, and clicking that would pre populate the system and ownership fields. I think it would make adding new games or Wishlist items a much smoother process. Hope that makes sense?
Joe Murray
Since a few have asked, returning options in future polls will work like this: biggest loser goes away but will return later (repeated big losers could get permanently removed eventually, depends on what it is). Other losers return in the next poll, so counting the winner's vacant spot there will be two new options in the next poll.
